Posts Tagged ‘Labadee’

Guest Post - John’s Journey to Haiti: Conclusion of the 4 Part Story

For everyone who has followed my story up until this point, we’ve witnessed the awe-inspiring advancement and outpouring effort across every front of Haiti’s rebuild. From the first shipments of medical and relief supplies transported on Royal Caribbean ships, to the housing camps and school construction and restoring a sense of order and decency back to daily life; the progress has been powerful.

In addition to these projects, I’m also working on the development of the Citadelle as a tourist destination for our guests.  The Citadelle Laferrière is a large mountaintop fortress located near Labadee and the town of Milot.  At the base of the Citadelle there are the ruins of the Palais de Sans-Souci, which was the home of King Christophe. These structures were built between 1805 and 1820 and were part of defense system designed to protect the country from incursions from the French.

The goal of this project is to develop the infrastructure so the sites can receive guests from Royal Caribbean, which in turn creates sustainable businesses and jobs in the area.  To complete this task, we had to develop the logistical plan, safety enhancements, proposed tour routes, and timing along with identifying the basic infrastructure such as roads and waterside enhancements.  I have included a link to what we have submitted to the Ministry of Tourism just to give you an idea of what this tour could look like.  I have included pictures of the Citadelle itself.  In this case, the pictures simply don’t do it justice.

Citadelle Laferriere Mountaintop Fortress at the Top of Labadee in Haiti

stockpiles-of-cannon-balls-still-sit-at-the-base-of-citadelle-laferriere

No guarantee this tour will become a reality but we are pushing for it.

At this point I have completed my official assignment in Haiti but there is still a significant amount of work that has to be completed.  More than likely, I will be involved with these projects as they develop so I will provide updates via Adam’s blog if I’m invited to do so again.

BY:Adam|13th July, 2010 10 Comments

An Update on Royal Caribbean’s Newest Partnerships for Haiti’s Reconstruction

The project partners met with the President and Prime Minister of Haiti last week and, not surprisingly, they were very supportive of the project. Our view is that these types of projects are critical to move Haiti forward. While there are many other issues occupying the world’s attention, not least of which is the oil spill in the Gulf, Royal Caribbean will continue to take an active role in Haiti’s long-term rebuilding as promised. There are no illusions here. Haiti faces incredible challenges that are far beyond any one company’s capacity to solve. But we are committed to play our part.I hope our readers are enjoying John Weis’ series on his time in Haiti helping President Clinton and Paul Farmer with their relief efforts and the beginning of the reconstruction process.   If there are aspects of John’s coverage that you would like to have him further explore, please let me know.  I am proud of the extent and quality of the assistance that John provided.  He makes things happen even in the most challenging of circumstances.  That is a characterization that suits Haiti well.  Now John is “back” doing his normal job, which still involves driving our efforts to construct a new school in Labadee, and to galvanize the Citadelle restoration project.  Congratulations to John on a job very well done.

Citadelle Laferriere Mountaintop Fortress

http://bit.ly/cIKiql

Continuing on the Haiti front, last week there was a press announcement that Royal Caribbean will be working together with Bob Johnson and his team at the RLJ Companies as well as WIN, a successful local Haitian business group, to foster economic development in Haiti.  The particular focus in the beginning will be to construct two factories that will build a special kind of structural panel that is hurricane and earthquake resistant, yet economical for applications such as our school project, housing development and other commercial applications. These panels are a product of the GBS Company from Charleston, South Carolina that partnered with the RLJ Companies to build an upscale hotel in Liberia a few years ago.

The project partners met with the President and Prime Minister of Haiti last week and, not surprisingly, they were very supportive of the project. Our view is that these types of projects are critical to move Haiti forward. While there are many other issues occupying the world’s attention, not least of which is the oil spill in the Gulf, Royal Caribbean will continue to take an active role in Haiti’s long-term rebuilding as promised. There are no illusions here. Haiti faces incredible challenges that are far beyond any one company’s capacity to solve. But we are committed to play our part.

