What does the captain of a cruise ship do on a sea day, when your vessel is more or less on auto pilot, in a body of water so large there is no land to be seen in any direction?
If you’re Patrik Dahlgren, master of Navigator of the Seas, you walk a mile with an 11-year-old San Francisco boy to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Royal Caribbean’s principal corporate charity.
Well, that’s what Capt. Dahlgren did yesterday, somewhere in the Caribbean Sea en route to Fort Lauderdale.
“It started on treadmills in the gym when the ship was leaving Europe, from Tanarife in the Canary Islands,” says the captain, who works out in the ship’s gym every day. “We had two treadmills set up in the promenade, and I was on one of them at the start. I was sweating and people kept coming by and speeding it up!”
Passengers sponsored walkers or runners for $1 a mile. That was the main fundraiser on the crossing, but not the only one. Bridge tours were “sold” for donations, as were dinners with the captain.
“We had the treadmills going 24/7,” Captain Dahlgren says, “and by the time we arrived in Fort Lauderdale we’d raised $20,000.”
Adds Hotel Director Tony Muresu: “That’s four wishes at sea, for a family.”
This Atlantic crossing, which preceded the five-day Western Caribbean cruise that ends today in Florida, was the fourth time the Navigator crew got on the treadmill for Make-A-Wish.
“This one was the best, because there was a creative aspect to it,” says Dahlgren.
In yesterday’s walk, he and Matthew Hagedorn led about 75 participants around the five laps of Deck 12 that make a mile. Everybody chipped in $10 for a shirt, and $8 of it goes to Make-A-Wish.
Yes, including us.