The cruise industry has a long association with Haiti both as a port of call and with the Haitian employees who work on the ships.
It is therefore with great pride that I share the news that Carnival Corporation has chosen to help………….here’s how.
Carnival Corporation & plc and its Cruise Brands to Donate $5 Million Toward Haiti Relief EffortsMIAMI, Jan 18, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) and its affiliated cruise brands are donating at least $5 million toward relief efforts following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.The funds will be forwarded to several different international organizations coordinating relief efforts within the country.
“We are saddened by this tragedy, one of the worst natural disasters of our lifetime and we are deeply concerned for the people of Haiti and hope that this donation will help provide much-needed assistance,” said Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by this catastrophe,” he added.
Carnival Corporation & plc’s donation has been earmarked for the following relief organizations: UNICEF, the University of Miami’s Project Medishare, American Red Cross, and Save the Children.
The $5 million donation includes a large corporate contribution along with monies raised from a variety of fundraising efforts coordinated by Carnival Corporation & plc’s cruise brands, both in their offices in North America, Europe and Australia and throughout the fleet.
The company is also working with the Miami HEAT on a coordinated relief effort for collecting various emergency supplies that are being shipped and distributed to Haiti by the University of Miami’s Project Medishare.
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in the world, with a portfolio of cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Ibero Cruises, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia.
Together, these brands operate 93 ships totaling more than 180,000 lower berths with 13 new ships scheduled to be delivered between January 2010 and spring 2012. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.
SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc
Thank you to Mr. Arison and everyone at Carnival Corp and I hope and pray that this money will help those whose life has been torn apart by this supreme catastrophe.
Dieu bénit eux tous
John
Look, friends — there are a few things you should remember before you comment. The space below is for you to post your comments about the post I've just written above. If it is something that's unrelated, please use the Ask John tab above. Now, while I may not be able to reply to your comment below, I do sit in my underpants almost every morning and read everything that is here. So feel free to comment on the comments and then if someone wants to comment on the comment to the comment then go ahead as well. Please be courteous unless the poster is French...........then you can say whatever you want.
THANK YOU, CARNIVAL!
We all need to do our part. Fellow cruisers, are you doing yours?
Joyce
this is wonderful john. i would expect no less from such an honorable corporation as yours.
see you saturday!
smiles, bonnie and prince charlie
Any news of help for Haiti is good news. I have been encouraging people to put the following link on their facebook, twitter and myspace pages. It, in my opinion, is the simplest story of how we can share just a small portion of our blessings with the suffering people of Haiti. No matter how bad things are here, few if anyone in America has it as bad as the Haitian people right now.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2600065/let_go_of_the_orangehelp_haiti.html?cat=48
Hello John
Once again still no reply from my comment almost 3 weeks ago with a question on an interview, involving my hit with a car,
Jake
As the tragedy of Haiti unfolds, it is heatwarming that the cruiseline we choose to support now supports the haitian people. God Bless them for the lives they will affect. Kap
Bravo Mr. Arison and all of Carnival for showing you care!
I am SOOOOO proud that Carnival is the cruise line that we are loyal to! That is so awesome!!!
While I have your attention – lol – I want to know if you can help me with a request! On our last cruise, our dining room seating was HORRIBLE to say the least- we were on the Victory and our seating was tucked away in a corner where there was no activity and we never even once met the maitre D – felt like an outcast (pouting)! lol I think were spoiled after 2 cruises on the Inspiration and being in George’s dining room! Can you help us get better dinner seating? There are 4 of us – my husband, our daughter and her husband. We are late seating and we would love to have the Scarlet DR with Maitre D Ken Byrnes – with a table smack dab on the main floor – where all the action is! ROFL! lol Now, I hope I’m not asking much!
Now to suck up a bit – I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your blog and I anxiously await every installment to pop into my email! I told my husband that our next cruise will be booked on whatever ship you are on!
Well, again, Bravo Carnival – well done! And hats off to you, John for keeping us informed!
(so did I suck up enough to have you help me with my request? hahahahaha)
Well, no matter what – Have a super day, John! Be Blessed!
