I visit Cancun almost yearly for the last 8 years and have spent lots of time there during spring break and later on with family. One of the most beautiful places near there is the Xcaret ecological park but I was shocked to here the news of a man who was snorkeling at the underground river who was struck in the head by a boulder from about 20 feet high. The family bought the tckets from their Carnival cruise line and when he got hit by the stone, no one from the ship helped. They disembarked and left his luggage in Cancun. Makes me think twice about going on that underground river swim.

I sort of missed the point. Was the ship supposed to wait for him to recover, or was the he supposed to board the ship with an open head, because of a freak accident???<BR>

Hey you stupid a.. the man died. Now take that one to your stupid a remarks.

Now, where extactly was the "dying" part included in the thread?<BR>Sorry, duhhhh.........<BR><BR>And??????<BR>

My friend,<BR><BR>I live in Mexico and have not heard of any accident in Xcaret. I was in Cancun for 1 week during March-April and did not know anything about it. I have also researched in the internet and found nothing. Do you have any link to that news or any other source to try to investigate a little bit more of what happened?<BR><BR>Cheers,<BR><BR>McH

The story was aired on NBC Nightly news with Tom Brokaw about 2 weeks ago. The man did die in MExico. I would try looking at NBC's website to see if they have anything on it since I am not sure when the actual event took place.

TROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, for the previous poster, I am not a troll. I am just relaying the news that I hard on NBC nightly news to fellow fodorites. If you don't believe it, then don't. Just making others aware.

I too saw the news relaying the unfortunate accident at xcaret. The widow of the man who was killed expressed her views re the Carnival Cruise line, namely they offererd her no assistance at all. <BR>

USA Today and Yahoo News carried a story on Carnival Cruise.Dated April 25th,2002.<BR><BR>They were fined $18,000,000 (for felonies they admitted to )for dumping oily discharge into the water.<BR><BR>They was Two other Cruise lines one in 1998-1999 fined $27,000,000 and $2,000,000 for similiar offenses.<BR><BR>This is not enviromentally Friendly activity.<BR><BR>Link<BR>http://www.usatoday.com/life/travel/...6-carnival.htm

Here is a link to yahoo news just put Carnival Cruise in search at top.<BR>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/

See, <BR>I knew I wasnt crazy.

Hi again!<BR><BR>I have a question, what does the oil dumping has to do with the accident? It seems that the whole story of the fines are based on the first and not on the second one.<BR><BR>Trying to clarify things,<BR><BR>McH

I'm calling bulls--t on this one. A search on Xcaret in Yahoo News and MSNBC turns up exactly zero news stories. Searching both of them for Carnival turns up zero stories about anyone being killed at Xcaret, and I went back pretty far. Seems like someone has a gripe with Carnival and is posting this message in other forums, too, alternaltely attributing the story to NBC or CBS.

Jim,<BR>It's not BS since I have no gripe against Carnival since I';ve never cruised with them. I have been to Xcaret a few times and love the beauty of the place but still wonder about the hidden dangers of the underground river snorkel. I too went online and did searches and could not find anything on the subject but it was played on NBC nightly news a little while ago.

Possibly they were not clear on what type of medical emergency the Cruise line was responsible for. <BR>What could needed to be addressed was do you need extra medical coverage on a cruise.<BR><BR>What I find interesting is that these Cruise Ships are like Cities and they are dumping into the very oceans that we swim in.<BR>I did a Google Search on Cruise Ships Pollution and did It turn up a windfall.

To author Jim. The story regarding the man who died was not a myth. I watched it on NBC around the 17th April. I have no gripe with Carnival, and it is true that all off shore excursions are not the responsibility of the cruise line, however it would have been good customer relations to at least extended some human sympathy to the woman and her children. This is a travel forum and as such it is a place to discuss , give caveats and praise when due.

When someone can point me to one legitmate news story about the Xcaret "incident" I'll agree with you. If this really happened it would be in a newspaper that we can view online.

It definitely happened. I checked with a news service I use at work. The story is dated 4/24/02, and NBC News is cited. Unfortunately I can't view the whole article, just a synopsis, because I pay quite a bit for each article I actually use. You might want to look at NBC's archives.

When someone posts a link here to show me the story, I will believe it. Well.....we're waiting....