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Quick review of Celeystal Cuba 11/25/16 cruise


nansi
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Reposting this under new thread here:

 

Well unfortunately for us, Fidel died the night before we arrived in Cuba, which totally altered the tone of the entire trip. All the music was cancelled on shore, and numerous restaurants and bars were shuttered. The country was in mourning for 9 days so our shore excursions had to be revised in many instances. For example we couldn't get anywhere near Revolutionary Square in Havana due to Fidel's ashes there, with thousands of people lined up to sign the book and write their last respects.

 

As for Celestyal Crystal itself, a couple of really big changes in the itinerary, which they relayed to us at the last possible minute. We were supposed to sail out of Havana on the second day at 5pm, but this was changed to 1pm, so we lost the afternoon there. Not sure where the blame lies, but as we sailed out of the harbor, we passed an MSC ship, waiting to take our berth, so someone (harbor master? Celestyal?) screwed up with the port schedule. Then we were told that we wouldn't be stopping at Port Francis, due to the govt. banning ships from anchoring on the coral. We learned that it was also cancelled (again at the last minute) the week before. So I suggest you leave the snorkel equipment at home and save your weight restrictions for more clothing in your suitcase. I'd be surprised if the Govt is going to reverse this policy, and I'm curious to see how long it'll take Celestyal to delete it from the itinerary.

 

Food left a lot to be desired. They either need to buy sharper steak knives, or quit putting any kind of beef on the menu. Multiple disappointments with overcooked, tough meat. And cook the pork please! We did the buffet mostly for lunch and loaded up on salads. Would have loved a nice cup of soup, but they rarely had hot soups (cold cucumber, or chilled mango etc). They did have hot consomme a couple of times which we doctored up with a few croutons from the salad bar. Check out by the pool for a cooking station. Omelets and french toast out there for breakfast; variety of stuff for lunch, like tacos etc. We didn't find it until the 3rd day on board. Dining room on the 5th deck was closed due to the ship having less than 800 passengers.

 

All inclusive drink package (alcohol) was absolutely worth getting. No need to upgrade to the premium. Included were Absolut, Johnnie Walker Red, Drambuie etc. House wine was actually good. You can't just walk up to any bar and order a drink; you have to order from the wait staff...couldn't figure out why this was.

 

The staff (with the exception of the front desk people who had quite the attitude) were fantastic, from the wait staff to the room stewards. The entertainers were very good, however, it was the same people every single night and it was somewhat repetitive after awhile. Cruise director Danny was great, but hearing the same speech in 4 or 5 languages is time-consuming and annoying: English, German, French, Spanish. Wifi was surprisingly good, best wherever you have a Cisco router mounted on the wall. Look for them. We took 3 hrs for $18, which was plenty for us to check email etc.

 

Ship interior is a little worn, she's quite old after all, but she sails beautifully.

 

Post back if you have any specific questions.

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Nancy,

 

Thanks for your review!! At leat good to hear that WiFi is working well onboard (we have to stay in contact with home and our DD back home).

 

I hope they will work out Punta Francés or at least change back to Maria de la Gorda. I do know that Cuba does give out permits and revoke them last minute. Happened to my DH on another (small ship) cruise line with a Cuban port. So it´s always a hit and miss.

 

As for questions: The German website does not have very much information (or almost none). Do you have sort of a list of the shore tours offered onboard?

 

steamboats

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Nansi,

 

Excellent review that answered so many questions. Although you lost some of Havana, boo, it must have been quite an experience being part of history.

So, a question - how dressed up for dinner? I'm trying to keep packing down to my carry on.

 

Thanks Shar

 

Sent from my Arc using Forums mobile app

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Nansi,

 

Excellent review that answered so many questions. Although you lost some of Havana, boo, it must have been quite an experience being part of history.

So, a question - how dressed up for dinner? I'm trying to keep packing down to my carry on.

