Venezuela and the ABCs

[cltnccruisers]

Venezuela is obviously in turmoil and has been for a while.  How is it affecting the ABCs?

[CHEZMARYLOU]

The ABC's don't go to Venezuela so should not have an impact. We did not experience any problems in November..

Edited January 28, 2019 by CHEZMARYLOU

[cltnccruisers]

3 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

The ABC's don't go to Venezuela so should not have an impact. We did not experience any problems in November..

The ABCs are less than 100 miles from Venezuela and get the lions share of their foodstuffs from there.  I have seen reports of small scale piracy as well.  I was from Bethel Park and DW from Ross Twp, btw.  Go Steelers, er Penguins at this point.

[GoSpurs]

The ABCs have been somewhat impacted. We were there earlier this month on the Silhouette. Boatloads of  Venezuelans have attempted to flee to the ABCs. Since I am from South Texas and understand how the islands could be overrun and economically ruined, I asked guides along the way. They told me that there have been numerous attempts to invade the islands but the ABCs have pooled military/police resources to stop incoming boats at sea and turn them around if they don't have the proper paperwork, which they of course don't. Let's all hope they continue to deter the Venezuelans and preserve these beautiful islands.

[Fogfog]

Great question and one has to wonder--as the Russians have sent fleet support to Venezuela. 

[mahdnc]

14 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Venezuela is obviously in turmoil and has been for a while.  How is it affecting the ABCs?

 

We were at all 3 ABCs for 4 days beginning on Jan 12.  I did not notice anything different from the prior years.

Edited January 28, 2019 by mahdnc

[BarbinMich]

Slightly off-topic, but we stopped at Isla de Margarita, a lovely island just off Venezuela, three times in the early 2000s (twice on Princess, once on HAL).  Wonder if cruise ships still stop there, what with all the problems in nearby Venezuela.  While in Curacao I enjoy watching all the oil tanker traffic, presumably mostly from Venezuela, coming in to the refineries (in the big inner harbor at the end of St. Anna Bay which is more like a canal between the ocean and that inner harbor).  BTW, in the "olden" day of cruising, cruise ships docked in that canal on the Otrobanda side.  On one of our early (1999) cruises to Curacao,  we saw the Carnival Destiny (1996, first of Carnival's "super" ships--at that time the Destiny was the largest in the world at 100,000 GT and 2,600).  It wouldn't fit in the canal so it had to dock where all the ships dock now--back then there was nothing there but the pier and the historical fort--just pretty much scrub land.  Finally, from what I understand many of the vendors (on boats) in the market area of Curacao came from Venezuela (about 10-15 miles away).

[Fogfog]

Venezeula itself is a hot mess... the islands are ok

In fact parts of Mexico are are the Red zone/no go list

 

https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/

[kearney]

We were in Curacao last year. The floating market was closed at the time due to issues with Venezuela. I thought they said they expected it to reopen... can't imagine that it did. Has anyone been there in the past year and seen the market open? I don't know if Curacao would not let them in or if Venezuela would not let them leave. We saw tankers just sitting... did not look like much was going on in the oil business. I wonder if cruise ships come across people trying to leave.

[phoenix_dream]

No issues I have seen.  We did see some boats coming in from Venezuela (not sure what they contained).   From a selfish perspective, it would sure be a shame if the troubles trickled over.  The ABC's are by far our favorite destinations in the Caribbean.

[Blockschip]

It's a shame. When we cruised Celebrity (Zenith I think) on our honeymoon back in 2001, we had a port stop in Caracas (La Guaira). Beautiful city and great people.

[Covepointcruiser]

The last time I was in the port for Caracas, on the QE2, I started down the gangway.    At the bottom of the gangway there were two young soldiers with large assault rifles, I immediately turned around and stayed on the ship.   I was not comfortable with a port where heavily armed soldiers were needed to guard the ship.   Why don’t the ABC islands welcome all of the refugees?   Many in the U.S. expect us to open our borders to all refugees.   The people in Venezuela are starving and they deserve our compassion.

