Costa Maya Out ????????

[datonamanmike]

looks like costa maya is out .

i could be wrong

our cruise leaves on sept 1st

costa maya was to be our first stop

now we can speculate on where our

first will be lol

its funny that stop is the only one

we didnt plan a shore excursion

call me lucky i guess

of course everyone affected by dean is in our prayers

we live in south florida and know all about the hurrician thingy

so whos first ?? where will our stop be????:)

if it were up to me we would just have another fun day at sea :)

[Gunnyman]

The ship could go 100 miles off shore and go around in circles for a week, I'd be happy. :)

[Wennfred]

Has to be out,they got slammed by Dean.

 

 

Fred

[GoinCruisin]

It will be a long time before anyone goes back to Costa Maya I'm afraid... having been there 4 times, it was always my favorite place and I'm heartbroken about it :( So sad... There is speculation over on the Costa Maya forum... check there. I would say Veracruz, or somewhere in that area, but I'm not sure how much clean up is required there. They have done Progresso in the past, and may do Cozumel if you aren't scheduled to stop there. Don't worry, they will do something... Costa Maya was a replacement port for many cruises when Cozumel was hit, and they just kept it on the itinerary, so there are other options. Good luck and have a great cruise!

[Jobeth66]

The ship could go 100 miles off shore and go around in circles for a week, I'd be happy. :)

 

Me too!! :)

 

Meetcha in the bar? ;)

[beachbum6264]

The ship could go 100 miles off shore and go around in circles for a week, I'd be happy. :)

 

Me too! And I'll be right there with you! Wonder where we'll go? I wouldn't mind doing the Eastern, either. I guess we'll find out sometime this weekend where we're going :D

[jbellpower]

Well according to Carnival as of 09:00 Central time 08/22/07 They will still be visiting the port of Costa Maya. We sail on 09/03/07 from New Orleans, and they say we are still going to Costa Maya

[tjosh7]

Costa Maya estimates 6- to 8-month closure

22/8/2007

Puerto Costa Maya estimates a six- to eight-month closure due to damage suffered from the direct hit by Hurricane Dean, Seatrade Insider has learned.

‘We believe more than 50% of the pier is gone. It’s a multimillion-dollar loss,’ port spokesman Cesar Lizarraga said.

 

An assessment of facilities is under way and more information will be provided soon. No casualties were reported in the area as of yesterday, but there was heavy damage to the fishing village of Majahual and the town of Bacalar.

 

‘We will rebuild,’ Lizarraga told Seatrade Insider. ‘The region is counting on us.’ The Hamui family, chief investors in Puerto Costa Maya, will soon put forward their recovery plan.

 

Mexican President Felipe Calderón overnighted in Chetumal, 60 miles south of Puerto Costa Maya, and is scheduled to inspect the port and surrounding area today.

 

Lizarraga is starting to call on cruise lines in South Florida to discuss the future. He anticipates operators will redeploy ships to Western Caribbean ports such as Roatán and Belize while Costa Maya is rebuilding.

[GoinCruisin]

Well according to Carnival as of 09:00 Central time 08/22/07 They will still be visiting the port of Costa Maya. We sail on 09/03/07 from New Orleans, and they say we are still going to Costa Maya

 

They generally don't make an announcement this soon. And they obviously haven't updated their site.

 

But you can be pretty sure it won't be Costa Maya :( Apparently the pier was "half washed away" and from the pics, there wouldn't appear to be much left of the village.

 

[Caliber1]

Holy crap, where did you find the pics Chris? Looks like south Fla did after Andrew.

[LHP]

Holy crap, where did you find the pics Chris? Looks like south Fla did after Andrew.

 

The pictures can off the AP wire. It is very sad.

 

Carnival will probably use Belize, Progresso or Calica as an alternative. They are all in the same "area".

[GoinCruisin]

Holy crap, where did you find the pics Chris? Looks like south Fla did after Andrew.