 

Thanks Shar

 

Sent from my Arc using Forums mobile app

 

The only dressed up night was the Captain's Party (which we didn't go to) but at the most the men wore jackets/ties and ladies cocktail dresses. No tuxes and only a couple of long gowns. I didn't have room in my luggage for either. For the dining room I did Capri's and dressy tops, hubby wore collared casual knit shirts and slacks. If you do the buffet, shorts are fine.

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Nancy,

As for questions: The German website does not have very much information (or almost none). Do you have sort of a list of the shore tours offered onboard?

steamboats

 

Try this link:

http://yourcubacruise.com/us-travelers

at the top of the page you can download the full brochures with the excursions.

 

As far as going back to Maria Gorda, we were told that they couldn't anchor there which was why they changed to Port Francis in the first place.

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Nancy,

 

DH was able to get the pdf file with a work around. But it looks like those are just the People to People activities. I´m looking for additional shore tours offered by Celestyal.

 

steamboats

 

The ships tours were nearly identical to the P2P tours. All the buses went to the same places. If you did manage to get on the US website, poke around and look for "excursions." They had more tours available then what's on the brochure.

See if your DH can get you to this link:

http://yourcubacruise.com/your-trip/excursions

scroll down and look for Optional Excursions

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Nansi, thanks for the review. I have a question which has been plaguing me since early on when I read some of the reviews from last year, and it's a bit delicate, it has to do with the toilets and the TP and the ability to flush the same.. Have they improved the sewage system on the ship over this past winter. Sorry, but I just have to ask. Thanks.

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Nansi, thanks for the review. I have a question which has been plaguing me since early on when I read some of the reviews from last year, and it's a bit delicate, it has to do with the toilets and the TP and the ability to flush the same.. Have they improved the sewage system on the ship over this past winter. Sorry, but I just have to ask. Thanks.

 

In spite of the signs above every toilet, they did accept a reasonable amount of toilet paper. We didn't want to push our luck and tried to throw most of it in the (covered) trash bins, but I forgot a lot of the time. However we never had a problem and everything went down just fine, so don't worry unnecessarily.

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Thanks again, Nancy,

 

DH finally installed the work around on my computer and I was able to access the offered tours (obviously not too many, just the snorkeling at Punta Frances, 3 evening tours for the first night in Havanna and some tours for Montego Bay).

 

steamboats

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Thanks again, Nancy,

 

DH finally installed the work around on my computer and I was able to access the offered tours (obviously not too many, just the snorkeling at Punta Frances, 3 evening tours for the first night in Havanna and some tours for Montego Bay).

 

steamboats

 

Good luck with Punta Frances!! They can't throw an anchor there, so you'll be getting an extra sea day instead. Really, they should take it off the itinerary and stop leading people on.

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Carmen, I just read your message about being able to access the tour information at yourcubacruise. I transcribed the tour information - Included and Optional - for you and posted at our roll call. If I had known that you finally hacked your way into the Canadian site, :-) I would have found something more productive to do with my evening. :-) LOL!!! Wish that Celestyal would add Trinidad as a replacement. (Cienfuegos on Wednesday, then Trinidad on Thursday) I love Trinidad!!!

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Thanks, Coco!

 

Nancy, interesting that the P2P pdf brochure doesn´t mention Punta Frances at all but a second sea day...

 

My travel documents still have the not that Maria de la Gorda has been replaced by Punta Frances... We´ll wait and see...

 

steamboats

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Thanks, Coco!

 

Nancy, interesting that the P2P pdf brochure doesn´t mention Punta Frances at all but a second sea day...

 

My travel documents still have the not that Maria de la Gorda has been replaced by Punta Frances... We´ll wait and see...

 

steamboats

 

It will be interesting to see if any other cruise lines are still going there. MSC has it on their itinerary as well. Fathom never had a stop there as far as I know.

 

Also just learned the following:

 

"Oceania Cruises' Marina will kick off the season, with the first cruise from Miami on March 7. The 1,258-passenger ship, which was part of the company's Cuba plan revealed July 2016, will call on Havana on select Caribbean itineraries; many will be multiple-day calls.

