Experiences on my two last cruises reminded me that just because my
cruise ship is calling into a port does not mean that I can assume it's safe for
me to get off and explore. In fact, even in the two most popular cruising regions,
the Caribbean and Mediterranean, many of the most visited ports are amongst the riskiest.
Welcome aboard, I'm Gary Bembridge and I’m going
to tell you what dangerous ports in these two regions to avoid,
and how to keep yourself safe if you've got a cruise booked that's going to one of them.
Let’s start in the Caribbean. It’s the most popular cruising region and
so it's easy to get lulled into a sense of false security. But poverty is widespread,
there's increasing gang activity, and political instability has created 6 dangerous
ports there. And those two recent Caribbean back-to-back cruises called into all of them!
In fact, in the run-up to the first of those cruises, one on Symphony of the Seas, the US State
Department raised the travel advisory warning on all ports I was calling into on that cruise.
Haiti was the first.
Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic and
gets around three-quarters of a million cruise visitors a year.
Just before I headed there, the US State Department increased the
travel advisory to level four, which is “do not travel” due to kidnapping,
crime, and civil unrest. In fact, they told US citizens to leave.
Just as we headed there, gangs had overthrown the prime minister,
there was widespread lawlessness, and violent gangs battling for control.
Haiti has been troubled and dangerous for many years, and so cruises calling there
avoid the urban areas by going to Labadee, which is the Royal Caribbean owned resort
on a remote peninsula fenced off from the mainland. It is stunning place,
though we were one of the last ships to call as the situation deteriorated even more.
At the time of recording ships are still not calling there,
and even when they do Haiti will remain a volatile and risky country.
The second port we called on was Jamaica, another island with issues.
Jamaica is about 100 miles west of Haiti, and about 90 miles south of Cuba,
and popular cruise island getting up to 1.4 million cruise passengers a year.
Just before I went there, the US State Department raised its travel advice to level three, which is
“reconsider travel” due to rising crime levels. There are 5 cruise ports in Jamaica ( Montego Bay,
Ocho Rios, Falmouth, Port Antonio, and Kingston), and Symphony of the Seas went into Montego Bay.
I had seen lots of online advice about avoiding self-exploring outside the
secure port shopping area, and some who did came back and told me they
had felt unsafe and were harassed, quickly hurrying back to the secure area or ship.
As a reminder,
I’ll be giving advice later what to do in these risky and dangerous ports like this one.
The third port that we went to on the Symphony of the Seas was the Bahamas. Another one with issues.
The Bahamas is the closest Caribbean Island cluster to the USA, lying roughly between Cuba
and Florida, making it enormously popular as a cruise stop. Nassau alone gets around
four million cruise visitors a year, with 20 to 25,000 passengers often in port each day.
Just before I went, the US State Department raised its advice to level two,
which is “exercise increased caution” due to rising crime and murders. On
their site they reported that in the month before I went there had been 18 murders,
including in broad daylight on the streets mostly related to gang violence.
In addition, a few weeks before I arrived two female passengers on
Carnival Elation had gone to Pirate's Cove Resort on the Grand Bahama Island
and say that they were drugged and raped by employees.
So, the area despite its beauty and popularity has risk, and I did go out
self-exploring alone but not for long as those warnings made me feel less secure.
The issues in the area and the fact that it's so beautiful,
is why many lines are creating their own private islands in the Bahamas. For example,
I've been to Holland America’s Half Moon Cay several times, which is stunning. I
felt very secure there, and there are many others in the Bahamas including the famous
Royal Caribbean Perfect Day CocoCay, MSC’s Ocean Cay, Disney’s Castaway Cay, and others.
After disembarking Symphony of the Seas, I boarded Oceania Vista thinking that I'd
put all the risky ports behind me. But I soon discovered that two of the ports had elevated
travel advisories against them, and one of the previously safe ports was no longer one.
Let me talk about that one first. That is Cozumel in Mexico.
Cozumel has been considered one of the safer ports,
as it’s an island located off the east coast of Mexico,
near Playa del Carmen. Around three million cruise passengers visit Cozumel every year.
While parts of Mexico have strong warnings about travel from the US State Department due to crime,
gang issues and kidnapping, Cozumel was seen as safer as it is not on the route
that the drug cartels and gangs use to move drugs up from South
America into the United States. But that seems to have changed.
Seven days before my stop there, I read of escalating gang issues,
with what appears to be a gang hit where a man having lunch with his family at a
restaurant not far from the Punta Langosta cruise port where I docked was shot dead.
The increase in gang battles and crime was so serious that the Mexican authorities sent in
the National Guard, Army, and State Police to run raids and try and take control. This
is covered well by Jason in a video on his “The Travel Scouts channel”.
