| Princess says thanks to Port Kembla

AS A thank you to the Illawarra community for housing Ruby Princess, Princess Cruises is making a contribution of $50,000 to support the outreach to seafarers of the Mission to Seafarers at Port Kembla.

As Ruby prepares to sail from Australia, Princess President Jan Swartz (pictured) today applauded the ship’s crew for their strength and fortitude, and thanked the region’s community for supporting the crew while the ship was berthed at Port Kembla.

Swartz said crew members were inspirational in the way they dealt with extremely difficult circumstances while building a powerful bond with the local community.

“The nightly applause ceremony in which the crew clapped all of the people who supported and cared for them during this difficult time was a wonderful expression of goodwill that was reciprocated by the community,” she said.

“Thank you to the crew of Ruby Princess and to the local community for its embrace of the crew with the delivery of care packages and handwritten messages of support from so many people.”

Swartz said the Mission’s support of the Ruby Princess crew was emblematic of the caring spirit of the Illawarra community as a whole, for which the cruise line was very grateful.

“The Illawarra community never lost sight of the fact that this was all about people caught up in difficult circumstances that were not of their making,” she said.

Swartz also thanked operational staff from New South Wales Health, Australian Border Force, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New South Wales Police and Aspen Medical, for their professional approach during Ruby Princess’ stay.

She said it had been “heartbreaking and distressing” to know COVID-19 is having such a terrible impact on so many people across the world, including the cruise line’s guests, and crew members.

“Our hearts and thoughts go out to everyone that has been affected.”