Thank you Mr. Arison and Carnival Corporation for doing this for the people of Haiti. Things like this is the reason the bloggers support Carnival. We helped Carnival in New Orleans on BC2. We all did “The walk for the cure” and will be there to help you with the St. Jude events.
BIG Ed
Stephanie, (please reply…no need to publish)
Hi Stephanie,
I’d like to send John a card on the Dream. There used to be a Miami address on the blog where we could send things to him when he’s on a ship. Can you provide me with that address?
Thanks,
Lisa
John,
I have been watching in horror the news coverage of the situation in Haiti and had been debating as to whether or not my budget could withstand making a donation to help. Then I learned my PVP, who has become a personal friend of mine after all these years, has family and friends in Haiti, which was when I made my donation to the Red Cross. Thank you Carnival, for once again setting a bar in the industry.
John (please reply),
Can you tell me when the Liberty will be going into drydock next, and what upgrades she’ll be getting? Based on observations regarding when she was last serviced, we’re guessing late 2010, early 2011.
Also, can you tell me when the Liberty webcams will be fixed? Looks to me like it’s been months since they’ve been out of commission.
Thanks,
Stacey
WAY TO GO “CARNIVAL”
God Bless the people of Haiti !
Leave it to Carnival to come to the aid of Haiti. While Carnival is by far the BEST and the FUN SHIP. They care about people in need as well.
Mike from Virginia
HI John, Thanks to Carnival and Mr. Arison for such a generous contribution to the people of Haiti. Please Everyone!!! Just donate a little and all the littles add up to a whole ton of money for them to start the rebuilidng of their country. Thanks everyone for your contribution. Nelson and Paula Baker in North Carolina
Thank you Mr. Arison and Carnival Corporation for being such honourable people. Your assistance will help many of those individuals who are in bad dire today from the earthquake. I commend you for your love of humanity.
Paul F. Pietrangelo
Thank you Carnival for putting need before profit.
I spent two weeks in Haiti and have never seen the depth of poverty as I saw there. A woman put her baby in my arms and begged me to take her to the States to give her a decent life. As a mother, my heart aches at the sacrifice she was willing to make for the sake of her child… and the anguish I felt when I was unable to say yes.
May you all sleep tonight in whatever comfort our donations can provide.
~ Sheryl
SO happy Carnival is helping!!!
John,
Can you please confirm for me you will be on the Dream for the March 20th sailing getting off with us March 27th?
THANK YOU
CHristine in New York
TRAGEDY IS NEVER OVERCOME WITHOUT A JOINT EFFORT, SINCERE THANKS AND RECOGNITION GOES OUT TO CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES FOR AID TO HAITI…
Awesome – Carnival Cares.
I am so moved by this and especially by the comment left by “Sheryl” about the mother putting her infant in her arms asking to bring to the states. This country has so much healing and I am so thrilled that Carnival is playing such a big part in the financial healing of Haiti. Now for all of us to keep the prayers going for the emotional and spiritual healing.
Be thankful for what you have everyday – this proves you never know when it can be taken away.
Great to hear that Carnival will be making such a donation. I logged on today just to research what the company would be doing to help. I was wondering if cruise ships would be pulled from service to serve as floating hotels similar to the effort following Katrina here in the US. What a wonderful way to give people the shelter that they need.
Dear Blogger Friends,
First a 7.0 Earthquake shook their world and now a 6.1 Aftershock. I know those poor people need help and fast!
The Cruzin2some
James & Nancy Enslow
We know what a great cruise line Carnival is and are not surprised by the generous donation given for Haiti’s relief. You are more generous than alot of very rich nations. Great job Carnival.
Last weekend on the Carnival Sensation they had a poster by the Guest Services desk that stated donations to the Red Cross Haiti Reklief could be added to your sail and sign card. A great place for people who don’t have another reliable source to donate.
God Bless those at Carnival for continuing to give back to those in need, be it St. Judes, Susan G. Komen foundation, or Red Cross Haiti Relief effort.
