Capitals Fan

I have 2 cameras I use for travel.  One is a Fuji X100F.  Small, unobtrusive (great when shooting people), and high quality.  Only drawback is that it has a fixed lens.  23mm (or the equivalent of a 35 mm on a DSLR.  This is the camera I use on trips to cities, or when I need to pack very light.

Other camera is a Fuji XT-3.  I started with just the "kit" lense -- 18-55mm.  Have since gotten a 16mm lense for landscape and a 55-200mm zoom for when I went to the Galapagos.  There are less expensive options in the Fuji line you might also look into.  The benefit here is that you can start small, with a body and the kit lense, and then grow as you need.  Then, if you want to upgrade your camera, your lenses still work.  Might cost a bit more at first, but will be less expensive as you evolve.

You can't go wrong with something by Anker.  Lots of options, reflecting tradeoffs in size, power, ports, etc.

Well, the website now shows the Insignia doing a very vanilla Caribbean cruise starting on December 18th, the day it was departing for my trip to Cuba.  And yet, still no word from Oceania about the cancellation of the Cuba trip, refund policy, discounts for the re-routed trip, or anything else.  This was to have been my first Oceania cruise, and if this is any indication of how they treat their customers, Oceania will never see me on one of their ships.  Absolutely disgraceful way to treat people who are handing over thousands of dollars, and tend to do so with great frequency.

And here we are, 6 weeks since Bolton announced the intent to restrict travel to Cuba and four days since the restrictions were officially implemented, and still no word from Oceania.  Seems like Bolton gave the cruise lines plenty of time to figure out contingency plans, and other lines seems to have been able to announce their plans (of course, they are exercising their right to substitute the typical Caribbean ports, which is nothing I'm interested in).  I'm hoping that Oceania is taking the extra time to figure out how to make the cruise work as planned.  But I'm not optimistic.

7 hours ago, RJB said:

You are at least 6 months out. There should not be any penalties. 

I agree that there "should" not be penalties.  But the contract allows them to collect a $250 per person penalty for cancellation.  It will be interesting to see whether they try to do so when I cancel.  I'm waiting a few days to let them sort things out, but this really is a test of Oceania's public relations team.  If they collect the penalty, I know I'm stuck, but you can be sure I'll never travel with Oceania or any of its related cruise lines.  

45 minutes ago, Granny DI said:

RCL canceled stops in Cuba on June 5 and 6. Guess they are hoping their lawyers find a loophole or friendly judge.

I'm not an apologist for RCL, but they pretty clearly have the right to do this under their passenger agreement.  The more important question for those of us booked on Cuba cruises and past the cancellation deadline is what RCL is going to do to make things right given that Cuba cruises are far more expensive than standard Caribbean cruises and many passengers booked to go to Cuba specifically.  This isn't a legal matter, but a significant public relations challenge.

29 minutes ago, El turista said:

 

The document said "flights" and "accommodations" so maybe they don't consider a cruise as accommodation?

Actually, the document says "at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation)".  Under normal rules of legal interpretation, "such as" is not a phrase of limitation, so paying for a cruise would likely be a "travel-related transaction" under any reasonable interpretation.  As I and others have noted, the problem will be that even if you can go, the cruise line may re-route the trip so that it can sell cabins after tomorrow.  And I'm guessing that we won't know that for some time.  Even if they know that they are going to re-route, it takes time for them to figure out where they are going and to make all the necessary arrangements.  So I'm doubting we will be getting much news soon.

The actual text of the order, which will become effective tomorrow, is at https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-11755.pdf.  Note that there is an exemption for "certain group people-to-people educational travel that previously was authorized where the traveler has already completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation) prior to" tomorrow.  But, as many have noted, that does not necessarily mean that your cruise line is going to continue visiting Cuba, particularly where the ship is not substantially booked already.  I'm on a December Oceania cruise, and it looks like I'm going to cancel because I have no interest in being re-routed to Cozumel, Nassau, etc.

As i made clear in my original post, I am well aware that no one knows anything at this point.  But, at least in my mind, the cruise lines can help alleviate concerns (evidenced by certain threads on Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor and elsewhere) by being proactive in consumer communications even if they have nothing substantive to add.

I'm booked on a cruise to Cuba with Oceania in December and, like everyone else with a booking to Cuba, am concerned about whether the trip will go off as planned.  I recognize that because the coming restrictions on travel to Cuba were announced without any details, no one really knows what is to come.  That said, I would have appreciated an email from Oceania saying, in effect "We understand that you are concerned about you planned trip, at this point we don't have any more details than you do, we're doing our best to find out more, and rest assured that as soon as we know more, we'll pass it along to our valued customers."  At some point, I'm going to have to make a decision whether to cancel this trip and suck up the penalties, and honest, timely communication from the cruise line is going to play a role in my deciding when and if to pull the plug.

Wondering whether other cruise lines are doing a better job than Oceania, and what others are doing as they approach cancellation deadlines.

Check out some later threads on this forum -- look like something else is happening to all Havana tour companies and this may have just been a cover story.