NO cruiseships in Puerto Valarta

[Ine]

It was just announced that for the coming 60 days no cruiseship will dock in Puerto Vallarta. Very likely this will also be the case in other ports.

Suspenden Tianguis turístico en México hasta septiembre y 12 arribos a Puerto Vallarta por 60 días.
Cerca de cuarenta mil turistas menos y 70 millones de pesos es el primer impacto al destino.

[Mike45LC]

I hope the economy survives (that is, I hope all of the people dependent on tourism survive).  Once the ships stop coming, the people who provide services and goods to the tourists and crew and ships will start to suffer.  Remember how badly Mazatlán was hurt when it was dropped as a cruise port?  In a month or so, it might be time for those situated well to buy more real estate in PV.

 

My prayers are with you and Hank.

[Ine]

13 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

I hope the economy survives (that is, I hope all of the people dependent on tourism survive).  Once the ships stop coming, the people who provide services and goods to the tourists and crew and ships will start to suffer.  Remember how badly Mazatlán was hurt when it was dropped as a cruise port?  In a month or so, it might be time for those situated well to buy more real estate in PV.

 

My prayers are with you and Hank.

The only ""good""  thing is that it is more or less at the end of the season. Of course this still is about 1 -2 months earlier. Indeed many locals (guides, shops, transportcompanies,  etc.)  that make  money from tourists in one way or the other will have a hard time. They unfortunately in general are not the types to save money for a rainy day. But families certainly will help eachother as  usual. We can only hope it will not last too long for them. (and us)

PS despite the stop ms Rotterdam docked today in Vallarta.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Ine

[Hlitner]

Funny thing about PV's cruise port.  Yesterday (Saturday) we headed to the airport to fly back home. As we neared the port what do we see?  HAL's Rotterdam docked!  We were surprised.  Flying home through DFW turned out to be relatively routine except for a 30 min delay getting through the short Global Entry Line at DFW.  It turned out that a flight, from Madrid, had also recently arrived and those folks had been handed a newly issued government health form.  When those folks got to the CBP agents there was some confusion and delays.  Apparently those folks had to deal with some additional health screening issues.  But for us, it was a normal process other then answering a few extra questions about our recent travel.  CBP did not seem at all concerned about those of us who had been in Mexico.

 

I should also mention that flying out of PVR was completely normal.  We were able to quickly check-in for our AA flight, got through security in about 10 min, and spent our waiting time relaxing in the VIP Lounge...which was not nearly as crowded as the norm.  At PVR there was no health check or health related questions.  In fact, nothing was said about COVID-19 until after we boarded our plane which did leave on time.

 

Hank

[Ine]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Funny thing about PV's cruise port.  Yesterday (Saturday) we headed to the airport to fly back home. As we neared the port what do we see?  HAL's Rotterdam docked!  We were surprised.  Flying home through DFW turned out to be relatively routine except for a 30 min delay getting through the short Global Entry Line at DFW.  It turned out that a flight, from Madrid, had also recently arrived and those folks had been handed a newly issued government health form.  When those folks got to the CBP agents there was some confusion and delays.  Apparently those folks had to deal with some additional health screening issues.  But for us, it was a normal process other then answering a few extra questions about our recent travel.  CBP did not seem at all concerned about those of us who had been in Mexico.

 

I should also mention that flying out of PVR was completely normal.  We were able to quickly check-in for our AA flight, got through security in about 10 min, and spent our waiting time relaxing in the VIP Lounge...which was not nearly as crowded as the norm.  At PVR there was no health check or health related questions.  In fact, nothing was said about COVID-19 until after we boarded our plane which did leave on time.

 

Hank

Even crazier Hank. Rotterdam didnot leave Vallarta, stayed overnight and the cruise seems to be canceled. Saturdaynight and again today passengers are disembarking and flying home! This after the ship left San Diego only 2 or 3 days ago.

Indeed in Madrid and other places in Spain there is a lot of COVID-19, so checkin them was a good idea. As you know in Vallarta till now nothing known, although there seem to be 2 cases in Guadalajara, persons returned from Europe.