BY:Adam|12th July, 2010 4 Comments

Visiting Labadee for a Number of Reasons, Including a Site Visit of the Citadelle

On Friday, for the first time since October, Richard Fain and I visited Labadee. We had three goals for the trip. One, to meet our local management team and express our support for our people and their country. Two, for Richard to pursue the concept of building a school to serve the surrounding area. Three, for me to visit the Citadelle and understand what needs to be done to enable our guests to visit it when the ships call at Labadee. Joining us throughout the day were Minister of Tourism Patrick Delatour and one of President Clinton’s top advisers in Haiti, plus Craig Milan, John Weis and Maryse Kedar.

The site looked great and was in full stride with Independence of the Seas at the beautiful new pier.

I’ve been talking about the Citadelle for a long time so it made sense to actually go and see it for myself. It’s extraordinary. It is the largest fort in all of the Americas and it sits on top of a 3,000 foot mountain. How people in the early 1800’s got the rocks and munitions up that big hill is mind boggling. It was great getting the tour from the Minister of Tourism. Apart from his position in government, Minister Delatour is a historian/architect who has been personally involved in the restoration of the Citadelle since 1972. He explained, for example, that the cannons with Latin inscriptions are French, whereas the cannons with French inscriptions are British. Go figure. Each cannon has its own story. Many are still on their wooden mounts that allow the cannon to swivel and aim from various angles, waiting silently for the French invasion that will never come. The 360 degree view is phenomenal.

(more…)

BY:Adam|12th April, 2010 13 Comments

Thoughts on the 100th Blog Post, Allure of the Seas and My Latest Race with the Royal Caribbean Team

John’s update on his contributions to Haiti relief was the 100th entry in the short history of the blog, according to blog historian Lyan Sierra-Caro. You’re free to comment on the blog at any time of course, but I particularly encourage you to comment on the first 100 entries as a body of work.

The blog has become a part of my professional existence, i.e., it’s another generator of deadlines to be met. Sometimes it’s fun to do, sometimes it’s a pain. Like life!

With all the hard work the team is putting in these days, I’m looking forward to writing about the fruits of their labors in the upcoming months. These are not easy times in the business world, but the team is determined to improve our guest experience and stay at the forefront of innovation in the travel and leisure space.

The most tangible development in the near future will be the arrival of Allure of the Seas in just over six months. We are very pleased with her construction process and so we just announced the addition of a 12/1 four-night sailing as we were able to do with Oasis of the Seas last year. The 12/5 seven-night sailing will continue to be the maiden voyage but the four night will allow the opportunity to sail on a brand new ship at a lower price point. We are planning a special call at Labadee as the one stop on the four-night cruise.

(more…)

BY:Adam|5th April, 2010 15 Comments

Guest Post: Moving Forward In Haiti

From John Weis

Well, it’s been approximately 2 months since my last blog about Haiti and the start of my assignment and I wanted to share with you some of the experiences and projects we’re working on. In summary, it’s been an emotional roller coaster ride with its share of rewarding experiences and frustrations in terms of helping as many people as you can but not helping enough.

Adam asked me to write this a couple of weeks ago but at the time I was in a very frustrated state of mind with projects that were not moving forward, communities not getting enough help and things grinding to a halt. If I wrote the blog then, it would have not been very positive, so I wanted to spare you the whining and write this when there was more progress going on down there.

In short, there is progress being made but at a very slow pace. The immediate relief in terms of medical, rescue and security was handled by a variety of international organizations including the US Military, Israeli Government, Red Cross and a host of other groups that are too numerous to count. There were also smaller organizations on the ground referred to as NGO’s (Non-Government Organization) that assisted in the relief effort and most of them are in it for the long haul.

(more…)

BY:Adam|2nd April, 2010 9 Comments

Guest Post: Delivering Relief Supplies to Royal Caribbean’s Haitian Employees and their Families

Most of you are aware that Royal Caribbean has been providing relief supplies to the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake. What most people don’t know is what we have been doing to help our Haitian employees and their families. Steve Christian, of our Human Resources Department, recently traveled to Labadee to oversee the delivery of supplies to our Haitian employees and their families. Here is Steve’s account:

At the time of the earthquake, 158 Haitians were serving onboard Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity ships, another 200+ Haitian employees were working at our Labadee site, and we had 50 crew members who were on vacation, presumably at home in various cities throughout Haiti.

