22 Carnival Cruise passengers robbed at gunpoint on ship-sponsored tour in Mexico

[ACDSNY]

My family will be on the MR disney cruise leaving last week of April. We are booked for the Las Caletas excursion for our day at PV. My gut is telling me that it should be fine but considering my group is travelling with 4 small children all under the age of 5, I wanted to get some opinions here from those that have done this excursion as to how safe they felt. Do we get the catamaran to the island straight off the cruise ship or do we need to take a bus ride to where the catamaran is? I would really prefer no bus rides! Any thoughts or advice will be welcome! Thanks!

No you don't ride any buses on this tour. You basically board the catamaran very close to where the Wonder is docked. It's a very short walk down the pier and around to where the catamaran is docked. There was quite a few of us going on this the last time I went so you're walking with a large group of people. We'll be taking this tour for the second time very soon.

 

[justmestace]

My family will be on the MR disney cruise leaving last week of April. We are booked for the Las Caletas excursion for our day at PV. My gut is telling me that it should be fine but considering my group is travelling with 4 small children all under the age of 5, I wanted to get some opinions here from those that have done this excursion as to how safe they felt. Do we get the catamaran to the island straight off the cruise ship or do we need to take a bus ride to where the catamaran is? I would really prefer no bus rides! Any thoughts or advice will be welcome! Thanks!

I've been to Las Caletas 3 times.
You'll leave the Wonder and walk inside the fenced port area to the boat that will take you to LC. Maybe a 3 minute walk?

The boat takes your group to LC, and if you're on the morning excursion, you will leave Las Caletas before another boat arrives with the afternoon guests...or vice versa.
Las Caletas is NOT accessible by road....only the boat that comes over, so other than the people working there, you will only see other Disney cruisers. Probably the safest excursion in all of Mexico, and one of my favorites.

 

[justmestace]

I think the odds are pretty good that eventually, somewhere/someplace/somehow you or a loved one will encounter some kind of act of violence....be it robbery, home invasion, bad accident....something.......
As long as the cruise ships still say it's safe to go to certain ports, I'll still get off the ship and take a tour of some sort. Life is too short to sit around and be afraid of "what might happen".
We were in a van one time, traveling in Guatemala to the Tikal Ruins, and were stopped by robbers/rebels with machine guns. Luckily we lived to tell about it....but it's been 23 years this month, and we're still traveling!

 

[HartNSoul76]

We are leaving next sunday on the Wonder and this has me a little worried! Do you think that Disney will cancel this stop based on the information and do you think that we will be safe?

We leave in April for the same cruise and I'm going to be watching to see if they do skip this port as well ... let us know what happens on yours please

 

[HartNSoul76]

We are doing Yelapa & Majahuitas in PV anyone done this one ...it's the only excursion I signed on for ... was looking into doing CABO on our own but ... mmmm any advice?

 

[Brumbie13]

Do you think it would be safe enough to go to the Disney Mexican Cooking Class? We've booked and I've really been looking forward to it, but I'd rather be safe than sorry...

We went on this in January. It was a very nice tour and the tour guide was very good. She talked a lot about the safety of PV.

I think you will be fine. But given the nature of the discussion, let me tell you a few things about the excursion.

1) You will first go to a shopping centre that the tour company obviously works with. They will tell you that the excursion isn't ready yet, so you have to wait in the shopping centre. All of the shops are owned by the same people, and they will probably follow you from store to store. They are not pushy, but they are insistent. I wish we had been informed that we would be spending 30 minutes of our excursion at a shopping centre.

2) You will then leave and head back up the road you went down and pass the ship (that's right, the shopping centre is completely out of the way) and go up a little ways. Once you go up a ways, you'll start to head inland. The area is beautiful. You will stop in a small village with a small tortilla factory that is basically a tall room with no front and a couple of machines. They will show you how they make tortillas, and let you sample some. This was a nice surprise. It was cool to see how people live in that area, and the tortillas were delicious.

3) You will keep going for a while, then turn down a road that you wouldn't take your car down, and you wonder how the but makes it. Then you will get to the ranch. The ranch is also where the horseback riding is, so there will be horseback riding people on the bus with you. They will break off and you won't see them again. The ranch is large and beautiful in the mountains. The people who work there are wonderful and the cooking experience is great.


Overall, we loved our experience on that excursion. However, we weren't happy with the surprise stop to the shopping centre. Also, if you are worried about going inland because of what you see on this thread, be warned that you will drive an hour or so inland.

We were not scared, and we did not feel like there was anything to worry about. We would go on another MR cruise, and we would do the same excursion again without fear.


Hope that gave you a bit of insight and helped.

 

[ILoveToRun]

I took a class on politics in Mexico last term and it was frightening. It was a term-long project to create a timeline on the violence, primarily killing, in Mexico over the past 5 years JUST due to the drug wars and mine was 23 pages long... and mine was not the shortest!

