Puerto Penasco Dock-All Stop

darbone85737 wrote:
Let me guess, Russ..... You're in the real estate/advertising or hospitality business in Rocky Point.

Rocky Point is one of the most unremarkable cities in Mexico. It has nothing to recommend it as a destination, especially if you have to take a plane and 4 hour bus ride to get there.

As far as Mexican nationals, there is no way to compare Rocky Point to places like Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or the beaches in Nayarit which are much closer to their homes and much nicer.

Just my opinion as someone who has been there but has no financial stake in any of these places

Mr. I have been there - done that- know everything that anybody wants to hear. I thought you may like to know that in Mexico City they say the top five beaches that you must go to are Tulum, Quintana Roo - Zihuatenejo, Guerrero - Costa Esmeralda, Veracruz - Isla Marietas, Nayarit - Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. I guess you know more than the Mexicans who kind of live here all the time and are aware of what a great place it is to live. I just thought you might want to know. And no I am not in real Estate or in Hospitality.

darbone85737 wrote:
Let me guess, Russ..... You're in the real estate/advertising or hospitality business in Rocky Point.

Rocky Point is one of the most unremarkable cities in Mexico. It has nothing to recommend it as a destination, especially if you have to take a plane and 4 hour bus ride to get there.

As far as Mexican nationals, there is no way to compare Rocky Point to places like Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or the beaches in Nayarit which are much closer to their homes and much nicer.

Just my opinion as someone who has been there but has no financial stake in any of these places

AGREE 100% with this post.

darbone: You have been very unkind to a person who has done a lot to increase tourism in Mexico. Your words are very harsh and really are just your layman's opinion on PP. Obviously many thousands disagree with you. I also do not think there are very many ( or even any) cruise ships that land in Maz or PP that allow passengers to board in those cities. For a person who has only been on this forum a few months you might rethink your words.

Moisheh

I'm entitled to my opinion as you are yours. You don't know me and I don't know Russ, which is why I posed the comment about his interest. I wasn't being "very unkind" to Russ. I made no personal comment other than suggesting maybe he has a personal financial stake as a Rocky Point booster. From your comment that appears to be the case. Isn't that a fair question?

Living in southern Arizona I would venture that in the past I've been to PP at least as many times as you have. Does that make you the "layman", invalidate your opinion or make mine more worthy ? Hardly. They are opinions, formed by experiences. The length of time I've been on a forum has nothing to do with my real world experiences.

I like Mexico but don't like PP. I think it's a pig wearing a little lipstick. If people like it, good for them. I still think a cruise ship pier there is a fool's errand.

Back to topic or I will close this one.

Admin
RV.net

Some inside reading info.
Top part is about the tourism/port.....bottom is about pier construction stalemate.

I stayed at the Reef 2 weeks ago and there was NO construction going on. The drivers were on strike. Most work they did was walking out on the pier and go fishing......quite well.

I ended up shooting a 10 lb grouper right off the rocks 3/4 way out.

PART V: Economic Impact of Home Port on Puerto Peñasco




In Part IV of our Impact study, we defined some areas of infrastructure needed to accommodate the cruise passenger market that aren't as obvious as those normally envisioned. We discussed how simple the formula is that cruise lines themselves have been using for 40 years that is credited as crucial to their phenomenal growth over that period. It has to do with spoiling (not just satisfying) the passenger. This simple philosophy has virtually guaranteed the cruise lines a passenger loyalty base that has stretched through generations of families, each generation taking more cruises than the last one.



We discussed how very effective it would be for a home port destination to duplicate such a simple formula to capture passenger interest in returning for a non-cruise vacation. Since nearly 80% of cruisers say cruising is a great way to "sample" destinations for planning their next non-cruise vacation it makes this formula a no-brainer for any destination to follow.



So, how do we spoil our visitors? Using the questionnaire format the same way the cruise lines have been doing for four decades: 1.) Ask and listen to the answers; and 2.) Give them more than they asked for. Just one example of giving more than they ask for is illustrated perfectly by Carnival Cruise Lines recent discovery (through questionnaires) that passengers traveling with family wanted water slides for their kids. Carnival didn't just add a water slide to their pools. They added a water slide that took kids through flowing water that spanned four or more decks at a cost of millions of dollars! Spoiled? You bet.



How do we garner information from our cruise visitors with questionnaires? A recent study of how cruise passengers to Hamburg, Germany were interviewed to gather such marketing information revealed that very effective booths manned by volunteers were bustling as the passengers debarked for a day visit and were handed an assortment of brochures and maps to help them navigate around the city.



However, when the passengers returned to the ship at the end of their visit, the booths were closed. Unmanned. So there was no exit interviews to determine if the information they were handed actually helped! This illustrates the importance of careful planning when executing service concepts like these. We can learn from these types of studies, of course.



In PART VI next month we'll continue more in-depth examples of how known habits are exploited by asking and listening to our visitors.

Let's take a walk with home port project Administrative Director, Wendy Winzer, to get the latest on the very visible slow down (O.K., halt) in construction ...



