Cruise passengers arrested on Antigua

[penny3333]

I guess I'd never be able to live there, I couldn't afford to buy clothes. My goodness that's expensive articles to be wearing to work.

[Maurine]

They are Christians. Why didn't they say that in the beginning? Well, they're innocent then.

I would not want that Benjamin character as my lawyer.

They've been there a month. And one of the defendants is a law student!

[spoheat]

Our last cruise on the Adventure took us to Aruba where we used a private taxi called "Bully Taxi" who charged $40 per hour, took us for almost 3 hours and charged $80, set us up at the beach with his neighbor (chair and umbrella guy) and returned to take us back to the ship for $10 (less than it would have cost us to take the public bus). Two days later we were in St. Maarten and the cab driver charged more than we agreed to to take us to Orient Beach--we tried to get a different driver to go back to the ship but the guy organizing the cabs said we were this guy's customers and more or less forced us to go with him or make a huge scene, and the guy refused to make change for most of the passengers (some had $20s for a $8 cab ride, pretty hefty tip). We shut up and paid--and held on to the nice memory of Bully down in Aruba.

[Dave]

According to this story, they were fined a total of $5000 today and that was the end of the case.

[Dwayne]

The "Key Word" in the story is "unlicensed". They should have handled this as a civil dispute from the git go in my humble opinion.

Dwayne

[Dave]

This story lists the total for fines and restitution at almost $9000.

[billybuzzy]

Dwayne - You are right on the money on this - The key word is indeed "unlicensed"! So long as Antigua (and other ports) continue to allow this sort of thing and fail to crack down on "underground" cabbies it will continue to happen!

If no violence had occurred I'm sure it would have remained a civil matter but when violence occurs against the authorities it becomes another matter entirely! A plainclothes policeman in a foreign jurisdiction can be a very scary matter! My sympathies lie with the wronged and mistreated passengers passengers!

Another example as to why sticking with the ship's tours is desireable!!

BillyBuzzy

[billybuzzy]

the total for fines and restitution at almost $9000.

I'll bet that they won't be traveling to Antigua ( or any other Caribbean Port ) for a long while!! Cruises will not be their favored way to go either!!

When you add in the total costs to the Defendants one could do some serious cruising for the same amount!!

BillyBuzzy

[penny3333]

It would have been a whole lot easier to have paid the $100, learn their lesson, and be gone. However, they've had their 15 minutes of "fame". I do hope these "upstanding" citizens will remember when they are in a foreign country, they cannot act like they do in New York. What a pitty, it could all have been avoided.