[SelectSys]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Yesterday (Saturday) we headed to the airport to fly back home...  Flying home through DFW turned out to be relatively routine except for a 30 min delay getting through the short Global Entry Line at DFW.  It turned out that a flight, from Madrid, had also recently arrived and those folks had been handed a newly issued government health form.  When those folks got to the CBP agents there was some confusion and delays.  Apparently those folks had to deal with some additional health screening issues...  

 

I should also mention that flying out of PVR was completely normal... 

 

I guess DFW doesn't have the same volume of European flights like some other airports.  The news is indicating that places ORD are completely nuts in the immigration areas.

 

My guess is that Puerto Vallarta, including PVR,  and the rest of Mexico will be nuts in a of weeks as the country is not really doing much.  The only thing that I have heard is the the Easter vacations  (i.e., Semana Santa) for kids are starting early and will last longer.

Edited March 15, 2020 by SelectSys

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, Ine said:

Even crazier Hank. Rotterdam didnot leave Vallarta, stayed overnight and the cruise seems to be canceled. Saturdaynight and again today passengers are disembarking and flying home! This after the ship left San Diego only 2 or 3 days ago.

Indeed in Madrid and other places in Spain there is a lot of COVID-19, so checkin them was a good idea. As you know in Vallarta till now nothing known, although there seem to be 2 cases in Guadalajara, persons returned from Europe.

 

1 hour ago, SelectSys said:

 

I guess DFW doesn't have the same volume of European flights like some other airports.  The news is indicating that places ORD are completely nuts in the immigration areas.

 

My guess is that Puerto Vallarta, including PVR,  and the rest of Mexico will be nuts in a of weeks as the country is not really doing much.  The only thing that I have heard is the the Easter vacations  (i.e., Semana Santa) for kids are starting early and will last longer.

The world has become a sea of panic and perhaps it will soon catch up to Mexico and PV.  But until the minute we left PV, things seemed pretty normal.  We dine out every night in PV, and the restaurants we visited this past week seemed to be doing a pretty normal business.  Shelves in the stores were well stocked and life, for us, was normal.  When we got home to Pennsylvania it was a different story.  We arrived at our home airport,  MDT, to find that there were no taxis.  The airport authority only allows one taxi company to pick-up at the airport and they were missing in action.  We quickly got LYFT to pick us up, at about half the cost of the taxis, and went home.  We quickly jumped in our car and went to our usual 24 hour supermarket only to discover that it had closed at midnight (new policy put into effect yesterday).  Then drove over to a nearby Walmart Superstore where the food shelves were nearly empty!  The manager told us that as of tonight they would be closing at 11pm until further notice.   Here in the States, the panic is on and its ugly.  

 

Just a comment about our news media.  We saw numerous TV news reports on yesterday's chaos at both ORD and DFW.  We were at the immigration hall of DFW from about 3:20PM until near 4:40 and did not see any of the reported chaos.  If it happened, it did not happen when we were in the immigration area.  The CBP folks did their best with obvious attention paid to those who had just returned from Europe.  DW was even able to complete her Global Entry renewal interview, which is why we were in the immigration hall for over an hour.  We have nothing but praise for those CBP folks who are obviously working under a lot of pressure and at great personal risk.  The officers were in their usual uniforms and did not wear masks, despite dealing with hundreds of travelers.

 

Having been home for only 18 hours I am already  missing PV.  

 

Hank

[SelectSys]

19 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 

The world has become a sea of panic and perhaps it will soon catch up to Mexico and PV.  But until the minute we left PV, things seemed pretty normal...

 

Having been home for only 18 hours I am already  missing PV.  

 

Hank

 

Glad to you made it home.  Be careful for what you wish for.  In talking with friends and family members in Mexico yesterday people are starting to get concerned and think AMLO is being really stupid.

 

From the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/bolsonaro-amlo-coronavirus-warnings

 

I loved this twitter post :

 

[Ine]

3 hours ago, SelectSys said:

 

Glad to you made it home.  Be careful for what you wish for.  In talking with friends and family members in Mexico yesterday people are starting to get concerned and think AMLO is being really stupid.

 

From the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/bolsonaro-amlo-coronavirus-warnings

 

I loved this twitter post :

 

Unfortunately I can only agree, this are stupid actions.  Hopefully others in the government  will be more serious about this all. Schools are closed, but it should be more then just that.  Also in The Netherlands it took a long time before correct actions were taken.