Stephanie Serino's Travel Blog

An hour after Carnival's press release, the other cruise lines have followed suit (big surprise). Here is a link to to an article  describing all revised itinerary details. As of April 29 at 10a, the US State Department has NOT restricted US travel to Mexico. The CDC has suggested that Americans avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. The WHO has not advised that any borders be closed or any travel to be restricted. That said, I am advising my clients to cancel their upcoming trips to Mexico.  Most airlines have relaxed their change penalties for tickets to Mexico for travel within the next couple weeks. Here's a link to a summary of airline policies . Many resorts and vacation wholesalers have also relaxed their cancellation penalties and will allow trips to be re-scheduled without penalties. Contact your travel agent for more information. 

Carnival Cruise Lines seems to be the first company to cancel all stops in Mexico for the upcoming week due to the Swine flu epidemic. I received this notification at 8pm.  I predict that Royal Caribbean will follow suit shortly to avoid massive cancellations. Most other lines have their fleet based in Europe and Alaska this summer, which are unaffected areas.   Here's the email: April 28, 2009 Dear Travel Partner, Carnival Cruise Lines has decided to cancel all calls at Mexican ports for all current sailings and all voyages departing on Thursday, April 30th through Monday, May 4th.  In many cases, we will be able to substitute the cancelled call with an alternative port.  Additionally, we are working on alternatives for those itineraries impacted by this decision. Full details will be available by 5pm Wednesday, April 29th. Once final details are confirmed for these itinerary changes, we will send you an automated message listing your impacted bookings for each affected voyage. In...