I hope that is not true in the South Pacific.
When our ship got back to Ushuaia, Argentina from Antarctica, our ship couldn't get permission to disembark. Passengers were due to board a charter plane back to Buenos Aires. I heard the Captain say did you give them a bottle of something?. They replied yes, Then they got a tradesman, up from the bowels of the ship, who spoke the language. Problem solved and we disembarked.