Mazatlan

[Serious Cruisers]

Are any princess ships currently there?  Assuming they will be cancelling this port due to civil unrest going on?

[Cruise Raider]

20 minutes ago, Serious Cruisers said:

Are any princess ships currently there?  Assuming they will be cancelling this port due to civil unrest going on?

Wow .. I just read about that.  Even the airport is closed so, I would also expect them to cancel calls from cruiseships until the violence is under control.  We are scheduled to stop there early next week … let’s see what happens.  
 

[justafem]

26 minutes ago, Serious Cruisers said:

Are any princess ships currently there?  Assuming they will be cancelling this port due to civil unrest going on?

Aww. darnit!  Mazatlán is my favorite port.  We're there in 3 weeks.  I guess I'll keep an eye on things and hope for the best. 

 

Thanks for letting us know. 

[fpsphil]

Watching this story. We will also be there in 2.5 weeks on the Discovery. If they did do a port sub wonder where they would go instead

[Guest ldtr]

Boarding Discovery tomorrow. Supposed to be in Matzalan in 4 days.

[realnice46]

We will be there on the Royal Feb 6. Hope we receive updates from Princess, but the cruise lines always seem to be slow with updating passengers. We usually find out mor from the passengers. It’s a sad situation for Mexico and it’s people.

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, fpsphil said:

Watching this story. We will also be there in 2.5 weeks on the Discovery. If they did do a port sub wonder where they would go instead

 

If it's not already on the itinerary they will likely substitute Puerto Vallarta. That's what they gave us instead of San Juan Del Sur (Nicaragua) and Fuerte Amador (Panama).  If that's the substitute port I would imagine a lot of folks will be disappointed.

[justafem]

55 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

If it's not already on the itinerary they will likely substitute Puerto Vallarta. That's what they gave us instead of San Juan Del Sur (Nicaragua) and Fuerte Amador (Panama).  If that's the substitute port I would imagine a lot of folks will be disappointed.

We've already got Puerto Vallarta.  As long as they don't overnight us in Cabo or make Ensenada our extra port, I'll be happy.  

 

It's really bad, the drug cartel is shooting military.   

[Guest ldtr]

we stop at pv the day before. Maybe overnight in Cabo

[Guest ldtr]

4 minutes ago, justafem said:

We've already got Puerto Vallarta.  As long as they don't overnight us in Cabo or make Ensenada our extra port, I'll be happy.  

 

It's really bad, the drug cartel is shooting military.   

Over night in Cabo is about the only thing they could do. Otherwise it will be a sea day.

[tonit964]

They could call on San Diego instead. That’s what happened on my Sapphire cruise last September due to the tropical storm in Puerto Vallarta. 

[Thrak]

50 minutes ago, justafem said:

We've already got Puerto Vallarta.  As long as they don't overnight us in Cabo or make Ensenada our extra port, I'll be happy.  

 

It's really bad, the drug cartel is shooting military.   

 

Last time we hit Ensenada we walked through town to Hussong's Cantina. (The original.) Not much of a bar but the Margaritas were excellent. We each had two Margaritas and I asked for a "shot" of Cazadores. It looked more like a double when he poured it. Total bill was $16 US. We probably would have paid that for 2 Margaritas in the tourist bars. The exchange rate was posted on the wall. The bartender was courteous but not outgoing. We will likely go there again the next time we port in Ensenada.

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Thrak

[sunviking90]

It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on cruise ship itineraries going forward. For a number of years before the pandemic most of the big cruise lines had stopped Mexican Riviera itineraries due to safety concerns. I think at one point only Carnival was still doing them. Now, there are so many ships floating around North America as the world is not fully open post pandemic, there seem to be more Mexican Riviera itineraries than I ever remember, from LA, San Diego and even San Francisco!

[Alexv500]

I’ll be boarding the Discovery on the 14th. I have a good feeling they will most likely cancel our call there. Super sad because Mazatlan is one of my favorite ports to visit and I was very excited to visit again. But of course, our safety comes first! 
 

Like others have said, as long as we don’t stop in Ensenada as a replacement I’ll be good. Hopefully we get something a little different like La Paz, that would be nice to to visit somewhere new. Or an extra day in Puerto Vallarta would be nice too. 
 

Hopefully a Princess lets us know soon on what will happen!  

[justafem]

51 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on cruise ship itineraries going forward. For a number of years before the pandemic most of the big cruise lines had stopped Mexican Riviera itineraries due to safety concerns. I think at one point only Carnival was still doing them. Now, there are so many ships floating around North America as the world is not fully open post pandemic, there seem to be more Mexican Riviera itineraries than I ever remember, from LA, San Diego and even San Francisco!

We do the 10 day Mexico out of SF every year for 10ish years.  For us, it's our break out of the winter rain and go somewhere warm.  In the late summer/early fall, we go either to Alaska or Hawaii to beat the Redding hell.

 

Those are just the cruises hubs can go on.  I go whenever I can find a fare below $50 per person per day and I always find those out of SF, especially now that carnival is home-porting from SF.  

 

A couple of our entertainers were on the ship going to Acapulco when the 'incident' happened.  From what they told me, the ship pulled up to the pier, saw the line of heads on pikes and left.  Never got close to the dock and sure never moored. No ships would go to Acapulco, no idea if they restarted, I've never been in dozens of Mexican cruises.  

