Jump to content

Holland America adds Cuba Cruises


richwmn
 Share

Recommended Posts

Some will have more scrambling to do than others. From what I've seen, most are doing a one-day stop in Havana in the midst of a Caribbean cruise. Worst-case for those cruises is an extra sea day. But Azamara and Pearl (maybe others) have some cruises that have nearly all stops in Cuba ports. They will have a lot more work to do.

 

I wouldn't have signed on to the Veendam Christmas cruise if it hadn't been for the Cuba stops. The other ports are ones I've done before and having sea days instead of Cuba would not be a good exchange. I wonder if HAL has a plan B for these cruises. The cost for that cruise is pretty high for 12 days which I assumed was a combo of Christmas and Cuba. I'd rather have my deposit back and a chance to look for something else.

 

St. Louis Sal

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Carnival's comment was based on what they have heard the plan is going to be. I think the president hasn't actually made his speech in Miami just yet. I will not celebrate until I'm sure what is actually going to happen. There has been a lot of leaking of what is believed to be in the plan. Given the way things are working in the government right now I need something very concrete.

 

St. Louis Sal

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Carnival's comment was based on what they have heard the plan is going to be. I think the president hasn't actually made his speech in Miami just yet. I will not celebrate until I'm sure what is actually going to happen. There has been a lot of leaking of what is believed to be in the plan. Given the way things are working in the government right now I need something very concrete.

 

St. Louis Sal

 

Just check Twitter...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Friends are really interested in HAL's Cuba Cruise in Dec & want us to go along..

 

Having read the President's message, I still can't figure out if Americans would be permitted to travel to Cuba on HAL or Carnival.. :confused:

 

Looks to me like Cuba travel will still be restricted..

 

Does anyone else have a different opinion?

 

P.S. I don't text, so no use for logging in to Twitter, just to find out..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Friends are really interested in HAL's Cuba Cruise in Dec & want us to go along..

 

Having read the President's message, I still can't figure out if Americans would be permitted to travel to Cuba on HAL or Carnival.. :confused:

 

Looks to me like Cuba travel will still be restricted..

 

Does anyone else have a different opinion?

 

P.S. I don't text, so no use for logging in to Twitter, just to find out..

 

My Twitter remark was an attempt at a joke. I don't use Twitter either, but you-know-who does...

 

From what I've seen, cruises will still be allowed.

 

Travel for individuals is affected more than group tours or cruises. Individuals can still travel as before under 11 of the original 12 categories for travel to Cuba. The one that's changing is the "person to person" category. That is being eliminated for individual travelers (people who fly to Cuba and are on their own, not in a group). Individual travelers have been able to "self-certify" that they are traveling under the approved categories. Basically an honor system that wasn't watched closely, and it was easy to fudge records for the person-to-person category. So that's going to stop.

 

The summary I read said that cruises will be allowed. Most cruises operate under the "person to person" category, as do most land tours, like Road Scholar. The land tours are pretty tightly planned, so they're already following the rules.

 

Cruise lines were planning tours and also planning to allow passengers to "self certify" that they will participate in acceptable activities when they go off on their own in port. One big question now is whether passengers will be able to do any independent activities. My take on the changes is that the rules are likely to require that passengers go ashore only on organized "approved" tours, which means ship's tours. I hope I'm wrong. Can cruise lines arrange enough tour capacity so that everyone has a chance at some kind of tour? I'd hate to be sitting on the ship looking at Havana and unable to go ashore because the tours all sold out.

 

Timing is also uncertain. Anyone who has already booked independent travel under the person-to-person category is grandfathered, even if the travel is for next year. But new bookings can't be made under this category. So will already booked cruises be grandfathered, too?

 

A lot of people are sitting on bookings for cruises that may not turn out the way they had hoped. If it does become very restrictive and passengers must take ship's tours, at least HAL has a bit of a leg-up. They can benefit from the connections that CCL made when they set up the Fathom cruises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An interesting article from Travel Weekly about possible changes to Cuba cruises:

 

"...let's recall that the recent opening of Cuba to tourism and trade has at each step depended on what the Cuban government wants, and less on what the U.S. authorities want to happen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Twitter remark was an attempt at a joke. I don't use Twitter either, but you-know-who does...

 

From what I've seen, cruises will still be allowed.