[Baron Barracuda]

We were in Curacao last October and floating market was open for business.  As I understand, those boats operate in teams with one staying docked in Curacao for long periods of time while others shuttle back and forth to Venezuela to resupply them with merchandise.  Resupply effort could be impacted by increased police activity.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Baron Barracuda

[chuly]

1 hour ago, Covepointcruiser said:

The last time I was in the port for Caracas, on the QE2, I started down the gangway.    At the bottom of the gangway there were two young soldiers with large assault rifles, I immediately turned around and stayed on the ship.   I was not comfortable with a port where heavily armed soldiers were needed to guard the ship.   Why don’t the ABC islands welcome all of the refugees?   Many in the U.S. expect us to open our borders to all refugees.   The people in Venezuela are starving and they deserve our compassion.

I Would like to commend You for being the only poster to show compassion for the poor people of Venezuela.  Before the communist thugs turned that rich prosperous country into the disaster it is today all of the ABC islands benefited greatly from Venezuelans shopping and vacationing there. We visited Curaçao last September and a few of the shop owners told me how their sales had plummeted because of the Venezuelan situation.  I pray that they can regain their freedom and can go back to being the wonderful prosperous country they once were.

[Fogfog]

Venezeula is NOT a poor Nation-- It is a nation overtaken by the Socialism (doormat of Communism) that has destroyed the Nation.

 

Our neighbors are in the US LEGALLY-- and are "refugees" of the current gov in Venezuela (an OIL RICH nation) supported by Putin and  the plan for Communism. 

They still own property and have family there.  After being in Havana this year we hear first hand from those in these nations. Our Venezuelan neighbors know all too well.

 

When will AOG, Bernie and Kamala see what Socialism does to a nation and actually GO to Cuba, Venezuela???  And see what socialism does???

 

WHERE is Brazil? Columbia? The UN?   Again Ven is oil rich and mis managed by "free-gov"  socialism

Who remembers when US opened their doors for Vietnam... yet where is Europe or China or Russia  for the people in the nations of South America? 

 

BACK to the point... the ABCs are impacted by shipping of goods... and will continue to be impacted. Will the State Dept change alerts for US citizens--perhaps...

 

 

 

 

[George C]

There was loads of poverty on my cruise in 1983 , loads of shacks one on top of another with no running water or electricity. City of Curaçao was beautiful. 

[myjillian]

20 hours ago, BarbinMich said:

Slightly off-topic, but we stopped at Isla de Margarita, a lovely island just off Venezuela, three times in the early 2000s (twice on Princess, once on HAL).  Wonder if cruise ships still stop there, what with all the problems in nearby Venezuela.  While in Curacao I enjoy watching all the oil tanker traffic, presumably mostly from Venezuela, coming in to the refineries (in the big inner harbor at the end of St. Anna Bay which is more like a canal between the ocean and that inner harbor).  BTW, in the "olden" day of cruising, cruise ships docked in that canal on the Otrobanda side.  On one of our early (1999) cruises to Curacao,  we saw the Carnival Destiny (1996, first of Carnival's "super" ships--at that time the Destiny was the largest in the world at 100,000 GT and 2,600).  It wouldn't fit in the canal so it had to dock where all the ships dock now--back then there was nothing there but the pier and the historical fort--just pretty much scrub land.  Finally, from what I understand many of the vendors (on boats) in the market area of Curacao came from Venezuela (about 10-15 miles away).

The gas station in Isla de Margarita has been closed for awhile.  We miss that port...My grandaughters and myself have some beautiful pearls from there and the tour bus with no windows was always a great experience

[Oceangoer2]

13 hours ago, George C said:

There was loads of poverty on my cruise in 1983 , loads of shacks one on top of another with no running water or electricity. City of Curaçao was beautiful. 

We found it beautiful from a distance.  All those colourful 'huts' on the mountain when you entered the port are actually shacks.  I imagine they're still there, and probably more of them.  The city itself was vibrant but we were warned not to move out of our ship sponsored group while we were shopping the main streets.  And yes, there were armed soldiers at the fenced off port inspecting passports as we left the ship and returned.  Hasn't been good/safe there for a long long time.

[BarbinMich]

I just remembered a website that shows ships scheduled for each port:  http://ports.cruisett.com/.   Isla de Margarita is the only port listed under "Venezuela" and the only large cruise ship stopping there this year is HAL's Prinsedam on March 20.

