My advice to all those worried about their vacations on Cozumel

[ggunn]

In a word, patience.

At this point in time, no one, not even the folks who are there, knows the true extent of the damage on Cozumel, other than that it is pretty bad. For those with trips scheduled for the next couple of weeks, I understand that there is some sense of urgency (and IMO a high probability that your trip will be postponed), but for those who have Thanksgiving and later trips scheduled, trying to determine right now what conditions will be in a month or six is an exercise in futility. In a few days or a week, a lot more information will be available and the appropriate decisions can be made, but for now, my advice is to chill.

 

[docmartin]

words of wisdom

 

[Divedoggie]

Amen

 

[lilycat]

I agree and would like to wait. We will continue to explore options b/c one of the people in our party has allergies to things like mold that could present a problem.

We are concerned for those in Cozumel. For ourselves, we are terribly disappointed - we just like Mexico and would rather go there than anywhere.

I noticed that most the people on this board are the kind who want to do the right thing by everyone. I think that's encouraging. I think the support will be there to get Coz back on her feet even if a few vacations go another way. There is more than the vacation fund to tap.

 

[Divedoggie]

In a word, patience.

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Exerpts taken from a post by" Kathy in Texas ", from Aldora Dive hurricane report.

October 24, 2005

General Damage of note (from south to north):.

All waterfront hotels to the south have suffered catastrophic damage but the extent is not known at this time.

Day beach resorts where our surface intervals have been taken are certainly damaged if not gone.

Chankanaab Park has disappeared.

Caletta Harbor suffered severe damage to many boats. The Living Underwater boat is sunk and lies underneath a huge Dive Paradise boat which is upside down. Most if not all of the Dive House boats are wrecked/sunken, as are most of the boats in the harbor.

Puerta Maya has disappeared. That includes the buildings and the pier. Paradise Reef is now safe from Cruise Ships.

Car and Truck Ferry Pier is damaged limiting the arrival of supplies.

The International Pier (for years the only cruise ship pier) is damaged and missing a section in the middle.

The dry marina (boat yard) next to Caribe Blu (still standing but seriously damaged), where many boats are stored on land.... it will be quite some time before the large dive boats in dry storage there can get into the water.

The Aqua Safari pier is gone as well as the remains of the Pro Dive Pier. The Aldora Pier seems to be ok and usable.

The airport runway is ok and can support flights but the control tower is damaged as is the terminal building.

Puerto Abriggo, home to many of the larger boats, suffered many casualties too but we did not have time to survey them. Maybe 50% were damaged.

Complicating that effort will be that Cozumel will be competing with Cancun for support and it may be difficult to get done as quickly as we have in past hurricanes.

[I]The availability of dive boats will be an issue. However more than 50% of the fleet is now damaged or completely destroyed and it is difficult to determine how long it will take to get them all back in operation.[/I]

Another consideration is the availability of power for the compressor shops. That should be going within a week. However, given the focus on "recovery" it is possible that the authorities may ban commercial activity for some time, and that usually includes dive boats.
Hotels

Most of the large hotels are severely damaged and some may not be reopened at all. My guess is that some may make it to reopen by Christmas.
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We all want to go to Coz ASAP, but it may take awhile. We are victims of media fed, "instant gratification." This is a disaster, and it may take awhile to sort things out! Its the same thing that the press doesn't understand about Katrina. You can't fix things like, "catastrophic", "completely destroyed", "sunk, disappeared, ruined, or severely damaged, immediately. It takes time.

 

[cxg31s]

I agree--I have a group scheduled to go to Coz Thanksgiving week, but we are waiting until we get official word from Funjet before we make any decisions. If they cancel our trip, we're going to try to get scheduled air and stay at one of the hotels in town. I still want to go--they need our money more than ever, so we're going to support them any way we can!

 

[Moodiejeff]

In a word, patience. <snip> my advice is to chill.

Thank you Gordon for putting it so eloquently, and more importantly, calmly. I, on the other hand...

I am about to strangle some of the people on this board --- RELAX!

Gordon, Kent (Divedoggie) & others have nailed it on the head in this and other posts... Nobody knows anything at this point except that there is significant damage. Look at the Aldora thread... it sounds like half the boats are underwater. Even if some of the dive ops are ready to go out it's the governments call in the end.

You're booked in the next few weeks? Guess what, you're not going. They don't want you...yet. You will be a burden on them until there is an infrastructure to handle you. Give them a chance to clean up, it's gonna take a while. Once they're ready for you, you'll hear about it, Trust Me. Everybody down there will need your help. Think about donating some money, donating your deposit or let your deposit stand until you reschedule. If you can postpone please do so, if not, there are a lot of other great destinations to choose from but the people of Coz will want you back... badly.

Look at The Cayman Islands - when they were hit by a hurricane it was months before the government let tourists back in... is that what's going to happen in Coz? Who knows at this point? Patience.

It's gotta be tough to have a trip planned and everything be up in the air like this... but please, if at all possible, give it a few more days 'til things get sorted out. Once electricity is restored, all your questions will be answered by people in the know - the residents of Cozumel.

 

[Amy WJ]

So true. We were on Grand Cayman last year when Ivan destroyed the island. The ONLY thing that concerns people right now is survival: food and water. One can't even begin to imagine how devastating this experience can be until they've experienced it firsthand. At least the tourists have the luxury of being able to leave the island (once the airlines are safe to land). They have a dry home, hot food and hot shower to go home to. The locals don't. We need to be respectful of the human beings who are suffering through this, and stop being so damned selfish (for a change).

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Our shops trip was in a week. We've canceled. We will rebook of course.

 

[Missdirected]

So true. We were on Grand Cayman last year when Ivan destroyed the island. The ONLY thing that concerns people right now is survival: food and water. One can't even begin to imagine how devastating this experience can be until they've experienced it firsthand. At least the tourists have the luxury of being able to leave the island (once the airlines are safe to land). They have a dry home, hot food and hot shower to go home to. The locals don't. We need to be respectful of the human beings who are suffering through this, and stop being so damned selfish (for a change).

So very true. They do not need the burden of tourists right now. As everyone has said...in time. We were due 2 go in two days. We r now having to go 2 Aruba - tried some other spots like Bonaire but the airline was booked. Should b interesting, some of those "fly by the seat of your pants" vacations turn out great! Can't wait until they are all put together again in Can and Coz and life can resume to normal for them.