A few days after the earthquake, Royal Caribbean announced that we would be working closely with four different relief agencies in Haiti: Compassion Alliance, Food for the Poor, the Solano Foundation, and the Pan American Development Foundation. Each of those agencies was involved in off loading supplies from our ships and transporting them to distribution sites throughout Haiti. While we were pleased with the results our partnerships were producing, we were hearing from our employees and their families that relief supplies were not reaching them quickly enough.

We decided it was time to contact Compassion Alliance to see if they could set aside some supplies just for our families. Our contact at Compassion Alliance, Paul Romine, was more than willing to help. In fact, he and his team offered to assemble 250 special “care packages” just for our folks, and all we needed to do was give them a “wish list” of items to be put in the care packages.

(more…)

BY:Adam|10th March, 2010 5 Comments

A Letter from Sam Davis (Burn Advocates Network) Regarding Royal Caribbean’s Relief Efforts in Haiti

While my blog lately has covered topics other than Haiti, the country and its people has not been far from my thoughts. We continue to transport pallets of supplies on each and every ship that calls on Labadee. The outpouring of support from the community has been unbelievable, with pallets and pallets of needed supplies coming into our warehouse every day from all over the country.

Below is a letter I received from Sam Davis, founding director of the Burn Advocates Network, whose organization is providing much needed medical attention to Haitians hurt and injured during the earthquake. We are thankful that we can continue to assist organizations, such as the Burn Advocates Network, that make a difference in lives of the Haitian people.

Dear Mr. Goldstein:

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your company’s generosity. I was blessed to travel to Haiti aboard your Explorer of the Seas cruise ship last week. There, at their Labadee dock, your staff and I oversaw the offloading of over 65 pallets of medical supplies and emergency food. In addition, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines donated 200 mattresses, bedding, and hundreds of pounds of clothes donated by the crew for this relief effort. With the precise teamwork of the Explorer’s ship and ground crews, the entire shipment of 65 pallets was unloaded onto the piers, providing 60,000 pounds of aid. After a one-hour convoy, we reached our destination in Cap Haitien, Haiti, where not a single package was damaged, delayed, or diverted. In other words…

“From Dock to Doctor” in 6 days!

Many of these supplies went to For Haiti With Love, a 24-hour FREE emergency clinic specializing in burn care. In the last few weeks, they have treated thousands of earthquake victims. While in Haiti, I also formed a relationship with the Justinian Hospital run by the government of Haiti. There Dr. Andre Voltain, Chief of Medicine, and Dr. Jean-Gracia Coq, Chief of Surgery, informed me that they lacked an oxygen generator and had only one x-ray machine, a beat up C Arm, which had been down for several weeks, scarcely the equipment expected at a hospital of three hundred plus patients. During my short stay, two gravely burned Haitian children had to be airlifted to Shriners Hospital in Boston because the equipment to save them did not exist.

(more…)

BY:Adam|18th February, 2010 9 Comments

Guest Post: Update on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas’ Ports of Call

Now that Oasis of the Seas has settled into her regular routine I thought this would be a good time to get an update on the ports we are visiting. I’ve asked Craig Milan to give us a glimpse of how the ports are handling Oasis as well as some of the guest feedback.

I thought it would be good to update everyone about how Oasis of the Seas is doing in her ports of call.

Oasis of the Seas is now in the midst of her 11th voyage (10th regular Eastern Caribbean itinerary) and by all accounts the ports of call have been going extremely well. You may recall the ship’s current itinerary is departing Port Everglades on Saturday followed by two sea days before she arrives in St. Thomas and then onto St. Maarten. We then feature one more sea day with a Friday arrival into Nassau, Bahamas. For operational reasons, we switched up itinerary over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays by calling at Nassau on Sundays instead of Fridays. Both versions have worked well but it would be nice to hear from you all as to if you think we should stay with the current Friday call in Nassau or the Sunday arrival.

Our new terminal in Port Everglades, Terminal 18, is working even better than we thought. We have been able to maintain our goal of getting our guests from curbside to ship in 15 minutes or less. This terminal is easily the most efficient of any within our worldwide system. Not only has the boarding process been going well but also the departure from the ship. US Customs and Border Protection processes have been smooth and have enabled us to clear the ship on most Saturdays by 10:30 am at the latest.

