After a very successful first year of its “voluntourism” programme, Crystal Cruises has decided to extend its groundbreaking “You Care, We Care” programme with new opportunities being added for the 2012 season.

During 2012, as in 2011, every Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity voyage will offer one shore excursion sponsored by the company in which both crew members and guests get the opportunity to give something back to a needy local community. The cruise line handles all the logistics of the operation.

Last year Crystal Cruises offered more than 45 of these socially responsible day trips and several of them will return in 2012. There will also be a significant number of new additions, including:

• British Columbia: Work at a local food bank stocking, packing and distributing toys and food.
• Cambodia: Plant a vegetable garden at an orphanage and teach art classes to children.
• South Korea: Spend time with underprivileged children and lighten up their day.
• Singapore: Assist with teaching illiterate children to read.

The company’s Senior Vice President for operations, Thomas Mazloum says “The feedback from this program has been incredible, with stories of tears, hugs, penpals, and generosity above and beyond anything we could have hoped for.”

He added that they were thrilled to continue with the volunteer programme in 2012.

The 2012 schedule includes a number of new locations, including Willemstad, Curacao; Cartagena, Colombia; Livorno, Italy; Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain; Tallinn, Estonia; Athens, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Rostock, Germany; Boston and Honolulu.