Hello, Havana! Nicole721's Full PICTORIAL Review of the Paradise 4-Day to Cuba

[Nicole721]

Our tour group reconvened at the front of the Colon Cemetery, where we’d take a short walking tour before hopping back into our cars. The Colon Cemetery is one of the largest and most significant cemeteries in all of Latin America. Designed by architect Calixto Arellano de Loira y Cardoso and named for Christopher Columbus, the cemetery was built in the late 1870s and currently houses more than 500 mausoleums and over 800,000 graves. In the middle stands this big, beautiful central cathedral, which was modeled after Il Duomo di Firenze (aka my second favorite structure anywhere). We followed our guides Jaime and Diana across the cemetery, down towards the cathedral, as they regaled us with the history of the cemetery, the famous interments and the architectural highlights.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

Enrique was waiting for us outside the cathedral, and Jaime hopped in the car with us to give us some background on our next stop, the Plaza de la Revolución. The Plaza holds a ton of historical significance to Havana, as a center for political gatherings and rallies. The Plaza is studded by the José Martí Memorial, the National Library and the Palacio de la Revolución. We didn’t have any free time to explore any of them, but we did have a quick photo stop in the Plaza.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

The final stop of our tour was at the Plaza de San Francisco, where we bid farewell to Enrique (who was really fantastic at giving us some of the history of the island and pointing out some of the points of interest as we drove past them when we didn’t have a guide in the car with us). The Plaza was across the street from the ship, and we were given the option to continue with the tour to a dance performance at a local arts center or leave and do our own thing. We continued on to the performance, which was a fascinating interpretive dance show in a wonderfully air conditioned theater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

The show ended just before 6:00 pm, which is precisely when most of the shops close. Jaime walked us three or four blocks to a government run shop that sold Cuban rum, coffee and authentic cigars, hoping that because we were a rather large group that they would reopen for us, but no such luck. The tour kind of disbanded from there, and Keri and I opted to walk back to the plaza on our own so we could take some pictures.

 

 

Here’s the thing about walking around Havana on your own: the streets are beautiful. Absolutely stunning. Each building is a different color, in a different style and even the dilapidated buildings are beautifully unique. And on just about every street, locals will walk up to you, try to get you to visit their shop or buy their cigars. I never felt threatened and as a wide generalization, the Cuban people were incredibly nice, but we had at least a dozen people approach us on our three block walk. It was a lot.

 

 

We stopped in a bar we had seen earlier because when you’re in Havana, you need to drink a mojito or a daiquiri. As I enjoyed my mojito (and fended off another local trying to sell me a cigar), I just kind of sat there and took it all in. Havana reminded me slightly of a pseudo Barcelona San Juan blend, but the vibe of the island was just so different and unique. It’s industrialized in a way that’s decades behind modern times and even though US to Cuba tourism had been open for a year when we visited, it still felt completely untouched by the tourism industry. The average monthly salary in Havana is somewhere between 20 and 40 CUC. It’s insane to imagine supporting a family on such low means. But what this also means is that everything is super cheap in Havana: when we closed our tab at the bar, the server told us it was six. We thought that meant 6 CUC per drink, which was so cheap (especially when the ship’s mojitos were like $12!), but it was 6 CUC for both of our drinks total. How crazy is that?

 

[Nicole721]

Our walk through Old Havana continued as we took the scenic route back to the ship. I took pictures of as many colorful buildings and crumbling facades as my memory card would let me. We didn’t see many open souvenir shops so we stopped in some of the terminal shops as we reentered the cruise terminal. The cigar shop had the highest prices of the shops and most of the items sold there could be had at the general store across the terminal at lower prices.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

There was a long line to re-enter the ship, but fortuitous for us was that the gangway was on deck 5, right outside our room (literally). Once we walked back on the ship, we were back at our room. We didn’t know this when we chose our room, but we were grateful for it: the heat index was in the upper 90s and humid -- we were both practically shiny by the time we got back onboard.

