Of all the beaches in the Caribbean, you'd think the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line would have found one that isn't so close to one of the worst disaster areas in modern history to dock. But you'd be wrong, and passengers aboard the ship are reportedly divided on whether or not to spend some time ashore in Labadee, just 70 miles from where the 7.0 earthquake decimated buildings, life, and optimism for countless Haitians last week.

Boing Boing reports that even though the ship carried 40 palettes of relief supplies for survivors of the earthquake, which have been delivered, many of its passengers were nonetheless riding zip lines, eating barbecue, and generally having a grand ol' time within the private area, enclosed by a 12-foot fence. Others boycotted the Labadee call, refusing to leave the ship in protest.

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic Internet forum.

"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''

Then, of course, are the passengers like these two, as imagined by political cartoonist Mikhaela Reid (see more of Reid's work at Boiling Point Cartoon):

On the flip side, Royal Caribbean also pledged $1 million in relief funds to Haiti, and says it will donate 100% of the proceeds from its call at Labadee to the relief effort. It's a start, but maybe for their next move they can find somewhere else to dock their luxury cruises.

[Image: L.W. Yang from Wikimedia Commons]