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I'm not sure your example is a very good comparison. Even with the violence we have in the US, we don't have any cities that are 80%+ overrun by gangs and violence to the extent Haiti is seeing, in addition to the extreme poverty that can really make people desperate. And I don't think it is wise to blindly have faith in a company focused on profit. I generally trust RCG to do the right thing but that doesn't mean I'm always going to agree with their risk assessment and decisions as it relates to me personally. I'm a bit surprised RCG hasn't paused visits. The DR has essentially sealed the border. Cap-Haitiens (very close to Labadee) is seeing some violence already and stepping up measures to try to protect the city. The state of emergency for the entire country has been extended to April. Their own prime minister can't safely return. The gang leader is threatening civil war. Every day news reports new attacks on various targets (police stations, airports, the port, etc.). Huge numbers are fleeing Port-au-Prince (desperate people that have to go somewhere). Other countries are withdrawing their embassy staff. This isn't Haiti's normal violence.

I was getting that same message for months for my January 2025 cruise on the Ascent even though my husband on the same cruise could access the booking on his app. I tried logging out and logging back in and re-installing the app. But nothing worked. I kept meaning to contact Celebrity about it but hadn't yet. Your post reminded me to check again, so I logged in and out of the app and magically it seems to be working today. So maybe with time yours will correct itself.

Some people don't realize that Royal Caribbean has different terms and conditions for bookings depending on what country you live in (even fares aren't the same) as they have to comply with your home country's laws (just like travel insurance companies). Sometimes that works in favor of residents of a specific country, sometimes not. So this isn't about preferential treatment of one country over another. Royal just has to figure out how to navigate those differences. I don't know what percentage of Caribbean bookings are booked by UK travelers (or travelers from other countries with a similar issue) to know how large of a scale of a problem this is. Sure, they can just ignore the effect continuing with these port stops has on UK travelers while the UK travel advisory is in place but that might not be a good business decision, if there are a large enough number of them. Does anyone know if this UK advisory is new with the recent escalation of violence? Or has the do not travel advisory been in place for a long time like the US one has?

Yes, if they are all linked in your app, you can click between the reservations and choose the arrival time for everyone. And then you or they can go back later and add in the rest of their details (passport info; emergency contact, credit card for on board purchases, photo, etc.)

It’s easy enough for the porters to tag them but would hold things up if everyone depended on the porters for this task. We usually print and tag our own bags, although I remember having to depend on the porters for one cruise.

The DR won’t let him land at their airport. The DR seems to really be trying to stay out of it and focus on fortifying their own border with Haiti.

On the app, you can skip to the section to choose your arrival time and then at another time go back and fill in all the rest of your details/take photos/etc. (I'm not sure it is as easy to skip ahead on the website version.)

No, I don't think it is deliberately misnamed. Celebrity tried including the tips in every fare. It didn't last long.... The reality is that your average consumer is shopping around based on base fares, not the all-in price. So as long as all the other cruise lines offer base fares without the daily gratuities, I expect Celebrity will keep their base fare and daily gratuities separate to stay competitive. Celebrity is just structuring fares in a way that gets people to book and then using that fare structure to pay employees a total compensation package that attracts the employees they need.

All morning, cruise mapper was showing an hours old location for the Explorer or the Seas. I noticed the same thing yesterday. I see it now has caught up though and is showing it docked at Labadee.

Symphony and Oasis both stop at Labadee regularly. Oasis includes CocoCay in many of their itineraries in addition to Labadee so that would be a repeat stop. Symphony does not regularly call at CocoCay. And I agree that if they decide to tender a ship, it will be the smaller ship that gets bumped from the dock. I’m sure CocoCay has a limit to number of passengers but it is much higher than passengers will appreciate. And with the opening of Hideaway, I expect they think they can add more passengers.

Sure, a ship here or a ship there but they aren't going to re-write the entire schedule and there still aren't enough slots in March to move all the Labadee ships to Coco Cay and still stick with only 2 ships in Coco Cay. There are 5 days with only 1 ship in Coco Cay for March and 19 Labadee stops left in the month of March. Edited to add: There is one day (March 14) with no ships in Coco Cay. That still is only 7 slots.

