Royal Caribbean International has notified all its booked guests that it is suspending all visits to its private beach, Labadee, in Haiti until further notice due to unrest in the country.
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley posted an update on social media Thursday morning which read, “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.”
The canceled visits are being replaced by either a different port or an extra day at sea. Symphony of the Seas replaced its scheduled stop in Labadee with a sea day while Adventure of the Seas will be stopping in Turks & Caicos instead of Labadee. Mariner of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas are both replacing their stop in Labadee with a stop in the Bahamas, Nassau and Perfect Day at CocoCay respectively.
Labadee opened as a private beach for Royal Caribbean International in 1988. However, Haiti is currently experiencing major civil unrest after thousands of gang members escaped two prisons in Port-au-Prince. The US State Department has since issued a Level 4 warning for the county which discourages all travel to the country.
Aurora Yera-Rodriguez, Assistant Vice President of Royal Caribbean International, wrote to guests and travel partners, “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. We continue to monitor and assess the situation with our Global Security & Intelligence Team.”
This complete cancellation follows the cancellation of just shore excursions earlier this week. Any prepaid Royal Caribbean International shore excursions for Labadee are being fully refunded to cruisers onboard accounts and any amount remaining at the end of their sailing will be returned to their original form of payment.
Cruisers often think of Labadee as a private island, but it is in fact a peninsula. While the port is private and only accessible to Royal Caribbean, the destination itself is secured with private barriers and monitored by a private security force; however, there is still growing concern of the safety of the port.
Other than the safety of its crew and guests, it is not known why Royal Caribbean International chose to cancel all calls to Labadee, but guests can expect that Royal Caribbean will continue to monitor the situation and update information and sailings.