Two cruise lines canceled calls this week to St. Kitts following the robbery of a busload of Celebrity Mercury passengers during an excursion to St. Kitts’ Brimstone Hill Fortress on Nov. 14.
Carnival Cruise Lines canceled the 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle’s scheduled call in St. Kitts on Tuesday and detoured instead to Antigua.
On Wednesday, Princess Cruises’ 2,600-passenger Grand Princess will sail into Antigua instead of St. Kitts.
Carnival called the move "a precautionary measure while we await information from tourism officials and law enforcement."
Princess said that the Grand Princess and Emerald Princess are next scheduled to visit St. Kitts on Dec. 1.
"We will be monitoring the situation closely and we are hopeful that we will be able to keep these scheduled visits," a Princess spokesperson said.
Celebrity has not canceled future calls but did pull its "Essential St. Kitts" shore excursion from its roster of ship-sponsored tours. The excursion has been canceled indefinitely, pending the outcome of an investigation into the robbery.
Four suspects were arrested early Tuesday in connection with the robbery, and a number of items were taken into custody by police officers and members of the St. Kitts & Nevis Defense Force.
St. Kitts & Nevis has pledged to increase police presence in concentrated tourism areas.