Cruises on the Royal Caribbean line will skip stops at its private Haitian destination for all of 2026 because of safety concerns.
The nation, which shares a Caribbean island with the Dominican Republic, has been subject to political and economic crises for over a decade. In July 2023, the U.S. State Department ordered nonemergency government employees and their families to leave Haiti due to security risks. The U.S. government advises against any travel to the country.
Royal Caribbean’s private destination of Labadee is a peninsula off Haiti’s northern coast that the company has leased since the 1980s when the nation was under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.
A company spokesperson said Wednesday via email that Royal Caribbean would not be docking in Labadee through December “out of an abundance of caution,” and that it had already communicated that information to its customers.
The cruise line last traveled to Labadee in early 2025, but Haiti’s progressive deterioration led it to suspend trips there last year.
The State Department warnings against travel to Haiti advise of gun crimes including “robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings.” The State Department also says the U.S. Coast Guard advises caution for any mariners or passengers traveling through Haitian ports.