 

 

Because we were overnighting, there weren’t a ton of activities planned for the evening. We had a quiet meal in the Elation dining room as we poured through our pictures for the day and contemplated if we wanted Warm Chocolate Melting Cake or the pie of the day.

 

Bread Basket

 

Marinated Chicken Tenders

 

Asparagus Vichyssoise

 

Flat Iron Steak

 

Carnival Chocolate Melting Cake

[Nicole721]

After dinner, we spent some time on the promenade, enjoying the fresh air and the sights as the city lit up at night. The cruise terminal is centrally located, with a primo view of the Malecón and Plaza de San Francisco.

 

 

 

We headed back to the room after that and settled in for the night. We were absolutely exhausted, and the Cubs game was on ESPN, so it was an easy choice to stay in, relax, and watch the Cubs blow past the Brewers in extra innings for the second night in a row.

 

Keri fell asleep early. I couldn’t sleep. It was probably the coffee (again), but the anticipation was still reverberating through my entire being. I spent six hours in Havana and I was already falling in love with the city and its people. We only had a half a day on Saturday before we would leave port, and there was already so much more to see and do. I didn’t even know where to start.

[splash_in_the_water]

nice review, and great pics!

[banditoo]

Great to see that the cruise ship industry is finally getting people from the US to Cuba. We Canadians have been travelling to Cuba trouble free all along and have quite enjoyed having the opportunity to enjoy the fabulous country, beaches, lovely Cuban people and culture relatively stuck in time. I think that will now all be changing. Interesting to hear how anxiety provoking this can be for people visiting from the US for the first time in over half a century! Cuban people are very welcoming, family oriented and most are highly educated. A very rich culture and certainly worthwhile to visit.

[watermelonqueen99]

Loving your review and pics!

[Nicole721]

nice review, and great pics!

 

Thank you!

 

Great to see that the cruise ship industry is finally getting people from the US to Cuba. We Canadians have been travelling to Cuba trouble free all along and have quite enjoyed having the opportunity to enjoy the fabulous country, beaches, lovely Cuban people and culture relatively stuck in time. I think that will now all be changing. Interesting to hear how anxiety provoking this can be for people visiting from the US for the first time in over half a century! Cuban people are very welcoming, family oriented and most are highly educated. A very rich culture and certainly worthwhile to visit.

 

Very much our experience, as well! I wish we had more than two days to experience it, but all the more reason to go back :)

[Nicole721]

Loving your review and pics!

 

 

Thank you!!

[chefjellynow]

Great pics and review!

The night pics are really sharp.

 

Are you on the inaugural Horizon? I'll be on the July 31st out of NYC

[Nicole721]

Great pics and review!

The night pics are really sharp.

 

Are you on the inaugural Horizon? I'll be on the July 31st out of NYC

 

I am! We leave for Barcelona two weeks from Thursday :D Just bought my wifi package so I can Instagram the trip ;)

[chefjellynow]

I am! We leave for Barcelona two weeks from Thursday :D Just bought my wifi package so I can Instagram the trip ;)

Oooh I want to follow that.

Enjoy--

[torcruise]

great review!!

[Nicole721]

Oooh I want to follow that.

Enjoy--

 

You're more than welcome to! My Instagram handle is nicolesonthego :)

 

 

great review!!

 

Thank you!!

[Nicole721]

Day 4: Havana

 

Day two in Havana began with a little more urgency and a little less structure than our first day had.

 

Our itinerary had the ship overnighting in Havana, which meant we were still in our destination when we woke up, but we had a back onboard time of 11:00 am, which meant that anything we wanted to see or do had to be done early because the Paradise would be setting sail for Tampa with or without us before noon. So we had an early wake up, a quick breakfast up on the Lido deck and then we headed back downstairs to disembark.

 

 

 

Immigration was much quicker on day two, largely because everyone was disembarking at different times and because we had already cleared the day prior, all the agents did was take a quick look at our passports to ensure they had been stamped when we cleared the first time and sent us on our way.

