Bid for a cruise and help victims of Typhoon Haiyan

Unlike a hotel, where stays are usually shorter and guests are off-site much
of the time, the relationship between cruise passengers and crew is strong.
Some passengers return to a particular ship year-in, year-out, to be looked
after by their favourite waiter or bar tender.

As a guest on board Queen Mary 2 last month I guessed that around 80 per cent
of the crew were Filipino – a picture reflected across seas and oceans
worldwide. Filipinos are the largest nationality represented on the six
cruise lines that make up Royal Caribbean Cruises, with more than 12,800 of
its 60,000 crew-member employees calling the archipelago home.

Cunard confirms that 100-plus crew members working across the Cunard and PO
Cruises fleets have been affected by the devastation caused by Typhoon
Haiyan, including 33 on board Queen Mary 2.

The impact of Typhoon Haiyan on the cruise industry’s Filipino crew, desperate
for news of family and friends back home, will be widely felt. Global
welfare charity Mission to Seafarers, which offers emergency assistance and
practical support to crews in 260 ports, and also supplies chaplains for
cruise ships, estimates that 87,000 of the world’s merchant ships will have
crew on board affected by the disaster.

Cruise lines are offering assistance by various means. Fred Olsen is
facilitating the return home of a number of staff from the most devastated
areas and is sending a sizeable donation to its staffing agent in the region
– Bahia Shipping – to distribute to families in urgent need of help. Royal
Caribbean says its relief effort will total $1 million (£620,000). Cunard
Line, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and PO have also agreed to auction cruise
cabins to Telegraph Travel readers to raise money for Mission to Seafarers.
The winning bidders will each receive a cruise for two (see below for
details).

Peter Hughes, an award-winning cruise journalist and regular contributor to
Telegraph Travel, added: “My own experience of the Filipinos is that their
zest is totally infectious and adds massively to the enjoyment of cruising.
Tragedy is something one simply doesn’t associate with these gracious
people. It would be wonderful to be able to show them they are not
forgotten.”

How to bid

Cunard Line, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and PO Cruises are each offering
cruise cabins for two people, with money raised going to Mission to
Seafarers. A minimum bid of £500 per cabin applies to each of the 22 cruises
offered. Deadline for bids is midnight on November 22, 2013. To
make a bid please click here (terms and conditions apply).

The 10 winning bids for Cunard will
win a round-trip cruise from Southampton in balcony accommodation on one of
the following ships and dates:

Queen Mary 2
An 11-night cruise from Southampton to Lisbon, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and
Madeira, departing November 30.

Queen Victoria
A 12-night cruise from Southampton to Seville, Malaga, Valencia, Barcelona,
Gibraltar and La Coruna, departing November 29.

The 10 winning bids for PO
Cruises will win a round-trip cruise from Southampton in balcony or
outside accommodation on the following ships and dates:

Oceana (four outside cabins)
An 11-night cruise from Southampton to La Coruna, Casablanca, Seville,
Malaga, Gibraltar and Lisbon, departing December 8.

Aurora (four balcony cabins)
A 10-night Christmas Cruise cruise from Southampton to Bruges, Brussels,
Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Oslo, departing December 9.

Oriana (two balcony cabins)
A 19-night cruise from Southampton to Cartagena, Venice, Dubrovnik, Palma,
Valencia, Cartagena, Gibraltar and Lisbon, departing December 15.

The two winning bids for Fred
Olsen will win a round-trip cruise from Dover in outside accommodation
on the following ships and dates:

Braemar (one cabin)
A 13-night cruise from Dover to Copenhagen, Tallin, St Petersburg, Helsinki
and the Kiel Canal, departing August 31, 2014.

Balmoral (one cabin)
A 10-night cruise from Southampton to Oslo, Amsterdam and Antwerp, departing
October 24, 2014.

Where will your donations go?
Donations will fund the Mission to Seafarers’ charitable welfare provision,
including ship visits and post-trauma and bereavement and counselling. An
emergency communications fund will provide free facilities such as phone SIM
cards amounting to around £10,000 and free Wi-Fi (where it is not already
provided) to Filipino seafarers who are working on ships around the world
and urgently need to keep in touch with family and friends affected by the
disaster. 100 per cent of every donation will go to the Mission to Seafarers
(charity number 1123613)

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