[BarbinMich]

On 1/27/2019 at 8:03 PM, cltnccruisers said:

The ABCs are less than 100 miles from Venezuela . . .

Actually, they're much closer:  Aruba is only about 10 mi from that strange "peninsula" that juts out from Ven.  and the east end of Curacao is about 40 mi from Ven.

[cltnccruisers]

2 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

Actually, they're much closer:  Aruba is only about 10 mi from that strange "peninsula" that juts out from Ven.  and the east end of Curacao is about 40 mi from Ven.

That's what I get for trying to eyeball distance on a Wikipedia map. 

[cltnccruisers]

2 hours ago, oceangoer2 said:

We found it beautiful from a distance.  All those colourful 'huts' on the mountain when you entered the port are actually shacks.  I imagine they're still there, and probably more of them.  The city itself was vibrant but we were warned not to move out of our ship sponsored group while we were shopping the main streets.  And yes, there were armed soldiers at the fenced off port inspecting passports as we left the ship and returned.  Hasn't been good/safe there for a long long time. 

This got me thinking about police/military presence in the places we've cruised to.  Outside the US, which in our case is Hawaii, St Thomas, Puerto Rico and Key West, I don't recall any port that didn't have a noticeable presence.  Mexico was heaviest by far followed by Paris then St Maarten after the hurricanes.  But everywhere else we've been in Northern Europe the Med and the Caribbean had some notieable level.  The only time it ever really bothered me was in Puerto Vallarta a few years back.  The police were all in pairs or trio in body armor with automatic weapons and looking very jumpy.  Then there were the deuce and a halfs loaded with troops staring straight ahead.  It kind of soured me on Mexico.

[BarbinMich]

17 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

This got me thinking about police/military presence in the places we've cruised to.  Outside the US, which in our case is Hawaii, St Thomas, Puerto Rico and Key West, I don't recall any port that didn't have a noticeable presence.  Mexico was heaviest by far followed by Paris then St Maarten after the hurricanes.  But everywhere else we've been in Northern Europe the Med and the Caribbean had some notieable level.  The only time it ever really bothered me was in Puerto Vallarta a few years back.  The police were all in pairs or trio in body armor with automatic weapons and looking very jumpy.  Then there were the deuce and a halfs loaded with troops staring straight ahead.  It kind of soured me on Mexico.

The only time I remember a military presence in a cruise port was in Cartagena, Colombia in 2008; I don't think they were there on our first visit in 1999.  We last stopped there in 2013 and I chose not to get off the ship in case soldiers were still on every corner as in 2008.  My DH did get off in 2013 but I'm not sure if he actually went far from the ship.  From what I could see, there was a nice park near the port.  The TV show "Amazing Race" went to Cartagena a few seasons ago, I believe, so it must be safer.

[Oceangoer2]

55 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

The only time I remember a military presence in a cruise port was in Cartagena, Colombia in 2008; I don't think they were there on our first visit in 1999.  We last stopped there in 2013 and I chose not to get off the ship in case soldiers were still on every corner as in 2008.  My DH did get off in 2013 but I'm not sure if he actually went far from the ship.  From what I could see, there was a nice park near the port.  The TV show "Amazing Race" went to Cartagena a few seasons ago, I believe, so it must be safer.

 

We were in Cartagena last March...never saw a soldier or anything military.  It was an overnight so 2 tours involved.  Roamed an old quarter, church, sat on a park bench, never felt unsafe.  Now with the close proximity to V....makes me wonder.  Travelling to C again in a few weeks...not taking any tours this time and intended to explore the port.  We'll see how it looks after docking.

[cltnccruisers]

2 hours ago, oceangoer2 said:

 

We were in Cartagena last March...never saw a soldier or anything military.  It was an overnight so 2 tours involved.  Roamed an old quarter, church, sat on a park bench, never felt unsafe.  Now with the close proximity to V....makes me wonder.  Travelling to C again in a few weeks...not taking any tours this time and intended to explore the port.  We'll see how it looks after docking.

We're a few years away from our first ABC cruise but that doesn't stop us from doing some advance research.   We've seen itineraries with and without Cartagena.  Recently we've read several really positive reviews of C - along with 1 or 2 negative.  So for now we'll lean that way.