Anyone just in Cuba and did local tour ?????

Anyone who just was in Cuba... how did you fill out your form?

Do you know anyone who did a local day tour and not the cruise line tour?

Did they select "Support for the Cuban People" option??

I am leaving on Sunday for cruise that will be in Cuba on the 24th and the documentation requirements lead me to believe it's ok to do a local tour but the cruise lines are giving confusing information where some say we can do this and others say we can't.

thank you,,

-Greg

The believe the first boat docks today. Stand by, I’m sure someone will post soon. Please keep us posted Gregski and have a great trip. What line are you cruising with?

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I found this on another board. It was posted by someone who is currently on the cruise to Havana. It should give you some peace of mind.

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I can't read or open that image? what does it say? anyone else able to read it?

thanks,

Greg

The same letter is posted on the "New Rules for Cuba" thread and IS readable on that thread if you look closely or make your computer screen larger. It sounds like people could do quite a bit on their own. The letter was posted by "nicedream" and is toward the end of the thread, maybe post # 108 or so if I remember correctly.

Of course, that's a letter from Royal Caribbean and some cruise lines might have a different approach.

From what I have been reading as well as a conversation I had with a Carnival representative last week, it appears the cruise lines will be allowing people to do private tours, as long as you acknowledge that it is your responsibility to verify what is or is not allowed. It appears that "Support for the Cuban People" is a good category for those activities. Of course, please check with your cruise line as confirmation.

And as long as we're talking about private tours, I'll add a recommendation for Fertours (fertours2havana.com). We used them for our visit in August, and were completely satisfied with the ease of working with them and the quality of our private tour.

Have fun!

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From what I have been reading as well as a conversation I had with a Carnival representative last week, it appears the cruise lines will be allowing people to do private tours, as long as you acknowledge that it is your responsibility to verify what is or is not allowed. It appears that "Support for the Cuban People" is a good category for those activities. Of course, please check with your cruise line as confirmation.

 

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This makes perfect sense (bold is mine) I have said all along that it is doubtful that the lines are going to get into the US Treasury Department enforcement business.

Based on your post, Carnival is doing it correctly, putting the responsibility on the guest. As it should be.

RCCL, on the other hand , has sent out a sneakily written, scare tactic letter that states (I'm paraphrasing) that you must go on an approved tour that meets the new rule (we know that, we can read the Treasury Dept .memo), but then states that all their tours do meet the new rule.

It goes on to encourage booking one of their tours.

Nowhere does it say you must go on one of their approved tours. This is the part people are not getting. When you research private tours in Cuba, many already state that they meet the group requirements for people to people.

I was there in June, just after the first mandate. Yes, we filled out the form to leave at the departure port, but nobody cared where we went when we got off the ship in Havana.

My next trip is in Dec 2018, but was booked before the first mandate in June, so I am exempt from any of these recent changes.

That's another thing, are they going to research several thousand bookings per sailing to find out when each guest booked - pre or post Marco Rubio inspired changes?

"OK, you can get off the ship - ooops, sorry, but the person behind you in line can't."

I don't see it happening.

This makes perfect sense (bold is mine) I have said all along that it is doubtful that the lines are going to get into the US Treasury Department enforcement business.

 

Based on your post, Carnival is doing it correctly, putting the responsibility on the guest. As it should be.

 

RCCL, on the other hand , has sent out a sneakily written, scare tactic letter that states (I'm paraphrasing) that you must go on an approved tour that meets the new rule (we know that, we can read the Treasury Dept .memo), but then states that all their tours do meet the new rule.

It goes on to encourage booking one of their tours.

 

It's not the first time a cruise line has been sneaky, or at best, quite misinformed. How many of us have gone to Russia and read that we couldn't get off the ship unless we had a Russian visa or were on a cruise line tour? (Lots of us, I suspect!)

In case anyone comes here looking for "what worked for me," here's what I posted in our roll call on our return:

We booked after June. For excursions, we booked one short one with Azamara, first day, first thing, to make sure we could get off the ship without any problems. The rest of that day, and the following day, were with a private guide we hired through Tour Republic, a Miami-based company. We had a few hours altogether between the two days for wandering, but really the best time we had was spent with the private guide. Interestingly, the guide for the first (ship's) tour, as well as the bus driver, were both government employees. Our private guide was not.

When we went to board the ship, at check-in we got a fairly unpleasant, dismissive agent (nice intro to our first Azamara cruise!). I had checked "support of the Cuban people," as I'd been advised on other boards and by our tour group. I showed him the receipt and itinerary from Tour Republic. He threw away the forms I'd filled out, and said I had to either choose 1. full time with Azamara excursions or 2. full time with private arrangements. I tried to explain that we had a little of both planned, but he didn't care -- just said "pick the one that fits." So I chose #2.

As others have said, customs was easy, getting on and off the ship was easy every time. The first time through customs you hand them the visa that Azamara gave you and they stamp your passport (yay!). After that they just look at your passport when you come and go.

We kept a journal and took lots of pictures. I'll keep a copy at the ready for five years if we ever get asked about it, but I really doubt that will happen.

I returned Monday from Azamara to Havana. We selected "Support the Cuban People" and were not given a hard time. We got our visa without having to provide evidence of our plans, though I was prepared with confirmations of our plans and also the applicable statutes and the Treasury Department's examples of permitted travel under Support the Cuban People. It seems the majority of our fellow cruisers on our sailing were forced to do Azamara tours at the last minute or they were told they couldn't leave the ship. Not sure why we didn't have to and they did. But I'm very happy with my experience.

We used Tours by Blexie and recommend them very highly! We wouldn't change a thing. Blexie works with a few other folks, all linguistic or language degree holders who speak English, German and other languages, just tell him what language you need and he'll take care of it. They are Cuban citizens, not affiliated with the Cuban Government and I can't imagine an experience that more closely matched the spirit and letter of the law than my day George, our guide. He spoke openly and made us feel very comfortable asking any questions. He is also very knowledgeable of history, all of the monuments and popular tourist sites. He seemed to know everyone in town and introduced us to a local artist who invited us back to his workshop for a dance lesson the next day. He knew we had another day in port and would show us sites that we should come back to the next day to spend more time on our own. He helped us make a lunch reservation for the next day as well, which was good since the place was packed the next day.

The tour was $130 CUC for the guide, driver and classic car. We customized the tour to our liking, but Blexie gave us a suggested itinerary which was a great, helpful, starting list. The tour went long, and George was in no hurry to get us back to the ship, wanting to show us everything. We tipped $30 CUC on top and when we tried to hand more money to the driver, George, refused and said he would pay the driver and that the tip was for both of them and more than enough.

Cannot recommend them highly enough. We will go back, and we will use them again. You can contact Blexie at blexie100588@gmail.com.

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Were the problems disembarking for people with no confirmed plans?

No. The problem was Azamara. I'm sure you'll be fine since you are on Oceania.

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Thanks . Unclear what Oceania will do. I did ask to go to

the market and university.

We were visiting Cuba as a port of call on our cruise ship and wanted to see the countryside and places outside Havana.

We preferred to book the tour through a local company instead the ones offered by the cruiseline.

We had a great tour with Hugo and Robin from Havanacar.net.

We went to Soroa Botanical Gardens and the Vinales Valley where we visited the Indio Cave and took a boat trip in the cave, then we visited a tobacco farm which was very interesting. Hugo was friendly and gave us lots of information and made our first visit to Cuba a real pleasure. He also recommended places of interest in Havana which we visited ourselves the next day.

Stefano, the company manager, was great in communicating with through emails. He was quick and very responsive.