Santa Fe Jim Posted June 21, 2005 #26 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Port au Prince, Haiti About 25 years ago, NCL used to travel to that port on 7 day cruises. It was so bad with beggars, etc., that DH & I took two steps off the ship, turned around, and got right back on. Back in ~1968, a cab driver was showing us around, but when we got to Papa Doc's mansion, the driver wouldn't stop for us to take pictures and was sort of swatting at our cameras to keep us from taking pictures as we drove rapidly by it. We did stop at the Iron Market in Port au Prince and got some beautiful 3' tall carved statues for $5 each. Gave a kid 50 cents to get us a coke and he actually came back with the coke and change a few minutes later. I changed my opinion of the "beggars" at that point. The place was/is SCARY but fascinating. SFJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamboatin Posted June 21, 2005 #27 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Hands down it is the port of disembarkation!! It means that the cruise is over and the reality of the real world has just smacked you in the face once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arzz Posted June 21, 2005 #28 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I ditto Dakrewser on Martinique -- have been there on Christmas at least twice if not three times Our first visit, Christmas 1980, not only was everything closed as it is a very Catholic island (which does beg the question of why the ships bother to stop there on Christmas day in the first place) -- but when my husband's hat was grabbed by a teen boy who then ran off (hat, no big deal, let the kid have it!) a passing cabbie who saw the incident jammed on the brakes, opened his trunk, took out a machete, and proceded to chase the young thief. DH then took off after the cab driver to stop the pursuit. All ended well but by the time we left the island we were convinced that every male on the island carries a machete (or at least every cab driver, or at least every cab driver at that time seemed to). I should mention that we did the four wheel drive rainforest tour on Martinique in December and did have a wonderful tour -- saw the most incredible vegetation, sort of like a live version of Dr. Suess's imaginary drawings -- but we would have paid money for even an outhouse -- all we had for the first 4 1/2 hours was the "privacy" of the rain forest! I also ditto the Caracas comments as the poverty there is so overwhelming -- we have been there twice -- the first time (1980) we did not get off the ship because we were intimidated during the port lecture by all of the photos of police with machine guns, and by the port lecturer who warned not to leave the ship alone (and there were stories when fellow travelers got back) -- the second time, some years later, we did a city tour on the day after a coup and they even drove us past the governor's mansion (such that we could see behind all of the sand bags and soldiers with big guns)-- between the poverty and the machine guns we will pass next time we are in Caracas -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakedoc Posted June 21, 2005 #29 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Progesso, Mexico Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shmily Posted June 21, 2005 #30 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Porta Plata, Dominican Republic We went there on an NCL ship 20 years ago for our honeymoon. There were armed guards walking around and raw sewage in the streets. We were in a small museum and my DH had his boarding pass partially sticking out of his breast pocket of his polo shirt. The man at the museum asked about it, we told him it was his boarding pass on the ship (back then they were just a plain piece of paper with our names on it and the ship names kind of like an airplane boarding pass). The man then asked "so if I had that piece of paper, I could just get on your ship?" We headed back to the docks just as fast as we could after that! ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meglet Posted June 21, 2005 #31 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Tortola, last summer, after their independence celebration. The streets were covered in trash and everything was closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbird71 Posted June 21, 2005 #32 Share Posted June 21, 2005 For me, it not always the worst port, but in my case a port I will not get off the ship, and that is San Juan. Between cruises that stopped there or began there I have been there too many times. On my Amazon cruise, I did not get off the ship. There was a mistake on the web site http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/default.aspx and she had the QMII in port when I was there, but it really was the next day. Had it been there I would have walked over to see her. While I have never been there, HMC is another one I would not get off the ship to see. I HATE BEACHES.... As for places like Caracas, it is the source of two of my favorite cruise stories. :D First trip on the Countess, a mud slide closed the "Interstate" between the port and Caracas, and we were 3 hours late getting