Haiti has a “NO travel” advisory

[Mom of 3]

I’m going on a cruise Dec 31, 2022 to Jan 6 2023 and Key West, Jamaica and Haiti are the ports. Haiti has a “No TRAVEL” advisory by the USA Department of Travel. Jamaica has a “RECONSIDER Travel” advisory. What will Royal Caribbean do? 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Mom of 3
grammar

[SpeedNoodles]

Both travel advisories have been in place for a while (Jamaica since Oct 5, 2022 and Haiti since December 1, 2022).  I don't believe they have changed any itineraries based on this so far?

[KristiZ]

3 hours ago, Mom of 3 said:

I’m going on a cruise Dec 31, 2022 to Jan 6 2023 and Key West, Jamaica and Haiti are the ports. Haiti has a “No TRAVEL” advisory by the USA Department of Travel. Jamaica has a “RECONSIDER Travel” advisory. What will Royal Caribbean do? 

Welcome to the boards!

Highly unlikely your itinerary will be impacted. Haiti in particular, as Labadee is private property far from any of the major urban areas.

[twangster]

I was just at Labadee two days ago.  No issues. 

[smokeybandit]

That warning applies to Haiti proper,not the isolated protected beaches of labadee 

[Seafarer]

Yet RC has, as recently as last year, suspended visits to  Labadee due to unrest.

https://cruiseradio.net/royal-caribbean-replacing-labadee-unrest-haiti/

Having been there myself, not sure how I was protected by the isolated beaches of Labadee. 

[Jolly Ogre]

I was at  Labadee last week... great times...go and get a labadoozie and relax.

[Ryan79]

RC will do nothing. Lebadee is Haiti by geography only. You are far far away from the public and cities and you will not be going anywhere outside of the area that RC controls. As for Jamacia, that has been in place for a while. I was just there last summer for a week and it was no big deal as long as you remember common sense.

The travel suspension last year was due to the assassination of their President, not due to street crime or attacks on tourists.

[DunkelBierJay]

Port au Prince is what to avoid, and it is either 120 or 150 miles away depending on which of the two roads you might pick that run between the two...Travel on those roads is not like a US interstate, or even a two-lane road for that matter, so very few people even try to make the trip because the government doesn't control a lot of the territory....Cape Haitien is reasonably close to Labadee, and you would never know it.

 

[tonyfsu21]

3 hours ago, Seafarer said:

Yet RC has, as recently as last year, suspended visits to  Labadee due to unrest.

https://cruiseradio.net/royal-caribbean-replacing-labadee-unrest-haiti/

Having been there myself, not sure how I was protected by the isolated beaches of Labadee. 

Did you miss the large 20’ walls isolating the Labadee peninsula? Also, there are armed guards stationed at the entry points armed with side arms and assault rifles. I have been recently with absolutely zero issues regarding safety. Labadee is a great & safe destination unlike the remainder of Haiti proper which is a war zone. 

[twangster]

There are areas in every major city in Canada and the US where if I walk into the wrong part of town my life is in real danger.  Best case is getting mugged or robbed, worst case is significant risk to life.  

Labadee is nothing like that.  I am safe walking around Royal Caribbean's Labadee.  

No one is so considerate to map out the danger areas in American cities.  Perhaps our government should issue domestic warnings. 

[Seafarer]

Where in America, besides prisons,  are there large 20’ walls with armed guards stationed at the entry points armed with side arms and assault rifles?

[Seafarer]

18 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Did you miss the large 20’ walls isolating the Labadee peninsula? Also, there are armed guards stationed at the entry points armed with side arms and assault rifles. I have been recently with absolutely zero issues regarding safety. Labadee is a great & safe destination unlike the remainder of Haiti proper which is a war zone. 

Post a picture or it doesn't exist.

[sk8erguy1978]

18 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Did you miss the large 20’ walls isolating the Labadee peninsula? Also, there are armed guards stationed at the entry points armed with side arms and assault rifles. I have been recently with absolutely zero issues regarding safety. Labadee is a great & safe destination unlike the remainder of Haiti proper which is a war zone. 

For the zipline excursion you have to exit the resort, if I recall correctly (2008 & 2012 were my only visits) there were two layers of gates. First gate to intermediate area, not too large, like the size of a big garage (feel like it was for deliveries, trash, etc, but half guessing) and the second gate was to exit... basically like an elevator or garage with two exits for a bad example. In 2008 I remember them being armed police officers. They must have been there in 2012 as well but all I was able to get as we zipped (pun?) by was unarmed security. Of course this was 10 years ago. 

[tonyfsu21]

2 hours ago, Seafarer said:

Where in America, besides prisons,  are there large 20’ walls with armed guards stationed at the entry points armed with side arms and assault rifles?

Area 51?

[tonyfsu21]

2 hours ago, Seafarer said:

Post a picture or it doesn't exist.

It doesn’t exist. I wouldn’t go to Labadee if I were you. Royal Caribbean has a habit of putting their customers directly in the line of fire. 

[Mike n Ky]

Wasn't Haiti one of the holdouts for a negative covid test or was it proof of vaccine?

[twangster]

10 hours ago, Mike n Ky said:

Wasn't Haiti one of the holdouts for a negative covid test or was it proof of vaccine?

Yes - tests for entry.  Very low vaccination rates so they were presumably trying to protect residents from foreigners bringing the virus in.   

