Royal Caribbean Extends Labadee Closure Through April 2028
Booked guests are being told that Labadee, Haiti, stays off itineraries for another ten months. Dozens of sailings on nine ships are affected.
Royal Caribbean has started telling booked guests that its private destination of Labadee, Haiti, will not be available, at least through April 2028. Itineraries that included the stop are being adjusted.
In July 2026 the cruise line had extended the cancellations through June 2027. The new notifications add another ten months. Nine different ships and dozens of sailings are affected, and replacement ports are being added to schedules where possible. The company has not confirmed when guests may visit the destination again.
Replacement ports
The changes vary by sailing, even on the same ship. Guests on the July 18, 2027 sailing of Allure of the Seas have been told they will visit Nassau, Bahamas, instead of Labadee, on a 6-night Caribbean itinerary from Miami. A sea day has also been moved on that sailing.
On the February 6, 2028 departure of the same 5,496-guest Allure of the Seas, the 7-night voyage will call at San Juan, Puerto Rico, rather than Labadee. The stop at Samana Port in the Dominican Republic has been moved a day later.
Booked guests on Reddit report similar changes on other ships and itineraries. Substitutes include Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Cozumel, Samana Port and even days at sea. Which ports can replace Labadee depends on berth availability, the ship's route and the length of the itinerary.
Royal Caribbean said shore excursions are taken care of. "Our Shore Excursions team will automatically refund any pre-paid Royal Caribbean shore excursions in Labadee and reschedule any other impacted pre-paid Royal Caribbean shore excursions," the cancellation email said. Tours that cannot be rebooked will be cancelled and refunded to the original form of payment within 14 business days.
A repeated closure
Ships do not currently bring guests to Labadee. Some still make brief, unannounced stops to drop off supplies, and passengers are not allowed off. Royal Caribbean continues to look after team members who live in Labadee and depend on ship visits.
This is not the first cancellation. All calls were cancelled for several months from March 2024 after widespread gang violence, a jail outbreak involving 4,000 escaped prisoners in Port-au-Prince and wider political instability. Visits resumed for several months in late 2024 and early 2025, but cancellations began again in May 2025. No regular guest visits have resumed since.
If visits restart in May 2028, no Royal Caribbean guests will have been to Labadee for at least three years. The company has made no statement about the destination's long-term future. The US Department of State maintains a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for Haiti.
Source: Cruise Hive