 

Carnival had offered three excursions for our second half day in Havana: the classic car excursion we had done the day before, a trip out to see Fusterlandia (the Cuban equivalent to Gaudi’s Parque Guell in Barcelona) and a morning tour of Havana. None of them seemed particularly compelling and there was still so much Keri and I wanted to do and see, so we decided to DIY it, knowing we still had P2P obligations to fulfill.

 

We knew we wouldn’t have time for everything – we wanted to have cortaditos in a Cuban coffee shop, we wanted to ride around in a vintage convertible and we wanted to go shopping at the flea market at Almacenes de San José. We wouldn’t have time for all three (and if we wanted to be safe with the time, we wouldn’t even have time for two), but we figured any of the three would fulfill our P2P obligations. P2P compliance is centered around having meaningful interactions with the Cuban citizens and you can fulfill the requirements on your own relatively easily. Dine at one of the paladares (privately owned restaurants), drive around town and discuss the way of life with your driver (if they speak English – ours did the day before, many do not), shop at a non-government owned shop and discuss local specialties with the owners. P2P is vague enough that you could probably stretch many activities into compliance, the key being that meaningful interaction with the locals. So after we passed through customs and exited, we started off walking in the direction Almacenes de San José to see what we could find along the way.

 

[Nicole721]

The streets of Havana were quiet in the early morning hours, the sun casting a warm glow across the colorful buildings. I wished our time didn’t require so much structure because I could have spent hours just walking around taking pictures of the streets.

 

 

 

 

Havana is still relatively untouched by tourism. There are hotels (very few of the chain variety) and cruise ships dock every few days, but the area downtown where the ship docks still hasn’t been commercialized yet. We found this to be a double edged sword: we were fortunate to be able to walk right off the ship and experience authentic Havana (and I’m sure if the current political climate of the US does not impede tourism to Cuba, the experience will be very different in 3-5 years), but it also meant that parts of it were more than a little gritty. There are a lot of stray dogs roaming around Havana and they all seemed friendly and would keep to themselves, but there was also quite a bit of dog waste in the streets. We did, however, find a group of people cleaning the sidewalks off the Malecón as we walked by, so it seems to be something they’re working on to ensure the main streets tourists walk through are clean.

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We didn’t see any paladares or shops that were open and we were in front of Almacenes de San José just around 9:00 am. The official open time of the flea market is 10:00 am, which made us a little nervous with the back onboard time of 11:00 am. It was a short walk if you walked along the Av. del Puerto, maybe 15 minutes, but the flea market is huge. Thankfully (and perhaps because the ship was in town), some of the stalls had began opening up early so we could browse.

 

 

 

Almacenes de San José has dozens upon dozens of booths where locals sell everything from traditional souvenirs to linens, handmade wooden toys, leather wares and even pieces of art. The vendors are slightly aggressive in that they will approach you, call after you and try to lead you to their booths, but respectful in that if you said no, gracias or just smiled and shook your head no, they would leave you alone. There is little to no haggling here – most of them are set on their prices and if you try to walk away, they will let you (though we found one or two that were willing to knock a few CUC’s off the price or offer us bundled deals).

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

At the first booth we stopped at to purchase magnets and wooden cars, after we had paid, the owner gave us both a hug and kissed us on the cheek, saying we were friends of the Cuban people. It was a sentiment we found throughout the city. The Cuban people we met were so welcoming, grateful that we were able to visit their island and see their way of life. I mentioned it earlier, but the average Cuban citizen makes less than $40 a month. A month. I (and I’m sure many of you) make more than that in an hour or two. Needless to say, tourism has the potential to transform their lives. Later in the morning as we were walking back to the ship, we witnessed a family getting out of a taxi and giving their driver all of the extra CUC coins they had left because they had no use for them after they left Cuba. It was literally pocket change and this driver was bowled over in appreciation and hugged each of them. The people of Havana want tourists to have a good experience. They want us to come back and they want us to tell everyone to come visit Cuba.

