Cruise lines to help evacuate Irma-ravaged St. Thomas

Cruise lines to help evacuate Irma-ravaged St. Thomas

Damage caused by Hurricane Irma

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.  

Richard Branson's cruise venture named Virgin Voyages

Richard Branson, accompanied by dancers, makes his entrance during Tuesday's Virgin Voyages event. Photo Credit: Robert Silk

MIAMI BEACH — The Virgin Group cruise line will sail under the name Virgin Voyages, the company said Tuesday.

“I’ve never fancied going on a cruise ship but I do fancy going on a voyage,” said Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, shortly after making his characteristically flamboyant entrance to the press conference at the Faena Hotel Miami Beach.

The line had been going by the name Virgin Cruises since the venture was announced in the summer of 2015.

Virgin Voyages CEO Tom McAlpin said that the company remains on track to take delivery of the first of three 110,000-gross-ton ships that it has on order from Fincantieri in 2020, with the next two ships to follow in 2021 and 2022.

Fincantieri will begin cutting steel in February, he said, and keel laying will come toward the end of 2017.

Virgin didn’t reveal many details about the vessels, which are each slated to carry 2,700 guests and 1,150 crew members. But the company is promising a transformative product that will differentiate the Virgin Voyages experience from other cruise lines.

“It’s incredibly exciting. It’s under lock and key,” Branson said of the design specifics and ship offerings, noting that he didn’t want Virgin’s competitors to learn too much too soon.

One thing McAlpin did reveal is that Virgin Voyages is the first cruise line to enter into a partnership with Climeon, a Swedish green energy solutions company.

Together the companies will install a system on the Virgin vessels that will convert the heat the ships produce into clean energy. Each ship will have six Climeon engine units, which will save an estimated 5,400 tons of carbon dioxide annually per vessel.

“It would take 180,000 trees 30 years to absorb this much CO2,” McAlpin said. 

He said that Virgin has all but completed a multibillion-dollar financing deal with lead lending partners CDP and UniCredit, backed by the Italian export agency SACE.

“We just need the final rubber stamp from the Italian government,” McAlpin said.