Save A Sea Turtle Experience Excursion Robbery.

[BallFour4]

Today while we were in Cozumel on the Breeze the Save A Sea Turtle Experience turned horrific when twenty-seven cruisers were robbed. 
 We rode the elevator back up with a couple that were on the tour, and they are working with Carnival to inventory what they lost. 
 

. 
 

[ShakyBeef]

Yikes!  Horrible!  How did it happen?

[tallnthensome]

Do you have more details on this ? 

[BallFour4]

9 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

Do you have more details on this ? 

 No. We just left Cozumel and we talked with a couple on the elevator and lido before we returned to our cabin. They’ve cruised enough to be gold and had never experienced anything like this. 
 This is our thirty-eighth cruise and we’d say the same. 
. 

Edited August 27, 2022 by BallFour4

[silvercrikhix]

That’s awful. Hope everyone’s ok. Nothing good can come from this….

[JT1962]

There are updated warnings for travel to Mexico. Cozumel, Cancun and most of the Yucatán haven’t had too many issues in the past, but criminal activity seems to be spreading to those areas now also. 
 

“While the U.S. government has no restrictions on travel for its employees in Quintana Roo’s tourist sites, such as Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum, it is warning Americans to “exercise increased caution due to crime and kidnapping.” 
 

Tourists are warned to “remain in well-lit pedestrian streets and tourist zones” in the wake of shootings between rival drug cartels that have injured bystanders.”  

 

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2022/08/27/mexico-travel-drug-cartels/7903270001/

Edited August 28, 2022 by JT1962

[Guest BasicSailor]

Sad experience indeed, hope all are well and safe ☹️

[Guest BasicSailor]

2 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

Yikes!  Horrible!  How did it happen?

This !

[pe4all]

Wow!  Very scary. Can't find any published reports on this yet, but this is terrible.  Takes a lot of guts to rob 27 people at once.  Wondering if they were on a bus that was boarded by robber, or walking somewhere as a group.  You would think you would be safe taking a cruise excursion....

 

 

[ZoeyVictoria]

42 minutes ago, pe4all said:

Wow!  Very scary. Can't find any published reports on this yet, but this is terrible.  Takes a lot of guts to rob 27 people at once.  Wondering if they were on a bus that was boarded by robber, or walking somewhere as a group.  You would think you would be safe taking a cruise excursion....

 

 

I couldn’t find any published reports, either, but I did stumble across numerous reports of similar robberies of cruise passengers.  Somewhat sorry I even looked!

[Tradestock]

This is very sad to read and I hope all involved are safe and sound. 

 

Here is a link to the U.S. State Department's travel map

https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/

 

It is updated daily and provides links to the travel advisories for the world.

[thunderingherd11]

5 hours ago, pe4all said:

Wow!  Very scary. Can't find any published reports on this yet, but this is terrible.  Takes a lot of guts to rob 27 people at once.  Wondering if they were on a bus that was boarded by robber, or walking somewhere as a group.  You would think you would be safe taking a cruise excursion....

 

 

I agree.  No real confirmation of this. But we do t do excursions like this because we like to keep low profile.   

[DrSea]

Geez. 

 

Details please. Did it happen when they were off the bus? 

 

Hopefully everyone is safe. Stuff can be replaced. Lives can't be. 

[tweak89]

Anyone have luck finding a link to verify/get details?   Nothing but older articles (and a link to this discussion)pop up.

[ninjacat123]

Doing a search I found this exact post Oct 3, 2021.  Hmmm....

[Joe817]

3 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Doing a search I found this exact post Oct 3, 2021.  Hmmm....

Good catch Ninjacat123! 👍

[knagl]

24 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Doing a search I found this exact post Oct 3, 2021.  Hmmm....

 

It's strange that Google is showing you that the date is from last year -- if you look at the link in your picture, the automatically generated thread ID is this thread -- 2876998.  ...and the original poster of this thread has over 3,400 posts on Cruise Critic. I'm going to give the OP the benefit of the doubt right now.

[groundloop]

24 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Doing a search I found this exact post Oct 3, 2021.  Hmmm....

 

The date shown on that (Oct. 3, 2021) doesn't make sense because the topic number (2876998) is THIS thread.

