Bajahowodd
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Good News
Carnival Cruise Lines announced Friday that they are moving up their return to Mexican ports to May 28. They had originally listed June 15 as the
target date. First visit is a vessel docking in Cancun. Two days later, the Mexican Riviera cruises return, including Cabo San Lucas. No mention was
made in the announcement about Ensenada, but if they are returning to Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, I'm sure they'll be in Ensenada too. It
would seem to me that Ensenada would benefit from the visits more than any other port town.
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bacquito
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Mood: jubilado
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Hope for Ensenada!! Thanks for the notice.
bacquito
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SteveD
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Why does "Bad News" get dozens of replys and "Good News" only gets one?
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Bajaboy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by SteveD
Why does "Bad News" get dozens of replys and "Good News" only gets one? |
Ask one of the sheep herders....
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DENNIS
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Article ripped off from Punta Banda newsletter:
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Carnival Cruise Lines to resume visits to Mexico this month
The company's decision comes after the U.S. government says it will no longer caution Americans to avoid non-essential travel to the country because
of the swine flu outbreak.
By Hugo Martín
May 16, 2009
Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest cruise line operator, announced Friday that it would resume visits to Mexican ports later this month.
The decision came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would no longer recommend that Americans avoid nonessential travel
to the country because of the swine flu outbreak.
The company, a unit of Carnival Corp., said its first cruise ship to return to Mexico would be the Carnival Holiday.
The four-day cruise departing May 28 from Mobile, Ala., will stop in Cozumel, Mexico, two days later. Carnival's regularly scheduled cruises to the
Mexican Riviera will return to their original itinerary beginning that same day.
The news was welcomed by tourism boosters in Mexico as well as by ship operators.
"A majority of our passengers wanted to see us return to Mexico and so we have," said Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz.
No other major cruise line has announced plans to return to Mexico this summer.
Officials for Norwegian Cruise Line Corp. Ltd. said the company wouldn't return to Mexico until at least September, having already repositioned its
summer tours for the East Coast, Alaska and Europe.
Holland America Line Inc., also owned by Carnival Corp., is not scheduled to return to Mexico until October. Princess Cruises, which has relocated
most of its ships to begin cruises to Alaska, has only one ship off the coast of Mexico, the Sea Princess.
A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, another Carnival Corp. unit, said the company was considering docking the boat at a Mexican port but has yet to
make that decision.
Late last month, in the wake of an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, five of the world's largest cruise lines suspended all stops in Mexico,
docking instead at Santa Catalina Island, San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.
Many frustrated passengers complained bitterly, saying the alternative stops and on-board compensation were woefully inadequate. The cruise lines
tried to appease passengers by offering full or partial credit toward a future cruise.
Some passengers were also given $20 in on-board credit for every port that was missed and not replaced with an alternative stop.
But the offers didn't appease every passenger.
William and Connie Dobberpuhl, a retired couple from Long Beach, received from their son a seven-day cruise on Carnival Splendor as a 40th wedding
anniversary gift.
When the ship was diverted from Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas to Long Beach and San Francisco, William Dobberpuhl said the ship's
captain and other Carnival officials were condescending and insensitive to passenger complaints.
He said the ship's crew didn't seem to care that the weather was cold and wet in San Francisco and that most of the passengers had packed only
warm-weather clothes.
"I still have a pretty bitter taste in my mouth about how they handled the whole thing," Dobberpuhl said.
Jennifer Lank of Carlsbad, who was a passenger on the same Mexican Riviera cruise with her best friend and 81-year-old mother, said she recently
received an e-mail from Carnival offering her a 50% discount toward a future cruise.
But Lank is reluctant to commit to another cruise. She said the ship's crew on the last tour was unhelpful, refusing to answer simple questions about
the itinerary change.
"I was very disappointed with the way they handled things," she said.
The shift in itineraries brought much needed business to recession-stung merchants along California's coast but dealt a severe blow to Mexico's
tourism industry, which was already reeling from the global economic meltdown and a violent drug war that has scared tourists away from its major
cities.
Mexico is one of the world's top 10 destinations for cruise lines, with nearly 6.5 million passengers in 2008, according to the Cruise Lines
International Assn.
Cancun, one of Mexico's most popular tourist stops, has lost an estimated $2.4 million since the start of the outbreak, with hotel occupancy dropping
40% below usual levels for this time of year.
Earlier this month, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced a $1.3-billion tourism stimulus package in the hopes of drawing visitors back to his
country.
At Costa Maya, a port along Mexico's southern Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun, news of Carnival's return was greeted warmly.
The port serves Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International, both owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Norwegian, Holland America and
Carnival.
In a statement, the president of the port of Costa Maya, Teofilo Hamui, said he was "thankful for the speedy return of Carnival Cruise Lines to our
shores following the CDC's recent lift of its warning on Mexico travel."
He said he hoped Carnival's move would encourage tourists to return. The port was closed for a year because of damage from Hurricane Dean in 2007.
"We are no strangers to difficult times and are certain tourism in Mexico will return to normalcy very soon," Hamui said.
hugo.martin@...
[Edited on 5-17-2009 by DENNIS]
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sourdough
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I really don't know how to reply to the post. Good for Cancun and the other resort towns. Hopefully, Ensenada will benefit from the return of the
cruise ships. Loreto has also missed the ship visits, I haven't.
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by sourdough
Hopefully, Ensenada will benefit from the return of the cruise ships.
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If you could see the tourist area now on what would be called a "boat day", you would instantly know that a load of tourists would be a big help.
It's like a scene from that old movie, "On The Beach," while looking at land through the periscope on a sub, the whole world was dead. Very eerie.
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Bajahowodd
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I imagine things have been eerily quiet at La Bufadora.
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Alan
Super Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by SteveD
Why does "Bad News" get dozens of replys and "Good News" only gets one? |
It just seems to be the mood on this board lately. Maybe with all of the bad news lately many are holding off from visiting and now they are all in
dire need of a Baja fix that Costco Pacificos and Wahoo's fish tacos just can't repair.
In Memory of E-57
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajahowodd
I imagine things have been eerily quiet at La Bufadora. |
Very quiet...especially out at the "Mall." I see this as a good thing. Those junk stands are an embarrasment and testmony to what unregulated
economic growth can do to a natural treasure. I know it won't but, I'd be happy if it all disappeared.
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