From today's Times-Picayune, in New Orleans:

Cruise passengers counting Costa Maya, Mexico, among their stops on Carnival Cruise Line's Fantasy ship may have to settle instead for Key West, Fla. Early indicators are that the region located between Belize and Cancun was heavily damaged when Hurricane Dean made landfall as a Category 5 storm on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula this week.

Carnival is "still awaiting damage assessments, but it does not look like we will be returning for some time," company spokesman Vance Gulliksen said. Hurricane Dean washed away parts of Costa Maya's concrete cruise docks, which are located near the rural town of Majahual.

Costa Maya is typically one of two stops for the 2,056-passenger Fantasy, which sails on four and five-day cruises from the Port of New Orleans. On its current voyage, the vessel substituted Key West for the Costa Maya stop, but continued on to Cozumel, which like many other tourist destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean dodged a bullet.

The only real question mark is Costa Maya. That would be the only one of the typical Mexico ports that looks like it might not be OK," said Bob Wall, president of Adventures at Sea, a local travel agency.


"Might not be OK," is an understatement... apparaently, he hasn't seen the reports and pictures that we've seen . . .

Remainder of article here:
NOLA.com: Everything New Orleans

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