 

There are a ton on Yahoo and Reuters... http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070822/photos_wl_afp/99f5f6708586ec10b3a097f2fb7a1b3e&g=events/sc/091905hurricanes;_ylt=AkDh.vJHMOUpKBQ4IiUJD6a9IxIF

 

Yup, that is what people were comparing it to yesterday. This was the 3rd most intense hurricane to ever make landfall... and it hit dead on to Costa Maya... It's going to take a while to recover. So sad :(

[kelz66]

The pictures can off the AP wire. It is very sad.

 

Carnival will probably use Belize, Progresso or Calica as an alternative. They are all in the same "area".

 

Been to Belize and would love to go back, but I would rather have Costa Maya.

[GoinCruisin]

Been to Belize and would love to go back, but I would rather have Costa Maya.

 

And Belize got pretty banged up too... but they will pull together much sooner than Costa Maya will. I agree, give me CM any day...

[98Charlie]

The pictures can off the AP wire. It is very sad.

 

Carnival will probably use Belize, Progresso or Calica as an alternative. They are all in the same "area".

 

I'm thinking Roatan could also be an optional port to replace Costa Maya.

 

Don't know how far along RCI has gotten building the new pier area at Roatan since I was there last in May, however, the existing pier can accommodate 1 ship and they do have the ability to tender in at least 1 additional ship a day, maybe 2.

 

Dianne

[Mikel1733]

They generally don't make an announcement this soon. And they obviously haven't updated their site.

 

But you can be pretty sure it won't be Costa Maya :( Apparently the pier was "half washed away" and from the pics, there wouldn't appear to be much left of the village.

 

 

 

Fortunately it sounds like there was no known loss of life. I can only imagine that in 6-8 months Costa Maya and the rest of Yucatan will be on their way to being even bigger and better.

[Wennfred]

Fortunately it sounds like there was no known loss of life. I can only imagine that in 6-8 months Costa Maya and the rest of Yucatan will be on their way to being even bigger and better.

 

Reports has 10 dead so far in Costa Maya and 2 dead in Belize.

 

 

Fred

[98Charlie]

Reports has 10 dead so far in Costa Maya and 2 dead in Belize.

 

 

Fred

 

 

Fred, where did that report originate? I've been thinking for the past 24 hours that there was no way that storm could barrel through there and not result in some death.

 

Dianne

[Mikel1733]

Reports has 10 dead so far in Costa Maya and 2 dead in Belize.

 

 

Fred

 

Thats sad to hear. Its amazing the number is fewer than the number here in the U.S. this week from flooding in the midwest.

[GoinCruisin]

Fortunately it sounds like there was no known loss of life. I can only imagine that in 6-8 months Costa Maya and the rest of Yucatan will be on their way to being even bigger and better.

 

We will probably never hear about the loss of Mayans, many of whom surely didn't leave their "stick huts", or who use tree roots to ride out hurricanes :( Sadly, I don't see how many of them could have survived this...

 

The sad thing is, this place isn't like Cancun or Cozumel... they can't bounce back like areas that have other sources of income... the cruise industry was their income (other than fishing, but they have become reliant on the cruise industry)... Getting in and out of the village will be very difficult for a while, and the homes are gone... it will be harder for a small village like this one to recover, than somewhere like Cozumel or Cancun.... so while the media may say "Mexico dodged a bullet and the worst of the damage was done to a sparsely populated area", those of us that have been there know that this was no dodging of the bullet :( It's very sad... I do think the cruiselines will step up and try to get things rebuilt as quickly as possible. Costa Maya has become a popular port for them... and hopefully they will not let it take longer than the 6-8 months projected.

[010907]

Well, we're leaving Sept. 2 and Belize and Costa Maya were two of our ports of call. Hoping we'll still make it to Belize, but don't know what will happen with Costa Maya. Roatan is also one of our ports of call, so I guess we can eliminate that one from the list.

 

Anyhow, it'll be a great honeymoon and I'll be praying for those who are affected by Dean.

[GoinCruisin]

Well, we're leaving Sept. 2 and Belize and Costa Maya were two of our ports of call. Hoping we'll still make it to Belize, but don't know what will happen with Costa Maya. Roatan is also one of our ports of call, so I guess we can eliminate that one from the list.

