Thread: Royal Caribbean, Labadee and the Earthquake in Haiti

This is a short excerpt from Royal Caribbean's Why Not? Blog, often authored by CEO Adam Goldstein, but this time by John Weis, Associate Vice-President, Private Destinations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Finally, I am happy to say we are committed to continuing calls to Labadee with Independence of the Seas tomorrow. There were a lot of discussions about this, but in the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti’s recovery and hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood. In our conversations with the U.N. Special Envoy of the Government of Haiti Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call, which is critical to their recovery. We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti.

You can read the rest of his post, entitle "Haitian Relief in Motion" here: Haitian Relief in Motion « Why Not?

I urge you to read the post, and when you're done, pick up your cell phone and text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross efforts in Haiti. It will automatically be charged to your next cell phone bill. It couldn't be easier and the money will get to those who need it immediately. The US State Department is even recommending that US citizens wishing to help, donate the the Red Cross, via text , online or phone call.

I do believe CEO Goldstein is correct in making the decision to return ships to Labadee as soon as possible, for several reasons.

1. The local economy is semi-reliant on the injections of cash cruise ships and their passengers bring.


2. These ships can serve as relief vessels by bringing in medical supplies, food and relief workers.

I hope Royal Caribbean immediately begins to investigate ways to assist in the logistical process of supplying aid to the Haitian region. Its the right thing to do.

Way to go Royal Caribbean!

In this time of crisis, the corporate powers that be at Royal Caribbean are stepping up to the plate to help bring aid and relief to the Haitians in such dire need.

If you want to learn a little more about Labadee and its relation to Haiti, check out the Labadee Forum.

I think the key word is "immediately". I know I have been glued to the TV and sure many others have. Royal Caribbean should step up and right now!

John Weis, Associate Vice-President, Private Destinations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., has stated that supplies aboard the Royal Caribbean ships include rice, dried beans, water, dried milk and a variety of other canned items.

I think linking up with other aid organization to get trained disaster volunteers down to Haiti is also essential and it would seem the cruise line can play a distinct role in this regard.

The dock that Royal Caribbean built this past year in Labadee should come in handy.

It sounds like RCL is stepping up to the plate on helping with relief efforts. With several ships calling on the port each week, they are in a good position to help a great deal.

Sounds like RCL is making some good progress in their relief efforts. Here is the latest excerpt from the blog about it:

Today was the first day of real progress from our standpoint. We loaded Independence of the Seas with relief supplies today at San Juan, Puerto Rico, which included 60 cases of badly needed water and other dry goods.
We have also started to receive additional provisions, including four truckloads of drinking water, from our suppliers at our logistic center, which we are preparing to load on to Navigator of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, to arrive on Monday and Tuesday.
On the home front, we have our link set up for contributions to Food For The Poor for our customers and our employees.
And, we’ve agreed to commit 100 percent of the net proceeds from tomorrow’s tours and shore excursions during Independence of the Seas’ call to the Haitian relief effort.
These are just some of the initial things that Royal Caribbean is undertaking, and they will be followed by more. We just need to set down some more details before we put the rest of our plan to action.

As I mentioned before this will be a marathon that will continue for the foreseeable future.

way to go Royal Caribbean.
I am glad they are doing their part.

Thought I would post this bit of good news. Even though it's not about Royal Caribbean's contribution to the effort, it is good to hear some positive news 5 days after the earthquake.

From Fox News:

Woman Pulled From Rubble as Aid Trickles Into Haiti

Sunday, January 17, 2010


AP Jan. 17: Rescue workers carry hotel co-owner Nadine Cardoso, who was rescued from the wreckage of the building in Port-au-Prince.











PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Rescuers pulled a dehydrated but otherwise uninjured woman from the ruins of a luxury hotel in the Haitian capital early Sunday, an event greeted with applause from onlookers witnessing rare good news in a city otherwise filled with corpses, rubble and desperation.

