Royal
Caribbean International has halted all port calls at its private resort
destination in Labadee, Haiti for the entire summer, due to ongoing violence in
the Caribbean
country.
“The safety and
security of our guests, crew, and communities we visit are our top priority,” a
spokesperson for the cruise line said in statement provided to USA
Today. “Our Global Security and Intel Team is closely monitoring the
evolving situation in Haiti, and in an abundance of caution we have suspended
all visits to Labadee fleetwide through September 2024.”
Royal Caribbean
intends to “continue to monitor and reassess calls as needed”, the spokesperson
assured, The cruise line has confirmed that itinerary modifications are being
communicated directly to affected guests ahead of their sailings.
In March, the U.S.
State Department reiterated its highest Level
4 travel advisory cautioning Americans against travel to Haiti in early
March after the country declared its own State of Emergency. This move came in
the wake of a mass prison break on March 3 and amid heightened gang violence,
particularly in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
Although the day-use
resort property at Labadee is approximately 130 miles (about a six-hour drive)
north of Port-au-Prince, located on a secluded peninsula and accessible only to
employees of Royal Caribbean and Celebrity
Cruises and their guests, Royal Caribbean understandably doesn’t want to
take any chances.
While the cruise
line continued
to visit its private Haitian destination in the immediate aftermath of
these events, by mid-March, it was already cancelling
port calls for some of its upcoming voyages. It did not announce publicly
what other stops it intended to substitute in itineraries that had previously
included Labadee.
It’s worth noting
that the continued state of civil unrest is nothing new in Haiti. The State Department
had initially issued a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory even before President
Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. The United Nations said that roughly 2,500
people have been killed or injured in consequence of the gang violence that
gripped Haiti in the first quarter of 2024.
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