No one in Costa Maya Now

[crewsweeper]

I've spoken with a couple of the beach club owners. Place is deserted.  Laying people off at the port. Water Park is closed. Expats with 2nd homes have left. Lot of beach club workers heading elsewhere.  Clubs are having to return thousands in deposits. Easter Week is one of the peak revenue weeks for the area.  Not going to be this year.

All are hoping late April starts to bring some relief.

 

I'm sure places like Roatan and Belize are similarly hurting.

Sad times.

[Georgia_Peaches]

13 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

I've spoken with a couple of the beach club owners. Place is deserted.  Laying people off at the port. Water Park is closed. Expats with 2nd homes have left. Lot of beach club workers heading elsewhere.  Clubs are having to return thousands in deposits. Easter Week is one of the peak revenue weeks for the area.  Not going to be this year.

All are hoping late April starts to bring some relief.

 

I'm sure places like Roatan and Belize are similarly hurting.

Sad times.

We are supposed to be on a cruise in April.  Highly doubt that will occur.  Costa Maya is one of our favorite places to visit.  I read that the Mexican government closed Mexico to cruise ships until April 30th.  Since our cruise is April 11th (supposed to be), we would have nowhere to go if Mexico won't let the ships port.  Our itinerary was for Cozumel this time.  There are so many people like us who would get there if we could...praying we will be back someday.

[crewsweeper]

My suggestion is that cruisers who have made deposits for reservations at any of the ports in the Caribbean not ask for refunds at all.  If auto sent back, maybe return it.  And if it fits your budget given your own situation, perhaps "donate" to the vendors the entire excursion cost.  Just goodwill and I'm sure anything helps.

[xkritter]

This was our first visit to Costa Maya (March 11th) and we absolutely fell in love with it.  I hope to go spend a week - or more -sometime.  I have never encountered such wonderful people - every person we met was amazing.  I cannot even imagine how this is affecting them.

[Georgia_Peaches]

On 3/20/2020 at 9:54 AM, crewsweeper said:

If auto sent back, maybe return it.  And if it fits your budget given your own situation, perhaps "donate" to the vendors the entire excursion cost.  Just goodwill and I'm sure anything helps.

This is such a great suggestion!  My DH is a college student who runs a pizza joint that has been relegated to take out service only due to the crisis.  Lay-offs and cutbacks have hit everyone very hard.  Friday night, a regular customer dropped off an envelope with a $100 bucks...for the wait staff, just because...  Such a nice gesture and so appreciated.  A nice thing to do for those hit the hardest.

[lifes-a-beach]

We would be there today.  This minute sitting at the restaurant at Blue Key with my little black kitty friend Lola sitting beside me while my wife and I eat their amazing ceviche and guacamole. Having enjoyed a sea day yesterday we would be sitting in the sun for the rest of the day today, and enjoying the warm water.  Costa Maya has been our favorite beach stop for many years.  

[volover]

On 3/21/2020 at 10:18 PM, xkritter said:

This was our first visit to Costa Maya (March 11th) and we absolutely fell in love with it.  I hope to go spend a week - or more -sometime.  I have never encountered such wonderful people - every person we met was amazing.  I cannot even imagine how this is affecting them.

We felt the same way, absolutely loved it

[strathcona]

Our end of April cruise was cancelled, it is a very small fishing village, locals depend on the tourist dollars. I guess their lives are back to when the cruise port was not build. 

[crewsweeper]

On ‎5‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 9:45 AM, strathcona said:

Our end of April cruise was cancelled, it is a very small fishing village, locals depend on the tourist dollars. I guess their lives are back to when the cruise port was not build. 

It WAS a small fishing village with some dive shops operating. a couple of decent hotels with restaurants and bars.

Then the cruise port was built. And a few more  bars/clubs  opened up. And the diving word got around.  And more opened up, then the hurricane hit and closed places down.  Then the cruise port expanded and more ships started coming and more places along the malecon took over places that went away and commercial fishing diminished.

 

Last I heard many of the beach bar workers and some bar owners were heading to other places in Mexico.  Or taking other jobs. So life is not back to pre cruise port days, yet. Construction in Nuevo Mahahual has stopped.  It will take some time for all these places to ramp up once ships start returning.