Puerto Vallarta

[gknep]

I'm on the 1/2 sailing of this itinerary. This does not bode well. 

[Deep68]

50 minutes ago, nocl said:

not when identified active cases are on board. Carnival ship was denied Cabo last week with 1 case.

 

In the Carnival case they would allow passengers ashore if they were tested prior to going ashore. ship declined.

 

Might be same in this case.

Just received a letter from the captain. Apparently the Mexican authorities would allow passengers on shore that were on Holland America tours and were tested. As the ship was advised of this restriction at the last minute logistically it was not possible to make this happen. 
We are to get port taxes refunded and a $50 ship board credit and of course refund of cancelled tours.  We are now at sea cruising rather slowly. It is a gorgeous calm day. 

[Laurenran]

Thanks for keeping us updated! 

[Shmoo here]

17 minutes ago, GTVCRUISER said:

I have cruised on a few ships that cruised into Ensenada and Victoria , did some paper work , no one got off the ship , then back to the states 

Back in the day, a "technical port of call" was allowed.  It's no longer allowed.  For a port call to count, they have to allow passengers to debark.

 

 

[trixiee]

11 minutes ago, gknep said:

I'm on the 1/2 sailing of this itinerary. This does not bode well. 

me too

[Florida_gal_50]

14 minutes ago, Deep68 said:

Just received a letter from the captain. Apparently the Mexican authorities would allow passengers on shore that were on Holland America tours and were tested. As the ship was advised of this restriction at the last minute logistically it was not possible to make this happen. 
We are to get port taxes refunded and a $50 ship board credit and of course refund of cancelled tours.  We are now at sea cruising rather slowly. It is a gorgeous calm day. 

Thank you for the information.  I can see how that would be impossible.  Then you’d probably have some people acting like babies that’s aren’t on hal shorex demanding to be able to get off.

[Deep68]

2 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Thank you for the information.  I can see how that would be impossible.  Then you’d probably have some people acting like babies that’s aren’t on hal shorex demanding to be able to get off.

I agree that this may have been a bigger issue than testing! 
 

One thing that will be interesting to see how they handle is situations like ours where we booked a shore excursion using the have it all package. We have no other opportunity to use the credit and as we did not pay “per se” not sure if we will get some kind of a credit back.

[Florida_gal_50]

29 minutes ago, Deep68 said:

I agree that this may have been a bigger issue than testing! 
 

One thing that will be interesting to see how they handle is situations like ours where we booked a shore excursion using the have it all package. We have no other opportunity to use the credit and as we did not pay “per se” not sure if we will get some kind of a credit back.

That will be interesting.  I had a shorex booked with have it all on my November cruise and I didn’t end up going.  When I canceled he said that money was lost and I didn’t expect anything else.  That said it was totally my decision.  It would be nice of them to give it back to you even if it was worst case non refundable obc.

[Heartgrove]

1 hour ago, Deep68 said:

Just received a letter from the captain. Apparently the Mexican authorities would allow passengers on shore that were on Holland America tours and were tested. As the ship was advised of this restriction at the last minute logistically it was not possible to make this happen. 
We are to get port taxes refunded and a $50 ship board credit and of course refund of cancelled tours.  We are now at sea cruising rather slowly. It is a gorgeous calm day. 

 

Sorry that you missed the port call. Just checked your position and speed. Yes, you are only cruising at 7.5 knots and actually heading a bit south at 258 degrees. Still showing an arrival on Sunday in San Diego at 05:30.

[Deep68]

On 12/23/2021 at 3:16 PM, Florida_gal_50 said:

That will be interesting.  I had a shorex booked with have it all on my November cruise and I didn’t end up going.  When I canceled he said that money was lost and I didn’t expect anything else.  That said it was totally my decision.  It would be nice of them to give it back to you even if it was worst case non refundable obc.

Today we looked on our statement and there was a credit for the cost of the excursion we booked using the have it all package. We were pleasantly surprised.

 

In addition to all the account credits, at 4pm yesterday an open bar was held to apologize the yesterday’s situation. 
 

I think it was all handled pretty well.

 

[Florida_gal_50]

14 minutes ago, Deep68 said:

Today we looked on our statement and there was a credit for the cost of the excursion we booked using the have it all package. We were pleasantly surprised.

 

In addition to all the account credits, at 4pm yesterday an open bar was held to apologize the yesterday’s situation. 
 

I think it was all handled pretty well.

