Yesterday I talked about the recent armed robbery of 22 Carnival cruise passengers who were traveling in a bus back to the port in Puerto Vallarta during a Carnival sponsored excursion.
I mentioned that the cruise lines and tourism officials would quickly start a PR campaign to convince the public that robberies of large groups of passengers is rare. But it’s not.
There have been at least 100 passengers robbed at gunpoint (or machete) during excursions over the last 3 – 5 years; the majority of them were traveling in large cruise excursion groups.
In 2007, 17 passengers from the Carnival Conquest cruise ship passengers were robbed at gunpoint during a cruise line sponsored excursion after sailing to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The excursion was to the Lethe Estate, an old banana plantation. The Carnival passengers were riding in a trolley when several bandits jumped out of the bush and robbed the 17 cruise tourists. cam. The passengers were terrorized as the gunmen pointed guns at the children on the trolley and took off with the passenger’s jewelry, wallets, purses, cameras and money. You can read the account in the USA cruise blog here.
Since I started Cruise Law News two and one-half years ago, I have reported on 4 armed robberies of cruise tourists in groups between 11 and 18 people.
In November 2010, 17 Celebrity cruise passengers were robbed at gunpoint in a tour bus. While the buds was heading toward a historic site, rocks and branches were strewn across the bus’ path. When the bus stopped, armed robbers threw a large rock into the front window and rushed into the bus and robbed the excursion group.
In December 2009, 14 NCL passengers were robbed during a "safari" excursion in Anese-La-Reye by 4 masked men armed with guns and knives. The robbery occurred at beautiful waterfall advertised as a "perfect place to spend several hours in quiet reflection."
In October 2009, a Bahamian newspaper reported that two "vicious robbers" held a group of 11 terrified cruise passengers from a Royal Caribbean ship by gunpoint in Nassau.
In November 2099, 18 cruise passengers were robbed during an excursion in the Bahamas during an excursion into a remote natural preserve. The passengers were part of a large Segway excursion which contained passengers from Royal Caribbean and Disney cruise ships.
In addition to these incidents, there are dozens of other robberies of smaller groups, involving couples and families, which occur while the passengers are ashore.
When cruise experts and the tourism bureaus in Mexico and the Caribbean islands tell you that such crimes are "rare," take the time to educate yourself. Don’t trust your family’s safety on representations from those who are trying to sell a product. As the saying goes, those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.