Cruise lines rally round to help hurricane victims

Hurricane Irma has certainly made her presence felt in the Caribbean. Florida was relatively lucky compared to the devastation that happened on some of the islands such as Barbuda, St Thomas, Anguilla and St Maarten. Most of these destinations rely on tourism as a source of income for their people and with the amount of damage to infrastructure and hotels this is going to affect their economies severely.

In these times of adversity you can see how people rally round and work together to try and help each other as best they can. One thing that I read about was that 2 of the major cruise lines who had had to cancel sailings because of the hurricane then used their empty vessels to help people stranded on the affected islands.

Norwegian Cruise Lines sent it’s 2,000 passenger ship, Norwegian Sky ship to St. Thomas to deliver supplies and assist with humanitarian effort being organized by the government whilst Royal Caribbean deployed 2 ships to the Caribbean Islands and one was used to ensure the safety of its own staff. The Adventure of the Seas was sent to St Maarten (famed for it’s flight path straight over the beach) where it’s reported that 70% of all houses have been destroyed whilst the Majesty of the Seas sailed to St Thomas as well as St Maarten to help evacuate storm survivors to safety.

It was also announced that Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas would used to house it’s own head office personnel and their families from Miami. The plan was to evacuate the staff away from Miami as the hurricane was due to hit and predicted to cause severe damage. The offer was made with no cost to employees and food and entertainment was provided.

It’s heartwarming to see such huge companies showing some compassion and not putting profits first. Their profits will have taken a huge hit with cancelled cruises, extended sailings & compensation payouts. Not to mention the business they will lose with people not wanting to book certain Caribbean cruises due to the storm damage.

Well done RCI and NCL. Makes a nice change to see a conglomerate with humanity.