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Originally Posted by Heartnsoul
We had booked an all inclusive with friends for Jan in Jamaica and now they are cancelling. They say covid and crime bad!? Any thoughts on that? Should we cancel too? They go every yr to this resort and said it's wonderful and that's why we booked??
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Been to both, in the past 20 months or so. I can't speak to the COVID in those places as I got back to the States just as it was spreading here.
Aruba seemed safe; locals were friendly (though their aim was to separate you from as much of your money as possible) but it was within bounds. We wandered around Oranjestad pretty much at will. We took a bus trip into the countryside but not much to see; some ramshackle houses (and some pretty nice ones, too), surrounded by cactus and scrub brush. Not quite a desert, but close.
Jamaica--another story. We docked at Falmouth: the city and surrounding countryside looked incredibly picturesque from the ship as we got there just after dawn. We left the ship at about 10:00 AM, after the initial rush to get off, intending to check out the usual touristy things (such as the racks of "authentic" Jamaican baubles and doodads all made in China). The appointed tourist area was pretty small--and crowded. We decided to wander off the reservation. We hadn't gone two blocks before a guy at one of the stalls tried to slip a joint into my shirt pocket. I hastily gave it back, and left the area: good thing as one of the scams there are to give a tourist drugs (ganja, cocaine, whatever) pass along word to the people working with you and then having the local law stop said tourist. Drug possession over a certain amount is illegal in Jamaica. So you're looking at possible arrest and a serious drug charge. You can, of course, offer to pay the "fine" upfront--which as I understand it is commonly done. But even if you make it back to the ship with the joint in your pocket (and you may not even know that you have it) no cruise line that I know of tolerates drugs taken on board and if you're found out odds are that you get handed over to the Jamaican authorities anyway. And this is just one of the dangers of wandering off the reservation.
Jamaica is picturesque. And I understand that the (ridiculously overpriced) ship-arranged tours are safe (and would make the same assumption about the resorts, though I don't know that for a fact). But I wouldn't go exploring on my own. Just not worth it.