Mexican Riviera Excursions Question

[hardingk]

We are sailing on the Mercury in 2 weeks and some of the excursions that I am considering include a beverage or lunch. Has anyone ever done any of these excursions? Is the food safe to eat or the drinks with the ice? The last thing I want is to be sick with Montazuma's (sp?) revenge!

[Nancyquilts]

We usually have a beer so there's no problem there. I think I would avoid lettuce or tomatoes - anything that can't be peeled. I'm sure the tours and the resorts don't want reports of sick people. Nancy

[pbcbbc]

If the tour is through Celebrity, odds are the food is safe. The last thing they want is sick cruisers coming back to the ship! I recently took the Mercury on the 11 day trip. I did several excursions that included lunch. Some were excellent and one was so-so, but no problems at any. Some great Banana Cream Pie, though! Also, I didnt hear of anyone else who had troubles, but lots of great meal stories!

 

And a tip. I rather enjoyed the food that Vallarta Adventures provided at Las Caletas. They run a bunch of the ship sponsored tours in Puerto Vallarta. I liked them a lot.

[hardingk]

If the tour is through Celebrity, odds are the food is safe. The last thing they want is sick cruisers coming back to the ship! I recently took the Mercury on the 11 day trip. I did several excursions that included lunch. Some were excellent and one was so-so, but no problems at any. Some great Banana Cream Pie, though! Also, I didnt hear of anyone else who had troubles, but lots of great meal stories!

 

And a tip. I rather enjoyed the food that Vallarta Adventures provided at Las Caletas. They run a bunch of the ship sponsored tours in Puerto Vallarta. I liked them a lot.

Thanks for the response. Could you tell me which excursions you took?

[Sky Sweet]

We are sailing on the Mercury in 2 weeks and some of the excursions that I am considering include a beverage or lunch. Has anyone ever done any of these excursions? Is the food safe to eat or the drinks with the ice? The last thing I want is to be sick with Montazuma's (sp?) revenge!

 

When we took the Mexican Riviera Cruise, we returned the drinks that contained ice and asked for ones without them.

[cruisePRN]

I always ask for a can or bottle of soda. I worry about the cleanliness of the glass washed in their water. I'm afraid to ingest anything that touched Mexican water because of illness. It's not so much that it's dirty it's just their organisms are foreign to our bodies. Also take along Imodium should you need it.

[Bruin Steve]

We have taken the Sierra Madre Off-Road Expedition in Puerto Vallarta (great tour) and the Sierra Madre, Concordia & Copala tour in Mazatlan a couple of times...Both have meals provided...

We've NEVER had a problem with any of them...

 

We've also eaten many times in different restaurants in Puerto Vallarta and have never had a problem (And I've had many a Margarita in PV, Cabo, Ensenada, Ixtapa, Tijuana et al made with crushed, blended ice). Most of the tourist oriented restaurants use pretty advanced water filtration systems and also use the filtered water for ice cubes, cooking and washing vegetables...They couldn't survive in business if it got out that people were getting sick in their establishments...

 

If in doubt, ask the restauranteur in precise terms if they have a filtration system and if ice cubes, cooking, cleaning and preparation is done with filtered water...

 

Do NOT eat in "local" joints (I mean the places that cater to locals rather than to tourists) or buy drinks or non-packaged foods from street vendors or small shops...

 

But, trust me, if you're in PV and you're eating at Carlos O'Brien's or Le Kliff or Le Bistro or Chico's Paradise...or any of a number of other tourist restaurants, you will be perfectly fine with anything on the menu...

[bryanwal]

We ate at the Shrimp Factory in P.V. Had a great time with wonderful food and no problems. Took an excursion to an island in Ixtapa and same thing. The tourist places use purified water to make the ice.

[hardingk]

Great! Thanks for all the info!

[wave412]

Hi there

 

We've done the Mexican riviera cruise twice, and on three of the shore excursions,meals were provided.

 

On the Las Caletas trip in PV, you go to a beach hideaway, and the food is BBQ style. We didn't have a problem, but we didn't have any ice in the drinks. I do think the drinks were a limeade mix, so they might have had local water in them. All the food was cooked on the spot, so I figured it was pretty safe. Our cruising pals have sensitive stomachs, and they were fine.

 

We've also done the Copala/Concordia excursion in Mazatlan, and they take you to a local restaurant for lunch. I think they gave us canned soft drinks, and the food was pretty good. But that was in 2003, so it might be different now.

 

On our most recent trip, we went on the Beach Getaway excursion in PV. For $38 pp, they take you for a day trip to the Paradise Village resort area, a kind of all-inclusive ClubMed type place. The facilities were nice, and the buffet lunch was pretty good. Only when we were leaving did I realize that my drink had ice in it, but it didn't seem to be a problem. I always carry water with me when traveling, too, but there were plenty of vending machines for canned soft drinks. Paradise Village also has a great shopping mall complex right next to the hotel, and they have a bunch of restaurants including Domino's pizza, McDonald's and Baskin Robbins.

 

=)