I heard that sometimes tourists that do not go on the ship’s excursions and choose to rent cars can get in trouble with the Mexican Police. I heard that sometimes tourists need to bribe the Mexican police in order to not be detained (a.k.a. arrested).<BR><BR>Has anyone ever had such an experience?<BR><BR>Is this just rhetoric propagated by the cruise industry to sell the shore excursions?<BR>

As a former cruise director I can tell you, Yes cruise passengers are told a lot of things specifically to scare them. <BR><BR>We are taught how to push the excursions and scaring passengers is the main way to achieve that. Also, we tryand scare passengers into thinking that they will miss the ship if they venture out on their own.

Finally, an honest man. I wish Paul could read this, but alas, he's on vacation.

I have heard the same thing about the mexican police taking bribes.

My husband hit a bus opening a taxi door in Mexico. Police came and threatened to take him to jail unless he paid them $500. After informing them that we had called the American Embassy and they were on their way, the fine was immediately reduced to $100. We paid it just to get the heck out of there.<BR>True story......

mexican police have machine guns and I have heard stories about them raping female tourists. Is the raping stuff true?

Whoa - I never realized how rough Mexico really is. I was considering a cruise to Mexico - but now I have changed my mind and I am looking into a cruise to the Eastern caribbean.