BY Helen Kennedy
As surviving Haitians fought over scraps of food, luxury cruise ship passengers frolicked heedlessly Monday at a resort just 81 miles from the misery transfixing the world.
Royal Caribbean's gigantic 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas stopped at a north Haiti beach so tourists could parasail, snorkel and chow down on barbecue.
The tourists went ashore at Labadee, a lavish and heavily guarded private beach leased by the cruise line where passengers bounce on trampolines, sip cocktails in a hammock and shop at an ersatz "native market."
Even as people in the leveled capital of Port-au-Prince finally cracked after six days without help and began looting stores, Royal Caribbean passengers pretended to be buccaneers at a pirate-themed water park.
Royal Caribbean brushed off suggestions that cruising to a humanitarian catastrophe might not be in great taste, saying the ships are bringing pallets of supplies along with bikini-clad vacationers.
"People enjoying themselves in Labadee helps with relief," said cruise line CEO Adam Goldstein. "We support our guests who choose to help in this way."
The company also promised to donate the profits from its Haiti stops and noted the beach resort employs 230 Haitians who would be out of work if the ships kept away.
Meanwhile, a boat everyone is anxiously awaiting - the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort - was still en route from Baltimore and won't arrive until tomorrow.
An old oil tanker refitted as a high-tech medical center, the Comfort chugs along at 15 knots.
"It takes her a while, but she has been making that speed," said Navy Capt. John Kirby.
A new European Union estimate suggests a staggering 200,000 people died in last Tuesday's quake - on par with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that spread death across 14 countries instead of just one.
Even as the world mobilizes what may be the largest relief effort in history, hundreds of thousands of victims still struggled to find a cup of water or a handful of food.
Thousands of pounds of aid was offloaded by relief flights, but it wasn't getting to many people in Port-au-Prince.
"There is little sign of significant aid distribution," a Doctors Without Borders spokesperson said.
Some looting broke out, but the U.S. military said that despite dramatic TV pictures, the violence was isolated.
"The security situation is stable," said Navy Rear Adm. Michael Rogers, Joint Chiefs of Staff director for intelligence.
"We continue to be able to execute the full range of our operation. We have seen nothing that suggests to us widespread disorder. There is no sense of widespread panic."
Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen said the poverty-filled streets actually were more law-abiding now than before the cataclysm. "The level of violence we see now is below pre-earthquake levels," he said.
About 2,200 Marines arrived, bringing the number of U.S. troops in the region to 7,000.
Ex-President Bill Clinton brought daughter Chelsea to visit a hospital, where he said "astonishing" doctors were performing surgeries "at night, with no anesthesia, using vodka to sterilize equipment."
Meanwhile, a growing stream of Haitians fled the shattered capital. Many packed onto buses bound for the countryside if they could afford the inflated ticket prices.
Since the quake, 71 trapped people have been saved. A college student who texted from under the rubble was rescued yesterday.
Search and rescue teams will keep looking through the night, but "obviously, we are getting closer to the time when you go from rescue to recovery," said Tim Callaghan, head of USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Team.
A team from the Centers for Disease Control is arriving today to help head off spread of any diseases.
hkennedy@nydailynews.com
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