pyrateslife4me84

13 minutes ago, why2klisa said:

They didn’t cancel my floating beach mats for next week. I wish they would switch us to CoCoCay. 

Considering CocoCay is several hundred miles away, that’s not a viable option. Locations in D.R. are nearby, however. Puerto Plata can accommodate 4 ships (at least) and seldom has that many. But I think Mariner already goes there with Labadee. 

3 minutes ago, Fissues said:

How would you get out of there if you

were injured or gravely ill? No medevac would come get you. Royal would be liable. 

Straw man argument there. Royal sails to any number of destinations where you would not want to go to the hospital or could not rely on medevac. 
 

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

EXACTLY, it states clearly in the cancellation E-Mail to visit shore excursions for alternate offering DURING YOUR TIME IN PORT

I would not be surprised if Royal’s own lawyers or insurance policies said they need to remove any risk of people leaving Labadee. And obviously a boat presents that risk.

I take this more as, “we want to be certain you are staying inside our compound.”

I have to imagine Royal is aware of the situation and that the US Govt is also paying some attention to the situation given they are aware Americans are going here. Regardless of how far away the gangs are, if they were marching on Labadee to stage a siege and demand Royal Kümmelwecks, this would be noted on satellite imagery and Royal would be made aware. They aren’t going to sneak that far with no one aware of their travels. 
 

If they can abandon Cococay in under an hour when big storms approach, they could do the same at Labadee. 

3 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

The “gangs” goal does not seem to be making a big noise in the world. It seems to be seizing state power in Haiti. Doing something stupid at Labadee could draw foreign intervention which seems like what they don’t want. They don’t want the Kenyan police force to come. 

And they REALLY don’t want America involved. I think they’d be happy to successfully take over the government and continue cashing in Royal’s checks. Not much money coming into Haiti otherwise. And it’s a pity. It’s a beautiful disaster zone. 

3 minutes ago, zeberdee said:

Regardless of what peoples opinions are about the current situation in Haiti, UK passengers are not covered by their travel insurance to be in Haiti or Haitian waters.

Some people will have their whole policy invalidated if they travel on Royal to Labadee.

Surely Royal should think about this as well?
  

I presume they would allow such passengers to move to a different sailing. No lack of options sailing from Florida. 

58 minutes ago, Donsyb said:

No because the current cruises were booked ages ago and people don’t have a huge choice now.  And for future cruises already booked I’ve seen lots of comments saying people will

wait and see what the situation is nearer the time. It will be a while before any impact will be seen on bookings.

 

I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t cancel ( I have no skin in the game, I have no cruise to Labadee), but I think it’s foolish to just write it off as nothing and say there’s nothing going on.

This is silly. Haiti has been a mess for many years. It was a mess 18 months ago when I booked this next cruise. Search “Labadee canceled?” on Google and you’ll see people have been asking about this for many years. 

8 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Well, Oasis has docked; I hope they don’t lose the ship!

To be fair, it would be far easier to storm the capital if they commandeered a cruise ship. Johnny Depp did several movies highlighting the benefits of stealing someone else’s ships. 
 

25 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

You are assuming that it would be an O class ship that is diverted. Even if it is they could have the pier and a regularly scheduled V/F class ship could move to tendering. Do you think RCI really cares if the place is over run with passengers? Maybe, but I doubt it.

I’m not assuming anything. Oasis and Symphony regularly call in Labadee. A Coco Cay with 2 ships already cannot accommodate another 6k guests. 

4 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I thought I had read somewhere that when the new dock was built, the ability to tender was eliminated. Don’t ask me where I read it or if I am even remembering correctly. 

Never mind that they don’t have capacity for another 6k passengers from an Oasis-class ship. 
 

Well they certainly can’t just sneak Symphony or Oasis over to Coco Cay and use tenders…

Puerto Plata is nearby and can accommodate more ships most days. 

11 hours ago, AandBmom said:

Just read this is another forum...

 

"I talked to RC today. They said it’s a serious issue and have taken Haiti off upcoming cruises until April 8 and replaced it with CoCo Cay. They said they are most likely going to change upcoming cruises beyond 4/8 as well and our April 22nd one will likely not go to Haiti. They explained that it’s not a separate island but just a fenced off part of the mainland and guest safety comes first.

I agree it’s not as fun of a topic as other posts are but nonetheless extremely important.. nothing like this has happened there before. They have taken over airports and Haiti is reporting basically a collapse of their government."