In St. Thomas we are calling at the Crown Bay dock, which is a departure for us since we usually use the dock at Havensight for all other ships. Crown Bay has been working very well. All guests who have purchased tours from us are dispatched from a segregated area only a short walk from the ship. There are ample taxis and other transport available and the shopping at Crown Bay, whilst not as extensive as at Havensight, seems to have resonated with our guests. St. Thomas remains one of the premier shopping destinations in the Caribbean and our guests on Oasis are taking full advantage of the myriad of shops available to them.

(more…)

BY:Adam|12th February, 2010 81 Comments

Helping Haiti Move Forward

Haiti is several weeks post-earthquake. Royal Caribbean’s involvement is what one would expect from our company and people. The media has moved on to other topics or at least other aspects of the post-earthquake environment. Meanwhile, our people and guests continue to help. This will remain true for a very long time given Haiti’s needs.

I would like to thank the remarkable number of people who wrote letters, sent emails and posted on blogs in support of the calls of our ships and the importance of delivering supplies, maintaining economic activity and sustaining hope. Some of the most heartfelt communications came from our own employees including at headquarters.

Fortunately the number of employees who have not made contact with us has significantly reduced. For days it was stuck at 34 out of 50 and it seemed that we were facing a possible 68% death rate of our crew who were at home in Haiti on vacation. Now the number is down to 11 and none of those are confirmed dead. So we continue to hope that all of our crew are in fact safe but we simply do not know. Nine of the 11 have addresses in the Dominican Republic so we’re hoping some of the 11 were not even in Haiti at the time. Obviously we are trying to contact them to be sure.

The ships are routinely bringing in pallets of supplies and within a week we will have delivered over 1,000 pallets. There is a focus right now on getting three generators onboard to be delivered to schools in Haiti. Also by a week from now we will have contributed over $500,000 in proceeds from the revenue we normally earn during our Labadee calls. In addition, in aggregate our shoreside employees, guests and crew have donated $300,000 to relief efforts.

(more…)

BY:Adam|8th February, 2010 9 Comments

Guest Post: Water and Supplies Continue to be Distributed in Haiti

Each day a new set of opportunities, setbacks, advances and delays unfolds in and outside Haiti. The UN is obviously a major player in the relief and recovery effort. As previously noted we have worked closely with them especially in connection with President Clinton, Special UN Envoy to Haiti, and his Deputy Special Envoy Dr. Paul Farmer.

They have an absolutely enormous job on their hands and while all of our efforts are helpful to them, we have decided to provide more direct and immediate assistance in a form I believe will be exceptionally productive. We have agreed to second John Weis, our Associate VP, Private Destinations, to Paul Farmer for three months. John did a phenomenal job getting Labadee ready for Oasis of the Seas prior to the earthquake, and since the earthquake he has done a exceptional job of mobilizing our relief effort. While we will certainly feel John’s absence, we are proud to contribute him in this fashion. I have asked him to comment on this new twist in his relationship with Haiti:

I want to convey my thanks to Royal Caribbean, Adam and Craig Milan for giving me the opportunity to take on this challenge. My wife Stacy also supports this so I want to thank her as well. Over the past 3 three years, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of work in Haiti, so I have made many friends there and have grown to appreciate the friendliness of the people, their ingenuity and their endurance. So in short, I have a huge amount of gratitude for the team supporting this relief effort and the opportunity to work on something I have a great passion for.

My first and immediate task is to look at the logistics framework from a long-term perspective and establish a storage and distribution depot here in South Florida. I will share more details on this in the weeks to come.

The relief and rebuilding effort will be monumental and it is going to be completed one step at a time. Looking at everything that needs to be done to rebuild an entire city that has been destroyed can be daunting. People on the ground, like Maryse Kedar, and people back here, like Richard Pruitt, who is coordinating the relief effort on the Royal Caribbean side, will make sure this becomes a reality. I wanted to share with you some of Maryse and her team of eight’s efforts - which includes two crew members that went to her for help and are now playing a big role in the water distribution.

(more…)

BY:Adam|24th January, 2010 123 Comments