Carnival halts shore excursions in MoBay after robbery
06/21/2007
From Travel Weekly
Carnival Cruise Lines suspended the sale of a shore excursion in Montego Bay, Jamaica, after guests from its ship, the Carnival Conquest, were robbed on a bus during an excursion.
The ship was in Montego Bay as part of a seven-day western Caribbean cruise that departed Galveston, Texas, on June 10 and returned June 17.
The robbery occurred on June 13, when two men boarded the bus, Carnival said, during the Lethe Village Tour, a nine-mile drive by bus to the village of Lethe in Hanover, where guests take a tractor-drawn jitney around the village, visit a banana plantation and make Pina Coladas right from a coconut.
According to news reports, 17 Carnival passengers were on the bus and the two men were armed. Nobody was injured.
All appropriate law enforcement authorities were notified, the line said, and many of the stolen items have been recovered and have been returned to the guests involved in the incident.
As part of its CareTeam program, Carnival said it assisted those affected guests onboard and dispatched a counselor to the Carnival Conquest to render further assistance to them and their families.
Frankly, Jamaica is a stop that I stay on the ship! Many folks have been disillusioned after visiting because of all the harassing to buy goods and illegal drugs and Cuban cigars...not to mention the young girls looking to give you a "good time"!
My personal opinion is that the cruise lines should drop their Jamaica stops entirely until such a time that it's more "tourist friendly".
Jamaica has always been a trouble spot for illegal activities. Sad situation there.
A friend of ours just got back from a weeks stay at Breezes. They had a good time but were highly disillusioned with all the beggars and dope dealers that were in abundance.
This is very sad, not to mention really bad press for Jamaica.
We've not been to MoBay, but on our one cruise stop in Ocho Rios, we had a wonderful time with no trouble at all. Credit for this goes to our tour guide, O'Neal Talyor, from Pete Taylor Tours. We had a fabulous tour with him that included stops at Dunns River Falls, a drive around the island that included Fern Gully, and a great beach / snorkel stop with our own snorkel guide for just the three of us!
O'Neal was knowledgeagle, informative, entertaining, accomodating, and also quite protective of us, which I didn't fully understand at the time. Now I do.
Actually, Carnival only stopped the sale of that one particular excursion.
I like Jamaica and have no problem getting off the ship there. I'm looking forward to my visit later this year.
Most of the crime is not directed at tourists and most of what is, isn't violent. As for drugs, there is no lack of them. Many tons of cocaine come through Jamaica on the way to the United States. Not all of Jamaica's issues result from the US addiction to drugs, but certainly some of them.
Jamaica does allow the US and other countries to participate in joint operations to try to reduce the amount of drugs, but until the root cause is fixed, a band aid can only do so much.
In addition, any economic boycott of Jamaica would lead to further erosion and the likelihood of someone like Chavez moving in - I doubt Castro is feeling up to it.
I am the police officer that was robbed at the Lethe Village tour. Believe me we took every precaution possible.
My main concern was at the excursion meeting, the CD stated that the only way to see the real Jamaica was to take a Carnival Shore Excursion as it is the only excursion that is guaranteed safe. I took this to mean that they had fully investigated the tour,and location finding it to be free of any dangers. I would not expect them to make such a statement otherwise.
The CD stated that the undesirables come to the port city and try to sale marijuana and pressure you into taking one of their taxis. This was the extent of any warnings.
I am sure that Carnival is fully aware of the violent crimes that happen everyday in Jamaica and that they are increased at this time due to the up coming election. That was the type of warning I would have liked to here about.
Had I heard a warning about the extreme poverty and high rsik of violent crime and the tension building with the up coming election, I would have never taken my family off the ship.
I feel that those particular warnings were intentionally left out in order to make sure they made their money from the shore excursions.
The crew does not get off in Jamaica because of the dangers.
When you have 3000 passengers on your ship, you have a moral obligation to tell all information in order to mainatin their safety. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
It is as simple as if I have a neighbors Child playing in my yard and I know there is a hole that they may run into and snap their ankle, I should tell them to beware of the hole.
Carnival knew alot more about Jamaica than I did. Some say you should do your own research. I agree, if Carnival is going to ommit valuable decision making information like this, I highly recommend that you do your own research.
We have been to Jamaica twice. Both times we had a great time but...DH's cousin lived there for a while and she said it was awful and hated it there. She lived in luxuzy but hated that she was scared to do anything.
When we were there in November and docked in Mo Bay I was scared. We went to Margaritaville and met up with a group of friends. We had a great time there but I felt unsafe on the cab ride there and the one back to the port.
I don't remember all the details without looking the story up again,but I read where Carnival is spending millions building a cruise terminal in Roatan Honduras. Maybe when it is completed ,Carnival will replace Jamaica with Honduras.I personally had a overall feeling of uneasiness the whole time we were in Jamaica . Although we left without incident,I vowed not to return to Montego Bay.I have heard from some that Ocho Rios is somewhat different. Maybe those that have been can confirm or dispel that.I would be curious.
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