Cuba on NCL Sky

[mcarbone2001]

Going to Cuba in Jan 2019. Any suggestions or tips.

[nmbnancy]

If you go back to the main page and scroll down to the Ports of Call section then click Caribbean and then Cuba, you will find detailed information on the ports in Cuba. There are many opinions of what you should see and do.

 

I would recommend you take one of the tours that includes a walking tour and a car tour. We were there overnight, so our guide arranged for the driver to take us to Hotel Nacional de Cuba to watch the sunset on their outdoor patio and then on to a wonderful dinner at Riomar

 

I was on the NCL Sky last week and had an independent guide who catered to our schedule and was fantastic ! katiusca77@gmail.com

[gxduns]

If you go back to the main page and scroll down to the Ports of Call section then click Caribbean and then Cuba, you will find detailed information on the ports in Cuba. There are many opinions of what you should see and do.

 

I would recommend you take one of the tours that includes a walking tour and a car tour. We were there overnight, so our guide arranged for the driver to take us to Hotel Nacional de Cuba to watch the sunset on their outdoor patio and then on to a wonderful dinner at Riomar

 

I was on the NCL Sky last week and had an independent guide who catered to our schedule and was fantastic ! katiusca77@gmail.com

What tour was that?

 

Sent from my SM-T710 using Forums mobile app

[nmbnancy]

I found the guide (Katiusca) recommended by another person on Cruise Critic who had toured with her earlier in September, so I emailed her directly. She is an independent guide. I outlined what we thought we wanted to do during out 10 AM to 6 AM port time and she said she would fit the tour to our needs. Since it was our first visit we were unsure of what we wanted to do. We discussed a lot of options through emails and the only concrete plan we had decided on was a car tour first with lunch outside of Old Town and then a walking tour in Old Town (the 4 squares). Katiusca met us at the designated time and then offered us suggestions and allowed us to decide what we wanted to see. We decided on our evening plans after we saw certain areas of Havana. Katiusca was very flexible and made all arrangements and evening reservations for us.

There are many companies to chose from that give tours, but most of them have a set itinerary and I knew that would not work for us.

[BigNance]

We used Blexie - Havana tours and he was phenomenal! We were a group of 10 and had 3 Classic cars that were air conditioned (it was August). We did a walking tour of Colonial Havana and then boarded the cars! Although Blexie has pre set tours, he will revise to suit your needs/requests. He and his friends were very informative, friendly and accommodating. He is on Trip Advisor and Facebook. We communicated via e-mail to set everything up.

His prices are much more reasonable than the Norwegian ship tours. You can get your CUC (Cuban cash) in the cruise terminal when you disembark and go through Customs. You should get enough for your tour, lunch, souvenirs, etc. They don't accept credit cards in Cuba.

 

If you are an American (we are), check with Blexie to see what classification to check/circle on your Cuba Visa Affidavit form that NCL has you fill out. I know what he told us to do, but in case it changes by the time you leave, you will want timely information. When we went, because it was a private tour, we couldn't check "People to People", which is what Norwegian has when you take their tours.

 

We greatly enjoyed our visit to Havana, and Blexie, Jorge, and Raul certainly made it for us!

 

Also, if Sail In is at dawn, get up for that. It was pretty magnificent!!

[Cruiser_1977]

Did the Sky to Cuba & GSC in June here are the links to my review and the dailies:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2644446

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2644413

[sleepbestonships]

You will have a great time! I went in September and it was really lovely. The Sky is going to dry dock in January, so perhaps you will be the last cruise before dry dock??

 

We used Blexie (Raul was our tour guide). I would highly recommend one of the guides who combines a car tour and walking tour.

[Adomi]

We used CubaOutings, even though we only had a few hours due to ship problems