 

But back to the flea market, we circled the aisles over and over, new booths opening up each time we walked through. We were approached by no less than two dozen men trying to sell us cigars, but that was the one thing we wouldn’t buy here, as we were warned beforehand that they would be of poor quality unless they were purchased through the actual cigar shop. The cigar shop at the flea market was much cheaper than the one at the terminal (which had the highest prices for both cigars and liquor of any place I had found on the island). I bought a box of cigarillos (mostly for the box) for 25 CUC and a small bottle of Havana Club rum for 2.80 CUC.

 

By the time we were getting ready to leave, the market was really filling up and I was glad we had the opportunity to shop our way through it without a ton of crowds. The flea market is housed in this industrial warehouse that has no air conditioning (though many shop keepers will fan you off as they try to lure you into their stalls!) and many stalls clustered together in narrow rows. If you’re looking to visit, go early or late, but avoid the middle day hours when it can crowd.

 

 

We had both blown through all of our CUC’s (mission accomplished!) so we headed back to the ship to avoid the lines back through customs. It was just after 10:30 in the morning and we were both glistening – the heat and humidity in Havana is no joke and we were both slamming water throughout our cruise so we didn’t dehydrate.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

With our room literally steps away from the gangway, we stopped to drop our purchases in the room and headed upstairs to the Lido deck to drink our weight in ice water.

 

 

Keri and I stayed out on deck to take in our final moments in Havana before the ship’s horn blew and the captain steered us out to sea. I honestly don’t have the words to express how wonderful my experience in Havana was, how incredibly friendly the locals were and just how unique the culture is. Cuba truly is like another world – one that has to be experienced in order to truly be understood.

 

 

 

When we were firmly out to sea, with nothing but blue waters and blue skies ahead, behind and all around, Keri went to take a siesta and I threw on my swimsuit for some time under the sun. The rest of the day would function as a sea day, but the aft pool was pretty empty and I had my choice of loungers and all the peace and quiet I could ask for. Oh, and I also had a sunburn because in the battle of my SPF 50 versus the Cuban sun, the sun won. That Caribbean heat is no joke.

 

[Nicole721]

Lunch was a sandwich from the deli, which is an option I don’t partake in much on Carnival ships. I’ve never really been a deli sandwich kind of girl, but I did find that I l-o-v-e-d the mozzarella, pepper and arugula sandwich. It’s super yum.

 

 

Keri and I met back up at the Ile de Paris coffee shop for some late afternoon caffeination and took our time just kind of wandering around and enjoying the ship before we had to go back to the room to get ready for formal night.

 

 

On our way to dinner, we stopped by the Taste Bar for Cucina del Capitano bites. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on a ship with Cucina del Capitano, and I really wished this ship had any of the alternative dining options because the short cruise menus aren’t my favorite ones. As Keri and I were obsessing over the Cucina bites (that whipped ricotta, though! SO good!), my Mom was texting me about souvenirs and there was a solid two minutes where I contemplated taking a solo glamour shot to bring home to her as her souvenir (because she’s always on the sly trying to take pictures of me and Stephanie on her iPhone) but I couldn’t do it: she wouldn’t have gotten the humor (she literally would have thought it was the best souvenir ever) and I would not have been able to keep a straight face long enough for the photographer to get a decent picture worth spending $20 on. Sorry, Mom. Hope you enjoyed the t-shirt.

 

[Nicole721]

Dinner was decent. Our servers were super friendly and attentive, and those stuffed mushrooms are always a hit (seriously – Y to the UM!), but I’m pretty sure I had a steak every night because nothing else on the entrée menus really appealed. I swear, I eat more steak on a single cruise than I do in the entire six months leading up to it.

 

 

Bread Basket

 

Baked Stuffed Mushrooms

 

Chilled Strawberry Bisque

 

Flat Iron Steak

[Nicole721]

We walked off our dinner by browsing our way through the shops. There were some generic Cuba souvenirs on display, but nothing incredibly unique. Back at the room, my Platinum gift was waiting on my bed – a travel Bluetooth speaker.