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Bad experience at Labadee with Vendors


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What is everyone's opinion on the local vendors at Labadee? I felt extremely harassed by them, they even take it to the point to play on our sympathy's by repeatedly asking to help their family. It was so bad we made sure we found another route not to even go thru that area. Then to make things worse, one of the local vendors picked up a dog by his hind leg and begun to swing him around, while the dog was crying for help. All the cruise ship people were screaming at him and a few tried to rush him to make him stop but security stepped in and the man ran off. I feel this type of behavior is completely unacceptable on a Royal Caribbean private island. This whole experience really ruined the beauty of the Island and makes us not want to return there. 

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Yeah, I'd lose my sh*t if I saw someone treating a dog like that, and that doesn't come close to what the spouse would do. I've never been to Labadee but I've heard the local vendors are much more aggressive than on Coco Cay (I didn't find that most of them even attempted to engage me unless I was in their stall looking at something.

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1 minute ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Yeah, I'd lose my sh*t if I saw someone treating a dog like that, and that doesn't come close to what the spouse would do. I've never been to Labadee but I've heard the local vendors are much more aggressive than on Coco Cay (I didn't find that most of them even attempted to engage me unless I was in their stall looking at something.

We had no issues at all at Coco Cay with any of the vendors, we LOVE Coco Cay, labadee doesn't come close to Coco Cay.

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Been to Labadee once, and we had no issues with the vendors closer to the ship, once we went exploring and discovered that there were more vendors further away and "up the hill."  We found that they were much different and more harassing that the other vendors.  I can tell you that I would not hesitate to go back to Labadee, however it was not my favorite stop,  and I can assure you that we won't go anywhere near the other vendors on our possible return trip (depending on the itinerary).   As far as the dog goes, if it happened in front of me then it would definitely have been better for security to get him vs me getting my hands on him.  If someone is daft enough to abuse an innocent animal what will they do to another person?  Absolutely NO excuse for that kind of behavior! 

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3 minutes ago, bhageerah said:

Been to Labadee once, and we had no issues with the vendors closer to the ship, once we went exploring and discovered that there were more vendors further away and "up the hill."  We found that they were much different and more harassing that the other vendors.  I can tell you that I would not hesitate to go back to Labadee, however it was not my favorite stop,  and I can assure you that we won't go anywhere near the other vendors on our possible return trip (depending on the itinerary).   As far as the dog goes, if it happened in front of me then it would definitely have been better for security to get him vs me getting my hands on him.  If someone is daft enough to abuse an innocent animal what will they do to another person?  Absolutely NO excuse for that kind of behavior! 

Yes its the ones on the hill that are the worst, but you can tell they have boundary lines that they are not permitted to cross. When you have 20 to 30 of them all yelling at you at once, it becomes a bit overwhelming.

 

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I can appreciate that Royal Caribbean is trying to help out the local people living in the villages on the island, but there has to be a way to control them better, When your guest feel uncomfortable walking thru a part of your private island then something needs to change.

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Up there, it is only other vendors. I only visit once, I knew what I was looking for so I enter only one hut. Bought it and on my way to exit, the man asked to help his family. He wasn't rude or insistent, I bought one more thing from him and left. All other vendors were looking at us leaving, they ask to visit their huts. I just felt sad and want to give more to this helpless population. In no way we felt unsecured or harass. We speak french so a little chitchat probably help.

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We were there earlier in the week.   While I didn't venture to the shops area, my wife did.  She said she stayed in the building and had no problems with aggressive vendors.   When she first got close to the "other" area, she said a polite no thank you and moved away  

As mentioned above, knowing conversational French probably helped....even the gentleman who brought us to our covered lounger  appreciated my Quebecois.  ?

 

We enjoyed Labadee and want to go back. 

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Yes, they are very persistent. I also did my best to avoid the market area. My friend warned me before we went last May. He told me he had to pretend he was deaf, avoided eye contact, and ignored them as he walked through the area.

Overall, we all really liked Labadee, especially since we splurged and got a nice over the water cabana away from the actual beach (Nellie's Beach). Our attendant, Regis, was awesome! We're really looking forward to going back to Coco Cay (first time since 2010 and of course the reno), but we definitely want to go back to Labadee one day. It's just more naturally beautiful IMO since it's not effectively just a flat sandbar (like Castaway Cay and all of the other leased islands) in the middle of the ocean.

 

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I have only been to Labadee once. Prior to that I heard a lot of similar experiences and decided to avoid it. It makes the vendors in Nassau and Coco Cay seem like a delight to bargain with.

I would make it a comment on the post cruise survey and indicate that Royal should coach them in proper behavior not only to passengers for to be kind to animals despite what their culture does to make it seem ok to them.

I think they are their own worst enemy, and lose a lot of chances to earn more money because of it.

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I have no problem in that area.  They are struggling to provide for their families.  

Yes they will invite you to visit their booth.  No one has ever touched me so it's just a matter of looking around to see if anything interests and if not moving on.  Yes sometimes there are two or three inviting you to visit their booth at the same time.  It's just words.  "Come look what I have for you", "I have something for you", etc.  It's hardly offensive or scary.  

When I took my adult son there he walked into several booths and bought a handful of small items.  Later I told him he could have negotiated the price down.  He acknowledged that but recognized they are dirt poor so he didn't try to beat them down. 

We don't appreciate how well we have it, the people of Haiti have very little and jobs are non existent.  It's not unsafe, just a different culture.

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