The violence in 2011 alone is enough to keep Mexico on the back burner for now.

I do not believe it is comparable to major cities in the US. However, there are place in the US that I won't go to either. Domestic danger, to me, seems less scary than danger abroad. Here, I know the customs, I am used to the policing style and most importantly, I know the language that people are talking.

 

[Disney Dreams]

...We were in a van one time, traveling in Guatemala to the Tikal Ruins, and were stopped by robbers/rebels with machine guns. Luckily we lived to tell about it....but it's been 23 years this month, and we're still traveling!

What a frightening experience that must have been. Glad you were not harmed. You have a great attitude given what you went through. Kudos to you.

- Dreams

 

[towels]

We went on this in January. It was a very nice tour and the tour guide was very good. She talked a lot about the safety of PV.

I think you will be fine. But given the nature of the discussion, let me tell you a few things about the excursion.

...

Then you will get to the ranch. The ranch is also where the horseback riding is, so there will be horseback riding people on the bus with you. They will break off and you won't see them again.

This doesn't seem like a good endorsement for the horseback riding expedition.

 

[rmcildw2m]

I have always said don't go to mexico just for this very same reason .

 

[brentm3]

My family will be on the MR disney cruise leaving last week of April. We are booked for the Las Caletas excursion for our day at PV. My gut is telling me that it should be fine but considering my group is travelling with 4 small children all under the age of 5, I wanted to get some opinions here from those that have done this excursion as to how safe they felt. Do we get the catamaran to the island straight off the cruise ship or do we need to take a bus ride to where the catamaran is? I would really prefer no bus rides! Any thoughts or advice will be welcome! Thanks!

I'm going to back up what others have said. You walk off the Wonder and the port is a secured area...you board the Las Caletas boat right there. You are behind a fence, and there are plenty of these guys hanging around to ensure nobody interferes with your plans.

The excursion was fantastic, by the way...

 

[Joshecho]

I'm going to back up what others have said. You walk off the Wonder and the port is a secured area...you board the Las Caletas boat right there. You are behind a fence, and there are plenty of these guys hanging around to ensure nobody interferes with your plans.

The excursion was fantastic, by the way...

My family went on this excursion and we enjoyed it. I believe there was a safety rule that was overlooked. On the way to the island everyone was handed a flotation device but on the way back to the Wonder everyone just boarded the boat with no flotation device. The boat ride provided a mini-show of the staff and an open bar.

 

[mybeachbabies]

My family went on this excursion and we enjoyed it. I believe there was a safety rule that was overlooked. On the way to the island everyone was handed a flotation device but on the way back to the Wonder everyone just boarded the boat with no flotation device. The boat ride provided a mini-show of the staff and an open bar.

Does the beach and swimming area at Las Caletas get really crowded? Does anyone know if parents are allowed to accompany their children during the activities at the Kids Adventure Park? Will my 2 year old be out of place or will it be fun for him too? Thanks!

 

[justmestace]

Does the beach and swimming area at Las Caletas get really crowded? Does anyone know if parents are allowed to accompany their children during the activities at the Kids Adventure Park? Will my 2 year old be out of place or will it be fun for him too? Thanks!

There is quite a bit of area to spread out on the beach, and it really didn't ever feel crowded.
I do believe that parents are allowed to go everywhere with their kids.
The 2 year old.....you could take some sand toys, bucket & shovel....and there are all types of tame animals to see and touch, it should be fun for him.
Let me see if I can find a couple of pictures of the beach for you.

 

[mybeachbabies]

There is quite a bit of area to spread out on the beach, and it really didn't ever feel crowded.
I do believe that parents are allowed to go everywhere with their kids.
The 2 year old.....you could take some sand toys, bucket & shovel....and there are all types of tame animals to see and touch, it should be fun for him.
Let me see if I can find a couple of pictures of the beach for you.

Thanks so much! Pictures would be great if you have the time. Is there room for the kids to play in the sand and build a sandcastle without inconveniencing other guests?

 

[justmestace]

The first picture is looking toward the beach area, from about the halfway point between the boat dock and the main swimming area. All along here are a few spots with lounge chairs, then there are more in the main area. To the right in the picture are areas with chairs and tables that you can't see in the photo. The area that I had put a circle around is up on an overlook, near one of the bars....my favorite spot to nab a chair or two.

This second picture was taken from my "perch" up there, looking down the beach, back toward the boat dock.

 

[justmestace]

The buildings where you eat, and all of the other activities, are up the hill to the right in the first picture.

 

[mybeachbabies]

Thanks so much for the pictures! It is very helpful to have a visual!

 

[justmestace]

Thanks so much for the pictures! It is very helpful to have a visual!

I took those early in the morning, so it was still a little overcast. The sun popped out later. All three times we've been there, the weather has been great.

 

[Plucker001]

This doesn't seem like a good endorsement for the horseback riding expedition.

ROTFL!!!