Hurricane Wilma in Cancun
 

We are staying at the Cancun Plaza Condominiums in February. Does anyone know of the extent of damage at this hotel? Would appreciate any info.

I'm sure info will start getting out by early in the week. Unfortunately all power's still out, and damage along the hotel zone looks pretty extensive.

Cancun has been very hard hit, as you probably know. Even if your condo is in okay condition, I doubt you'd want to stay in that environment for vacation. Many other places will not be repaired and there will likely be fewer restaurants/clubs to frequent. There's been substantial beach damage/erosion, also. I wouldn't book a trip to Cancun until after Easter 2006.

We have the first week of Feb booked at the JW Marriott. Right now, the Marriott has closed the hotel through Dec 31st. We're traveling with our 1 year old so we weren't planning a lot of activities outside of the hotel, although of course we were planning to take advantage of the beautiful beaches.

Please post if you have any additional information on the damage.

Thanks!
Molly

If you must go to a Marriott, why not try the one in Puerto Vallarta. Or if you are going just for the beach, go to Ixtapa. The beach is lovely, the town is clean and the people were wonderful. I love Cancun and have been a number of times, but would wait at least a year before going back, as it was really heavily damaged.

Thanks. We went to the Marriott in Puerto Vallarta a few years back and are looking for somewhere new. We've never been to Cancun and with a little one, it seemed like a good choice. We're going on Marriott points and we were flying Sun Country so that limits our choices unless we want to spend a lot more $$. For now, I've pushed the vacation back till the first week in May.

I understand not everything will be up and running in 7 months...but if we're planning to stay mainly at the resort do you still recommend a year?

Also, a beach question. When people say the beach is gone...do they mean it's now 20 ft wide and it used to be 150 ft? Forgive my ignorance. I guess we'll wait and see.

I spoke to the Palace Resorts in Neuvo Vallarta today. They are on the Mexican west coast - the Pacific Ocean. They are accepting requests for reservations - if you send them a FAX'd copy of your Palace Resorts reservation confirmation form, they'll transfer the reservation from Cancun or Cozumel to them. They said the Moon Palace and the Aventura Palace are expecting to be open on Monday, but the most recent weblogs I've read say that many of the roads are still unpassable in the area. And the airlines are showing flights to Cancun cancelled for another couple of weeks, so it doesn't look good for people with plans for Cancun in the short-term. The address and phone number for the Palace Resorts in Nuevo Vallarta (Vallarta Palace) is Paseo de los Cocoteros 19, Villa 8, Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit, 63732;
Phone from USA: 011-52-322-226-8470

Molly, it will probably be alright to go in May. I understand Cancun is working very hard to repair the damage. Keep checking the posts. Also go to trip advisor, they have message boards with updates.

Feb?!! Oh my, it will be fine in Feb. These people rely on tourism as their main source of income. They are going to be operational well before then. I'm scheduled to go on 11/18 to Riviera Maya, and I'm going ahead with my trip.

Go to www.playa.info for boards moderated by locals, who can give you updates.

Molly - The beach on the hotel strip in some areas was only 20' or less, this is before Wilma. The hotels built walls that when the high tide is in the water hits the wall. When tide is out the beach drops some areas up to 5' to the water. Beach wasn't the greatest walking beach to begin with. Although a great place to vacation for short flights from US & weather.

Is the beach really gone? I saw a great deal for a single person at the Riu Yucatan (Riviera Maya) for 1056 bucks in Dec. That's for a week and includes air (from Detroit) and meals. I'll take 10 feet of beach for that price. And I disagree with Kimp, Cancun has (or had) a great walking beach. What side/area did you stay on? The beach down by the Gran Melia, Omni, Fiesta Condesa was at least 80 feet wide.

The Riviera Maya was not hit nearly as bad as Cancun. Most beaches there are reported to be in good shape.