 

Regent's 700-passenger Seven Seas Mariner will follow, with two cruises slated to visit Havana in April 2017.

 

Norwegian will send its 2,004-passenger Miami-based Norwegian Sky on a series of four-night cruises, with overnight stays in Havana, throughout May 2017."

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I thought I'd post this here since Nansi's review seems to be the most active.

 

 

Just in time for some research Netflix Canada has 2 shows about Cuba added recently.

 

Cuba Libre which is a documentary about the revolution.

Four seasons in Havana - a mystery series.

 

I haven't watched any yet, hope to binge over Christmas.

 

Shar

Edited by Ontariotrekker
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Nancy,

 

I already wonder how all those ships are going to dock in Havanna with only two docking spaces.

 

steamboats

 

I looked at one of the itineraries on Oceania (Marina) and it looks like they'll be in Havana on Wed and Thursdays. They'll have to spread all these ships out over the course of a week, I'm guessing.

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Thank you for your review Nancy, we have all been eagerly waiting for a review!

 

It's a shame about Punta Frances, they still have it listed as a stop online. I'm not going until March, hopefully they'll have something figured out before then.

 

It's both a shame and amazing that you were there during the period of mourning. It's a pity it went on for the whole week you were there, but it will certainly be a story to tell in the future!

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nansi, first of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting your review. So sorry your cruise was so affected by Fidel Castro's death. My dh and I were both grateful that we had not booked our cruise for that time period!

 

I was VERY sorry to hear about the omission of Punta Frances. As it is, this cruise won't have too much time to relax. (Yes, I know it's more of an educational cruise, but its a vacation, too, and beaches & water are a part of Caribbean cruising that seems integral to it IMO.) I was definitely looking forward to that being our "chill day" on this itinerary. Sure hope Celestyal replaces it with something similar SOON! Perhaps the stop will be reinstated prior to our sailing, which isn't for 2 more months. Just hope U.S.-Cuba relations don't deteriorate under the new U.S. administration when it takes affect and mess things up even more!

 

BTW, can you tell me how early each morning they wanted the P2P group to meet up to head off on the excursions? I realize snce your cruise was taking place with things up in the air that the times were probably not exactly as they normally would be.

 

Did you mean the 5th floor D.R. was closed due to not enough passengers on the ship because it was lightly booked or because they were off on excursions, etc? And was it closed for all meals or just lunch?

 

Thanks again for your review!

Edited by mlbcruiser
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Hi Nansi,

Going on this cruise in February and was wondering about the tvs in the rooms. Do they show movies or any American channels? Not that I'm cruising for that reason but I like to fall asleep to the tv on occasion.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Staci, I suggest you bring books to read. The pickins' are slim on the TV. The only news channel is CNN International, which keeps re-running the same segments over and over. One movie channel, but no channel guide, so you never know when it starts ahead of time. Better to download books or games on your smart phone or iPad.

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nansi, just thought I'd ask again:

 

Though you chose to tour independently, do you know how early each morning they wanted the P2P group to meet up to head off on the excursions? I realize since your cruise was taking place with things up in the air that the times were probably not exactly as they normally would be.

 

Did you mean the 5th floor D.R. was closed due to not enough passengers on the ship because it was lightly booked or because they were off on excursions, etc? And was it closed for all meals or just lunch?

 

Thanks for any info.

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nansi, just thought I'd ask again:

 

Though you chose to tour independently, do you know how early each morning they wanted the P2P group to meet up to head off on the excursions? I realize since your cruise was taking place with things up in the air that the times were probably not exactly as they normally would be.

 

Did you mean the 5th floor D.R. was closed due to not enough passengers on the ship because it was lightly booked or because they were off on excursions, etc? And was it closed for all meals or just lunch?

 

Thanks for any info.

 

I think morning tours left around 9 (but not absolutely sure).

5th floor DR was closed for the entire week (due to lack of passengers).

 

My full review was just posted, I'll start a new thread (under Celestyal Crystal) and post the link.

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