The Editor speaks: If there was any doubt that Cayman may be dealing with the Devil soon, read on…
Today (3) we have published in full an article that appeared on the website of Attorney Jim Walker’s “Cruise Law News”. It is published under the title of “Carnival Cruise Line, Not Jamaica or the Cayman Islands, Cancels Cruises to Those Islands”. You can read the article at its source by going to: https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/03/articles/disease/carnival-cruise-line-not-jamaica-or-the-cayman-islands-cancels-cruises-to-those-islands/
The article relates “Last week, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands blocked the MSC Meraviglia from docking when the ship called on Ocho Rios, Jamaica and later when the ship was scheduled to call on George Town, Grand Cayman due to concerns with the coronavirus after a crew member apparently had influenza. The MSC cruise ship later sailed on to Cozumel, Mexico where authorities initially prohibited it from docking. Mexico later reconsidered after health officials in Cozumel found no evidence that any of the passengers or crew members had coronavirus.”
On monday, March 3rd Cruise Law News reported that the Cayman Islands (and Jamaica) had informed “two Carnival cruise ships that they are prohibited from calling on ports in these countries over concerns with coronavirus.” Crew members on the Carnival Freedom and Carnival Horizon had apparently given this information to Cruise Law News.
“Carnival informed passengers on the Carnival Horizon that they would not be permitted to go ashore in Ocho Rios today. Passengers on the Carnival Freedom would not be allowed to get off of the ship in Montego Bay. And passengers on both ships would not be permitted ashore in George Town, Grand Cayman later this week.”
In a letter to to their passengers Carnival said they were “implementing some itinerary changes on voyages scheduled to call on Grand Cayman and Jamaica this week.” Carnival also stated it wanted to “avoid any possibility of a visibility of a visit to a destination where there is uncertainty or risk being turned away . . . To be clear, there is no health situation to trigger this concern, but we are making this change to avoid even the possibility of a disruption. We understand that some guests will be disappointed and trust that they understand that this decision is being made to protect their vacation and to maximize their experience with us.”
Cruise Law News today reports the Acting Port Director of the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands contacted their Cruise Law News Facebook page “yesterday evening and made it clear that it was Carnival that dropped the Cayman from a port for these recent sailings:
“… we have not blocked any Carnival Ship from calling the Cayman Islands … We were informed this afternoon that Carnival had altered its itinerary for three of their ships, Carnival Paradise, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Freedom. The call from Carnival Paradise has been reinstated by them. However, I can confidently state that we did not block any calls for any Carnival ship.”
The question raised in the article is whether “Carnival is putting these countries on notice. We’re taking our business elsewhere for irresponsible actions on their [Jamaica and Cayman] part.”
In the Jamaica Gleaner today they headline a story with “CRUISE CLASH – Late-Night Talks Appear To Falter As Carnival Threatens To Pull Vessels Over Coronavirus Protocols” See http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200303/cruise-clash-late-night-talks-appear-falter-carnival-threatens-pull?fbclid=IwAR2K9p0sf6UndIyP9Ql9tk3SPmJiMA5viz4CupaGJ4WW-njUGkPBJREH4JM
Cruise Law News also quotes from the above Gleaner article and also says” Several readers have suggested that Carnival’s decision to prohibit these two ships from calling on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands was in retaliation to these countries’ decision to stop, at least temporarily, cruise ships from calling at their ports. In my view, Carnival has always traditionally considered itself the “big dog” on the block and bristles and bullies when Caribbean ports of call make unilateral decisions which Carnival disagrees with.”
And this is one of the companies our government wants to go to bed with to finance our cruise ship berthing facility?
I am making my final appearance tonight in the First Assembly of God’s production of “Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames”. Government could be performing for many years in “Carnival’s Gates to Hell”.
I think this all goes back to the MSC Meraviglia being turned away on the 26 February.
At the time someone posted the following comment on the CNS story, ‘I’m just wondering how this might work out if we had a cruise dock with RCCL and Carnival as the major investors. Would they make decision or would CIG? Let’s hope we never have to find out because I suspect the ones holding the purse strings would take the lead on this.’ Sounds like they got it right doesn’t it?
The cruise lines have apparently tried stunts like this with a couple of destinations in the Med and it’s been a PR disaster for them.