Volunteer Packages Add Satisfaction to Cruise Vacations

Business is booming for cruise lines. Considered by many to be the ultimate vacation, cruises provide pampered luxury, exciting ports of call, fascinating side trips, an amazing breadth of activities, plenty of variety and fun for all ages, and those unbelievably decadent buffets. Cruise lines and their passengers spent $17.6 billion in the United States last year. Direct spending related to the cruise industry rose 9% in 2006, on top of 2005's 10% increase, according to figures recently released by the Cruise Lines International Association. One of the more unusual cruise experiences combines the relaxation of a luxury cruise with the satisfaction of helping others. The Our Bear Cares program offered by Cruise West, a small-ship line anchored in Seattle, offers optional volunteer programs with many of its cruise packages. For a reasonable fee, Cruise West partners with local charities in various ports-of-call. Participants are provided with overnight hotel accommodations, transfers, some meals and the satisfaction of helping a local community. A January 2008 Cruise West cruise along the Mexican coast in the Gulf of California offers a Paint Party where cruise participants can spend a day painting children's dormitories at a Mexican orphanage in La Paz. The cost of the two-night trip is an additional $299 per person. Cruise fares aboard the 138-passenger Spirit of Yorktown start at $2,399 a person, double. Cruise West has been visiting the La Paz orphanage since it initiated its Mexican route in 1999. Annual visits have provided the children with toys, silverware so all the children could eat at the same time, toothbrushes and toothpaste, food and supplies. During a 2006 Cruise West trip to Panama, volunteers painted the Embera schoolhouse and donated supplies for the village's 60 students. "We needed 30 people and we got 70," said Jeff Krida, Cruise West president. Click here to find out more about Cruise West's Our Bear Cares program. Volunteer vacations are a growing trend in the travel industry. Since 2005 volunteer vacation interest has risen from 6% to 11% in 2007, according to a recent study by the Travel Industry Association of America. Many families make it a cross-generational experience including children and grandparents. Retirees, who make up a significant segment of the cruise demographic, are among the most avid participants. For more information on cruise travel, click the post title