Disappointment Re Palau

I've been emailing back and forth with a tour operator in Palau all week. We wanted to do a 1/2 day snorkel tour so we would still have a couple of hours to wander the town. Once I knew we had a boat, a number of people wanted to join us, so we had a group of 11 ready to go. At 5 pm yesterday, the Capt came over the ships speakers with an important announcement. He said because of issues regarding the docking in Palau, that port has been canceled! We will continue on to Manilla and stay there overnight instead. The crew was cheering. An overnight means they can go off the ship and party that night. Many of the crew is Filipino so they will have more time with their families.

 

During dinner, in walked the Capt in his dress blues. The dining room clapped, Mel and I did quiet boos. SO disappointing to be missing that port. The Capt proceeded to go from table to table to talk to every person there, it was quite amazing. I told him that he used to be the best Capt on the seas. :) He said that HAL was informed 2 weeks ago that the dock they were going to use was no longer available to them. They'd spent the last 2 weeks trying to secure another one. On top of that, the government was unable to provide up to date marine data. If we ran aground, that would be the end of the World Cruise! So for that reason also, they finally decided to cancel.

 

I emailed my tour operator last evening that we would no longer be going to Palau. They replied that they had called other operators, and to their knowledge, there was no cancellation! They looked forward to seeing us. This morning they said they finally received the cancellation today, at 7:30 a.m. The reason they were given is that the government wanted a $15 per person "green" fee and HAL was unwilling to pay that, along with "other" issues. We get visa charges on our shipboard account for a number of different countries, wonder why that fee would be any different? In the end we'll probably never know the exact reason for the cancellation, but we will miss seeing that country. The Capt said he is pretty disappointed also since ours would have been the largest ship to ever go there, and he's never been either. It was to have been our last snorkel adventure on this trip. Bummer.