My Cuba Cruise

[wu687]

HI all!

 

Martha ~ I don't mind saying what we paid. It was $785 + $160 taxes/fees

= $945 p/p for XE 6212. It was an oceanview cabin as pictured on their website. We really liked the cabin & it's proximity to the stairs/elevator.

 

We flew from Toronto, Air Canada Rouge to Montego Bay @$626.53 p/p.the day before the cruise.

I think we could have done better but I don't like to wait too long having once been unable to go away last minute because the flights were sold out.

 

ONT-CA ~ I'm going to see if I can track the ship back across the ocean. Oh too bad you'll be going later as I think we'd aim for mid Feb, usually around Valentine's Day.

 

Looking forward to continued chatting here.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

 

 

If you are using the AIS Marine Traffic web site to track the Louis Cristal you will find that it will not track ships in mid-ocean. You should be able to find it again when it gets closer to the Med.

 

See: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/home

[Liz54]

I assume one cannot bring wine on board for your cabin. Can someone give me an idea of the cost of bottles or glasses purchased on board?

[ONT-CA]

I assume one cannot bring wine on board for your cabin. Can someone give me an idea of the cost of bottles or glasses purchased on board?

 

Although it has been stated that alcohol beverages are not to be brought aboard by passengers, we are dealing with early days and a ship that is only at one third capacity is surely not going to alienate anyone who does. Can't speak for bottled wine or any wine for that matter for I detest the stuff but we stocked a limited bar from home without intervention. We did note however that during the 2/4/1 hour each evening and some lunches wine was a favourite choice for some as half price of any reasonable price beverage is a deal. Now whether or not the 2/4/1 continues (and we certainly hope it does) is yet to be seen.

[wu687]

I assume one cannot bring wine on board for your cabin. Can someone give me an idea of the cost of bottles or glasses purchased on board?

 

Also what about other beverages such as bottled water, beer and non-alcohol beverages.

 

I saw elsewhere, maybe on CC or TA that restrictions were not really enforced, also that wine was about $20, beer $4.50 (small) $6.50 (large). Also 2 for 1 specials.

 

On boarding do they do inspection of carry on and checked bags?

 

Hope maybe someone can let us know.

[wu687]

Under Conditions of Carrige, locate at bottom rite of main page. It states:

"Where the fare paid by a Passenger includes victualling, it does not also include wines, spirits, beer, mineral waters or other liquors. These are available for purchase on board at fixed prices and Passengers are not permitted to take on board any such liquors for use during the voyage whether for consumption in their own cabins or otherwise.

18.2. The Carrier and/or its servants and/or agents may confiscate alcohol brought onboard by Passengers. Such alcohol will be returned to the Passengers at the end of the cruise. "

However the word "may" gives them an option about the confiscation of alcohol

[retiring soon]

Hi again!

 

Balloon Man ~ thanks for that info. Cruising the Greek islands is not in my immediate future.;) I have been to a couple of them but there are lots more of interest. I have 4 cruises planned for this year & am watching "Doc Martin" so now want to go to the Cornwall area.:o I'm interested in doing a coach tour of just England but most I see include Scotland & Wales. Ideally I'd like to go "Heartbeat" country & visit some other estate bigger than Highclere (which I visited 2 years ago), see "Selfridges", all tv related places that look interesting to me. Any idea if something like that would be available please, something like a circle tour of England?

 

wu687 ~ thanks for that link. I'll check it out. :D

 

I wondered if any of you that had the suite with the large patio noticed any sea creatures while sailing.

 

Ciao

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[ONT-CA]

...I wondered if any of you that had the suite with the large patio noticed any sea creatures while sailing. Ciao

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Jo, the difficulty is that the deck (balcony, patio) is encased in the hull of the bow of the ship and as such when one sits or suns you cannot see the water. That is accomplished by standing at the railing, which I did almost every morning waiting for the sun to come up. Breathtaking. But within that time, I did not see any sea life other than the catch of the day as we passed small fishing boats.

 

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af114/Yarkerhill/CubaRons012.jpg

[ONT-CA]

Also what about other beverages such as bottled water, beer and non-alcohol beverages.

I saw elsewhere, maybe on CC or TA that restrictions were not really enforced, also that wine was about $20, beer $4.50 (small) $6.50 (large). Also 2 for 1 specials.

On boarding do they do inspection of carry on and checked bags?

Hope maybe someone can let us know.

 

When boarding at Havana we turned our packed luggage over to the concierge people and placed our carry-on through the X-ray unit. We were then escorted to the main desk. We completed our paper work, which did not take long and then we were escorted to our cabin. When we arrived our luggage was at the door. The contents, if inspected, were ignored for we travel with a limited personal bar for our cabin. The exceptional 2/4/1 offers each day were such that we brought most of our personal bar home with us.