 

Anyhow, it'll be a great honeymoon and I'll be praying for those who are affected by Dean.

 

Depending on how many ports you have, you may just have a sea day... or Progresso may be an option. Belize appears to be up and running... so you should be okay there. Depending on schedules, Cozumel may be an option. Hang tight... now that news is coming out of Costa Maya, I expect Carnival will be making announcements soon, but they have to get things squared away with the other ports as well... good luck and have fun!

[98Charlie]

We will probably never hear about the loss of Mayans, many of whom surely didn't leave their "stick huts", or who use tree roots to ride out hurricanes :( Sadly, I don't see how many of them could have survived this...

 

The sad thing is, this place isn't like Cancun or Cozumel... they can't bounce back like areas that have other sources of income... the cruise industry was their income (other than fishing, but they have become reliant on the cruise industry)... Getting in and out of the village will be very difficult for a while, and the homes are gone... it will be harder for a small village like this one to recover, than somewhere like Cozumel or Cancun.... so while the media may say "Mexico dodged a bullet and the worst of the damage was done to a sparsely populated area", those of us that have been there know that this was no dodging of the bullet :( It's very sad... I do think the cruiselines will step up and try to get things rebuilt as quickly as possible. Costa Maya has become a popular port for them... and hopefully they will not let it take longer than the 6-8 months projected.

 

I agree that Costa Maya and Majuahal are not like Cancun or Cozumel and that it will take longer to rebuild. I do think what has been destroyed will never be rebuilt, however.

 

The Costa Maya pier area as we've known it over the past few years will probably be rebuilt. There's too many big investors in resort areas there for that pier not to be re-enacted, so to speak.

 

Let's face it, the pier area there was built to be like a movie stage and designed to get cruise pax to ``stay here and shop'' here. Majuahal, however, started out as the focal point for that stop -- a small fishing village that offered some true R&R for people who just wanted to relax on the beach and let the world go by. The waters were too shallow at Majuahal to accommodate cruise ships so Costa Maya was constructed to be the ``jumping off'' point for an R&R adventure.

 

When the area is rebuilt (and I have no doubt it will be), the area around Costa Maya pier will look like every other resort area along the Mayan Riviera. Big hotels and resorts along the beach and shopping malls for as far as you can walk.

 

A Majuahal may be rebuilt, but not the same Mahjuahal we have all learned to love over the past few years. It will become a mega mall like Roatan is quickly becoming thanks to the building of a new pier area there.

 

Saddest part of the entire scenerio I just described is that the Mom & Pop vendors we've all learned to love and enjoy through the years won't be able to afford the rent prices of the new Costa Maya-Majuahal area when it's rebuilt.

 

Dianne

[kelz66]

(9:20 a.m.) -- More than a day after Category Five Hurricane Dean smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula, the eye making landfall near Costa Maya, news is beginning to surface about the fate of one of Mexico's most popular cruise stops. Preliminary reports indicate that the dock will be out of commission for the next six to eight months as more than 50 percent of the pier is believed to be gone. Vessels scheduled to head to Costa Maya and Belize, just over the border, had already been re-routed days ago, but it remains to be seen when they will be returning. The outcome does not look promising.

 

Roatan and Belize City are the most likely candidates to replace Costa Maya on Western Caribbean itineraries.

 

The story is reminiscent of what happened in October of 2005 when Cancun's cruise dock was decimated by Hurricane Wilma. At that point, cruise lines began diverting their ships to Costa Maya, which began to take off as a port. Almost two years later, cruise liners are still required to tender in Cancun, and the pier rebuilding project won't be completed until fall of 2008.

 

Meanwhile, the Riviera Maya, which includes Cozumel, Play del Carmen and Cancun has survived intact. Tourist infrastructure is reported to be undamaged, and most services are returning to normal business operations. This is likewise the case for Belize, which was also spared the brunt of the storm.

 

At this point, Hurricane Dean is a Category One storm with sustained winds of 90 m.p.h. It's expected to make landfall later today over the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

[GoinCruisin]

I agree that Costa Maya and Majuahal are not like Cancun or Cozumel and that it will take longer to rebuild. I do think what has been destroyed will never be rebuilt, however.