[Mike n Ky]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Yes - tests for entry.  Very low vaccination rates so they were presumably trying to protect residents from foreigners bringing the virus in.   

Does that mean we have to test in order to enter Labadee?

[Husky1987]

On 12/23/2022 at 12:53 PM, tonyfsu21 said:

It doesn’t exist. I wouldn’t go to Labadee if I were you. Royal Caribbean has a habit of putting their customers directly in the line of fire. 

You can sign up for the Jungle Warfare excursion for only $189pp

[smokeybandit]

23 minutes ago, Mike n Ky said:

Does that mean we have to test in order to enter Labadee?

No, they've already gotten rid of that requirement

[twangster]

48 minutes ago, Mike n Ky said:

Does that mean we have to test in order to enter Labadee?

They were one of the last holdouts but have since eliminated the testing requirement.

[Dee H]

Haiti does have a Travel Advisory. I’m surprised Cruises are still allowed there.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html

[Matt]

17 hours ago, Dee H said:

I’m surprised Cruises are still allowed there.

That's because Labadee is in such a remote part of Haiti it's realistically not the same place as the intention of that travel warning. Plus the entre area is literally walled off.

[Zacharius]

32 minutes ago, Matt said:

That's because Labadee is in such a remote part of Haiti it's realistically not the same place as the intention of that travel warning. Plus the entre area is literally walled off.

While the alert seems to focus on Port-au-Prince (though does mention all of Haiti), I would argue that Labadee isn't exactly remote. It's not near Port-au-Prince, but it is only about a 20 minute drive from Cap-Haitien, a city of a quarter million people and one of the largest in the country. I am also not sure if the "border" is a wall or a fence, or both, but I feel like an armed gang hell-bent on chaos could probably get through it pretty easily if they wanted to. 

[JohnK6404]

We were just there last month and we felt completely secure (never even entered our minds).

Royal is smart and would never risk the safety of their customers and their reputation especially post restart... If anything were to happen on their leased property, the PR would be disasterous.

[Seafarer]

On 12/23/2022 at 1:35 PM, sk8erguy1978 said:

For the zipline excursion you have to exit the resort, if I recall correctly (2008 & 2012 were my only visits) there were two layers of gates. First gate to intermediate area, not too large, like the size of a big garage (feel like it was for deliveries, trash, etc, but half guessing) and the second gate was to exit... basically like an elevator or garage with two exits for a bad example. In 2008 I remember them being armed police officers. They must have been there in 2012 as well but all I was able to get as we zipped (pun?) by was unarmed security. Of course this was 10 years ago. 

Armed guards or is he holding one of those Walkie Talkies that shoots bullets?

[tonyfsu21]

As you can see, both Labadee and Jamaica are dangerous:

[smokeybandit]

I still remember what a crew member said to me as we walked off the ship the first time we went to labadee.

 

"Welcome to fake Haiti "

[Zacharius]

38 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I still remember what a crew member said to me as we walked off the ship the first time we went to labadee.

 

"Welcome to fake Haiti "

So true. I love real Haiti, but fake Haiti is nice too

[sk8erguy1978]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:40 PM, smokeybandit said:

I still remember what a crew member said to me as we walked off the ship the first time we went to labadee.

 

"Welcome to fake Haiti "

In a way, it's similar to some land resorts. "I went to the Dominican Republic." No, you landed at the Dominican Republic Airport, took a semi safe cab to a resort, stayed there for X number of nights, then took a safer cab back to the airport. You could have been anywhere and didn't actually immerse yourself in the culture. 

[Heymarco]

On 2/3/2023 at 8:25 AM, Zacharius said:

 I am also not sure if the "border" is a wall or a fence, or both, but I feel like an armed gang hell-bent on chaos could probably get through it pretty easily if they wanted to. 

But why? Makes no sense for a large mob to travel to a remote part of the island. Easy enough to load up cruise ship and pull out if it became riskier. Also, there is a lot more security than can be seen. They hide the big guns from the tourists for good reason.

[Mike.s]

The UK Government advises against all travel to Haiti, appreciate this has no bearing on what Royal Caribbean do but I would doubt UK issued travel issurance would be valid should you need it while at Labadee.

[tonyfsu21]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:25 AM, Zacharius said:

While the alert seems to focus on Port-au-Prince (though does mention all of Haiti), I would argue that Labadee isn't exactly remote. It's not near Port-au-Prince, but it is only about a 20 minute drive from Cap-Haitien, a city of a quarter million people and one of the largest in the country. I am also not sure if the "border" is a wall or a fence, or both, but I feel like an armed gang hell-bent on chaos could probably get through it pretty easily if they wanted to. 

An armed gang looking to rob a bunch of cruise passengers of their sail & sign cards? Seems like an awful idea for a gang to trap themselves in an attempt to overtake a worthless peninsula only to be slaughtered by their own army. 

[Zacharius]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:56 PM, Heymarco said:

But why? Makes no sense for a large mob to travel to a remote part of the island. 

I'm not saying it's likely to happen; what I am saying is that it's likely to be a very strong barrier should a group actually (for whatever reason) decide to. Unlikely. 

I'd also like to say that Labadee is far from remote. Cap-Haitien, a metro area of over 250,000 people, is barely 10km by road from Labadee.