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Email from Azamara re Cuba cruises


uktog
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I have just received this who knows what the outcome will be but such a shame if the Cuba cruises are lost and those who cancelled when they lost the Caribbean could have had their cruises all along

 

 

 

 

DearTraveler,

 

 

 

This Friday, June 16th, 2017, President DonaldTrump is expected to reveal his administration's new policy toward Cuba duringa speech in Miami. And while we do not yet know what he is going to say,changes to the policy may impact US citizens traveling to Cuba. This includesany guests who are planning to cruise with us on an itinerary that visits aCuba port.

 

 

 

Oursailings to Cuba are popular and while we are hopeful to continue sailing tothe destination, we will obviously comply with any changes to current USGovernment policy and adjust our itineraries accordingly.

 

 

 

Pleaseknow that we are being pro-active and already developing contingency plans, butwe expect Friday's announcement to lack the details necessary to properlyevaluate the best options for our guests. We anticipate working withgovernment officials over the next two or three days to determine what thismeans for Azamara Club Cruises and for you the guest.

 

 

 

Regardlessof the outcome you will be given an opportunity and enough time to evaluate anyand all options. Thank you for your patience, we all hope for the bestoutcome.

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I'm sad to hear that's what it may come to - we have a cruise booked on Quest in November to Cuba. I've been on one of the People-to-People tours, and it was fantastic, but I was looking forward to a little more freedom, not to mention some Azamara time. We were also looking forward to booking B2B Asia cruises for next year while on board, but they're two of the ones that are being retooled. ;)

 

FWIW, here's the article from the Miami Herald with what they're expecting to hear from the speech, and they seem to think the cruises will be okay, but who knows. As my father used to tell me, "In good time, all will be revealed." http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article156337129.html

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Reading what has been released (or hinted at) it may mean that the "self-certification" may be gone and only visits through registered sources will be allowed. The cruises, however, look likely to continue in some form.

 

This would stop us in our tracks from returning to Cuba. We would only go if we had the freedom to do what we wanted and then self-certify. No interest in being forced to take established shore tours.

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Per the Miami Herald, under Trump's rules travelers will be subject to a Treasury Dept. audit of their trip, to ensure they fall under one of the permitted categories (family visits, professional research, educational activities).

Gosh, I can think of one or two other lines of inquiry if the Treasury Department is looking for recalcitrant taxpayers.

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I have just received this who knows what the outcome will be but such a shame if the Cuba cruises are lost and those who cancelled when they lost the Caribbean could have had their cruises all along

 

 

 

(I deleted the email to save space) I didn't get this email. Did you book directly with Azamara? I used a TA. I hate that the final payment for my March cruise is so early (November!). I'd like to have a longer window of opportunity to see how it all shakes out. I do not want to be in the position of having Azamara change the itinerary completely as they did to create the Cuba cruises. I can do a Caribbean cruise for less with another line. I'm trying Azamara solely because of the Cuba itinerary.

 

 

Per the Miami Herald, under Trump's rules travelers will be subject to a Treasury Dept. audit of their trip, to ensure they fall under one of the permitted categories (family visits, professional research, educational activities).

Gosh, I can think of one or two other lines of inquiry if the Treasury Department is looking for recalcitrant taxpayers.

 

Good post! Does anyone know what the penalty is for failing an audit of a trip to Cuba?

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Good post! Does anyone know what the penalty is for failing an audit of a trip to Cuba?

 

It's a pretty hefty fine as I recall, certainly more than the cost of the trip, but the general feeling was that it was unlikely we'd ever be challenged. When we did the People-to-People tour they told us to keep our travel affidavit (which Azamara issues in this case) and a copy of our itinerary with us when reentering the US for five years after our trip. That was before the recent loosening of the rules that the cruises have operated under though.

 

Things that were considered people-to-people were the visit we did to the senior citizens center, the dance troupe, the various art coops, a rural medical clinic, a pharmacy, a rationing center, things like that. It was apparently important that we talked to people that weren't serving us mojitos at La Bodequita del Medio, which of course we also did :D

 

Robin - I think the dinner shows are very educational!

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wonder if dinner shows and going to bars count as educational. oh I can find the ballet company again too.

 

I would love to go to the ballet. I wonder if that counts, though. Museums don't count. I consider them to be educational/cultural, but they aren't "people to people" under the current rules.

 

Azamara offers an excursion to an evening show, so I guess that's OK under current rules, or they wouldn't offer it.

