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Carnival Passenger killed in St Thomas


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It is not really a crime on tourists or cruise passengers. The bullets went flying everywhere and she was hit while riding by in a transport vehicle. In the 60's I was in St. Thomas and I saw men fighting each other on Megan's Bay beach after the beach closed. Our rental car wouldn't start and we were stranded but the park attendent made us come into his little booth because he said "It wasn't safe out there after dark". There are gangs everywhere.

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This is such a tragedy. There are no words to express how deeply I feel for the family and friends of this poor child.

 

To be on a cruise of a life time and to never be able to enjoy the memories without the sadness and agony of knowing they are terrible memories...

 

May God be with the family at this tragic time.

 

Joanie

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So sad. What a tragedy for that family.

The last time I was at Coki Beach - about 10 years ago, there were non-stop drug deals going on just behind us in a shack on the beach. I hope St. Thomas gets control of this before tourists think of it as another Jamaica.

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This is extremely sad and unfortunately just goes to show that Mexico is not the only place with problems. This is a U.S. Island and I think because it is it gives a false sense of being safe. I think that there are far more place in the US that are unsafe than going to the Mexican Riviera Cruise Port Cities. The Border cities of Mexico have given Mexico a bad reputation and keeping many from cruising there.

This situation in St Thomas is not that of someone going to the wrong area of town, they were going to a tourist destination. St Thomas is going to need to find a way to crack down on this or they are going to find cruise lines leaving and those thousands of jewelry stores are going to go out of business.

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We were in St. Thomas in February and already have found some stores closed. These are stores that we've seen for decades that are now gone. Business is not good so they cannot afford this sort of violence and tragedy happening with cruise passengers.

 

St. Croix had terrible crime for years, cruise passengers were mugged and injured, local authorities did not seem to take stern enough action and the ships all pulled out. Nothing like losing almost all your tourism business to motivate asserting the 'long arm of the law'. Now that cruise ships are beginning to return to St. Croix (one of the three U.S. Virgin Islands along with St. Thomas and St. John), one has to hope the police have made it safer.

 

What a tragedy to occur in St. Thomas.

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The Captain's letter to the pax sounds as if it was written by the Carnival legal department. How many times did he have to point out the child wasn't on a ship's excursion (and Carnival therefore has no legal responsibility). No, I don't think this is Carnival's fault even if it was a ship's excursion to a popular tourist beach, but the short letter could have stuck just to the condolences at this point.

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It is not really a crime on tourists or cruise passengers. The bullets went flying everywhere and she was hit while riding by in a transport vehicle. In the 60's I was in St. Thomas and I saw men fighting each other on Megan's Bay beach after the beach closed. Our rental car wouldn't start and we were stranded but the park attendent made us come into his little booth because he said "It wasn't safe out there after dark". There are gangs everywhere.

 

Google 'shot in crossfire' and see just how many there are in different places. The best known one in Canada is probably the 15 year old girl who was shot on the busiest street in Toronto when she was shopping with her sister the day after Christmas 2005. Yes, there are gangs everywhere.

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First of all, my prayers are with this family. For most of us when we are cruising with family, it's a time of together and creating lasting memories.

Corki beach is one of popular ones frequent visited by tourist. I know on my stop in 2008 that several HAL cruisers were dropped off there.

It sound like the family was in an open taxi. I've rode in these on several of the islands. They offer a basic tour stopping at the major highlights.

When we were heading to Corki beach to drop some people off for their beach day, I was kind of uneasy during the last three or four minutes prior to arriving at the beach. The area was very depressing.

But folks, drugs and gangs are everywhere. I worked and lived in Wyoming in the early 90's and still stay in touch with a former co-worker who lives in a small town near Cody. She complains about the drug problems that they are having. There have always been bad elements in every society.

Tourism is very vital in the islands and those working in it want to see the cruise ships come in with people willing to spend money. No island want to be blacklisted as a dangerous place. I know that St. Thomas is a major stop with many of the cruiselines and the last thing that they want is ships to stop coming in.

As for the family not being on a ship tour, there are many examples where people on ship tours have been killed also. The open taxi happen to be in the wrong place with tragic results.

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Welcome to Cruise Critic...

Your very first post was well done! ;)

 

Thank you...I was wondering if someone would catch that (being my first post). :o

 

I have been scouring boards for a while now gathering all of this wonderful information everyone has had to offer while trying to decide on my next cruise. I have come across some posts that took me off guard but I couldn't keep my "mouth shut" this time. :rolleyes:

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As so often happens here on CC, we seem to have wandered into an area that has absolutely nothing to do with this horrific incident or cruising.

 

As for St. Thomas, it is not a safe place and it's so sad given that it is a most magnificent island. Still, we probably would all feel pretty safe on a public, or even private, open air bus headed for Coki Point.

 

We used to like to spend a week or two on St. Thomas, but those days are long past. Even when we did drive around freely, we often strayed into some pretty scary, nasty areas and held our breath until we were well out of it.

 

Sadly this tragedy could have happened anywhere ... right here in South Florida for instance, or Chicago, NY, you name it. But when we read something like this knowing it was a family off on a wonderful holiday, it just feels that much worse for the moment. But a loss is a loss no matter where or under what circumstance.

 

As for Carnival's letter, I tend to be forgiving. We are, unfortunately, living in a society that jumps right out of the box to sue for millions to somehow make up for what's happened. And nothing can ever make up for it, but at the same time Carnival or any other entity has to protect itself.

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Touche' Heather! Completely agree & see nothing wrong with Carnival's letter to their other Passengers!

Carnival actually stated in their letter to all passengers that,

Even though the psgrs were not on one of Carnival's excursions, they (Carnival) were cancelling all their excursions to Coki Beach..

Why wouldn't they tell their other Passengers the reason for the decision to cancel all their excursions?

Cheers...:)Betty

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and have no fear of returning. Drug shootings are evrywhere today so the choice is to stay at home and hope or live your life. I have many friends living there without fear. I lived in DC for 30+ years and they have a lot of gang shootings, drive bys and an occasional person shot in cross fire but I survived and went into all parts of the city but at selective times without fear. This incident will not stop me from returning to the island.

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