The expansion of the cruise market in the last decades and the significant increase in the size of cruise ships, led to a revision of the safety standards for passenger vessels which resulted in the introduction of the so-called "Safe Return to Port" regulatory framework (SRtP). These regulations strongly impacted every aspect of the life of passenger ships, from commissioning to operations. Clearly also the design of these vessels was highly affected, inducing the design companies to face with the risks entailed by SRtP regulations on a daily basis. Indeed these regulations require great complexity of the systems in terms of redundancy and segregation, and their great interdependence further complicate the assessment of the functional capabilities requested by SRtP. The complexity required in the designs and the difficulties in assessing the compliance with the regulations contribute to increase the risks associated with SRtP projects. Obviously design companies are negatively affected by these risks and preventing expensive re-designs in later stages of the process is mandatory to improve the company's performance. Due to the complexity of the task, a support method for the mitigation of the risks entailed by the non compliance of the designs with SRtP regulations is proposed. The method comprises a through analysis of the spaces on board and a software tool to support designers in the assessment of the correct placement of the components of the systems, in order to guarantee the required capabilities in every casualty scenario.