Next, call on Oceania Vista was Honduras. Another risky island.
Honduras is a Central American country between Guatemala and Nicaragua,
getting around one million cruise visitors every year.
However, it is seen as a country with issues and the US State Department has a level three warning,
which is “reconsider travel” due to crime and kidnapping. Some areas have
more risk than others, which is where Roatan, where cruise ships call into,
comes into play as Roatan is an island, and is seen as having less risks.
There are two key ports there. Mahogany Bay, which is Carnival operated / owned,
and Coxen Hole, which is where we called on as a non-Carnival line.
I have been to both, and on further checking before this trip I saw warnings that the areas
outside the enclosed port shopping and entertainment areas when heading
out self-exploring had risen levels of crime and harassment, including prostitution.
Our next port of call which also had issues was Belize.
Belize is another Central American country, with Mexico and Guatemala on its borders, and receives
around one million cruise visitors a year as the same cruises usually call on Roatan and Belize.
The US State Department has a level two warning here,
which means “exercise increased caution” due to crime, some of which is gang related.
If going to Belize as a cruise traveller, a lot of it hinges on which cruise line you're going with.
I was on Oceania, part of the Norwegian Group, and so we called into their secure private island,
Harvest Caye, off the coast. It was safe and rather beautiful. The
tours all seemed to be ocean based not visiting the mainland either.
However, I have also been to Belize City on a cruise, which falls in the
area with high risk of crime, and it was recommended that we did not self-explore.
So, what should you do in a port like this? More on that later but before that
I want to move from the Caribbean to the next biggest cruise region,
the Mediterranean as it has risky ports, but for some very specific reasons.
These ports to watch out for are not only the main embarkation and disembarkation ports,
but several will also be on whatever Mediterranean itinerary you do, and as
they are major cities, it is mostly about big city crimes: pickpocketing and theft.
I have seen or know people who have been victims in every one of them.
The first is Barcelona, which is the busiest cruise port in the Med,
with around three-and-a-half million people cruise visitors a year.
The greatest place of risk is the Ramblas, which is where everybody heads to as it's
near the cruise port. It gets very busy, and is a pick pocketers dream.
The next is Rome where most cruise passengers head
from the port of Civitavecchia to explore the historic city.
On my last visit there, I was on a tour off an MSC
Cruise and during the tour of the main sites, including Colosseum, Pantheon,
and the Trevi Fountain, two people on our tour were pick pocketed at different spots.
The other prime one is Venice, which gets around two million cruise passengers every year.
Tourists are jammed together and jostled in the small alleys,
and even in the large St Mark’s Square. Again,
on my last visit there on a tour off Viking Sky one of passengers on the tour was pickpocketed.
I had never thought of Athens as it being an issue until a follower and Patreon Patron of my channel,
Carol Copeland-Thomas, had a traumatic experience being pickpocketed on public transport where even
her passport was taken, meaning she could not embark her cruise as planned. She
talks about it on her “Conversations with Carole” podcast in more detail.
If you're heading to Livorno, the gateway port to explore Florence and Pisa. These
are two other cities for pickpocketing and thefts.
So, if you are going to any of the ports I’ve spoken about on a cruise, what should you do?
First, check the latest advice just before you go because things change fast,
as you heard from my experiences around Haiti, Cozumel, Jamaica, and others.
I check the US State Department and UK Foreign Office sites. Both make it easy to search for
the country and are constantly updated. The UK site allows signing up for email alerts
by country if anything changes to make it even easier than keep checking back.
I also check ports on Http://www.whatsinport.com as they often have latest safety issues listed.
I also check the daily program and go to the port talks because they should give warnings.
Although I would advise to not overly rely on these as I feel they downplay those. On
my Symphony of the Seas cruise, for those places with increased travel advisories,
they only had nondescript, vague references to raised warnings and not very prominent.
Second, if you're going to any of these ports, I recommend booking a cruise line excursion or
book one through a very trust provider and avoid self-exploring. That includes even just walking
out and using a taxi, or those people that stand by the ports offering taxi tours, because there
are many scams that are related to that, that I cover in another video I’ll talk about shortly.
Third, which is what I usually do in these ports,
is stay on board and enjoy the ship or spend time in the secure port area.
For example, there was a large one in Jamaica with shops, bars,
places to eat, and some entertainment.
In Roatan both Mahogany Bay and Coxen Hole do too, the latter even having a pool with bar.
Fourth, if planning to self-explore, take the daily program with the details of the
local port agent in. They will be key if something happens to help you sort it out.
Of course, don't wear valuables, stay alert, and stay in busy tourist-filled areas.
But even if you are going to ports considered safer,
there are still risks around scams. Join me in this video where I cover them starting
with the one thing that catches passengers out more than anything else. See you over there.