 

The Costa Maya pier area as we've known it over the past few years will probably be rebuilt. There's too many big investors in resort areas there for that pier not to be re-enacted, so to speak.

 

Let's face it, the pier area there was built to be like a movie stage and designed to get cruise pax to ``stay here and shop'' here. Majuahal, however, started out as the focal point for that stop -- a small fishing village that offered some true R&R for people who just wanted to relax on the beach and let the world go by. The waters were too shallow at Majuahal to accommodate cruise ships so Costa Maya was constructed to be the ``jumping off'' point for an R&R adventure.

 

When the area is rebuilt (and I have no doubt it will be), the area around Costa Maya pier will look like every other resort area along the Mayan Riviera. Big hotels and resorts along the beach and shopping malls for as far as you can walk.

 

A Majuahal may be rebuilt, but not the same Mahjuahal we have all learned to love over the past few years. It will become a mega mall like Roatan is quickly becoming thanks to the building of a new pier area there.

 

Saddest part of the entire scenerio I just described is that the Mom & Pop vendors we've all learned to love and enjoy through the years won't be able to afford the rent prices of the new Costa Maya-Majuahal area when it's rebuilt.

 

Dianne

 

I agree... it is very sad, but you are so right.

 

The reports out of Mexico is that Costa Maya (the port) has been "demolished" :( Demolished is such a hard word to swallow... and that any buildings that are left standing will have to be torn down due to the foundation damage. Note where it states only 6 pieces of the pier can be seen now :(

 

This is "loosely" translated:

 

MAHAHUAL, OTHON WHITE P., 21 of August. - The huracanados winds of “Dean” in category five, literally “disappeared” this developing tourist center, because the waves and swells that hit at dawn of this Tuesday, destroyed the rising tourist infrastructure almost totally in where the crown of this project, the wharf of cruises Mayan Coast, “it had left fact “pieces”.

The worse thing is than the hotel supply that is considered in approximately 700 quarters of hotel, would have to demolish itself because their foundations were exposed by the attack of the waves and mareja of the hurricane “Dean”, who also left exposed totally the roots of the palms, in some establishments was accumulated until a meter of sand, because in some cases the windows the floor evenness had left “”.

And it is that the team of reporters of BY THIS! of Quintana Roo, it stated that the impact of the hurricane “Dean”, “devoured” all type of buildings, destroyed part of the hard road, “took” the beach and in return it left thousands of stones, it ruined the wharf of cruises and it devastated with the 80 percent of the restaurantera industry, nautical services and hit to the hotel profession, without until this day they have been possible to quantify the damages, since this region is “guarded” by elements of the Navy of Mexico.

It is necessary to mention that although almost the totality of the buildings of concrete remained still on, his laying of foundations was washed and therefore it implies the total demolition, because they already are uncertain for his use.

BY THIS! of Quintana Roo, she was witness of the arrival of the first inhabitants of this zone who took shelter of the hurricane “Dean” in houses of relatives and friends who are in the community of Lemons, from where about noon began to arrive at Mahahual for the revision of the damages that caused that meteor in each one of the properties of its inhabitants.

Incredulity

The first settlers who practically arrived were stupefied when “a stone sea” gave the welcome them, and observed a squad of elements of the Navy of Mexico, that stopped on stones, also observed the destruction of which it was his operational base in this community.

The face of each one of the settlers who were arriving was more than eloquent, because with the hands in the head they only reached to say “simply is nothing”, “it finished”, whereas with face of uncertainty, incredulity and grief, was one that until some tear spilled when it resisted to think that the hurricane “Dean” practically left them without anything, as it assured the municipal delegate at the time of observing the damage that was caused and of that “it supposed” that someday it would happen to be in front of the sea.

One by one, or in small groups, including children they went arriving at the town in where personal of the Navy of Mexico, he gave some instructionses to them, mainly not to remove no from the properties until the verification has become physical, in order to avoid some complication with the law before the looting suspicion.