[ONT-CA]

I don't mean to monopolize the thread but as thing come to me or if photos bring back thoughts of information I have to jump in or it will escape me.

 

We spoke of the ship not having laundry machines for general use but did offer a service, I believe once a week, being a bag of laundry, wash and fold for $20 CDN. We found this a great deal and decided to take a photo of the large bag in case anyone should ask. Everything came back great and shirts came back on hangers. FYI It really is a good deal.

 

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af114/Yarkerhill/CubaRons010.jpg

 

PS I think we should stick with this same thread as it is all connected.

[Cubaholic]

Oh Dear M'Dears

 

Unfortunately, after visiting my G.P. because IO felt awful, he ordered me to the hospital for a C.T. scan. I was diagnosed with pericarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart), and spent the next 17 days in bed there.

 

March 24th. I was sent by ambulance to the next city for an angiogram. I told the O.R. staff that I was supposed to be enjoying a "Sailaway" day on a cruise around Cuba and would require a "double" of whatever sedative they planned to give me. The nurse asked whether I'd prefer an injection of rum or mojito. (The rougher the circumstances, the more my quirky sense of humour kicks in~!)

 

Once ity was determined that the heart itself was considered "normal:, I was sent home the next day, where I continued to feel worse. (I live alone),That was another infection but now, here I am, having logged on for the first time since all this started.

 

I haven't yet read back to read about the final sailing for this year, but look forward to that. I am so very sorry that I didn't meet the new friends, as planned.

 

I had paid $615.00 for my All Inclusive travel insurtance (determined by my age and full trip coat, which will be easy to provide since I had booked Hola Sun's complete package, so no figures to add.)

 

This health episode was so complicated that I pray it does not affect my booking in 1914.

 

Here's a ((((BIG HUG)))) to all of you who have made this thread so interesting.

 

Dee

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

Dee ~ oh so sorry to hear of your illness & that you missed the cruise.

TG you had insurance. Better that the illness happened at home than abroad.

Fingers crossed for better health & a chance to experience Cristal this season.

 

Ron ~ monopolize away!;) I for one, enjoy hearing about & seeing pictures of our delightful cruise. What a lovely sunset from your balcony. That's too bad about not being able to see the water but heck what can you do?!

 

Have a nice day! Saw my Snowdrops & heard the Canada Geese so guess Spring is here even if it is still darned cold.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[ONT-CA]

...I had paid $615.00 for my All Inclusive travel insurtance (determined by my age and full trip coat, which will be easy to provide since I had booked Hola Sun's complete package, so no figures to add.) ...Dee

 

First and foremost Dee, welcome back and we are sorry to hear of the health problems preventing you from joining us last year. I trust we are looking at a complete recovery considering your stated future travel plans. If at first you don't succeed try try again.

 

You raise such an important point of insurance coverage for travel and glad to see you will be totally reimbursed. Not everyone is so lucky. But as we well know, with age comes some very high premiums. We gambled last year without insurance and came out fine. But I don't think we will take that chance again. What we recently discovered was that RBC our card supplier has a plan that can be added to your current card that will cover each and every separate travel purchase up to $2,500. CDN. For this they charge $100. a year on the card. Now this only covers the travel expenditures and not health but for those of us who have the health aspect well covered, this coverage is very inexpensive especially if you are well into retirement and frequently traveling throughout the year. Just wanted to pass that along.

[Balloon Man]

retiring soon, you won't find Cornwall as warm as the Greek Islands but very welcoming. We live about half way from London to Cornwall (near Bristol) and you would be very welcome to stay while en-route.

 

I have looked but can't find a circle tour of England. However if you hire a car you can chose your own itinerary. Driving on the correct side of the road isn't that challenging!

[ONT-CA]

Jo, I agree about the lack of view of the water and so thought I'd add this creation to correct that. I hope the Cuba Cruise and/or Louis Cristal folk read this site for who knows, they may just think I have a good idea.

 

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af114/Yarkerhill/deckbar.jpg

[retiring soon]

Hi again!

 

 

Balloon Man ~ thanks for your help & kind offer. I actually have found 2 bus trips but just down in the Cornwall area. There is no way I would drive on the "correct" side of the road.:eek:

 

Ron ~ it's a step in the right direction for seeing some sights.;)

 

Here is the link to my photo book whose arrival I'm anxiously awaiting.

Take a look if you'd like. The 1st bit is our land trip.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtHDlo3ctmbEeg

 

Have a good week.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[bjm07]

Cubaholic,

Sorry to hear that you were not able to make the last cruise of the season either and wish you a speedy and solid recovery so maybe we will have a chance to meet up in the coming season. We, also, were not able to make the trip - and lost our flight and cruise expense - as my husband suddenly had a stroke and has been in hospital since 17th March. We were so much looking forward to the cruise but I guess it is better that it happened here rather than there on the ship. This was the second "failure to start" for us in the 2013/14 cruise year. We hope for better luck next year.