 

Travel for individuals is affected more than group tours or cruises. Individuals can still travel as before under 11 of the original 12 categories for travel to Cuba. The one that's changing is the "person to person" category. That is being eliminated for individual travelers (people who fly to Cuba and are on their own, not in a group). Individual travelers have been able to "self-certify" that they are traveling under the approved categories. Basically an honor system that wasn't watched closely, and it was easy to fudge records for the person-to-person category. So that's going to stop.

 

The summary I read said that cruises will be allowed. Most cruises operate under the "person to person" category, as do most land tours, like Road Scholar. The land tours are pretty tightly planned, so they're already following the rules.

 

Cruise lines were planning tours and also planning to allow passengers to "self certify" that they will participate in acceptable activities when they go off on their own in port. One big question now is whether passengers will be able to do any independent activities. My take on the changes is that the rules are likely to require that passengers go ashore only on organized "approved" tours, which means ship's tours. I hope I'm wrong. Can cruise lines arrange enough tour capacity so that everyone has a chance at some kind of tour? I'd hate to be sitting on the ship looking at Havana and unable to go ashore because the tours all sold out.

 

 

My undersanding is individuals will be able to leave the ship on their own but the requriement is any money spent by them should be directly with thr people of Cu ba. Apparanetly, most 'large group arangements' funnel the moneyt through the military and not the local people. if one wants dinner, they can pay directly to the provider as that enriches them directly. I am certain any number of p eople here will jump all over my post if they have a difderent understanding of the new 'terms of individual travel to Cuba for Ameicans. Along the same lines, if one gets a local taxi driver to give a private tour or transportation, payment made directly to the driver is permitted.

 

 

 

Timing is also uncertain. Anyone who has already booked independent travel under the person-to-person category is grandfathered, even if the travel is for next year. But new bookings can't be made under this category. So will already booked cruises be grandfathered, too?

.

A lot of people are sitting on bookings for cruises that may not turn out the way they had hoped. If it does become very restrictive and passengers must take ship's tours, at least HAL has a bit of a leg-up. They can benefit from the connections that CCL made when they set up the Fathom cruises.

...... As we walked along all the Caribbean isla ndswe visited, saw all the tour ist stores, businesses and we would speculate if and how many any o them wer p;ositioning themselves to have connections and tentative arrangements for when u.S. travel to Cuba began. No way to know, of course, but it would not suprise me to know many jewelers, t shirt venders etc will have storefronts in rapid orde.r Yes, I know the rest of the world hasabeen visiting Cuba all theser 50+ years but look at all cruise talk already in progress now that Ameicans may be permitted to travel there soon with the sanction of U.S. gov't. Does anyone think Diamonds International doesn't already have several locations all lined up? :) Edited by sail7seas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your post. This is valuable information for us because we are currently booked on that December 22 cruise for a 14-day Holiday Southern Caribbean cruise. The stated itinerary was Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Martinique & St Maarten. Since HALs website no longer lists this as a cruise I contacted our TA. HAL advises our TA that the ship has been “redeployed”. It is now a 12 day cruise going to Key West, Cozumel, Costa Maya, Havana, Cienfuegos, Montego Bay and Grand Cayman. This is not even close to what we signed up for and the new port of calls have little interest for us. We also already purchased non-refundable air fare for the original dates. Our original booking also included a generous amount of OBC that we’re losing. Our TA is now trying to line up another Holiday Cruise for us. We obviously have a lot of negotiating to do with HAL over this.

 

As a follow-up to my post, we booked another holiday cruise on the Prinsendam in the Caribbean. We have just been informed by our TA that Holland America will be remitting a check for the $400 air change fees and the nearly $1,000.00 in airfare increase expenses that we incurred.

 

Bruce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...... As we walked along all the Caribbean isla ndswe visited, saw all the tour ist stores, businesses and we would speculate if and how many any o them wer p;ositioning themselves to have connections and tentative arrangements for when u.S. travel to Cuba began. No way to know, of course, but it would not suprise me to know many jewelers, t shirt venders etc will have storefronts in rapid orde.r Yes, I know the rest of the world hasabeen visiting Cuba all theser 50+ years but look at all cruise talk already in progress now that Ameicans may be permitted to travel there soon with the sanction of U.S. gov't. Does anyone think Diamonds International doesn't already have several locations all lined up? :)

 

I'm sure plenty of businesses would like to get into Cuba. One of the things I dislike about cruising to the Caribbean is the "shopping mall" at the port and all of the shopping lectures on board. I do not travel to shop, so I walk past the Diamonds Intl etc and get out to the real town, where I can enjoy a local beverage and take interesting pictures. I want to go to Cuba now, while there isn't a McD's or a Del Sol there.

