Disgusting display of littering in Labadee

[Bluegirl]

I just got back from an Eastern/Western B2B on the Liberty (7/18-8/1) and intend to write a detailed review when I have a bit more time, but in the meantime I just felt I had to mention something here that really bothered me in Labadee.

 

Here we were, coming to enjoy the beauty of a country suffering horribly in the wake of a devastating natural disaster, where people who have all surely lost friends or relatives in the disaster work so hard to help us GUESTS to their country have a nice holiday. I really, really appreciated their efforts and felt a duty to drop a little more $$ than I might have otherwise. While in beautiful Labadee, it was impossible not to think of what Haiti has gone through recently and consider how lucky I know I am to be able to cruise when others are struggling merely to survive.

 

For all these reasons, it was incredibly shocking to note that, far and wide, all you could see along lovely Labadee's beaches were discarded plastic cups, plates, napkins and other trash that Liberty passengers had left behind. DISGUSTING!

 

This kind of littering is bad enough in one's own country, but in someone else's - and on this massive scale - it is completely reprehensible. What a sign of disrespect. And in this case, disrespect towards what was the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere even BEFORE being further devastated by the recent earthquake.

 

After 10 cruises and time spent in a large number of ports, I've never seen anything like this anywhere else. I was ashamed. I wish I could somehow apologize to the Haitians who work at Labadee and dread to imagine what they must think of us cruisers. Probably that we're spoiled-rotten rich people who couldn't care less about them or their beautiful natural environment.

 

To ease my conscience a bit, I tipped everyone who did anything for me in Labadee (even the tram driver), then came home and made big donation to a Haiti aid fund.

 

Thanks for listening.

[Trainman-2]

Some people just don't care!

 

 

That is the nicest thing I can think of to say.

[dtiger]

You're right in what you said. I'm sure the residents wish more of the people visiting were like you.

[Aboat1]

Sadly, another of example of those people in the world that think only of themselves. I applaud you for your posting. I also Thank you for your actions!

[yogimax]

Well said, Bluegirl.

 

Unfortunately, our society is becoming much more "me" oriented with little concern for "you." Littering is one of the manifestations!

[CAT GIRL]

Littering is one of my pet peeves. I just can't understand what

is going through somebody's head when they do it. "It's someone

else's job to pick it up?" I don't know. I work in retail and spend

a lot of time picking up after people. It's very disrespectul and I

hate it.

[cb at sea]

While I agree that passengers should have picked up their trash and not left it lying about, where were the Labadee/RCI employees?

I know whenever we've been to Labadee, the sand is raked, and pristine....there's no sign of any life, until we've stepped foot onto the beach....why wasn't it cleaned up prior to your visit?

[Mark_K]

While I agree that passengers should have picked up their trash and not left it lying about, where were the Labadee/RCI employees?

I know whenever we've been to Labadee, the sand is raked, and pristine....there's no sign of any life, until we've stepped foot onto the beach....why wasn't it cleaned up prior to your visit?

I'm with you and confused by the whole post. If it was before they got there why is she blaming Liberty passengers? If it was late in the day how could she have been tipping people extra all day long?

 

Whenever I've been to Labadee, the beach was beautiful when we got there, and definitely not disgustingly littered when we left.

 

It makes me wonder if there wasn't some unusual circumstance that caused it.

[SeaMeSmile]

While some of that trash may have been left behind by the cruise guests, I can't help but wonder if most of it didn't wash ashore. Last November, while riding a bus along the coastline of Costa Maya, I noticed the entire shoreline (a good 6-8 miles' worth) was covered at the high-tide mark with all kinds of plastic bottles, cups, wrappers, 5-gallon buckets, paper products, etc. When I asked about it later, I was told that it's the result of garbage being dumped out at sea (illegally or not, depending on the country) and eventually finding its way back to the shore. The resorts are good about raking it up, so their guests usually don't ever see it. Anyway, perhaps this was the case with Labadee? Either way, no matter how that garbage makes its way on to the beach, it's just plain disgusting and disheartening. Just think about all the birds and marine life that suffer because of it. :(

[tahqa]

It's not just Labadee, check out this post in the St Thomas blog... :mad:

 

http://www.stthomasblog.com/?p=4019

[toxicfairy]

Ever since my kids were very young I taught them that the world is not thier trash can. If we went out and they got candy but there was no trash can around I told them to put the wrapper in their pocket until a trash can was avalable! To this day it is still the rule. They would never even consider throwing a plate on the ground. I always said imagine if eveybody in the world put just one gum wrapper on the ground think of how fast it would make a huge mess. I hate when people say well it's just one small piece!