 

To others, I also hope that everyone will continue to post on this thread rather than starting a new one. You can see even in the most recent posts that this thread has a wealth of information for others contemplating participation in the coming year(s).

 

We will continue to be looking for additional posts from all. It's been a blast keeping up with the thread and definitely contributed to our overall knowledge of cruising and especially about Cuba.

 

Regards to all,

Barbara

[ONT-CA]

bjm07- What terrible luck for you both. I hope that the response time for your husband was such that a full and complete recovery will occur. As you say, thankfully it didn't happen at sea for response time there can be excessive with negative consequences. I worry about that with each trip. But I commend you on your positive outlook for the coming year. It was unfortunate that you were not covered for the fares involved in the cancelled trip. I added a note above about our recent findings about the RBC coverage, as we too had not taken coverage for this last trip. But for you let's hope it will be third time lucky.

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

Barbara ~ so sorry to hear of your DH's stroke & your having to cancel the cruise with a loss. How's he coming along? Sure hope he's on the mend & you're able to cruise this season.

 

Sounds like we're all in agreement that this thread should go on so that's great.

 

Take care.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[ONT-CA]

I wanted to add a comment here, more so about the use of Cruise Critic than the subject posting although that is the source of my point. I have entered a few critical points about how we were handled on our arrival at Cuba as well as the difficulty in monetary exchange transactions. These points were my personal observations and feelings. At no time did anyone post a harsh follow up with negative comments about my posts nor criticisms about how we may have mishandled things.

If you are familiar with Cruise Critic in general you will know the nastiness of some postings and the vindictive tone of the rebuttals. I cringe every time someone has a negative point to make for as the expression goes they will be “burned”

How civil our “Cuba Cruises” is by comparison. I think that this can be attributed to the specific information that is shown in the upper right hand corner of the posts, something in which we can all take pride.

[wu687]

Has anyone with booking confirmation been able to use Login to "My Cuba Cruise"?

 

I sent an email to Cuba Cruise and before I had a chance to post this I had a reply.

 

``Yes it is functional. No, our reservation numbers are not 14 digits. Can you give me your first name, last name and sailing date. I can pull up your correct reservation number.

[wu687]

Has anyone with booking confirmation been able to use Login to "My Cuba Cruise"?

 

I sent an email to Cuba Cruise and before I had a chance to post this I had a reply.

 

``Yes it is functional. No, our reservation numbers are not 14 digits. Can you give me your first name, last name and sailing date. I can pull up your correct reservation number.

`

 

I sent the requested information and received back from Caroline of Cuba Cruise the following:

``What happened is because my colleague Julia made this reservation on your behalf, you can not pull it up on our website. If you can give me a day or so, I will create another reservation under your details and then you will be able to pull up the reservation.``

She also asked for details of my passport as well as address and phone number, which I did. However our passports expires in December, Julia tol;d me just to send the information when I get the new passport

[Liz54]

Has anyone with booking confirmation been able to use Login to "My Cuba Cruise"?

 

I sent an email to Cuba Cruise and before I had a chance to post this I had a reply.

 

``Yes it is functional. No, our reservation numbers are not 14 digits. Can you give me your first name, last name and sailing date. I can pull up your correct reservation number.

 

Mine is a 7 digit number, but it does not work either. Says there is no reservation connected with that account.

 

We have friends who tried, unsuccessfully, to book on line yesterday.

 

All of this is undermining people's confidence in the company!

[hlperez]

Mine is a 7 digit number, but it does not work either. Says there is no reservation connected with that account.

 

We have friends who tried, unsuccessfully, to book on line yesterday.

 

All of this is undermining people's confidence in the company!

 

When I booked last year I also had some troubles and ended up doing most of the process on the phone. They "lost" our final payment for a few weeks. To me the service and website seems somewhat "amateur". On the other hand, the cruise itself, including check-in and other admin services, was excellent, totally professional in every way. It was definitely worth it!

 

Hazel

[Liz54]

This is reassuring to hear Hazel. Unfortunately for those just responding to advertisements and not hearing from those of you who have done the cruise, the poor web site is a problem. Without these boards, I would not have booked. But am VERY glad I did!:D

[Balloon Man]

We booked through a travel agent in the UK without any difficulty: very straightforward. However there was a downside. When we tried to see our reservation on-line we were advised by Cuba Cruise that any packages, excursions etc. that we wished to book could only be made via our TA. It wasn't a problem but I've never experienced this prohibition with a cruise line previously.