Key Aspects:
- Carnival Cruise Line is cancelling all visits to Puerto Vallarta for the next few weeks.
- Carnival Panorama was to have visited on March 3, but instead her itinerary has been adjusted.
- The decision likely impacts all Carnival Corporation cruise lines, and no return date has been set.
Carnival Cruise Line has now become the fourth cruise line to cancel the popular port of call of Puerto Vallarta in the Mexican Riviera due to major unrest. In fact, the cruise line has gone a step further and, instead of cancelling just one call, it seems future visits are no longer an option for now.
Guests booked on the Saturday, February 28, 2026 departure of Carnival Panorama have received the news, including the open-ended nature of the cancellation.
“Our team has been closely monitoring the situation in Mexico and while the cruise industry has largely sailed itineraries as planned this week, Carnival Corporation has made the decision to wait a few weeks before returning to Puerto Vallarta,” the notification read.
This particular sailing of Carnival Panorama is an 8-night Mexican Riviera voyage leaving Long Beach on Saturday. Port visits were scheduled for Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, La Paz, and Cabo San Lucas.
The ship will now be skipping the visit to Puerto Vallarta and another port visit is rearranged to accommodate the change. The visit to Cabo San Lucas will now be on Tuesday, March 3, instead of Friday, March 6, and Friday will now be a day at sea.
The adjusted schedule does give guests extra time in both Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. While the change in Mazatlan is just an extra 30 minutes, a full extra hour has been added in Cabo San Lucas, giving guests a great opportunity to better enjoy the beautiful resort city at the tip of the Baja Peninsula.
The letter notes that if guests have already booked shore tours through Carnival Cruise Line, those excursions will be cancelled and refunded to guests’ accounts if necessary or else readjusted to the new port visits.
While these changes are confirmed only for Carnival Panorama‘s February 28 departure, the ship does visit Puerto Vallarta on all of her 8-night itineraries. The cruise line has not indicated how many itineraries will be impacted, but the language that visits will now “wait a few weeks” does seem as if multiple sailings will be adjusted.
Individual adjustments will likely vary based on berth availability at other Mexican Riviera ports and Carnival should reach out to booked guests as changes for their cruises are confirmed.
The Vista-class ship’s 6-night sailings visit Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas and therefore need no adjusting. On each cruise, Carnival Panorama can welcome up to 5,146 guests and the cruise line will do everything possible to keep each one of them safe.
Why The Unrest and Why Cruise Lines are Cancelling
The recent violence follows the death of renowned drug cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera on February 22 in Tapalpa, roughly 105 miles away from Puerto Vallarta.
The US has Jalisco, the Mexican state where both Tapalpa and Puerto Vallarta are located, listed as a Level 3 “Reconsider Travel” advisory due to terrorism, crime, and kidnapping between cartels and gangs, where bystanders can easily be affected.
Unrest has spread to other parts of the country as well, and violent incidents can occur anywhere, including in tourist areas.
In addition to Carnival Cruise Line’s changes with respect to Puerto Vallarta, Cruise Hive has already reported on similar reactions by Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, and Princess Cruises.
Because the decision has been made not by Carnival Cruise Line individually but by Carnival Corporation, all cruise ships on other lines owned by Carnival will also likely cancel any upcoming visits to Puerto Vallarta for at least the next few weeks.
At this time, there is no confirmed date for when visits to Puerto Vallarta may resume. Cruise lines always keep safety as the top priority and are constantly monitoring local issues that might endanger their guests or crew members.
At this time, no other ports in Mexico are facing similar cancellations, though Carnival Cruise Line has proactively cancelled mainland shore excursions for ships visiting Cozumel. The Cozumel visits themselves are not cancelled, and all tours on the island continue to operate as normal.