[Lady Chew]

While some of that trash may have been left behind by the cruise guests, I can't help but wonder if most of it didn't wash ashore. Last November, while riding a bus along the coastline of Costa Maya, I noticed the entire shoreline (a good 6-8 miles' worth) was covered at the high-tide mark with all kinds of plastic bottles, cups, wrappers, 5-gallon buckets, paper products, etc. When I asked about it later, I was told that it's the result of garbage being dumped out at sea (illegally or not, depending on the country) and eventually finding its way back to the shore. The resorts are good about raking it up, so their guests usually don't ever see it. Anyway, perhaps this was the case with Labadee? Either way, no matter how that garbage makes its way on to the beach, it's just plain disgusting and disheartening. Just think about all the birds and marine life that suffer because of it. :(

 

We saw the same thing earlier this year in Aruba. We were on the north shore, where the natural bridges are ... it's a beautiful landscape, if a little eerie, until you get at the angle where you can see the trash. Our guide told us it washed in from the sea, she also told us how many tons they clean out every month, I can't remember the number but it was HUGE. Littering is just horrible, and :mad:inexcusable.:mad:

[Aussiegrlfl]

Well I was in Labadee in early June on a Liberty cruise and it was pristine when I got there..........but when I was getting ready to leave later in the day....the trash around other peoples vacated chairs was disgusting.....I found myself picking up all their trash along with ours......but it is not just cruising, I can be at a high school football game, my son's police/fireman game, anywhere here in the states and folks are the same......even at tables in Mickey D's.....I guess people don't care anymore...well I do......and I am glad that other people still care too........I fear we are the minority...but keep it up anyway.......

[CAT GIRL]

We saw the same thing earlier this year in Aruba. We were on the north shore, where the natural bridges are ... it's a beautiful landscape, if a little eerie, until you get at the angle where you can see the trash. Our guide told us it washed in from the sea, she also told us how many tons they clean out every month, I can't remember the number but it was HUGE. Littering is just horrible, and :mad:inexcusable.:mad:

 

I'm with you Laura--- How is Mr Chew?

[HB Cruiser]

Not only on Labadee but the ships as well. Lazy, idiots set empty glasses/plastic anywhere the want and litter as well. It really ticks me off. I DO bend over and pick up after others.

 

Tim

[read52]

We were in Labadee 2 weeks ago with Enchantment of the Seas and there was not any problem with littering.

 

We were in Samana which is part of DR the previous day. Haiti and DR are all part of the same island. On our tour of Samana in a bus throughout the countryside all we saw was trash along the road. I don't think the country has a set way to collect trash. Our guide said that recently they have inproved the schools but both countries have a long way to go to have clean water and land. The day we were in Samana it rained hard most of the day to the fact that roads were washed away. I am sure some of their trash was washed into the rivers and waterways. A couple of tours got back to the ship late because of the roads being washed away. My tour was delayed because an electric pole fell across the road.

[hawkfish]

I agree with all the previous posts, but this it drives me crazy on the ship, as well. People leave empty glasses and plates laying anywhere - on the ground by the pool, underneath lounge chairs, etc. Is it so hard to carry it over to a bar or some other appropriate place? i shudder to think of what their houses look like - do they leave their dishes sitting by their bathtub? It's disgusting!

[Mark_K]

We were in Labadee 2 weeks ago with Enchantment of the Seas and there was not any problem with littering.

 

We were in Samana which is part of DR the previous day. Haiti and DR are all part of the same island. On our tour of Samana in a bus throughout the countryside all we saw was trash along the road. I don't think the country has a set way to collect trash. Our guide said that recently they have inproved the schools but both countries have a long way to go to have clean water and land. The day we were in Samana it rained hard most of the day to the fact that roads were washed away. I am sure some of their trash was washed into the rivers and waterways. A couple of tours got back to the ship late because of the roads being washed away. My tour was delayed because an electric pole fell across the road.

The people in the DR don't have a real sense of community responsibility when it comes to littering/trash. They're more like the US was before Lady Bird Johnson and her Beautify America and Don't Litter campaigns.

[marci22]

Litter was not a problem the last two times we were at Labadee (in the last year). There were a couple of cups under chairs here and there, nothing shocking. I am guessing the tide brought a lot of it in.

[MrsPete]

where people who have all surely lost friends or relatives in the disaster work so hard to help us GUESTS to their country have a nice holiday.

