DMPA

Just back from Cuba on the Carnival Paradise. I did a fair amount of research about currency exchange before we departed with mixed results so I hope this helps. We traveled with another couple on this cruise. I went to Florida Currency Exchange in Tampa and was told that Canadian or Euro's would be my best option. They ran the exchange numbers on both and they where very close to being the same. I exchanged $400 US for Euro's. I think I ended up with 331 Euro's with the current exchange rate. I exchanged those at the port of Havana and received 354 CUC's. My friend exchanged $400 US at the same time at the port and received 348 CUC's. So I ended up with a whopping 6 extra CUC's or about $5.22 US. Probably not worth the trouble of exchanging to Euro's. I hope this real life experience helps some of you make the decision.

Just came back from overnight in Havana on Empress today(10/21) and all of the vendors we met up with were willing to take dollars...but they give you change in CUCU.

I just came back today from an overnight in Cuba on Empress of the Sea and although we were on bus tours...we were followed very closely by many of the Old Car Taxi's that people had rented. So you can definitely do it on your own. I would suggest that you look at the descriptions of the shore excursion offered and pick and choose where you would like to go and give it to your taxi driver.