Edited by 3rdGenCunarder
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wonder if dinner shows and going to bars count as educational. oh I can find the ballet company again too.

 

 

 

If you talk to locals it would have counted. The recommendation was to keep track of all encounters and all experiences including tickets, receipts, etc. Sounds like I may have missed my chance.

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The first time was the top land tour company from America. I kept nothing but pictures and rum.. nothing was asked of us but did you buy rum/ did you buy cigars? the pink visa form was left in Cuba as Cuba kept them.

on the land tour we did art, music, dance and museums.. plenty of food. one hotel was a beach hotel and half our group stayed behind to enjoy the beach .

On the ship first day I walked and took pictures. the ballet is near the Capital building. if you did not know where it was you walk by it. lovely on the outside but you need to know what it is. . there a park near by where statues of famous presidents are there including Lincoln. our guide never walked the whole thing so no idea who else is there.

getting ballet tickets i am guessing online. forgot the bathroom there- i went across at a hotel. .

Day two of ship i got up had a coffee on a sq then walked . it rained and i found different bars including lunch .we sailed at 3 so got back at 245.

as far as people to people land tour yes. on ship did my own thing. some people did a tour and then did their own thing. noway you could prove you were on a tour. the old car tour is less on your own and most of the walking in town you can do alone. also AZ including a cigar and rum stop at the hotel i stayed at. a good 15 to 20 minutes from Old Havana.. not worth it to me.

wonder if a rum tour counts.

dinner show- really? i done two.

Museums in havana one but in cuba 3.

never kept a thing to prove where i was or what i was doing on my own .with land tour we never had anything given to us to save.

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From what I have read, it looks as if cruises to Cuba will be OK, but maybe US cruisers will have to do ships excursions, or one's with local operators that clearly meet one of the 12 approved categories.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Unfortunately it looks likely it will be a requirement that all on board US cruise ships have to do ships excursions. That is a blow for those from the UK. We kept our Cuba cruise based on previous guidance that this would not be the case.

However the cruise is a year away and even a day is a long time in politics so who knows what will be the case

We've had an email from Azamara this morning saying they are confident the cruises can go ahead as planned but they are monitoring the situation. I read that means the cruise will still happen based on what they think they know I don't at present read our freedom to DIY is still there :(

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What I read was that US citizens would be subject to a stringent audit when they return, and could face heavy fines if their trip proved not to be in New of the 12 categories, but they can't subject UK residents to such an audit, can they?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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What I read was that US citizens would be subject to a stringent audit when they return, and could face heavy fines if their trip proved not to be in New of the 12 categories, but they can't subject UK residents to such an audit, can they?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I was advised before that if we enter on a US cruise ship we are subject to US rules even as UK citizens. That is why we have to get visas which we would not need normally. That is why I think we might be subject to some audit or check which the ship arrives in Miami and that they might have ship wide restrictions.

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What I read was that US citizens would be subject to a stringent audit when they return, and could face heavy fines if their trip proved not to be in New of the 12 categories, but they can't subject UK residents to such an audit, can they?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

 

This is directly from the UK Government travel advice site, and the reason we chose to cancel our Christmas cruise on Journey when Cuba was added to the itinerary as it would have meant unnecessary restrictions on us. If we ever want to visit Cuba we will do it from the UK without all of the issues that traveling via the US brings.

 

Travelling to Cuba from the USA

Travelling for tourism reasons directly from the USA to Cuba isn’t allowed under US law. The law applies to US nationals and all foreign nationals who are either resident in the USA, or travelling through the USA en route to Cuba. Those travelling on direct flights between the UK and Cuba, or via other countries excluding the USA, are unaffected by this US legislation.

 

Under certain conditions, travel is permitted from the USA to Cuba, including on the direct flights which now operate between the 2 countries. Everybody travelling on these routes (both US citizens and foreign nationals) will need to comply with US law and travel for one of 12 permitted reasons/categories of travel. Tourism isn’t one of these 12 permitted reasons/categories. For more information see the US Department of the Treasury website and the US State Department’s travel advice for Cuba.

 

 

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These rules really suck for those of us who aren't Americans, don't they? As Canadians, we're free to fly to Cuba for a holiday any time we like, but since my husband is also a US citizen, we've never done so. Many Americans have travelled illegally to Cuba of course, through Canada or Mexico. But I've never thought it was worth the risk. I had hoped that we would be able to take a trip there from Florida some winter, given the relaxed rules, but this now seems like a pipe dream.

