A huge response from Trinidad and Tobago citizens to calls for employment at Royal Caribbean prompted the cruise company to add another day of registration at the National Academy of Performing Arts in the capital Port of Spain. The company said it would return to NAPA on Friday to receive those who did not pass yesterday.

Thousands of people stood in line from yesterday until late in the evening, hoping to join NAPA to register for the job oppenings.

In the end, the demand was so great that the process, a joint project between Royal Caribbean and the Ministry of Tourism, was too much.

“There are people in their thousands here. That speaks to the need for jobs and this is what we are trying to do here at Royal Caribbean Group to assist with job creation. For me, it’s heartbreaking to see so many people stand out here. We are trying our best,” Wendy McDonald, Royal Caribbean’s Regional Vice President of Government Relations for the Caribbean, said.

“We were supposed to be Tuesday through Thursday (in San Fernando on Wednesday and Tobago on Thursday) but we’ve decided that we are going to be here, at NAPA again, on Friday. What we want to do right now is set up an appointment system for people we don’t see today. We will see those people on Friday.”

McDonald said, while Royal Caribbean pledged with the T&T government to employ 2,000 people, she never imagined that so many people would show up yesterday.

The process was supposed to start at 9 am, as announced, but people were standing in line as early as 7 am.

But the orderly lines that existed in the beginning soon dissipated, leaving chaos.

“We brought down a team of 21 people to do the interviews and they are all in there to do their best. We have each interviewer doing three interviews at a time, so we could try to move the crowd as quickly as possible,” McDonald said.

Royal Caribbean has outlined plans to reintroduce Trinidad and Tobago as a destination for its upcoming cruise season, starting in November.