"It's a little miracle," the woman's husband, Reinhard Riedl, said after hearing she was alive in the wreckage. "She's one tough cookie. She is indestructible."

For many, though, the five days since the magnitude-7.0 quake hit have turned into an aching wait for the food, water and medical care slowly making its way from an overwhelmed airport rife with political squabbles. And while aid is reaching the country, growing impatience among the suffering has spawned some violence.

Nobody knows how many died in Tuesday's quake. Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies — not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.

The Pan American Health Organization now says 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake. Bellerive said 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum."

A U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."

Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves Saturday. Search teams also recovered the body of Tunisian diplomat Hedi Annabi, the United Nations chief of mission in Haiti, and other top U.N. officials who were killed when their headquarters collapsed.

Experts have said rescue of people trapped beneath wreckage after three days is unlikely. But an American team pulled a woman alive from a collapsed university building where she had been trapped for 97 hours. Another crew got water to three survivors whose shouts could be heard deep in the pancaked ruins of a multistory supermarket.

At the Hotel Montana, the son of co-owner Nadine Cardoso said he could hear her voice from the rubble, and the effort to pull her to safety began. Twelve hours later, with more than 20 friends and relatives of the prominent community member watching early Sunday, she was lowered from a hill of debris on a stretcher.

The rescue was bittersweet for Cardoso's sister, because rescuers also told Gerthe Cardoso they had abandoned a search for her 7-year-old grandson after an aftershock closed a space where he was believed to be.
"Well, we can't have them both," she said after her sister was saved.
Later Sunday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to arrive in Haiti to discuss aid delivery, which appeared to be speeding up.
Florence Louis, seven months pregnant with two children, was one of thousands of Haitians who gathered at a gate at the Cite Soleil slum, where U.N. World Food Program workers handed out high-energy biscuits for the first time.

"It is enough because I didn't have anything at all," said Louis, 29, clutching four packets of biscuits.

The Haitian government has established 14 distribution points for food and other supplies, and U.S. Army helicopters scouted locations for more. Aid groups opened five emergency health centers. Vital gear, such as water-purification units, was arriving from abroad.

On a hillside golf course, perhaps 50,000 people were sleeping in a makeshift tent city overlooking the stricken capital. Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division flew there Saturday to set up a base for handing out water and food.

After the initial frenzy among the waiting crowd, when helicopters could only hover and toss out their cargo, a second flight landed and soldiers passed out some 2,000 military-issue ready-to-eat meals to an orderly line of Haitians.

But aid delivery was still bogged down by congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport, quake damage at the seaport, poor roads and the fear of looters and robbers.

"Many people are just fleeing to the countryside, they are looking for a place to stay and for food," said Enel Legrand, a 24-year-old Haitian volunteer aid worker.

The airport congestion also touched off diplomatic rows between the U.S. military and other donor nations. France and Brazil both lodged official complaints that the U.S. military, in control of the international airport, had denied landing permission to relief flights from their countries.
Haitian President Rene Preval, speaking with the AP, urged all to "keep our cool and coordinate and not throw accusations."

As relief teams grappled with on-the-ground obstacles, U.S. leadership promised Saturday to step up aid efforts. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited and pledged more American assistance. President Barack Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in Washington and urged Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.
In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of Haitians simply dropped to their knees outside a warehouse when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies.
"They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire.

Children and the elderly were asked to step first into line, and some 1,500 people got food, soap and rubber sandals until supplies ran out, he said.

Char - there IS an RCCL tie-in! The last part of othe story. Food for the Poor is one of the three NGOs that Royal Caribbean works closely with there. I think it's the one to which they are handing off most of the ship-delivered supplies to. Here:


In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of Haitians simply dropped to their knees outside a warehouse when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies.
"They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire.

Children and the elderly were asked to step first into line, and some 1,500 people got food, soap and rubber sandals until supplies ran out, he said.