Norwegian Star in Cabo san Lucas, Photo by Dave Jones
After the great success of Premium All Inclusive, Norwegian Cruise Line is now a step further and presents new Premium All Inclusive Plus. In addition to the existing inclusive services, guests of the international shipping company now benefit from five additional extras per cabin which are valid for selected cruises of nine days or longer:
120 minutes telephone package
250 minutes internet package
50 USD credit for land excursions per port
Hotel vouchers of up to 80 EUR in selected ports
Flight vouchers up to 150 EUR
“We receive very positive feedback from Premium All Inclusive from our customers as well as from our sales partners. With the offer our guests always keep their costs in view and can concentrate on board so completely on their cruising experience. With Premium All Inclusive Plus, we are now creating further incentives for our long journeys, “said Christian Böll, Managing Director EMEA at Norwegian Cruise Line.
Premium All Inclusive Plus applies to numerous cruises in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, the Canaries, South America, along the Panama Canal and the Asia-Pacific region.
Premium All Inclusive In addition to a varied dining experience and the spectacular entertainment program, Premium All Inclusive includes a wide selection of spirits, barrels and bottled beers, wines in the glass, various cocktails (each up to US $ 15) and coffee specialties in the restaurants as well soft drinks. Also the crew tip as well as drinking charges for inclusive services are included. There is also a bottle of water per person and day on the cabin.
Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart embraces Hurricane Irma evacuee Bryan Denton. At left is Denton’s sister-in-law, Jodi. Photo Credit: Tom StieghorstMore than 900 people stuck in the U.S. Virgin Islands because of Hurricane Irma, many grateful to be alive, arrived at PortMiami on Friday morning after being rescued in St. Thomas by the Norwegian Sky cruise ship.
The majority were tourists stranded when Irma’s 185 mph winds obliterated the Cyril E. King Airport in Charlotte Amalie. “The control tower is gone,” said Charlene Woolley, who was on vacation from Atlanta. “[Flying] was not an option.”
The Norwegian Sky had sailed empty to Cancun during the storm and motored directly to St. Thomas once the government there sent out an urgent request for transportation off the island.
The 2,004-passenger ship picked up a total of 923 evacuees, including 99 from St. John who had been brought to St. Thomas by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel.
Before the hurricane, Woolley said she was relocated from the beachfront hotel where she had been staying to the Windward Passage. That hotel is built of concrete and mostly stood against the storm’s assault, but sustained a lot of damage.
“It was raining in the room,” Woolley said. “Some rooms had lost their ceilings. The air conditioner was gone. We were in the bathroom. The whole building was shaking the whole time. Imagine a really big hotel door that was rattling like you think it was going to blow off.”
Hurricane Irma evacuee Arlene Graham shares a photo of the storm with Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart at PortMiami. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
She said the shatter-proof windows looked like they were “breathing,” being sucked in and out by the pressure.
But Woolley said the aftermath was worse.
“Because of where our hotel was, it was kind of a bad part of town. So there was nightly shooting. They were robbing the tourists because they knew they had cash,” she said. “There was no power. There was a generator that the manager of the hotel ran only at night for lights, for safety. We actually had the St. Croix police staying in our hotel and there were still people trying to get in. You literally stood outside your room and guarded your supplies, your water, ice, toilet paper.”
Woolley found out on the web that the Norwegian Sky was coming to evacuate people. She and her companion got their names on the list.
“You literally saved our lives,” Woolley told Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart, who was at the port on Friday to greet evacuees. “I can’t say that enough.”
For Terry Denton and his family, Norwegian Cruise Line represented hope at the darkest hour.
The Phoenix businessman was on a 10-day vacation with his wife and two relatives. They had planned to fly back before the storm hit, “but that didn’t happen,” Denton said.
Norwegian Sky by Dave Jones
Instead they were moved from their waterside villa to a condo building, where the walls held but the windows shattered. The room flooded.
Still left with some internet service, Denton heard a rumor that a cruise ship was coming and sent Facebook messages to every line he could.
Only Norwegian replied. “They simply typed back, ‘You’re not forgotten. Someone will come help you,'” said Denton’s wife Jodi.
Until that point, the group, which included Denton’s brother and the brother’s daughter, had been in the dark literally and figuratively. “We had nothing before that,” Jodi Denton said. “It gave us hope.”
Another evacuee, Arlene Graham, had been through hurricanes before. As a 20-year-resident of St. Croix and St. Thomas, she had seen some severe storms, including Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which left 11,000 people on St. Thomas homeless.
“This hurricane was worse,” she said.
Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart talks with Charlene Woolley, an Atlanta resident on vacation in St. Thomas when Hurricane Irma hit. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Although her home held up fairly well, Graham said she left her husband to take care of the property so she could get her 15-year-old son Ahmad reestablished in school in northern Virginia.
“We’re not sure how the storm will affect things,” said Graham, a financial analyst for the Department of Education.
Graham said there was no looting in her neighborhood, but the island is in dire need of supplies, including tarps for damaged roofs, food, water and ice.
“The main concern is for people to be able to get back on their feet and sustain themselves, and get what is needed to rebuild,” she said.
Two cruise lines on Saturday said they were diverting ships to the hurricane-ravaged island of St. Thomas to drop relief supplies and evacuate stranded travelers.
Norwegian Cruise Line said it was sending the 2,004-passenger Norwegian Sky to the island with the goal of retrieving as many as 2,000 vacationers who were unable to leave before Hurricane Irma hit on Wednesday. The ship currently is off the coast of Mexico and should arrive in St. Thomas by late Monday.
Royal Caribbean said it was redirecting its 2,350-passenger Majesty of the Seas to the island to similarly evacuate several thousand travelers and also to drop water, food, ice and other provisions that are needed. The ship is off the west coast of Cuba and expected to arrive in St. Thomas on Tuesday.
The two ships are based in Miami and Port Canaveral, Fla., respectively, and currently are sailing without passengers. The lines previously had canceled their weekend sailings due to the approach of Irma and sent the ships toward Mexico to seek shelter from the storm.
Royal Caribbean also plans to redirect its 3,114-passenger Adventure of the Seas to the hard-hit island of St. Martin on Sunday for an unscheduled stop to drop relief supplies. The vessel is departing San Juan, Puerto Rico late Saturday on a previously scheduled cruise to the Southern Caribbean and is loading on provisions that are needed for a mounting relief effort.
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