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I have. Both places have restrictions for government employees. My threshold for risk to my kids is probably considered pretty low lol!! Mazatlan is way more serious and another person posted that they weren’t planning to get off there even before I mentioned the travel alerts. I wasn’t happy with the port adventure selections so I had booked a restaurant walking tour through the old town in Puerto Vallerta through Viator, and I was so excited about it! I have no idea what roads it would take us on though. There are restrictions on what roads to travel. The news reports in the last two-three days warn that not even resort areas are safe right now/exercise increased caution. Apparently, kidnappings are a huge problem. I wish DCL would send some correspondence about it. Like we are aware is the alerts, this is what you need to know. The first person that replied said they ended up changing their cruise to an Alaska cruise bc of such travel alerts. I don’t know how that sort of change would work - by what date/money wise etc. I called the main number and she literally had no info for me. Is there is a better number to call to speak to someone who might have actual info? Like not just a call center type
Like is it unreasonable to ask what the back-up plan is lol?!
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask at all.
I don't think you're going to have much luck getting to the people making the kinds of decisions you're talking about through the reservations line though. Even if you're able to work your way up the chain far enough they probably won't be all that forthcoming. You'll likely just get a safety of our guests is important and we're watching current developments type statement. JMHO
I was curious so I looked up specific restrictions:
"There are no restrictions on travel for U.S government employees to: Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Riviera Nayarit
(including Puerto Vallarta), Chapala, and Ajijic.
Mazatlan: U.S. government employees may travel by air or sea only. U.S. government employees are limited to the Zona Dorada and historic town center, and must use direct routes when traveling to and from those locations and the airport and cruise terminals."
Since travel to port areas is not restricted I wouldn't expect DCL to make changes to itineraries unless things really escalate and/or there are specific incidents.
ie: last time DCL removed Mazatlan it was after a shooting at a hotel in the tourist area.
For what it's worth we had sailed to Mazatlan about a month before DCL removed it last time. We ventured over to Stone Island, had a great time, and never felt unsafe. There was a travel advisory in place at the time, but it was before the level system they use now.
I'm betting normal cancellation rules would apply if you initiated an itinerary change. You might be able to escalate to a supervisor who would make an exception for you based on your concern over the travel advisories, but that would likely be very YMMV.
As someone else stated I think you just need to figure what you are and are not comfortable with, and that's going to be a very individual thing.
When I told DH about this post we had to laugh about some of the crazy adventures we've dragged our kids on over the years, but you said your risk threshold when your kids are involved is pretty low, so I'm sure our decisions would be different. That's OK though. It doesn't make one of us right and one of us wrong, just different.
Good luck with your decisions and planning.