[ninjacat123]

Just now, groundloop said:

 

The date shown on that (Oct. 3, 2021) doesn't make sense because the topic number (2876998) is THIS thread.

I agree, it doesn't make sense.  Why the earlier date?

[ShakyBeef]

I don't know what's going on with the Google searches and I don't know the details of this story, but I will vouch for BallFour4, as far as I can.  (S)he has been a reasonable, decent member of Cruise Critic for many years, and never a pot-stirrer.  Please, y'all, don't jump the gun and start calling "troll" on this.  Just wait and gather information before you judge and attack.

[ninjacat123]

Just now, ShakyBeef said:

I don't know what's going on with the Google searches and I don't know the details of this story, but I will vouch for BallFour4, as far as I can.  (S)he has been a reasonable, decent member of Cruise Critic for many years, and never a pot-stirrer.  Please, y'all, don't jump the gun and start calling "troll" on this.  Just wait and gather information before you judge and attack.

I agree.  It could be a mistake on BallFour4's part thinking the post was a current one.  Thanks for pointing that out ShakyBeef.

[BallFour4]

Amazing. We are in our last day at sea and met another person in the Diamond and Plat line at Guest Services that was part of the excursion. 
 My cruising experience goes back to the Mardi Gras in 76 and twenty years here on Cruise Critic. My wife and our friends were on the elevator from Deck 0 to the Lido with the first woman that shared this. We have no value in fabricating what she shared. Did she make it all up? Dunno. 
 I do know it was discussed again today from another source. 
 So, for the skeptics, sure, your right. I didn’t monitor the boards here on our last day. We return to Galveston Terminal One tomorrow and I step off my first cruise. I made all the stuff up about past cruises also. Go search my reviews from decades ago. 
 We did a new excursion with a sandbar stop to see stingrays and starfish. We elected not to go into detailed questioning to a woman in tears over loosing her cash and passport. My bad. 
.

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

No...it did NOT happen ON a Carnival cruise. It happened in Cozumel, Mexico. SOME of those involved may have arrived in Cozumel via cruise ship (some on a Carnival cruise ship, and some on other ships), but not all of those involved. This is a shore situation that is completely outside of the cruise line. Don't lazily conflate facts just to support a desired narrative.

 

So far removed from Carnival, they sell tickets to it directly on their website...

 

How many times do people here champion the benefits of booking excursions through Carnival? Now that somebody reports an issue however, the tour is so far removed from Carnival it might as well be in a different galaxy! Incredible

[mar214]

When we book excursions, we leave our good watches, jewelry, etc. in our ship's safe. We travel with only essentials, such as minimal cash, etc. No one can ever plan for robberies, but at least leave the good stuff on the ship. It's bad enough to lose a phone or a camera, but we try to minimize what we take on an excursion. A cheap watch from Target works great. 

[DrSea]

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

Agreed. OP's been on here 20 years.

 

Back in 2007, we were aboard Carnival Liberty when a tour bus (private tour - not Carnival) was ambushed for an attempted robbery. One of the Passengers was retired military who managed to get one robber in a headlock and broke his neck. We heard about it from some other pax while we were in one of the whirlpools, but no one from the crew said anything about it publicly. We had our confirmation two days later while watching the morning news in our cabin. Very surreal, watching a story about your cruise while you're still on the cruise. Here's a link I found about it, 15 years later: https://www.jpost.com/international/us-tourist-kills-mugger-with-bare-hands-in-costa-rica

 

I can guarantee that if something happened in Cozumel on this cruise, Carnival is being as tight-lipped as possible about it.

OMG, IDK what I would do if I were in that situation. IDK if I could even do CPR after the other assailants fled and my safety was assured bc I would be too shell shocked having a gun pointed to my head while on vacation.

 

I am glad CCL didn't leave the pax behind since they were on what sounds like a 3rd party excursion. Bravo. I'd like to think CCL would stay late if the same exact situation happened on a 3rd party excursion today, but it wouldn't surprise me if they would leave early. That would be the absolute worst reason to be a pier runner or miss the all aboard time, esp after having a gun pointed to my head.