back, and the Countess has 2 hours late leaving port and was tapping her props when we got there. :p On the second trip, went with my brother, and gentleman that he was, gave up his covered seat to a lady and stood where she was and The Biggest Poopy Bird targeted my brothers head and scored. This would not have been all that bad, except two years later in Hawaii, the SAME bird did it again to my brother... :eek: Now for a minor Caracas rant, at the end of the tour we had shopping time and then we were to walk as a group 3 blocks to the buses. The tour ppl told us a zillion times, during the three block walk 3-4 of use WOULD be pickpocketed. We were told, if somebody bumps you, they are picking your pocket... STILL when we got back to the buses, three men had no wallets..... It wasn't like they were not told to watch out........ </rant off> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelelmel Posted June 21, 2005 #33 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Belize. Very poor and not much to see, except poverty. Oh and the wildlife was great. Never understood why RCCL chose this port. People were speculating payola. We were told that the island is VERY corrupt, even more so than NJ, if that's possible. :o)~Kelly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
localady Posted June 21, 2005 #34 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Acapulco. Not a place for 2 women to travel alone. There is a reason Mexico is the 7th most dangerous country in the world! P.S. Anthonny- LTNS! :D Our best to Fran! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zackiedawg Posted June 21, 2005 #35 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Georgetown, Cayman Islands...when 6 mega-ships are all there at the same time. The island is barely big enough for the current population...drop 6 shiploads at 3,000 per ship, and the island perceptibly sinks a few inches. The streets look like Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the height of Mardi Gras...except there is no alcohol and nobody is exposing themselves to make it worthwhile. Getting into a store to buy a t-shirt is like standing on line for Space Mountain at Disney. You can practically walk to the island from the ships by walking across the 20 tenders, which are practically bumping into eachother and strung bow to stern. And all to go to an island of sand, 1 inch above sea level, filled with 400 banks, and a bunch of stores with such high prices that it would seem the purpose of so many banks is that you have to rob one to purchase anything. No need to take a tour over to Hell...you're already there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FCOWHER Posted June 21, 2005 #36 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Ponce, PR. Its an industrial dump, the only tour offered was to the Mall. It was a replacement port after a Hurricane. Joe V. Serenade of the Seas 12/31/05 Zuiderdam 4/23/05 Princess 3 times Royal Caribbean 2 times Royal Majesty 1 time QE2 1 time Carnival 1 time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayyadina Posted June 21, 2005 #37 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Port au Prince, Haiti About 25 years ago, NCL used to travel to that port on 7 day cruises. It was so bad with beggars, etc., that DH & I took two steps off the ship, turned around, and got right back on. My dad did a government-sponsored cruise to Port au Prince Haiti (read: US Navy ;) ) in the early 60s and reported the same thing. He said kids would jump off the piers before the boat was even docked to try to get the sailors to throw them things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaannnthony Posted June 21, 2005 Author #38 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Hi Sher, and Bob!! LTNS???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNeal Posted June 21, 2005 #39 Share Posted June 21, 2005 But the poverty there [Cartegena] isn't as bad as in Caracas. As an overall problem, true -- the "Ranchitos" in Caracas are an eye-opener in and of themselves. However, what struck me in Cartegena were the children and adult beggars who would flocks to the busses, and hang on to the sides and backs as we would travel from site to site, then jump off and have their hands out at each of our stops. On one of our tours in Cartegena, out bus driver up and quit in the middle of the tour. While this didn't happen to us on our tour, we did have the problem of the bus driver refusing to take us back to the ship after severe rain storms had resulted in all of us being totally and completely soaked. Our "guide" had led us through a downpour -- slowly -- discussing the historical and cultural significance of the sites we were trying to see through the blowing rain, and only took us under cover when the lightening started to strike close by. Even those with umbrellas were soaked. When we got back to the bus we found the interior totally soaked -- the roof was not watertight and the driver had left the windows down. As a result, the bus (and all our things) were soaked, we were soaked, and all any of us wanted to was go back to the ship. But NO ... we had to finish the tour with out shopping