fathom Cruising

P&O’s Adonia is heading to the Caribbean for a new type of cruising experience.Cruising from Miami to Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic taking volunteers on perhaps a once in a life time experience. I must admit this is something that I hadn’t heard of or even stumbled across in the past. I found it intruging and wanted to learn more about it. So what is fathom cruising? For those of you that don’t know it’s where you board what’s called a volunteer ship and for two days you undergo intense training learning volunteering activities such as learning to teach English, or building water filteration out of clay.  There will be three main categories, education, environment and economic development to learn.

After everyone has been trained the ship will arrive at the new port of Amber Cove where they will spend up to 3 days working with local residents and local volunteer organisations and put in to practise the new skills they learned on board. The cruise group behind the idea say they decided on the Dominican Republic because they have genuine needs and the average annual income is around $6000 with 40 percent of the population living under the poverty line.

Cruisers will still get a holiday but one with a twist. It’s a chance to still have a holiday and give something back too.Whilst on board the entertainment will be low key, showing Dominican movies, and all food will be locally sourced. The organisers behind it are hoping it will appeal to new cruisers who haven’t tried cruising before but are interested in vacations that combine volunteering, and veteran cruisers who are looking for new experiences. Although some passengers are sad to see her go, I think it’s a good thing and hope it gets recognition it deserves.