P&O are now running Marine Evacuation System training courses for DFDS personnel. The system in use on the P&O ships is Marin Ark and that on the DFDS Seaways vessels is Viking but they both employ a vertical evacuation chute so the experience is much the same. I attended a short course at the Old Harbour Station today and here are a few photos. The blue vertical chute in the last photo is the one we went down. It is necessarily a shortened version of that used onboard the ships, with only four chambers, but does the job.
Incidentally, there is a tape measure and fat people exceeding a certain chest measurement are not allowed down the chute in case they get trapped and block it. On DFDS, they would be sent to one of the lifeboats. The two most recent P&O ships, and their newbuildings, do not have any lifeboats, only MES. One has visions of the chute controller saying "Sorry, mate, you can't go down, you're too fat. Help yourself to as many bags of crisps and choccy bars as you like in the time you have left!"
