The boat tender crisis dominated the headlines weeks ago, but now it has receded into the background - the victim - most likely - of too much hype and too little progress.
But now, according to an industry website called cruise critic.com - there's been a significant development.
Cruise Critic reports that there has been an agreement on the tenders, but warns that it won't put an end to port cancellations by Carnival.
Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher told Cruise Critic that the cruise line had signed a contract with its previous tender provider - which is Eurocaribe, and its tendering subsidiary, Maritime Estates.
As we understand it, Eurocaribe will continue to subcontract the small tender operators - which means that after all these weeks of back and forth, we end as we began on January third.
According to carnival, their ships will now be serviced by larger, more comfortable tenders, and (Eurocaribe) is in the process of acquiring some additional large tenders.
And that's where the cancellations come in: Until those extra tenders are in service, Belize will have a shortage of Carnival-approved tenders on days when Carnival Valor and Carnival Legend are in port alongside Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas.
Carnival Legend has cancelled its Belize call scheduled for March 10, and the next possible cancellation would be Legend's March 24 visit. Carnival says that the new tenders will be in place by the end of March.
Eurocaribe could not give us any comment.
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