Royal Caribbean has just announced that all cruise stops at its own private resort area in Labadee, Haiti will be suspended through the month of May. (Update: cruises through the fall will be impacted as well.)
*Update on April 23, 2024: More cruises to Labadee, Haiti have been cancelled through the September.
Royal Caribbean has been reaching out to guests who have booked cruises to Haiti in the late summer and early fall.
Various cruises have altered destinations in June, August, and September as well.
One such notification from Royal Caribbean reads,
“Due to the continuing situation in Haiti, we’ll now visit Grand Turk Turks & Caicos instead of Labadee, Haiti. We’re sorry for the change — your safety is our top priority. Nevertheless, we’re excited to visit a new port with you! Below, please find our revised Adventure of the Seas September 21st 2024 itinerary and feel free to use this information for insurance purposes.“
We expect more such changes in itineraries to happen in the near future.
Cruise guests on Independence of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, and Freedom of the Seas are expected to be impacted in addition to the ships mentioned in the original report.
The cruise line had paused scheduled visits to the port after unrest and rising tension in Haiti became a greater security concern in March.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson stated, “We have suspended all visits to Labadee fleetwide through May 2024, and we continue to monitor the situation with our Global Security and Intelligence team.”
The following ships with the cruise line will be impacted by this decision as they were all scheduled to call on Labadee in May:
- Allure of the Seas
- Adventure of the Seas
- Wonder of the Seas
- Symphony of the Seas
Cruise passengers with bookings on these ships next month will be sent to various ports of call as part of the itinerary change or may just have an extra sea day. Another port of call may include Perfect Day at CocoCay, but clarification on these changes has not yet been made.
We will update this article as changes are announced by the cruise line.
Initially, Royal Caribbean continued allowing cruise traffic to the private island in March, citing that the port remained safe. The port area is in a more exclusive part of the country and kept safe by its own security enforcement.
But as security around the country began to unravel it became a greater concern to cruise visitors and the decision was made to temporarily pause visits to the region.
Haiti is currently under a “Do not travel” advisory by the U.S. State Department. Security concerns listed include kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.
Read more: 8 reasons your cruise ship may change its itinerary
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