In a story we’ve been following for days, growing unrest in Haiti has led Royal Caribbean to take action. President and CEO of the cruise line, Michael Bayley, said that its ships will suspend stops on the Labadee port located in the country.
“We have suspended calls into Labadee, Haiti for the next 7 days and will continue suspension on a rolling basis with 3 days advance notification to our guests sailing on itineraries impacted and changed as we monitor and evaluate the situation in Haiti,” Bayley shared in a Facebook post.
Labadee is a private destination for Royal Caribbean, located on the northern side of Haiti. As of just days ago, despite rising violence and unrest in the country, ships continued to call on the port.
At that time, a spokesperson told Cruzely that “the safety of our guests and crew is our top priority. Our global security teams are closely monitoring the situation in the area. At all times, we remind guests to remain aware of their surroundings while ashore and follow all State Department guidelines. Should any changes be required, guests will be notified directly.”
They also emphasized that Labadee sits about 130 miles north of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and has private security to “limit access to the area.”
We first spotted that a change was likely when a Reddit user posted an updated itinerary showing an upcoming stop in Labadee for a cruise aboard Adventure of the Seas was now changed to Grand Turk.
In a message posted by the user, Royal Caribbean said “due to the evolving situation in Haiti, and in an abundance of caution, we’re temporarily suspending our visits to Labadee for our entire fleet.”
Typically, Labadee sees a ship docked nearly every day. The upcoming seven days were to see Oasis of the Seas, Symphony, Adventure, Mariner, and Explorer of the Seas all call on the port.
As for when ships may dock again, it could be some time. Already the cruise line has laid out that it will suspend for a week and then continue to evaluate the situation. The current situation has been going on for weeks and the acting Prime Minister said he would resign once a new interim government is formed. In other words, it’s not clear that a resolution is on the horizon just yet.
