Cuba.....uh, oh.

[KmomChicago]

4 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

I appreciate your disappointment re Havana. But rather than losing hundreds or may be thousands on nonrefundable hotel and airfare, I would still fly to Miami and make the most of a planned vacation gone sideway. 

 

Agreed!  Miami is relatively Cuban anyway. Plenty to see and do there!

[rwdtgb]

3 hours ago, sfaaa said:

You can still fly to Miami and hop on another ship or do a land vacation there. Lot of cruises leaving Miami daily. There will always be a Plan B if you are willing to improvise.

I have already checked and so far there is nothing available for when we are suppose to sail. I can at least book for a later date on another cruise line, I just need to change my airfare. I was just hoping the cruise line would give us the choice on if we should bother to fly down or just cancel.

[rwdtgb]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Agreed!  Miami is relatively Cuban anyway. Plenty to see and do there!

I use to live in Hollywood beach although I loved living down there I don't want to spend a week there on vacation. For a few dollars more we could have flown to Europe and taken a med cruise...LOL

[Epos Man]

But what would happen if the other cruise line also didn't go to somewhere else that you would like to go to or give you some sort of compensation.

 

All the cruise lines will be in the same position

[rwdtgb]

4 hours ago, ikea logistics said:

But what would happen if the other cruise line also didn't go to somewhere else that you would like to go to or give you some sort of compensation.

 

All the cruise lines will be in the same position

I appreciate your thought however this cruise was sold as a cuba cruise with other ports of call. We also paid a few bucks more because of the fact it is a less traveled itinerary with less ships doing this route. Trust me after 50 plus cruises we have been on many ships where the port of call got cancelled for various reasons and we always had a good time and never asked or expected a form of compensation. (this cruise is just a little different). We have been fortunate to have gotten to Cuba a year ago and jumped at a second chance, however if it isn't meant to be we will do our best to enjoy the cruise with what it has to offer.

[CruisingFox27]

5 minutes ago, rwdtgb said:

I appreciate your thought however this cruise was sold as a cuba cruise with other ports of call. We also paid a few bucks more because of the fact it is a less traveled itinerary with less ships doing this route. Trust me after 50 plus cruises we have been on many ships where the port of call got cancelled for various reasons and we always had a good time and never asked or expected a form of compensation. (this cruise is just a little different). We have been fortunate to have gotten to Cuba a year ago and jumped at a second chance, however if it isn't meant to be we will do our best to enjoy the cruise with what it has to offer.

 

Indeed. If a Caribbean cruise has to substitute St Maarten for St Thomas, or a Med cruise substitutes Crete for Corfu, you're still getting the cruise you booked. If you've booked a Cruise to Cuba and it doesn't go to Cuba....it's not.
We are the same, I'd rather not sail to places we've been before, I'd rather save the money and book a destination we actually want to visit.

Obviously, this destination problem is most definitely out of MSC'S control, like all of the travel operators at this time. We are all having to wait and see what our options will be.

[Bollinge]

If there are more than about 10% Americans booked on Armonia - and I suspect there will be substantially more - MSC will just divert elsewhere.

 

Maybe the State Department will clarify the situation when they return to work after the Easter holidays.

 

If this embargo has to be passed by parliament, it may or may not happen. Fingers crossed! 

[CruisingFox27]

12 minutes ago, Bollinge said:

If this embargo has to be passed by parliament, it may or may not happen. Fingers crossed! 

 

I asked this on another thread, I was advised it would not need to be passed by the senate or congress. I can't find the reply with exact reason but the change can be made on an individuals whim.  I had hoped the same as you, thinking in the in the UK a change to policy needs to be approved by Parliament.

[QueenofEverything]

I don't think it has anything to do with how many Americans are on board.  If the Armonia is sailing from a US port, it will have to abide by the new rules.  There were not any ships sailing to Cuba from the US before Obama changed the rules, so I doubt there will be any now that they have reverted back to the old rules.  The question is really when will they start enforcing this ban.

[mexico8]

We have cancellation insurance but I am quite sure they won't cover us if we want to cancel if Havana is removed from the cruise schedule.   We will go on the cruise and enjoy the trip = sometimes these things turn out better than expected.   As Canadians we can visit Havana some other way in the near future if we don't get there on this cruise.

[OceansOfTravels]

I'd be curious to see what they'd replace the two days in Havana with. I'm on the 7 night to Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel with two days in Havana, so maybe they'll add Belize and a sea day, or Grand Cayman and a sea day, or maybe Key West? 

 

I will be very disappointed if Cuba is cancelled, as I did book the cruise solely because it was going to Havana, but it is to celebrate my graduation with a friend. I know I would take about any cruise at this point in time as I study for finals, so it will be nice to get away and relax regardless. It'll just be a bummer if Cuba isn't included!

