Comments on: Should Cruise Ships Go To Haiti? In Defense of Royal Caribbean

By: chris2x

chris2x — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:33:06 +0000

Kirsty I thought that was a good summary of the issues. I like the practical suggestion to escape the tourist zoo

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:16:28 +0000

Nice post, I really agree with you on this.

I have been to Labadie twice… the village, not the beach. The beach is called something else by the locals and in Haiti, when people refer to Labadie they mean the village.

RC stopping in Haiti doesn’t bother me at all. Them stopping in front of Labadie with their massive cruise ship and ushering their passengers off for a day of high-security watersports is something else. I’ve never been into the resort, but looking in from the ‘wrong’ side of the fence is hard to swallow.

On one one side you have a beautiful little village with friendly locals who mostly live in poverty. On the other side you have inflatable water toys, jet skis zipping around, cocktails and scores of white people soaking up the sun. It is such a huge contrast and the whole idea of it just offends me, even though I know that RC provide a lot of jobs for the area and pay the Haitian government a lot of money to dock there. It’s a tough one!

Anyone considering taking one of these cruises should really consider signing the waver, walking through the high security gate and visiting Labadie the village. You won’t die, I promise.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:19:35 +0000

Excellent post, Chris. The cruise lines and their passengers doubtless bring considerable wealth into Haiti that would not otherwise enter the country. Of course, people can make direct contributions to help relief efforts in Haiti, but that doesn’t last. A steady stream of tourists is a more “sustainable” way to inject money into the Haitian economy. (“Sustainable” because I worry about the environmental impact.)

You know that I am one of those people for whom extravagant displays of wealth are unseemly. I enjoyed the one cruise I’ve taken, but was disturbed by the contrast between the overabundant affluence of the ship and the poverty of Ensanada.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:49:11 +0000

I don’t see how anyone can fault them for doing what they are doing. In this world economy they would probably be doing harm to more people by not running their ships.

By: Crissy

Crissy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:13:50 +0000

I agree. I was in NYC on September 11 and was directly impacted for months. Knowing I was in people’s thoughts and prayers was enough for me, there lives had to go on. I just hoped if they had the chance they would have a drink for me too.