Proof Royal Caribbean owns the island called CoCoCay

[soremekun]

Supporting evidence of CoCoCay being owned by Royal Caribbean.

 

1) Royal Caribbean's latest annual report says they own CoCoCay but they lease Labadee.  The wording in these filings have to be accurate.

Page 23 - Item 2. Properties:
We also operate two private destinations which we utilize as ports-of-call on certain itineraries: (i) an island we own in the Bahamas that we call CocoCay; and (ii) Labadee, a secluded peninsula that we lease on the north coast of Haiti.

 

2) Royal Caribbean's annual report provides a List of Subsidiaries (Exhibit 21.1)
"Island for Science, Inc." incorporated in Indiana is listed.

 

3) State of Indiana's business lookup page (https://bsd.sos.in.gov/publicbusinesssearch) shows Island for Science was incorporated in 1978 with signature of Neil P. Ruzic.

 

4) A 1993 annual report for Island for Science, Inc., Section H titled "Briefly Describe Nature of the Business" states "Holding company for ownership of an island".  In Section I, all of the Directors and Officers of Island for Science are Royal Caribbean executives.

 

5) I visited the Registrar Generals Department in Nassau and was provided with a document showing the transfer of ownership to Island for Science, Inc. in 1981.

 

At some point Royal Caribbean purchased Island for Science, Inc. legally making Royal Caribbean the owner of the Island today commonly called CoCoCay.

 

There are some linking documents missing but to me this shows that the island known as CoCoCay is owned and not leased.

Island for Science 46704_FilingHistoryDocuments.pdf Holding company 46708_FilingHistoryDocuments.pdf

[smokeybandit]

I didn't realize there was a hot debate over this issue.

[BND]

18 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I didn't realize there was a hot debate over this issue.

I was going to ask if this was up for debate.  LOL.

[sandebeach]

Interesting.

[soremekun]

58 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I didn't realize there was a hot debate over this issue.

 

39 minutes ago, BND said:

I was going to ask if this was up for debate.  LOL.

There have been some threads on this topic over the years.

[tennislvr8]

I thought everyone already knew they owned coco cay. 

[basenji56]

49 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

I thought everyone already knew they owned coco cay. 

I figured they either owned it or leased it like they lease Labadee.

[Dickfey]

Does it matter?

[klfrodo]

Okay.

 

What National flag flies over the island?  What countries laws regulate civil, criminal, business, and personal behaviors?

[moposh]

Does this mean RC doesn't have to pay dock fees when they dock at CC?

[smokeybandit]

5 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Okay.

 

What National flag flies over the island?  What countries laws regulate civil, criminal, business, and personal behaviors?

It's still part of the Bahamas. No different than owning property in a different country. Just in this case the property happens to be an island.

[MommaBear55]

15 minutes ago, moposh said:

Does this mean RC doesn't have to pay dock fees when they dock at CC?

Dock fees are set by the country, and this is still a Bahamian island, so yes. 

[LobsterStalker]

16 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

Dock fees are set by the country, and this is still a Bahamian island, so yes. 

...Hmmm ?

[jwlane]

14 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

Dock fees are set by the country, and this is still a Bahamian island, so yes. 

They own the dock, so I'm curious how this conclusion is made.

[Pumbaamd]

zzzzzzz . . .

[twangster]

6 minutes ago, jwlane said:

They own the dock, so I'm curious how this conclusion is made.

 

Owning land does not make it a sovereign nation despite some attempts in Michigan to claim so.  🤣

 

Despite owning an island it is still governed by the laws of the country that it is part of.  Ask any billionaire who owns a private island.  They are still part of some country and subject to taxation and laws of that country.  

[jwlane]

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

still governed by the laws of the country

Certainly!  By "Dock fees" are customs assessments also implied?

[robmtx]

They charge Bahamian Sales tax on our shore excursions. So that we know.. The Bahamas makes a pretty penny off those $3,000/day cabanas!

[Pratique]

Wikipedia still says the island is leased but there is no source for this.

 

This is a quick read Kindle book about the history of the island, worth $3.49 if you're interested and free if you have KindleUnlimited.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Stirrup-became-Caribbeans-private-ebook/dp/B0BXDJJHWX

 

Neil Ruzic was a scientist who purchased the island with the intent of building a research station, but encountered too much difficulty obtaining permits from the government, so the island went undeveloped. Ruzic saw how the adjacent island was being used by NCL for tourism and established a deal with Eastern Cruise Lines. In 1983 he agreed to let cruise passengers onto the island for $10 a person. Eastern was absorbed by Admiral which was absorbed by Royal Caribbean. Ruzic sold most of the island (except five acres) to Admiral in 1985 giving Ruzic the right to "'roam' the whole island." In 2016 the Ruzic family sold the remaining part of the island to Royal.

[twangster]

24 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Certainly!  By "Dock fees" are customs assessments also implied?

 

The Bahamian gov't will levy the same fees as Nassau.  Port fees will be different especially since the the new 3rd party that upgraded the Nassau pier needs to cover their expenses so the fees are different than Nassau but there are fees.  

[Pratique]

3 hours ago, soremekun said:

There are some linking documents missing but to me this shows that the island known as CoCoCay is owned and not leased.

It could be that the parent company RCG is leasing the island to the cruise line subsidiary RCI. I don't know but it doesn't make a practical difference, just a legal one.

[mets123]

People must be very bored today.

[soremekun]

10 minutes ago, mets123 said:

People must be very bored today.

I did see one of the tractor trams transporting Whiskas or Friskies dry cat food and was going to ask if cats lived on CoCoCay as pets for the residents but decided against making such a thread.  You got this one instead.

[moposh]

15 minutes ago, mets123 said:

People must be very bored today.

Well, there's no Mets game today....

Edited June 22, 2023 by moposh

[shof515]

3 hours ago, twangster said:

 

The Bahamian gov't will levy the same fees as Nassau.  Port fees will be different especially since the the new 3rd party that upgraded the Nassau pier needs to cover their expenses so the fees are different than Nassau but there are fees.  

 

The port taxes and fees is going to increase soon and i bet royal will pass these costs to everyone:

https://cruiseradio.net/how-the-new-bahamas-port-tax-will-impact-cruise-passengers/