[CruisingFox27]

Last week MSC posted several adverts for the Armonia sailing from Miami to Cuba on UK social media. I queried if the stop in Havana would still be included, given the announcement. I've received a reply today stating, "we have investigated and it doesn't affect UK passengers". Presumably, this also extends to other non USA passengers.

 

MSC UK, at least, are not indicating the itinerary will be altered. Fingers crossed this remains the case.

[Beamafar]

I do hope so, but I wonder if the issue will be around the ship sailing from Miami, CF.  Seems like MSC UK don't see it as an issue, though.

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Still doesn't say anything for us US ppl. I want to know what's going to happen to us.

[CruisingFox27]

29 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

I do hope so, but I wonder if the issue will be around the ship sailing from Miami, CF.  Seems like MSC UK don't see it as an issue, though.

 

MY thoughts too, and I take the information with a considerable degree of skepticism, this is MSC information! On this occasion it's an industry wide issue, so not just up to MSC. I'm still not booking a flight yet.

 

Sorry, my question was to a UK office, so no reference to USA passengers.

[mickey89]

Surprised that MSC don't see it as a problem.  

Trump is unlikely to allow any foreign nationals to use the US as a staging post whilst denying US citizens.

[QueenofEverything]

Remember this is MSC, the source of bad information on a regular basis.  There won't be any ships sailing to Cuba from US ports once they start enforcing this rule.  There weren't any before Obama changed the rule.  I would suggest directing your question to the US State department or Treasury department and ask when enforcement will begin.

[NCTribeFan]

I'm going to be very, very disappointed if we can't make the call in Cuba (sailing 5/13).  But if that happens, it happens.  DD is sailing with me for the first time in about 7 years so, if nothing else, we'll have a nice vacation together.

 

But, yeah, I'll probably cry.  And, yes, after 30+ cruises, I'm well aware that itinerary changes happen.  I booked the earliest sailing I could (thanks to my work schedule) because I was afraid that Twitter-in-Chief would restrict access to Cuba. 

[Reds4life]

I really hate this for you guys that had planned on seeing Cuba. I was originally on this cruise and as ironic as it is, I actually did not want to pay the extra costs to go to Cuba. Hope it all works out for everyone

[thecruisers6]

I see NCL are still advertising ‘OFAC-compliant’ Cuba cruises. Perhaps they know something we don’t and we’re worrying about nothing? 

[DCGuy64]

For the time being, I'm doing nothing. Our cruise isn't for more than 7 months, so we have plenty of time to decide what to do. My hunch is that this will all blow over by then and cruises will go ahead as planned. If worse comes to worse, we will either do a different cruise or the same cruise with an altered itinerary.

[sandy999]

 

We just received our cruise documents for 6th May cruise.  Still showing Cuba on the itinerary and we have been allocated the 2 free people to people excursions now too.  

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

5 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

For the time being, I'm doing nothing. Our cruise isn't for more than 7 months, so we have plenty of time to decide what to do. My hunch is that this will all blow over by then and cruises will go ahead as planned. If worse comes to worse, we will either do a different cruise or the same cruise with an altered itinerary.

Ours is July 1st. Kinda stuck in limbo... don't want to book any tours in Cuba till we know for sure.

[hamrag]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:11 AM, CruisingFox27 said:

Last week MSC posted several adverts for the Armonia sailing from Miami to Cuba on UK social media. I queried if the stop in Havana would still be included, given the announcement. I've received a reply today stating, "we have investigated and it doesn't affect UK passengers". Presumably, this also extends to other non USA passengers.

 

MSC UK, at least, are not indicating the itinerary will be altered. Fingers crossed this remains the case.

 

When did anything that MSC UK announce remain the case....it always changes, beware!!

[hamrag]

On 4/25/2019 at 11:16 AM, CruisingFox27 said:

 

....On this occasion it's an industry wide issue, so not just up to MSC. I'm still not booking a flight yet.....

 

Absolutely, and wise.

 

We were on the verge of booking an Azamara Cuba intensive itinerary i.e. all 3 ports with overnights in 2 of them in November 2019. Being aware of the Cuba threads on various cruiseline boards, I posed the question to the TA we were working with. They claimed to be unaware of this, but contacted Azamara and produced the T&C's which state clearly there would be no compensation from the cruise company in the event of sailing a different itinerary. So, booking as a package our flights would have been booked and we could have ended up going (most likely) to the Western Caribbean which we have done and find unattractive compared to Southern and Eastern itineraries.

 

Cuba itineraries carry a price premium, so it would have been ridiculous to end up elsewhere at the price for this cruise. We have abandoned this plan, and now trying to find a YC cabin on Divina which has an itinerary with a couple of new Caribbean ports for us.