For a multitude of reasons, this does not pass the smell test. For one, Labadee is many hundreds of miles from Coco Cay and you can’t just go to Coco Cay without disrupting an entire itinerary. Further, quite a few itineraries that include Labadee also include Coco Cay already. 
 

A sea day or somewhere in D.R. would make more sense. 

1 minute ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

At Labadee right now. No issues so far, but it’s early. 😎

There’s still time for the prisoners to enlist a family from Rhode Island to storm the nation’s capital. 

8 minutes ago, rolloman said:

"These people" "Not pushing away the cruise line that actually gives them money" I keep hearing a few say what you mentioned. Do you have a link which shows Royal Caribbean is handing out money to Haitian Criminals? They are criminals for a reason...they have a tendency to steal what they want.  One other tid bit...there is very little food in the City... in some instances, they actually eat dirt pies. When people are starving they can be motivated to do about anything. I have seen on more than one occasion, security and other locals filling their pockets with food. While Royal probably does not have a problem with that, It would be naive to think nothing could happen at the resort area on a larger scale. Like I mentioned earlier, we have been intercepting thousands of Haitians on a regular basis on our shores and borders. Very common for a boat load to arrive right on the beach here in Florida. So there is that... 

Royal gives money to the government to operate on their land. If there is a new government, Royal will give them money as long as Labadee stays safe. This is no different than any number of beautiful, tropical island ports of call that are nonetheless unsafe. 
 

There is no upside to any government turning what little money Haiti does receive. 

I imagine these people’s single focus right now is toppling the government, not pushing away a cruise line that actually gives them money. If there is a successful coup d’etat, however, all bets are off and, if there were any threat made, I bet Royal would just have ships call somewhere in DR. And their ability to do so, I imagine, will likely cause whomever is in control to just let the vacationers come. They gain nothing by pushing Royal away and Royal is not going to assist them in meeting their goals any more than they already do by providing American dollars. 

That’s called “New Ship Smell”. They sell a perfume, too. 

7 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Actually I'm not that sure the short cruise strategy will pay off....I think the added WAY too much capacity in the short cruise market....we will see if they can fill it!

I imagine they know more about their business model than you. Despite our complaints, they are doing quite well financially and will pivot in the future if necessary. That’s the beauty of boats. They can go somewhere else.

3 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

So many states have very different school years (or sessions). This makes it nearly impossible to say "the majority of schools are in or out of session". Planning a cruise during a specific time of year thinking there will be less children onboard is not as easy as it used to be.

 

While smaller ships with longer voyages tend to attract less children, larger ships in the future seem to be the trend for Royal as you noted.

As far as I can tell, the only month where kids are consistently in school is September after Labor Day. Every other month has school breaks somewhere. 

10 minutes ago, LobsterStalker said:

Because they would rather disappoint people after they board instead of when they are making their vacation decisions 

JMHO

I wouldn’t be disappointed if, at booking, I could pick 5 pm, 6:45, or 8:30. I’d pick what I want and be happy when that actually happens. 

11 minutes ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Why not?

Because their staff now starts service earlier and probably cannot reasonably be serving guests until midnight. Eventually they need people gone so they can clean up for breakfast the next day. 

25 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We’ve been seeing that for quite awhile too. The poster was asking about a Med cruise and routinely they mostly still did the later dinners, but things changed …

I’ll be curious to see how this plays out. If they really want 3 main dining times, they’ll need to move times up in Europe, too. I don’t think they’ll want the third seating to start at 9:30 pm. 

Who would’ve expected children on a ship with 6 water slides? Parents who don’t parent are an issue across society, unfortunately. Not sure what the solution is on a ship. Lock unsupervised kids in the brig and see how many days it takes mom and dad to notice? My bet is 3 days. 

3 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

 

Our confirmation said 6pm but our sea pass cards said 5:30 so I assume sometime between the day we booked the cruises and when we boarded things changed. This was Odyssey on a Med B2B and both legs said 5:30.

 

This is almost every cruise, now. Even the app will list a time and then a week out, that time will move up 30 minutes. Not sure why they still tell people at booking that early dining will be at 5:30 or 6 pm when they know it’ll be 5 pm. 

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I would like RCCL to give up on traditional dining and just make everything MTD. In today's culture, they end up with lots of open seats which could be used to feed people,,, rather than making them wait. 

Try to imagine a reality where there are 6000 guests on a ship and they don’t all want the same thing or think the same as you. Options are important and adding a 3rd main dining in no way keeps a MTD guest from booking MTD.