That sounds like it could have been me and my then business partner that Irieonline ran into that late night. That is nearly our exact story on why we stopped bringing down breakers.
in the late 80's, early 90's, when many independent companies were organizing trips for students, we had a travel company that brought down Spring Break trips mainly from the Midwest USA. On one trip a student brought absolutely no form of ID, so at immigration they had me "vouch" for him. I am still not sure what legal definition and implications of vouching are, but times were different then and we got him both in the country and back unscathed. It was legal to use your driver's license to enter Jamaica back then.
Trying to keep an eye on hundreds of students for 5 weeks was nearly impossible, and the profit to work margin was not worth the effort. But the real straw that broke the camels back was one evening when a student had done way too much coke, and said he was staying in because he had a headache. He was was rubbing both sides of his temples when we locked him in his room.
When we got back that night, we checked on him. He said he was fine but had two beautifully round bruises on either side of his head. At that point I looked at my partner and said, "hey man, this aint cool. I dont want to make that call back home and say 'Hello Mrs. Miller, do you remember your son Johnny?" (name fictional). This was 1993 and that was our last Spring Break as a company together, although my partner kept bringing friends down for several years afterwards, but in much smaller numbers. I was concentrating on starting Negril.com.
By the late 90's Spring Break was getting much larger, with thousands of students coming per week. MTV even took out a sponsor banner on Negril.com. MTV still played videos back then. Here is a blast from the past.
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/nn160398.htm
It was during this time that Spring Break in Negril began to be controlled by a few major tour companies and less and less by the local businesses. The tour companies controlled all aspects of the trips, from take off to the return landing. Their arm bands and dining tickets guided the students from place to place at specific times, looking much like herding cattle. You could sit at a beach bar and watch 5000 students walk by, not a single one stopping because they had to get to the next "free" all you could drink party at the predetermined location. Other than the hotels and few bars and restaurants on the pre-designed armband list, most businesses saw little to no business from Spring Break.
Here are a couple of our "Spring Break Today" pages from 2002:
With Jerry Springer:
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/sb010302.htm
and a night party at Legends:
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/sb070302.htm
and yes, McDonalds was on the beach:
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/sb010402.htm
Here are are a few in 2003:
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/sb030303.htm
This shows the new beer offering of Red Stripe Light!
http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/sb200303.htm
In early 2000's, the activities during break had become increasingly risque and dangerous. What started as wet t-shirt contests turned into full nudity and, um, even more raunchy behavior. The free shots turned into pouring tequila down the throat of obviously near passed out breakers - all in front of a cheering crowd wanting more. The local business owners, even those hosting these "shows" had realized something had to be done or something very serious would occur, echoing my concern back in 1993.
The owners along with the police asked the tour companies controlling the parties to "tone them down". MTV was hosting their Spring Break show at a local hotel and they were asked as well to clean up their act a bit. All parties agreed. But to the dismay of the local business owners and police, it seemed to spur an increase in the debauchery. The locals had had enough of being ignored. The police closed down the shows when they determined they were breaking local laws and MTV was told they were no longer welcome at the hotel.
Needless to say, the tour companies and MTV did not take this well and said they would boycott Negril in the future. The local businesses said "no problem" as most made no money from Spring Break anyway. The hotels had 5 to 6 students per room and they would essentially trash the place causing hundreds of dollars for repairs. Most bars and restaurants received no patronage from the breakers so that was a non-issue. And the places hosting the shows were relieved that they no longer had to worry about someone getting seriously hurt.
That is why Spring Break in Negril ended the way it did.
