When the Norwegian Sky returned from her rescue mission to St. Thomas, Norwegian Cruise Line President & CEO Andy Stuart was in Miami to personally greet her passengers. “By now,” he wrote of the hurricane relief efforts on the company’s official blog, “we’ve all seen pictures of the devastation. I realize today that pictures do not begin to express the level of destruction and despair that people experienced.
His Proudest Moment
“Hearing the stories directly from those who survived the storm and seeing the emotion and relief on their faces as they stepped off the gangway was a moment I will never forget,” write the exec. “In our business, we work hard every day to create moments that will become lifelong treasured memories for our guests. But this was an opportunity to do so much more than that, and our company’s leadership team, led by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings President & CEO Frank Del Rio, didn’t hesitate for a moment when asked for help. The question wasn’t if we could go, but how fast we could get there. In my 30 years of working for Norwegian Cruise Line, it was my proudest moment.”
Stuart went on to thank the Norwegian Sky’s captain and crew for going above and beyond the call of duty. “I was further humbled,” he continued, “as I heard more about the efforts of our hard working and dedicated crew members, who spent the 60+ hours of transit time to get to St. Thomas preparing everything they could to gather much needed supplies to offload once we arrived.” This included making and bagging massive amounts of ice, gathering clean linens and towels and rounding up every type of supply imaginable. “In all, 35 palettes of supplies were offloaded… [including] 15 palettes of personal donations from our crew.”
Hurricane Relief Efforts To Continue
Even when rescue missions are finally completed, there will still be far more to be done as the Caribbean recovers from the devastating blow it was dealt. “We are working closely with our partners on the ground,” wrote Stuart, “to determine the best way to continue to provide relief.” He also admitted that Norwegian has been “overwhelmed at the offers from so many of our guests and travel partners to assist and will have more details to share very soon.”
Photos courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line