While I agree with the theme of your post, I don't think the Hatians see us as their guests. They see us as customers, clients who have paid to use their facilities and services.

Some people just don't care!

Littering is becoming a horrible problem at the high school where I teach. The thing that gets me is the kids who just let GUM fall out of their mouths onto the floor. I see multiple pieces per day on the floor, and I can't imagine that's an accident!

 

I feel badly for the custodians who have to clean it up. Some kids try to sneak away from their cafeteria trays, or if they're eating out in the courtyard they try to just leave their trash where they were sitting. As a result, now the teachers have to do lunch duty more often to try to curb this problem.

 

To generalize, it seems to be mostly the low socio-economic kids and troublemaker kids who do this, and when confronted, they tend to say things like, "I ain't no janitor. I'm not going to do it." These kids seem to think that society has given them a raw deal, and they're going to annoy others in as many ways as they can; these kids are going to be major problems in multiple ways all their lives -- they are definitely worse than the bad kids from my generation: more hardened, less attached to people, more resourceful when it comes to mischief.

[MyNameIsGermy]

Really pisses me off when I see and hear about something like this. I'll never understand why folks are so flippin' lazy!

[Paul65]

One of the most recent examples of this kind of laziness is something I witnessed this week in a local restaurant. I couple was just finishing up their lunch and knocked over a drink that spilled all over the table. They just got up and left, with liquid continuing to run off the table and dribble onto the floor.

 

This was at a place with a napkin dispenser on every table. Maybe you don't have a mop with you with which to clean the floor, but the least you could do is grab a few napkins and at least stop the stuff from continuing to run off the table onto the floor.

 

Anyway, that a little off topic, but just thought I'd share my recent observance of lazy behavior.

[Bluegirl]

While I agree that passengers should have picked up their trash and not left it lying about, where were the Labadee/RCI employees?

I know whenever we've been to Labadee, the sand is raked, and pristine....there's no sign of any life, until we've stepped foot onto the beach....why wasn't it cleaned up prior to your visit?

 

Labadee *WAS* pristine when we got there; it was the Liberty passengers who trashed it!

 

I know that it is the job of RCI employees at Labadee to clean up after each ship's visit, but to behave so badly - to treat someone else's country like one giant trashcan - is simply rude and disrespectful, no two ways about it. I don't care if someone is getting paid to clean up after me - that doesn't give me license to go full-out hog on them.

 

It's nice to see that so many people are as outraged as I am. I had a few issues in general with rudeness on the cruise and thought Liberty's crew was fantastic in dealing with people who weren't always on their best behavior. The ship was very, very full, and this was also the first cruise when I also *felt* (rather than just knew) like I was cruising on a full-to-capacity ship. Even the Solarium looked trashed most days! It didn't seem like the crew could keep up with the huge numbers of people everywhere. But that doesn't excuse just plain bad behavior in someone else's country.

[Aquahound]

I guess I've been lucky because the few time I've been to Labadee, the garbage left behind by the passengers was minimal....not even enough to notice.

 

But that said, I can't stand litterers either. How hard is it to walk the trash to a trash can? They probably walked right past a few of them on the way back to the ship. One word. Lazy.

[Bluegirl]

Litter was not a problem the last two times we were at Labadee (in the last year). There were a couple of cups under chairs here and there, nothing shocking. I am guessing the tide brought a lot of it in.

 

The litter consisted 80% of the little RCI-logo plastic drinking cups, paper plates, napkins, etc. from the lunch buffet, plus old bar drinks containers and the like. It was not brought in by the tide. I too have been at Labadee before and not noticed the litter, but the first time I was at Barefoot Beach, which I guess has a whole troop of people cleaning up after everyone.

 

This time my younger son and I camped out on the beach right under where the zipline ends (yes, the awful rocky beach) while his brother and dad went on the roller coaster over and over. It was this beach in particular that was completely blanketed with trash by the end of the day, despite the fact that there were big trash cans at the buffet serving area nearby. Near the end of the day we took the tram to the very edge of the artisans' market, and I saw that the trash was not limited to that one beach.

 

It's possible that Labadee could use more trash cans dispersed all over to deal with this huge number of px all at once. But from what I saw, no one even seemed to be trying to dispose of their own garbage themselves. The trash cans were not overflowing or anything.

 

While I agree with the theme of your post, I don't think the Hatians see us as their guests. They see us as customers, clients who have paid to use their facilities and services.

 

They may not see us as guests, but that's how we should see ourselves.