 

Travel to Cuba for US citizens has been permitted for several years, starting when President Obama eased the restrictions and the 12 categories for travel were introduced. Cruising from the US to Cuba has only just got a start, and under the old (Obama) rules, it looked attractive. Trump is tightening, not easing, the restrictions. Until we know what the new rules are, we can't be sure how our activities in Cuba will be limited. My guess is that they will be very restricted, and Cuba cruises will not look as good as they did a few weeks ago.

 

Trump made it pretty clear that continuing to allow US citizens to travel to Cuba was not the start of expansion of US businesses into Cuba. So I wouldn't look for a Diamonds International in Havana any time soon. The stupid part is that nobody benefits from these new rules, except maybe Trump and Rubio, who were playing to the South Florida voters. It's all just politics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... The stupid part is that nobody benefits from these new rules, except maybe Trump and Rubio, who were playing to the South Florida voters. It's all just politics.

 

My Cuban American friends do not agree with this very uninformed, partisan opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are excited about this trip and have already booked our Havana excursions. We are hopeful that a Seattle based company did the footwork for us and chose providers that aren't further enabling the regime. We are happy to spend money with the locals and stay overnight on board the veendam instead of supporting a government run hotel.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CHECK YOUR ITINERARY!!!!

 

I just looked at HAL's 2018 Cuba cruises, and the 7-day cruises now have one more sea day and less time in Havana. Instead of a day and a half (second day leaving 2PM), it's now just one day, leaving 11:59 PM. The itineraries that incuded Cienfuegos still have that port (for now???)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CHECK YOUR ITINERARY!!!!

 

I just looked at HAL's 2018 Cuba cruises, and the 7-day cruises now have one more sea day and less time in Havana. Instead of a day and a half (second day leaving 2PM), it's now just one day, leaving 11:59 PM. The itineraries that incuded Cienfuegos still have that port (for now???)

 

When I booked and it was close to the opening of booking, the one day version for Havana was already in place, leaving at 2AM the next day, not 2pm. It has since been changed to 11:59pm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CHECK YOUR ITINERARY!!!!

 

I just looked at HAL's 2018 Cuba cruises, and the 7-day cruises now have one more sea day and less time in Havana. Instead of a day and a half (second day leaving 2PM), it's now just one day, leaving 11:59 PM. The itineraries that incuded Cienfuegos still have that port (for now???)

 

We were on a different itinerary to start and we were switched to the Cuba Itinerary by HAL. We originally had Havana for two days, and thanks to this thread we are also seeing just one day in Havana now. Why haven't they added Half Moon Key. Adding this would be very nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were on a different itinerary to start and we were switched to the Cuba Itinerary by HAL. We originally had Havana for two days, and thanks to this thread we are also seeing just one day in Havana now. Why haven't they added Half Moon Key. Adding this would be very nice.

 

A whole sea day between Fort Lauderdale and Havana does seem a bit much. And another one from Havana to Cienfuegos? I think they're limiting time in Cuba because they expect the new rules to force them to keep passengers on ships' tours, and they don't want to have to put too much together. Just my guess, but why else shorten the time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Cuban American friends do not agree with this very uninformed, partisan opinion.

 

Here in Tampa, there are many Cuban Americans who would disagree with your statement. As always, generalities are full of exceptions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Cuban American friends do not agree with this very uninformed, partisan opinion.

 

Here in Tampa, there are many Cuban Americans who would disagree with your statement. As always, generalities are full of exceptions.

 

The bold part of Tampa Girl's Post makes a lot of sense, as it (unintentionally) underscores the fact that her generalization about "many Cuban Americans" is "full of exceptions", one of which is that my Post did not generalize about what many or most or all Cuban Americans think or believe but, rather, was specific to what "my Cuban American friends" have expressed to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are excited about this trip and have already booked our Havana excursions. We are hopeful that a Seattle based company did the footwork for us and chose providers that aren't further enabling the regime. We are happy to spend money with the locals and stay overnight on board the veendam instead of supporting a government run hotel.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks for the reminder! I had not booked any shore excursions yet but I knew what I wanted to do in Havana-the Modern Havana, American Classics. I went in yesterday and there were only 5 spaces left. I think we may do the evening nightclub as well and right now there is only one thing listed for Cienfuegos. Has anyone talked to HAL as to whether there will be any others?

 

St. Louis Sal

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...