 

I’ve been wondering today what happened so thank you for coming back. I’m so happy for you!  Yes, I think they’ve handled it well.  Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[SeaHunt]

KTLA is reporting 21 positive crew. Sadly they are also blowing this up by reporting the passengers are "stuck" on the ship!  😞

 

Passengers stuck on SoCal cruise ship after Mexico blocks disembarkation over COVID-19 cases | KTLA

[Florida_gal_50]

5 minutes ago, SeaHunt said:

KTLA is reporting 21 positive crew. Sadly they are also blowing this up by reporting the passengers are "stuck" on the ship!  😞

 

Passengers stuck on SoCal cruise ship after Mexico blocks disembarkation over COVID-19 cases | KTLA

So hal isn’t reporting the numbers but somehow the daily mail knows the numbers 🙄.  Yeah good one about being stuck on the ship.

[sansterre]

On 12/23/2021 at 3:25 PM, Shmoo here said:

Back in the day, a "technical port of call" was allowed.  It's no longer allowed.  For a port call to count, they have to allow passengers to debark.

 

 

It worked for us on the Eurodam, March 2020 in Ensenada.  When Covid closed down cruising we were in Hawaii.  5 or 6 days later the  Eurodam pulled into Ensenada for about 3 hours to get the paperwork done.  Only a handful of people from the Front Desk with paperwork disembarked.  The next day, San Diego let us in as we were a "healthy ship".

[Shmoo here]

10 minutes ago, sansterre said:

It worked for us on the Eurodam, March 2020 in Ensenada.  When Covid closed down cruising we were in Hawaii.  5 or 6 days later the  Eurodam pulled into Ensenada for about 3 hours to get the paperwork done.  Only a handful of people from the Front Desk with paperwork disembarked.  The next day, San Diego let us in as we were a "healthy ship".

Certainly those were unusual times.  I'm not surprised that a technical stop happened during the "what do we do with all the people onboard ships?" period when the pandemic first broke.

 

 

[nocl]

1 hour ago, sansterre said:

It worked for us on the Eurodam, March 2020 in Ensenada.  When Covid closed down cruising we were in Hawaii.  5 or 6 days later the  Eurodam pulled into Ensenada for about 3 hours to get the paperwork done.  Only a handful of people from the Front Desk with paperwork disembarked.  The next day, San Diego let us in as we were a "healthy ship".

That was a bit of an unusual circumstance.  Just like the Grand did not have to call at a foreign port on its Hawaiian cruise in March 2020.

[joeyancho]

On 12/23/2021 at 12:07 PM, GTVCRUISER said:

I have cruised on a few ships that cruised into Ensenada and Victoria , did some paper work , no one got off the ship , then back to the states 

That is called a technical stop. It is no longer allowed

[Deep68]

4 hours ago, SeaHunt said:

KTLA is reporting 21 positive crew. Sadly they are also blowing this up by reporting the passengers are "stuck" on the ship!  😞

 

Passengers stuck on SoCal cruise ship after Mexico blocks disembarkation over COVID-19 cases | KTLA

Stuck on the cruise ship is certainly dramatizing the situation. We spent a typical  day at sea today and yesterday. 

[sergel02]

On 12/23/2021 at 9:46 AM, Brentt_M said:

The captain was most likely surprised because, right or wrong, they have been allowing it for several weeks.

It could be due to the new variant, countries and ports are becoming more cautious. 

[MartySD]

These ports kill me. Covid (Delta & Omicron) are all over P.V. and everywhere else on earth. How they think that turning away cruise ships will somehow "protect" their people is ridiculous.

 

[oakridger]

4 hours ago, MartySD said:

These ports kill me. Covid (Delta & Omicron) are all over P.V. and everywhere else on earth. How they think that turning away cruise ships will somehow "protect" their people is ridiculous.

 

 

I actually had the same thought but it's their port so obviously they can do as they want.  Mexico doesn't require vaccinations or test for COVID in visitors entering by air or land at this point as far as I know.

 

 

[Heartgrove]

We will never know the complete story. Perhaps the number of infected crew and/or passengers last week was higher than the previous cruises. It may have broken the allowed number that authorities had established. 

 

Their port. Their rules.

[HALrunner]

On 12/23/2021 at 3:20 PM, Deep68 said:

Just received a letter from the captain. Apparently the Mexican authorities would allow passengers on shore that were on Holland America tours and were tested. As the ship was advised of this restriction at the last minute logistically it was not possible to make this happen. 
We are to get port taxes refunded and a $50 ship board credit and of course refund of cancelled tours.  We are now at sea cruising rather slowly. It is a gorgeous calm day. 

I wonder if HAL will start testing guests the day before they take a HAL excursion. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

9 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

I actually had the same thought but it's their port so obviously they can do as they want.  Mexico doesn't require vaccinations or test for COVID in visitors entering by air or land at this point as far as I know.

 

 

I agree with you ..

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 12/23/2021 at 10:31 AM, Shmoo here said:

Sadly, such cruises are not allowed.  Cruises from US ports have to make one foreign port call to be legal.

I believe it’s allowed if the ship returns to the same port it started from, with no US stops - like any sightseeing tour. What they CAN’T do is act as a means of transport from one US port to another.