Pat G
Thank You Carnival-Great Donation
John PLEASE REPLY
Before I tell you all about my cruise on the Ecstasy, I wanted to thank you for whatever part you played in Carnival going back to Europe and on the Magic. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be going and have you as our Cruise Director once again. We will be traveling with our friends that went to Europe with us on the Splendor in September 2008. I have booked our cruise and we have a great Aft Stateroom. I am looking forward to seeing just what the Magic is going to look like. Please keep us posted as to every thing that is going on until the day she sails.
Now to my review of our January 14th Ecstasy:
First I want to thank you for making the arrangements for my friend who had to have the special diet. She was very happy that she was able to enjoy her cruise and not worry about what was in her food. Thank you for the fruit basket you sent, that was so thoughtful of you. It was so nice to see your name on the card.
The Ecstasy is a lovely ship. She may not be the biggest or the newest Carnival ship, but she really is a beauty.
The Cruise Director, Steve Cassel, as you know is an amazing talent. We loved his fiddle playing and juggling. I had a chance to talk to him for a bit and he told me that you had a very nice write up on your blog about the Crystal Eagle Award that the Ecstasy had won for the second time in the last two years. From our Stateroom Steward, our servers, all the kitchen staff, the dancers, the entertainment they provided which was just amazing, the comedian, guests services and every other staff member on the Ecstasy are very deserving of this award. I could not have asked for a better cruise. It was just a short getaway but everyone on the Ecstasy made it very special for all of us.
Thank you again John for all you did to make this cruise special for us and we look forward to sailing with you once again on a new ship and ports we have not been to. I am so thankful that we are not on another cruise line and that Carnival is once again going back to Europe and on a new ship the Magic. It will be a wonderful cruise and because of you it will be very special.
Keep smiling John; you truly are one of the good guys.
My best to Heidi and Kye.
When we were on the Ecstasy this past week Steve told us all aobut the effort that Carnival was doing for the people of Haiti. I was not surprised at all that they were doing this.
Keep smiling John, you truly are one of the good guys.
My best to Heidi and Kye
BTW, I have booked the Magic for September 25, can not wait to see this new ship.
John,
I’ve been following the debate over on Cruise Critic about the decision by Royal Caribbean to continue to call on their port in Haiti. I know we loyal Carnival cruisers do much RCI bashing on this blog. But I want to stand up and cheer the decision by them. What the Haitians need is anything, by anyone, that helps. I applaud RCI & all the cruise lines who are doing their part! We are one!!
Joyce
john please reply, we have not recieved a posting all this week. last one was on 1/15/10, i am not sure as to what the problem pls. re send the postings i missed if possible thank you!
John, Wishing you a Very Happy Birthday and a safe trip tomorrow. Get all the rumpy pumpy you can get tonight you will have 9 hours to sleep on the plane tomorrow.
BIG Ed
John (please reply),
Over on Cruise Critic, there has been a discussion lately regarding babies not being allowed in the pool. As with most forum discussions, the thread has taken some twists and turns, but something that came up in the discussion was the issue of (lack of?) chlorination in the cruise ship’s swimming pools. It has been stated, in that thread, that the pools on the Carnival ships are not chlorinated. I find that hard to believe, considering how easy it would probably be to have a salt water chlorine generator work its magic on the incoming water. I know that all the water on the ship comes from the ocean and goes through some purification processes, but I’d like to know if it is true that there is nothing added to the pools and spas for sanitation purposes.
Thank you,
Misty
Big Ed,
Leave it to you to tell John to get “all the rumpy pumpy he can get tonight”…I wanted to be the first one to wish John a happy birthday and I end up reading that!
John I will say a prayer for you for a safe trip with NO Murphy since it is your birthday!
Carnival is so cool
John – Please Reply
Just returned from another Carnival vacation and wanted to pass along a few comments.
We left Tampa in sunny Florida – at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Great start to a Caribbean cruise. Then the weather turned nasty, as though 40 wasn’t bad enough. Then in Cozumel on Wednesday it started raining. About that time we realized what was going on. Not that we’re superstitious or anything but this was our 13th cruise with CCL and Wednesday was the 13th!! Had it been Friday I’d have been on the veranda looking for icebergs!