Down by the Pier



In our last walk down by the Pier, we learned and reported in Part IV that there were two main issues causing delays in the overall project. While the dynamite permits were all issued after a delay, the actual blasting did not produce the required size of rocks to continue construction and they had to return to the drawing board and plan another blast date. The second blasting took place on May 19th producing the correct size rocks, thus solving this issue for awhile. During this exercise, the geologists discovered that Black Mountain quarry would not be able provide sufficient tonnage of the very large rocks of the three sizes needed build the pier. They are now studying various ways of acquiring those rocks. One of the ways is to actually cast them out of concrete using the smaller stones from the original blast to fill and shape the castings so allow water flow and settlement needed as with natural stones. We'll keep you updated on that as it develops.



Meantime, back at the union farm (dare we say asylum?) there is a confounding issue with the invoicing by the union. It seems that each truck upon being loaded at the quarry receives a two part receipt-like form which the driver carries to the weigh station located just before reaching the pier. There he enters the weight (this is for statistical purposes), dumps the rocks and turns over one copy of the form to a collector of forms (?) who in turn delivers them to the construction office which is actually one end of a small trailer, the other end of which is Wendy's office. The trucker then turns in his copy of that form to someone at the union contractor's office to substantiate his pay.



When the project began, the general contractor, per agreement, paid an upfront sum to cover the estimated maximum amount of truck deliveries for an agreed upon time. When it came time for the union contractor to substantiate that payment with invoices backed up with those receipts, first the amount of the invoice was far more than could have possibly been delivered by the number of trucks, especially considering the delay caused by the blasting permits; and second, no receipts accompanied the invoice to show how they arrived at the invoice amount.



When asked about the receipts the general was told that they didn't have any. None. But they still demanded on being paid the additional billing amount. Stalemate. Eventually, in fact, he just returned to Hermosillo last week, the head of the project, Director of Tourism for Sonora, Javier Tapia Camou spent last week in town trying to reach an understanding with the union contractor and creating a system that would keep this from happening again. He left believing they had an agreement. At the time of our meeting with Wendy (Friday May 30) no one had heard from the contractor.



Wendy assured us that with an aggressive work schedule they can still complete the project by the end of 2015. And includes taking into consideration some other good news involving the need to extend the pier so it reaches deeper water as requested by the cruise lines who would like to use larger ships than originally planned. Larger ships are trending in the cruise industry nowadays because of demand and new design technology.



As always, We will deliver the facts about what's happening with the home port project to you as we get them, along with any updates.

They went back to work yesterday Monday June 9th 2014. So some of the problems have been resolved for the time being.....this is a huge project, it has a lot of moving parts. At the end of the day it will be a great thing in the cruising world or a fantastic place to fish from. I am bullish that it will be completed and operating before we know it. Heck people that don't even like Puerto Peñasco or the color of her lipstick will be coming here just to see the project as it unfolds...

Hadn't posted much here since we drove our rv to Puerto Penasco in February. (Now I remember why)
There were work stoppages back then on the project, so it continues. For a moment I thought the post was the "We go to Mexico" vs the "We won't go to Mexico" crowd argument until I read some of the posts. Interesting. Going to Cancun next week. Never been there. Maybe I'LL like it. Maybe I won't. Nice if somebody else likes the place but don't really care. I get to decide.

The Texan wrote:

darbone85737 wrote:
Let me guess, Russ..... You're in the real estate/advertising or hospitality business in Rocky Point.

Rocky Point is one of the most unremarkable cities in Mexico. It has nothing to recommend it as a destination, especially if you have to take a plane and 4 hour bus ride to get there.

As far as Mexican nationals, there is no way to compare Rocky Point to places like Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or the beaches in Nayarit which are much closer to their homes and much nicer.

Just my opinion as someone who has been there but has no financial stake in any of these places

AGREE 100% with this post.

Oh come on Texan, you seem to have a good time when we were all there a few years back! Agree it is Mexico Light but still WAS a good place to RV to.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

rocmoc wrote:

The Texan wrote:

darbone85737 wrote:
Let me guess, Russ..... You're in the real estate/advertising or hospitality business in Rocky Point.

Rocky Point is one of the most unremarkable cities in Mexico. It has nothing to recommend it as a destination, especially if you have to take a plane and 4 hour bus ride to get there.

As far as Mexican nationals, there is no way to compare Rocky Point to places like Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta or the beaches in Nayarit which are much closer to their homes and much nicer.

Just my opinion as someone who has been there but has no financial stake in any of these places

AGREE 100% with this post.

Oh come on Texan, you seem to have a good time when we were all there a few years back! Agree it is Mexico Light but still WAS a good place to RV to.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

Carefully read what darbone wrote and then tell me he is wrong! IMO, Bahia Kino is 10X the destination that Puerto Penasco would ever hope to be. To me, PP is a dirty town with nothing to offer, other than good riding on the sand and beach. Like darbone said, it is NOT Mexico proper and never will be.