To arrive at the Mayan coast hours after the impact of the hurricane “Dean” is until dangerous before the great amount of trees and another type of vegetation that is obstructing the highway that did not suffer damage some and that makes difficult the circulation to vehicular until the entrance of the town, where “the Light” became the dumb witness from the damage to a section of the hard road, of the disappearance of the access road and of the beach that took the sea, whose destructive force by the surge and swell, it finished “taking” whole walls of concrete that were sent to the distance.

White Gerald Hernandez, Guadalupe Esquivel Tuz, Martha Isidro, Ignacio Romero, Carlos Register Ramon, own municipal delegate Margarito Mayorga May, and the harbor master Jorga Iván the Moral Avilas, was only some of the settlers who when arriving at the town in this Mayan coast, did not reach to give credit which they saw, since complete restaurants, palapas of all type of sizes, and until building of stony structure, did not offer any resistance before the attacks of the meteor that when entering this coast, “investigated” the foundations of different structures and it took them from his base, destroying everything to their step, in as much that others were seriously damaged in their infrastructure, since “Dean” “took” complete walls, or that succumbed before projectiles of the stature of “palms” that as “wild sows” finished demolishing some structures.

“To speak of damages is little before the almost total destruction of Mahahual, because the 80 or 90 percent of which it existed in restaurants, hotels and other services, they have disappeared or suffered some damage, because it turns out very impressive to observe this panorama”, it affirmed Mayorga May, at the time of noticing itself of the presence of the team of reporters of BY THIS! of Quintana Roo.

For the Moral Avilas, recently named like person in charge of the Harbor authorities, the swell of the hurricane “Dean” was fatal for all infrastructures, because “it unearthed” everything and it sent it far, and in the case of the building that until the last week was its center of work, it will be necessary an evaluation because the damage is evident.

“I already remained without offices. Only there is sand and more sand”, said.

While, as opposed to which it was his food business, the municipal delegate only observed by several minutes soon to affirm that “now only it is to apply to us with greater force of will and to begin again, because this someday had to pass by the location that have those establishments.

“Everything was not lost at least, is the house, but it is necessary to review it to see its conditions, and as well as I am, is most of the businesses whose proprietors will begin to arrive to verify the impact of a hurricane that the dawn of this Tuesday punished with all its forces to this developing pole.

And to make matters worse, also the wharf was lost, was the commentary of more of an inhabitant than between stones, woods, palms, laminae, walls of concrete and until turned around vehicles, “also the wharf of cruises took” and without that infrastructure the town would be condemned to suffer by that knows how long.

In the route that made the equipment of BY THIS! of Quintana Roo, as soon as it hit the hurricane “Dean”, the almost total destruction was verified, of which until the last week it was a mighty tourist development, and who today its panorama became radically, because the sea took the beach and “buried many things that now their proprietors after the valuation will have to rescue, as it were the case of Carlos Register, that he unearthed some of the crafts that along with sold four people more in a business than also it succumbed to the attacks of the hurricane.

The destruction that left the meteor was almost total in at least the first kilometers of infrastructure, whereas the network of the electrical laying was reduced to piles of damaged posts, many of which also as dumb witnesses gave the welcome him all that that she managed to arrive in this first day after the meteor.

Pieces the wharf of cruises

In fact, to arrive at this region is impressive before the wave of damages that caused the hurricane “Dean”, because he is well-known who by the swell the infrastructure in general of the wharf of cruises, including the dockage platform, was severely deteriorated, because to mention an example, only six “small sections” of the wharf could be observed at a distance, since according to that Víctor said to be called Baptist, were affected around 300 meters of that structure.

It narrated to BY THIS! of Quintana Roo, that along with three people remained protected more in an area of the port, in where “not even we wanted to show” before “the howl” of the hurricane “Dean” who let feel his greater force about the three and average or four in the morning of this Tuesday.

“We did not want nor to show itself. Everything was tronidos and to rugir of the sea and the wind, and we only listened as they fell and the things were pounded, but never wanted to see, but until already everything was past, we verified the destruction of the infrastructure, that we will begin to recompose as soon as they issue the order, but is lamentable and impressive what it was of everything what existed”.

(Víctor Fields)