O.K., that was the part that Carnival can’t control. The part they can control? Well, we have two more cruises booked in 2010 and can hardly wait, we enjoy each one more than the last. Since getting around is something of a problem for us we restrict our on-shore activities and naturally all the on-board activities were unaffected by the weather. These activities included two terrific musicals using some 15 singers and dancers along with the ships orchestra plus other performers – singers, jugglers, magicians, comics – in between. How can you beat it? And how ’bout Mahogany Bay on Isla Roatan? Sure looks like a winner to us and I mean that literally. It was a joy even sitting on the veranda looking at the neat, new community carefully laid out and landscaped and the ‘ski lift’ over to the beach and cabanas. We certainly won’t be surprised to see something similar show up down the beach from the present Belize port.
And then there’s the food. What can I say? “So much food, so little time”. There are still things we haven’t gotten around to at lunch what with the salads, the rotisserie, the deli, the International station, the pizza, the grill, ice cream dispensers and the choices at each station to boot. We don’t use the Asian station much but my wife has learned that Mulligatawny can be pretty tasty. Not satisfied yet? How about the 24 hour room service?!! And if even that’s not enough, for the lucky Platinum cruisers, one evening they’ll knock on your door with canapes and another evening with petit fours!!
Speaking of all that food and all the choices – are we shortchanging the Brits? How can you have a Full British with neither beans nor kippers? Would the Queen be happy with my wife’s favorite, a toasted bagel with cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly? Something tells me that when she snaps her fingers at Windsor she has a Full British before you can say “Gordon Ramsay”. For Yanks like us it’s very hard indeed to think of anything we could possibly want for breakfast that isn’t available. That’s just breakfast and already we’re overwhelmed by the choices.
Note: SCUBA diving? No problem. Taking the dive in the miniature sub? Forget the beans!
It’s easy to start rambling when on the topic of Fun Ship cruising. A final remark,John. When we had our initial chat with Yusuf he knew our name and our requirements and mentioned the magic word, “blog”. Thanks. It made the cruise even more enjoyable for a couple of Gimpy Geezers.
Ken and Lorrene
Platinum Cruisers
P.S. When will CCL update their paper products, they’re way over due?!
John,
Life doesn’t get any better than dancing the polka through the Carribean and having you as our cruise director. Can’t wait until the 30th when we board the Dream. Dee & Richard
Happy Birthday, John.
Happy Birthday John!
John,
Happy Birthday and keep Murphy at arms length!
You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.
Cheers!
Derek
Hap Hap Happy Birthday, John.
You’ve probably reached an age when it’s a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher near all those birthday candles.
bill
Dear John,
Please Reply,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND!!! This day will be very easy for me to remember, since it was the Anniversary date of my parents, who after only knowing each other for 5 days when they got married, they enjoyed 58 years of happiness together. They were so much in love that after my dad died, my mom died 22 days later of a truly broken heart. She just could not survive without him.
John, do you remember last month when I asked you if you could set up a meet and greet and have it announced in the Capers (and I had also asked if I could get a picture of you) well, I just have to tell you, what happened. On my way to catch the ship, I took sick half way and had to have emergency surgery, so I was not able to go on the cruise, but other members of the meet and greet said that there was nothing announced in the capers and that Carnival does not do that. They do not post private meetings in the Daily Capers, so my question to you is that true, because in Oct 08 I went on a group cruise and our doings were posted in the Daily Capers. Is it the decision of the Cruise Director or someone else on what gets in the Capers and what does not. Just thought I would ask. The one thing I was the most disappointed in was not getting a picture of you, but that is ok, I am hoping to be able to cruise with you when you are on the Carnival Spirit.
Please give my love to Heidi and a hug to Kye.
I will keep you in my prayers for a safe trip back to the states.
From your #1 Bloggy Thinggy Fan
Kathy M.
Dear John:
It seems only like yesterday that we were wishing you a Happy Birthday in 2009. What a year it was for you . . .
May you receive all the very best that 2010 can give you. I join with all your other Carnival family in wishing you a very happy and healthy birthday – now and throughout the coming year.
Joko Joan
Great that Carnival is helping in Haiti with funds and collecting emergency supplies. Nice to know my favorite cruise line is thinking of more than the corporate bottom line.