 

Did anyone else get in on those super cheap April coastals? I'm doing the same B2B as I did last April. 

[fpsphil]

1 hour ago, Alexv500 said:

I’ll be boarding the Discovery on the 14th. I have a good feeling they will most likely cancel our call there. Super sad because Mazatlan is one of my favorite ports to visit and I was very excited to visit again. But of course, our safety comes first! 
 

Like others have said, as long as we don’t stop in Ensenada as a replacement I’ll be good. Hopefully we get something a little different like La Paz, that would be nice to to visit somewhere new. Or an extra day in Puerto Vallarta would be nice too. 
 

Hopefully a Princess lets us know soon on what will happen!  

Unfortunately I don't think they can get the Discovery into the dock in La Paz. Even the Sapphire in Oct looked too big for the dock with the bow hanging off the front a long way. They would have to tender it and I think it would be a decently long tender ride. 

 

Loreto is too far north unfortunately for them to hit PV in 7 days BUT it would be cool if they overnighted in Cabo, made it up to Loreto and then went back.

[4hunters]

5 hours ago, ldtr said:

Boarding Discovery tomorrow. Supposed to be in Matzalan in 4 days.

Please report back if you can, regardless of outcome.

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, tonit964 said:

They could call on San Diego instead. That’s what happened on my Sapphire cruise last September due to the tropical storm in Puerto Vallarta. 

Actually they would have to shift the day of the Cabo stop to stop at either Ensenada or San Diego. Cannot really do that due to the distance from PV to Cabo. So they would need a port between pv and Cabo. They could get to Cabo late on the day Matzalan is scheduled for, but not early enough to  move Cabo a day early. They need to run straight through after Cabo to get to San Pedro on time. So no time to stop at SD or ensenada.

[Guest ldtr]

16 minutes ago, fpsphil said:

Unfortunately I don't think they can get the Discovery into the dock in La Paz. Even the Sapphire in Oct looked too big for the dock with the bow hanging off the front a long way. They would have to tender it and I think it would be a decently long tender ride. 

 

Loreto is too far north unfortunately for them to hit PV in 7 days BUT it would be cool if they overnighted in Cabo, made it up to Loreto and then went back.

La Paz is even further from PV THAN cabo so no time to make a port stop there on the day scheduled for Matzalan

[Guest ldtr]

duplicate

Edited January 6, 2023 by ldtr

[titanguru]

Few years back we were on NCL where they canceled Mazatlan due to safety concerns.  They did Cabo on the scheduled time then sailed 12 miles out of Mexican water for the night and returned to Cabo for a second day.  We sailed to PV on schedule.  Not a fan of Cabo and was looking for our time in Mazatlan but will see what happens.

[Guest ldtr]

4 minutes ago, titanguru said:

Few years back we were on NCL where they canceled Mazatlan due to safety concerns.  They did Cabo on the scheduled time then sailed 12 miles out of Mexican water for the night and returned to Cabo for a second day.  We sailed to PV on schedule.  Not a fan of Cabo and was looking for our time in Mazatlan but will see what happens.

in our case they could not do that because after leaving Cabo they need head straight back to San Pedro. They could reach Cabo late in the day that Matzalan was scheduled and potentially do an evening then the planned Cabo stop. Do not see many other options.

[Alexv500]

1 hour ago, fpsphil said:

Unfortunately I don't think they can get the Discovery into the dock in La Paz. Even the Sapphire in Oct looked too big for the dock with the bow hanging off the front a long way. They would have to tender it and I think it would be a decently long tender ride. 

 

Loreto is too far north unfortunately for them to hit PV in 7 days BUT it would be cool if they overnighted in Cabo, made it up to Loreto and then went back.

True you’re right! I didn’t realize the dock was small in La Paz. Fingers crossed we can get an extra day in PV if Mazatlan gets taken off the itinerary! 

[Guest ldtr]

21 minutes ago, Alexv500 said:

True you’re right! I didn’t realize the dock was small in La Paz. Fingers crossed we can get an extra day in PV if Mazatlan gets taken off the itinerary! 

The problem is the cruising distance between pv and cabo. Matzalan is between the two. Matzalan is 12 to 13 hours cruising time from PV, Cabo is then 13 to 14 hours from Matzalan. If you skip Matzalan and go directly from PV to Cabo cruising time would be atleast 18 hours.  That would mean a normal departure from PV  would mean an afternoon arrival in Cabo at the earliest. La Paz is even further so figure if they wanted to sub La Paz  the ship probably could not get their before 5 pm the day after PV.. Not very practical for a port stop.

 

That also means that in order to make the planned arrival time in Cabo they would need to leave PV by about 10 am on the day Matzalan is currently scheduled for. Not enough time for another day in PV. Maybe breakfast there at most.

Edited January 7, 2023 by ldtr

[tonit964]

2 hours ago, ldtr said:

Actually they would have to shift the day of the Cabo stop to stop at either Ensenada or San Diego. Cannot really do that due to the distance from PV to Cabo. So they would need a port between pv and Cabo. They could get to Cabo late on the day Matzalan is scheduled for, but not early enough to  move Cabo a day early. They need to run straight through after Cabo to get to San Pedro on time. So no time to stop at SD or ensenada.

Thank you for that explanation, it makes complete sense. I was just thinking because my cruise substituted PV for SD, they could do the same but I was comparing apples to oranges so to speak.