stops no matter what. Meanwhile, our bus driver was trying to navigate streets that had up to 4 feet of water in them, water was coming into the bus from under the door and flooding the hall way, and as it rained outside it was raining on us inside. AND, since the AC wasn't working, the place was just one great big steam bath. It was HORRIBLE. At least in Cartegena we didn't have guards everywhere. Hmmmm ... we did. We were told that the security was for our protection, but they didn't seem to be doing very much to stop locals from piling on our buses or mobbing us when we arrived at stops. Going from the bus to each site was like walking through a gauntlet of trinket hawkers and beggars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNeal Posted June 21, 2005 #40 Share Posted June 21, 2005 The island [Grand Cayman] is barely big enough for the current population...drop 6 shiploads at 3,000 per ship, and the island perceptibly sinks a few inches. The streets look like Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the height of Mardi Gras...except there is no alcohol and nobody is exposing themselves to make it worthwhile. Ut-oh. This November the Westerdam is schedule to drop anchor there with NINE other Cruise Ships, all on the same day. 4 Biggies, and 5 of them the size of the Westerdam or smaller. Perhaps we'd better stay aboard and enjoy an "extra day at sea" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peaches from georgia Posted June 21, 2005 #41 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='meglet']Tortola, last summer, after their independence celebration. The streets were covered in trash and everything was closed.[/QUOTE] [COLOR=Purple]Sounds like any U.S. city after a holiday parade, Mardi Gras, or victory/loss in a sports event. Why should Tortola be different? :D [/COLOR] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNeal Posted June 21, 2005 #42 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [QUOTE]On the second trip, went with my brother, and gentleman that he was, gave up his covered seat to a lady and stood where she was and The Biggest Poopy Bird targeted my brothers head and scored. This would not have been all that bad, except two years later in Hawaii, the SAME bird did it again to my brother.[/QUOTE] FOFLMHO ... strong wings on that bird ... must have been a blackbird. :) bye-bye! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNeal Posted June 21, 2005 #43 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [QUOTE]Tortola, last summer, after their independence celebration. The streets were covered in trash and everything was closed.[/QUOTE] Sounds like New Orleans on Ash Wednesday Morning. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulsivePuppy Posted June 21, 2005 #44 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='jakedoc']Progesso, Mexico[/QUOTE] i second that emotion jake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizmo Posted June 21, 2005 #45 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Worst port was Colon. I would also like to add Caracas. I don't know if this port counts since I didn't get off the ship. Machine guns and revolts I didn't need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
localady Posted June 21, 2005 #46 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='aaannnthony']Hi Sher, and Bob!! LTNS????[/QUOTE] Bet you are already booked for something, but if not, check out the Statendam's 10/27/06 NZ to Sydney. We'd love to cruise with you guys again:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakrewser Posted June 21, 2005 #47 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='revneal']Ut-oh. This November the Westerdam is schedule to drop anchor there with NINE other Cruise Ships, all on the same day. 4 Biggies, and 5 of them the size of the Westerdam or smaller. Perhaps we'd better stay aboard and enjoy an "extra day at sea" ?[/QUOTE] skip the tours, rent a car and drive out to the [url="http://www.botanic-park.ky/"]Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens [/url]- a wonderful, restful park on the other side of the island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmorejj Posted June 21, 2005 #48 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Guadeloupe is one of my "don`t get off the ship" ports. Such rude people and nothing much to see. I also wouldn`t get off again in Caracas, too scary for me!..........jean :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNeal Posted June 21, 2005 #49 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [QUOTE]skip the tours, rent a car and drive out to the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens - a wonderful, restful park on the other side of the island.[/QUOTE] Good idea. Now ... if only they would offering ship-to-shore transfers that by-passed the tender pier, that we we wouldn't have to fight our way through the mob of people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulsivePuppy Posted June 21, 2005 #50 Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='gizmo']Worst port was Colon. [/QUOTE] to be fair, it depends on whose colon it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.