Helping Others on Cruise Vacations
Cruise vacations are perfectly suited for giving back to others, because you get to visit so many destinations. We have found many schools, orphanages and other organizations in popular cruise ports such as:
- Acapulco, Mexico
- Belize City, Belize
- Cozumel, Mexico
- Costa Maya, Mexico
- Ixtapa, Mexico
- Montego Bay, Jamaica
- Nassau, Bahamas
- Ocho Rios, Jamaica
- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Roatan, Honduras
and many others. See the country links on the side of this page for more details.
One of the first steps in giving back to others on a cruise vacation is to determine your schedule and figure out when and where you want to help. We’ve found it to be quite easy to visit schools and orphanages in ports where we’ve planned our own independent shore excursions, either by getting our own driver if we’re planning to be there for the day or just working the visit into our other plans if we’re making a short stop. If you’re taking a large group tour or ship shore excursion in a particular port, doing a community service visit there might be more difficult. After having done this a number of times, our suggestion would be to choose your ports and organizations in advance of your visit, contact the organization to determine the best times to come by on the day you are in port, and then make arrangements for transportation ahead of time if possible.
For cruise ship passengers, contacting organizations in advance is a bit more important because of the limited time available on shore. Some orphanages request advance contact if you would like to spend time with the children and only certain hours are available based on the children’s school schedules. Other orphanages are much more flexible and encourage visitors to stay and play for as long as they like. It’s highly likely, however, that with a little research, you will be able to find a school, orphanage or other organization that will fit into your schedule perfectly.
In our Together For Good work, we have been in touch with many of the major cruise lines about the possibility of helping others while on a cruise vacation. They alerted us to think about customs when bringing donations along on your trip. We have usually brought along a large backpack of items for each organization that we’ve visited, and that has always worked out well. We have never had a problem. Here are a few recommendations that have been supplied by the cruise lines:
- Make sure you can carry the items off the ship by yourself. A backpack or duffle bag generally works well.
- If you are planning to donate items, stop at the purser’s office on the ship and let them know. The purser’s office can then notify Customs in the port of call if that is needed. We have always found the purser’s office to be very helpful.
- Customs in each port may be different. Some ports will just let donations go, others may charge duty.
By special arrangement, cruise lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean have taken larger donations into ports, such as computers, large quantities of books, and other items. Notify the cruise line well in advance if you are bringing along large quantities or bulky items. In addition, many airlines provide extra baggage weight allowances for charitable donations. If you are interested, check with your airline to see if they need a letter from the organization to which you are donating in order to give you a luggage waiver. Most organizations will be happy to give you a letter if you let them know in advance.
Have a great time! Some of our most rewarding trips have been aboard cruise ships, because we have been able to visit many different schools and orphanages all in one trip. Each place that you go will be different, but they are all waiting for your help.
“Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”
-- Martin Luther King