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Actually they suck for Americans, also.

 

We were fully prepared to book the Journey 24 Novermber '18 Cuba sailing. We are already on the previous TA so it would be an easy B2B. That was if the rules stayed the same. Now, with being forced to take an organized excursion, my interest has dropped to zero. Have been to Cuba and have no need for the hand holding of an excursion. Can find my way around both Havana and Cienfuegos easily (anyone could) and would figure it out in Santiago.

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Actually they suck for Americans, also.

 

We were fully prepared to book the Journey 24 Novermber '18 Cuba sailing. We are already on the previous TA so it would be an easy B2B. That was if the rules stayed the same. Now, with being forced to take an organized excursion, my interest has dropped to zero. Have been to Cuba and have no need for the hand holding of an excursion. Can find my way around both Havana and Cienfuegos easily (anyone could) and would figure it out in Santiago.

 

 

I was going to go back Nov 2017 and now am questioning it. i thought get out of the cold sooner. Now i am like is it time to cancel everything including my flight. Santiago a little more spread out but with a good taxi you could find everything.

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Thank you uktog for posting this. We live in vienna, austria and although we have a good travel agent, we hardly ever receive any communications from either azamara directly or via the travel agent. I guess they don't care about the odd US citizens who book through a german travel agent (although this will of course affect anyone leaving from a US port). Our cruise to cuba is not until end 2018 and a lot can change until then but it is definitely something to keep an eye on. Thank you for keeping me current!! :D:D:D:D:D

 

 

Sent from my iPad

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Having put so many of their eggs in the Cuban basket it seems that cruise lines are going to continue with their plans for Cuban itineraries. With the tightening of the regulations they will be able to promote more ships tours to ensure passengers comply with the laws.

For non Americans this makes traveling to Cuba from a US port even less attractive, but you have to wonder how much goodwill will be lost in the wider market.

From a personal point of view we have already lost our 2018 Christmas cruise as we were not prepared to accept visiting Cuba with unnecessary restrictions and cost. Couple this with cancellations due to charters our trust in booking early with Azamara has been totally lost. However much we enjoy the onboard experience when booking I don't think that it's unreasonable to get the cruise and itinerary we've chosen, accepted that some changes are inevitable, i.e. on security grounds.

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I was advised before that if we enter on a US cruise ship we are subject to US rules even as UK citizens. That is why we have to get visas which we would not need normally. That is why I think we might be subject to some audit or check which the ship arrives in Miami and that they might have ship wide restrictions.

 

There are very few US registered cruise ships. Believe there is one sailing on the west coast between the continent and Hawaii. Most are registered in the Bahamas and Malta. Cruise lines may require adherence for all quests to new restrictions IF sailing out and back to a US port.

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I was advised before that if we enter on a US cruise ship we are subject to US rules even as UK citizens. That is why we have to get visas which we would not need normally. That is why I think we might be subject to some audit or check which the ship arrives in Miami and that they might have ship wide restrictions.

 

It looks to me like there will be tighter restrictions, and your comment about a check in Miami got me thinking. Remember the old days when the Customs lines had tables where they opened your luggage after a cruise? Not everyone, but spot checks. I wonder if the government's method of enforcement will be to spot check by pulling people out of the customs/immigration line and sending them to an additional line where they will be "audited" by someone from Treasury. How else can they enforce tighter restrictions, put an undercover T-agent on every cruise as a snitch?

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There are very few US registered cruise ships. Believe there is one sailing on the west coast between the continent and Hawaii. Most are registered in the Bahamas and Malta. Cruise lines may require adherence for all quests to new restrictions IF sailing out and back to a US port.

 

Sorry my post was not clear, yes the issue is cruise ships that come to/from Miami as our Azamara cruise will do. The position since Azamara started to go to Cuba has been that compliance was required for all guests, so for example UK guests have to buy $75 visas which they do not need (other than because they are arriving from an ex US port). If we flew to Cuba from the UK no visas and no restrictions at all on shore. I think 3rdGencunader mak.es a very valid assessment of what arriving back to Miami could be like

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I think all you need to do is look at the way ICE agents are acting and may see a template for customs agents.

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

 

How are ICE agents acting? What do they have to do with this? I am confused.

 

Thank you for explaining to this dumb blonde

Kathy

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