by Heather Gentzel,
Communications and Child Sponsorship Coordinator
Sparkling turquoise waters, sandy beaches, all-you-can-eat
tropical buffets…did someone say “Caribbean cruise”? Cruise vacations are a popular and easy way
to take a pre-packaged vacation. Several
major cruise lines, like Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess,
Disney, and Holland-America all hit up well-known Caribbean destinations…but
did you know that only one of these cruise lines currently makes a stop in
Haiti?
The winner here would be Royal Caribbean. Currently the only Did you notice the odd placement of a registered trademark Unlike many other ports in the Caribbean, Labadee® is While some say the segregation of the port of call from the In any case, one thing is certain; cruising in Labadee will Check out our work in Haiti here: www.restavekfreedom.org. To read more about Labadee and Royal Caribbean’s cruises to http://www.economist.com/node/13093234 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0125/p01s02-woam.html [1]
port of call in Haiti, Royal Caribbean makes a stop at a beautiful peninsula in
the north of Haiti called Labadee®.
symbol after the port name? We don’t see
a trademark symbol after cities like New York or even Cancun…so why does
Labadee get one? Well, the interesting
thing about Labadee is that it’s really more like DisneyLand® (which,
incidentally, also has a registered trademark on its name) than a city. I say that in the sense that Labadee®, in
many ways, is a sort of contrived, confined “paradise” that Royal Caribbean has
the rights to – at least for 35 more years, until their lease runs out.
exclusively for vacationers aboard Royal Caribbean ships. Armed guards man the high walls that separate
the private resort from the rest of the island. Guests are not allowed outside
the resort, nor are locals (less those who work at the resort) allowed in. The food served at this port is all brought
from the cruise ship – even the tropical drink served at the port of call, the
“Labaduzee,” is a Royal Caribbean concoction.
Several shore excursions are offered – including the “Dragon’s Breath
Flight Line” (the longest zipline over water, according to Royal Caribbean), a
300 foot long waterslide, a roller coaster and waterpark – all within the
confines of the resort.
rest of Haiti leaves them feeling uncomfortable, others argue that the resort
provides considerable tourism revenue for the country. The resort employs around 300 locals and
allows another 200 to sell their wares on the beach. In addition, Royal Caribbean pays $12 per
guest to the Haitian government.
undoubtedly open your eyes to the breathtaking natural beauty Haiti has to
offer!
Haiti, check out the following sites:
The Carnival cruise company is
actually trying to rent a port of their own, but ran into a roadblock when they
found that the part of Haiti they planned to lease from the government had
actually been given over to a Texan by Haiti’s former dictator, “Papa
Doc”….but that’s another story!
