Haiti Unrest

[cruise.mode]

We're scheduled for a June RCCL cruise, stopping in Labadee. Does anyone know if the ships are still docking, considering what's going on there? Might RCCL skip it and pick another port?

[cullinp]

All quiet on the RCI board re this topic, however if there is any danger in any way shape or form they'll simply not stop.

 

That said Labadee is a gated, guarded peninsula well away from the main areas of inhabitance and RCI have people living there. If it gets to the stage where they're pulling their people out, we'll hear about it soon enough from cruise critic posters who are due to stop there.

[mikepmcm]

We're scheduled for a June RCCL cruise, stopping in Labadee. Does anyone know if the ships are still docking, considering what's going on there? Might RCCL skip it and pick another port?

 

Source: Reuters

</SPAN>LES CAYES, Haiti, May 5 (Reuters) - Slum leaders in the southern town of Les Cayes who started Haiti's recent food riots handed lawmakers an ultimatum on Monday to install a new government within a week or face more protests.

Jean Rene Frazil, an organizer of last month's street demonstrations, told Haitian President Rene Preval and parliament that renewed protests could be more violent than last month's unrest across the impoverished Caribbean country.

"Preval and parliament have no more than one week to install a new prime minister and a new government," Frazil, 28, told Reuters. "Otherwise, we'll take to the streets again and it will be much worse than what happened during the past protests."

[NikkiAlexisNJ]

We're scheduled for a June RCCL cruise, stopping in Labadee. Does anyone know if the ships are still docking, considering what's going on there? Might RCCL skip it and pick another port?

 

 

Royal Caribbean has it's own private section on Labadee. What's going on there currently most likely wont affect your cruise because it's a private section. If it happens to, then Royal Caribbean simply will choose not to stop there if that doubtfully happens.

[Joey&AlishaCollins]

Any recent RCI travelers have any comments? We'll be honeymooning to the W. Caribbean in about a week and I was reading a travel warning this morning: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_917.html

 

I feel better knowing that RCI owns a private section of the island. That's comforting :)

[Utahrd]

The article says that Les Cayes is on the south side of the island and the State Department warns about Port-Au-Price, in the cental part of the country.

 

Labadee is in the north part, like Cullin mentions; on a fenced-off peninsula.

 

It's pretty interesting when you look at it on Google Earth.

 

Haiti is dangerous but Miami is where the state had to stop issuing special license plates on rental cars because tourists were being murdered and the Los Angeles Times has its own homicide section.

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/

[Joey&AlishaCollins]

I was in Haiti last Monday, 8/14/08... I was a little nervous about traveling there because I haven't heard many good things. Soon after we were tendered to the shore, I felt I could put my guard down. Like others have said, Labadee is gated and 100% ran by Royal Caribbean employees. Everyone from the bartenders to the cooks at the buffet were wearing RCI nametags and I felt much better about being off of the boat.

 

With that being said, we didn't do much because when we were booking excursions we didn't know what to expect or how adventurous we would want to be! We pretty much hung out on the beach, did some relaxing and reading, had lunch, then returned back to the boat early. Nothing exciting, but then again, we didn't spend anything that day!