Thread: Costa Maya update---Just know what I'm reading in the newspaper ....

Originally Posted by MD11F

I've read that cruise ships will not be returning to Costa Maya until September, 2009.

See my post above. Carnival Corp. has said just that. Since it is the corporation, that includes Princess, Seabourn, HAL, and Cunard as well as Carnival.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. has only said they are adjusting their scheduled through April '08. This corporation includes Celebrity, the recently formed Azamara, Pullmantur, and their newest cruise line, Croisières de France.

Disney has a few cruises listed starting Sept 27, 2008. I think you'll see some ships sneaking in before 2009.

Ship:
Disney Magic®
Rates:
View Rates for this Cruise
Departure Dates:
September 27, 2008
October 25, 2008
November 22, 2008
December 20, 2008
Ports of Call:
Castaway Cay
Costa Maya
Cozumel

Thanks for finding that Zydeco. In addition, there is Fred Olsen, Braemar, and several others that cruise the Caribbean that I haven't looked into yet.

My feeling is that ships will be going there, they just may not be the ships that people have usually looked at.

I wouldn't mind being on the first ship, or at least one of the first ships, to start calling on Costa Maya.

I was thinking the same thing as I read this thread earlier!

I see NCL Spirit 2008 cruises out of New Orleans still list Costa Maya as a destination. That would be kind of cool.

FROM: Costa Maya cruise traffic bound for other ports - 09/27/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

BY SPUD HILTON

San Francisco Chronicle

With the Costa Maya port at Mahahual (also Majahual), Mexico, closed until September 2008 because of Hurricane Dean, cruise lines are scrambling to divert ships to other ports in the region. Until the hurricane, Mahahual had been Mexico's second-busiest cruise ship port. The Western Caribbean is by far cruising's most popular neighborhood, despite the fact that almost every port in the region has taken a major hit from hurricanes in the past four years.

... SNIP ... (In the article, here there is a list of several alternate ports and descriptions)

Since the Puerto Costa Maya opened in 2001, it had become the busiest cruise stop in Mexico after San Miguel, Cozumel. Much of the pier, the port tourist complex and the town were destroyed when Dean came ashore in August as a full-force Category 5 hurricane. Puerto Costa Maya will be closed for a year, according to port officials, although some cruise lines say they are considering returning sooner if they can anchor offshore and tender in passengers.

We have been notified that we are going to Cozumel in place of Costa Maya.

Our 3rd port Stop has been changed from Costa Maya to Isla Rotan Carnival Glory Dec 15th - 22nd W Caribbean They also changed our last port from Nassau to Freeport. We were looking forward to both those stops. I did not know how bad they got hit until I found out our itinerary was being changed. I usually am up to date on news, I don't remember seeing much about it. Though I was a little distracted, my daughter (19) under went open heart surgery to repair her Mitral Valve 9/4/07. We did not expect she would have to have it so soon, the docs said could be years but in August her health did a big down turn. We took the earliest date we could for the operation and it went wonderfully! We all will be having fun on the cruise and we did not have to reschedule it. She should be off all the heart meds and have no problems or restrictions by then. So I guess you could say September was a blur. I will be praying for those poor people & also for those helping. - Gay : ) Qapla'

You are so right, those poor folks live off the tourist trade.......what a shame