Globe Award for unsung hero who flies to help if a cruise goes wrong

Heather Small and the X-Factor’s Misha B sang their hearts out, beat-boxer Faith SFX brought the house down, and comedian Jack Whitehall tried to blag himself a day out at Alton Towers – when he could have been trying to grab a luxury cruise or an all-inclusive stay at Sandals.
Such was the madness of the Travel Weekly Globe Awards ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House this week.
Among the star-studded celebrations and self-congratulatory sponsorships, one winner stood out above all the rest. Andrew Baldwin, 32-year-old leader of the Customer Care Team for P&O and Cunard cruise lines, picked up the Unsung Hero award.
He was praised for sometimes putting his own personal life on hold in order to help people who find themselves in difficult or tragic circumstances – often those who have fallen ill while on holiday, or who have had to leave a ship mid-cruise because of a family illness or bereavement back home.
Andrew leads a permanent team of six at Carnival UK’s HQ in Southampton, supported by 250 volunteers throughout the company who are ready to fly out at a moment’s notice when they are needed.
He started his career in the company’s reservations department 14 years ago, and set up the care team – which also looks after crew members faced with emergencies – in 2007.
Andrew told me: “What we do is provide help and assurance in the case of an emergency. Maybe it’s when a passenger has had to be taken off the ship and put in hospital ashore. Maybe it’s when there’s a problem at home.
“Two members of the team will fly out to take care, to work with the insurance company, act as interpreters and do whatever is needed to get them home as soon as possible. Often it’s the travelling companion who needs assistance and support as much as the person directly affected.”
P&O Cruises managing director Carol Marlow, at the ceremony to collect a Consumer Award for the company – said: “We are all so proud of Andrew for being named unsung hero. With more than 30,000 passengers and crew on board our ships at any one time, it is inevitable that sometimes things don’t go as planned, and the team is on hand to provide support when it is needed.”
►In the mainstream awards, Royal Caribbean were named best mainstream cruise company, and Celebrity Cruises took the title of best premium cruise line, both for the second year running. Silversea was best luxury line, and Hurtigruten grabbed the Globe for best specialist cruise operator.