That would be truly awful. As one example, on March 15, the Icon and the Mariner of the seas are already scheduled for Coco Cay. If they cancel Labadee and move those ships to Coco Cay, that would add the Symphony to that day! I don't even want to do the math on the number of passengers that would be on the island.

Coco Cay has two ships most days over the next couple months so they aren’t going to be able to use it as a substitute for most Labadee port stops.

I trust RC because of how much is on the line to make the right decision. They have to answer to their insurers, PR department, and shareholders. Allowing even one incident to happen on Labadee would be disastrous for the company. But I agree the comments putting so much faith in the security at Labadee are a bit naive. If they can take over major prisons and an international airport, they can take over a resort. And although the leaders may be smart enough to realize how stupid that would be, leaders can only control so much in the midst of chaos. If this continues to escalate (which wouldn’t surprise me), I expect RC will make some itinerary changes and pull out of Labadee, at least temporarily. Time will tell.

I won't predict what RCG will do either but although past history includes many times were it was business as usual despite violence, there are examples of times where the violence and unrest got bad enough that RCG stopped going there. The second half of 2021 into 2022 is one example. What I'm reading in the reports to me, sounds like an escalation of the violence that has existed for a long time. We shall see how it all plays out and what RCG does over the next days and weeks. The Symphony of the Seas is scheduled to visit there tomorrow.

Based on cruisedeckplans cabin check tool, it looks like it is right below the men's bathroom and some open deck space where there are likely loungers.

The Symphony of the Seas is headed there currently and scheduled to dock tomorrow morning. I agree that everything I'm reading sounds like this is an escalation from what we have seen before. I do trust RC though to make the right call. They have way too much at stake to make the wrong call.

The classic beverage package includes tips for classic beverages. If you upgrade to premium, you will pay tips on that upgrade. If you purchase a drink above your drink package, you pay tips on the difference between your package limit and the price of the drink. Crew gratuities (for housekeeping, restaurant staff, etc.) are completely separate. You can either pre-pay those or they will be automatically added to your account daily once on board.

I think you are thinking of the “deluxe” inside staterooms available on Edge class which are a little larger. I’m pretty sure “prime” just refers to location with no difference in size to a standard inside stateroom. And I believe Prime Inside staterooms only exist on M and S class ships.

Generally, the violence has been far from Labadee to allow cruise ships to continue to visit safely although that always could change. I’m scheduled to visit Labadee next month on a RC ship so we shall see. I don’t see any Celebrity ships on the schedule until October, although RC has ships stopping there pretty regularly.

Location, prime is in what the cruise line thinks is a better location - otherwise the cabins are the same.

I think it is luck and weather may play a part (which they don't always know until moments before the excursion). Our worst snorkeling experience was a day where the waves were choppy and it was overcast. That day they had to move our snorkeling excursion to their secondary location because of weather. And yes, we had 2 opportunities each day for land/zodiac excursions and 1-2 opportunities for snorkeling/kayaking excursions each day. The only exception was the day that was spent in town and in the highlands with the giant tortoises.

I have seen some social media posts that the DJ and much of the party from the Oasis pool moved to Hideaway Beach. I don't know if that is what to expect every time but it did make me a little less likely to be interested in Hideaway Beach. I've been waiting to see more reviews though since it is still a very new area.

cruisedeckplans has a great tool that shows you exactly what is above and below a cabin. It's called the Cabin Check tool. We have been above restaurants and shops and had no issues. So far we have avoided being above bars with music and places like the galley for the reasons others have stated.

On the Northern Loop (which I think is also true for the Southern Loop), the deep water snorkeling was always scheduled between the morning and afternoon excursions. There was not another option at that time. You are still anchored at either the morning or afternoon location and so the zodiac and land excursions either already happened before or are scheduled for after the snorkeling excursion. When my husband stayed back on the ship, he enjoyed the chance to catch his breath. It is a very intensive schedule. I did 4 excursions one day (2 deep water snorkels plus the morning and afternoon excursions) and felt like I never stopped moving that day until we were unwinding for bed. If I could have known ahead of time which snorkeling excursions would have been better than the others, I would have skipped a couple to give myself that chance to breathe as well but you can't know that ahead of time.