Why the Cancun Bag Drag still makes sense.

[Dave Dillehay]

First: Safety

The ferry wars seem to be over and the target is no longer in operation. Indeed, it looks like the perpetrators went out of their way to not till kill people. And while there were a few incidents in Playa concerning drug gangs, those were gangster vs gangster and it is in no ones best interest to hurt the tourist trade.

But most importantly if you travel from the Cancun airport on the ADO bus, or taxi, you will be departing and arriving at VERY secure places. The bus terminal in Playa is 100 yards from the ferry pier which always has serious armed guards.

Convenience:

Southwest Airlines has lots of flights form Houston Hobby to Cancun every day and they don't charge extra for bags. They also now operate into and out of the very nice new terminal 4. Busses lave every 15 minutes I believe. At the Playa Pier they always have little tricycle guys who are more than happy to lug all your stuff for a few bucks, same at the Cozumel end.

Savings:

The rates do vary over time but the SW into Cancun is always less, and sometimes greatly less than United into Cozumel. I did a check this morning and found there to be $309 per person difference. (United $609 and SW $271) Add a $40 bus and $24 ferry R/T that means each person saves over $200 at least. Again there are times when that changes but check for your vacation time and maybe adjust it to save the most.

I still take the ferries most times as I fly a to out of Cancun to Houston on the cheap at $94 each way airfare.

Happy Travels

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS The Playa Consulate closing was only because their one employee lives in Cozumel and is barred form taking ferries for now.

 

[flyboy08]

Seems like a lot of ifs and maybes to save $200 going direct into CZM...I'm all about making it as easy as possible, not cheap as possible. But for a family of 4 or more, I can see the attractiveness of it.

 

[cvchief]

Cancun is non-stop from Baltimore. I can't get to Coz any faster than through Cancun! Changing planes would make for longer travel times.

 

[cvchief]

Wife is going in April. She will only be in playa like 20 minutes walking down and getting on a ferry. Unless the schedule has that 2 hour gap again with BC ot running.

 

[ReefHound]

I think in cases like this, it's not so much about covering it up or making it up as it is about sensationalizing it and making the story sound bigger than it is. It's one of those "Oh, look at those wacky/dangerous/backwards foreigners" kind of things. Some outlets, knowing the readership/viewership, will go after increased ratings by giving their readers validation of their opinions (like "See? Mexico is a sh*thole! You won't see smart me going there!")

Nonsense. If this had been a ferry in NY it would have been covered 20x more extensively, perhaps 24/7 for the day or two following, with daily press briefings from top officials (NYPD police chief, Port Authority chief, and/or NTSB director), who would be expected to take and answer specific questions about where they were in the investigation.

Within days if not by nightfall, we would have known the specific kind of explosives, how much, where it was made, exactly where it was placed along with seating chart diagrams and animations, as well as all the security camera videos. And probably identified the suspects. There would also be action in response. Nobody would be boarding a ferry without full baggage and body search.

 

[scrane]

Cozumel is much more likely to be hit by a hurricane than another ferry bomb.

 

[Christi]

Like I said, provide a specific example.

SWINE FLU - there was never a single reported case here and the threat originated elsewhere - not even in Mexico - but it was all over the US - and conveniently, it was this same time of year - Spring Break!

SWINE FLU scare as it related to travel here was 100% false news

 

[kmarks]

Nonsense. If this had been a ferry in NY it would have been covered 20x more extensively, perhaps 24/7 for the day or two following, with daily press briefings from top officials (NYPD police chief, Port Authority chief, and/or NTSB director), who would be expected to take and answer specific questions about where they were in the investigation.

Within days if not by nightfall, we would have known the specific kind of explosives, how much, where it was made, exactly where it was placed along with seating chart diagrams and animations, as well as all the security camera videos. And probably identified the suspects. There would also be action in response. Nobody would be boarding a ferry without full baggage and body search.

I'm not sure where you're going with this. If it was a ferry in NY, we would have gotten a lot more coverage and it would probably have been better coverage. The US government would do something much more quickly than it seems the Mexican government has. But I can guarantee that many news outlets would be hoping to find the perpetrators and hoping even more that they fit a certain mold, be it race, nationality, political affiliation, whatever. You'll notice that there isn't a lot of thorough, in-depth reporting of what is going on in the US media, but I have seen a lot of superficial reporting. Looking at the comments sections of so many of these articles, you can see why they were written.

ETA: I'm not saying that the media response to something like this happening in the US wouldn't be massively overblown. Look at the Boston Marathon bombing 5 years ago. Several injuries, two deaths, and pretty scary, sure, but the 24 hour media blitz that lasted more than a week, then several months/years of "Boston Strong" and what not was a little excessive.

 

[ReefHound]

Cozumel is much more likely to be hit by a hurricane than another ferry bomb.

Maybe so but that is your speculation not based on facts or knowledge. If you cannot answer definitively who did this and why then you cannot know if they would do it again.

 

[Christi]

First: Safety

The ferry wars seem to be over and the target is no longer in operation. Indeed, it looks like the perpetrators went out of their way to not till kill people. And while there were a few incidents in Playa concerning drug gangs, those were gangster vs gangster and it is in no ones best interest to hurt the tourist trade.

But most importantly if you travel from the Cancun airport on the ADO bus, or taxi, you will be departing and arriving at VERY secure places. The bus terminal in Playa is 100 yards from the ferry pier which always has serious armed guards.

Convenience:

Southwest Airlines has lots of flights form Houston Hobby to Cancun every day and they don't charge extra for bags. They also now operate into and out of the very nice new terminal 4. Busses lave every 15 minutes I believe. At the Playa Pier they always have little tricycle guys who are more than happy to lug all your stuff for a few bucks, same at the Cozumel end.

Savings:

The rates do vary over time but the SW into Cancun is always less, and sometimes greatly less than United into Cozumel. I did a check this morning and found there to be $309 per person difference. (United $609 and SW $271) Add a $40 bus and $24 ferry R/T that means each person saves over $200 at least. Again there are times when that changes but check for your vacation time and maybe adjust it to save the most.

I still take the ferries most times as I fly a to out of Cancun to Houston on the cheap at $94 each way airfare.

Happy Travels

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS The Playa Consulate closing was only because their one employee lives in Cozumel and is barred form taking ferries for now.

Well said Dave - we are in 100% agreement on this.

It's also been reported by very credible sources here that the two "other bombs" found on the anchored boat that has been out of commission turned out to be nothing more than decoys - they were not actual bombs -