My Cuba Cruise

[burm]

Looking at one of the new reviews, I note someone said that they had to leave all luggage at the dock, including carry ons, when they arrived to embark the Louis Crystal.

 

I really don't understand that comment at all. We dropped off our large suitcase just inside the terminal, but definitely carried our small bags onto the ship with us. Where we left our bags was probably no less safe than in any other port -I always wonder if we will ever see our bags again.

 

Perhaps the person who said this misunderstood due to the language barrier?

 

We did pay the big bucks ($23?) to rent a digital safe, but as we left it open, I understand the person coming behind us did not have to pay (He still owes me a drink for that one and I hope he will one day have the opportunity to pay up:)) We considered the cost a small price to pay for peace of mind.

[burm]

The safe is standard hotel/ship size. It looks fairly small, but it is large enough to cram in 2 cell phones, a mini ipad, 2 wallets, documents, and some jewellery.

[ONT-CA]

...We did pay the big bucks ($23?) to rent a digital safe, but as we left it open, I understand the person coming behind us did not have to pay (He still owes me a drink for that one and I hope he will one day have the opportunity to pay up:)) We considered the cost a small price to pay for peace of mind.

 

We considered that the price we paid for the safe well worth at least a "double"... for which we are beholding.:D Two questions; was the safe open when you arrived in your suite? If not, how did you arrange for the rental? The reason we ask is that it is rumoured that 6000 and 6100 may be exempt, a perk for the exorbitant fares... If that is the case the door would have been left open ready for your chosen combination. If closed, then you or your steward may have been given, at the time of rental, four repetitive and identical numbers to commence the procedure. As this repetitive number can only be one of ten, ten trials would be all that is necessary to play "The Price Is Right" and commence use.;)

[tring]

Thanks for the replies - that is a relief. We always use a safe and they are often somewhat overpriced. My 'real' jewelery will not be going to Cuba though.

 

One more question comes to mind. Is it OK to take bottled water and other non alcoholic drinks onboard?

Edited April 4, 2015 by tring

[ONT-CA]

...One more question comes to mind. Is it OK to take bottled water and other non alcoholic drinks onboard?

 

We brought aboard all varieties of "beverages", when first embarking as well as at each following port and no comment was made by anyone about any of it.

[burm]

We considered that the price we paid for the safe well worth at least a "double"... for which we are beholding.:D Two questions; was the safe open when you arrived in your suite? If not, how did you arrange for the rental? The reason we ask is that it is rumoured that 6000 and 6100 may be exempt, a perk for the exorbitant fares... If that is the case the door would have been left open ready for your chosen combination. If closed, then you or your steward may have been given, at the time of rental, four repetitive and identical numbers to commence the procedure. As this repetitive number can only be one of ten, ten trials would be all that is necessary to play "The Price Is Right" and commence use.;)

 

The door to the safe was closed, and after we paid they sent someone to the room to open it for us.

 

I am not greedy - a single will be fine.

 

Speaking of greedy, we already got facecloths for the exorbitant fare we paid, and you expect a free safe too! :eek:

 

BTW, we missed free room service on the LC, but I see that Norwegian is now going in that direction, too. (Notice my brand new countdown ticker. :)) They are trying it out on two of their larger ships, and I am hoping that the peasants will revolt and force them to abandon that policy completely before our cruise next January.

[ONT-CA]

The door to the safe was closed, and after we paid they sent someone to the room to open it for us.

I am not greedy - a single will be fine.

Speaking of greedy, we already got facecloths for the exorbitant fare we paid, and you expect a free safe too! :eek:

BTW, we missed free room service on the LC, but I see that Norwegian is now going in that direction, too. (Notice my brand new countdown ticker. :)) They are trying it out on two of their larger ships, and I am hoping that the peasants will revolt and force them to abandon that policy completely before our cruise next January.

 

I couldn't agree more, the peasants are revolting...

Let them eat cold Camembert with broken crackers...

I wouldn't keep your hopes up on this one. I have long said that the days are fast approaching where not only room service but the dining room will be a la carte charges, the fare representing your accommodations only. And in some ways I think that might be fairer. Why should Miss Twiggy with her thin slice of ham, lettuce leaf and slice of tomato pay the same for food as Gus Glutton who, having completed his four course dinner, is now on his forth dessert? Could weight gain also be a thing of the past?

 

PS So I said, "0000 what a safe cracking thriller. One could try others two..."

Edited April 4, 2015 by ONT-CA

[tring]

I couldn't agree more, the peasants are revolting...

Let them eat cold Camembert with broken crackers...

I wouldn't keep your hopes up on this one. I have long said that the days are fact approaching where not only room service but the dining room will be a la carte charges, the fare representing your accommodations only. And in some ways I think that might be fairer. Why should Miss Twiggy with her thin slice of ham, lettuce leaf and slice of tomato pay the same for food as Gus Glutton who, having completed his four course dinner, is now on his forth dessert? Could weight gain also be a thing of the past?

 

PS So I said, "0000 what a safe cracking thriller. One could try others two..."

 

I am still waiting in hope for airlines to weigh the people along with their luggage, so we can get more luggage allowance than some.

 

'We brought aboard all varieties of "beverages", when first embarking as well as at each following port and no comment was made by anyone about any of it'.

 

Thanks for your reply, which I quoted in red above - let's hope they do not think twice about that one before next year.

 

Cheers and Happy Easter,

 

Barbara

Edited April 4, 2015 by tring

[burm]

Let them eat cold Camembert with broken crackers...

 

On hearing of this, my first thought was that the senator must have been in first class - I have not been served anything so fancy in recent years on Air Canada. LOL

[KandCsailing]

On hearing of this, my first thought was that the senator must have been in first class - I have not been served anything so fancy in recent years on Air Canada. LOL

I must be totally low class because I love Camembert right out of the fridge.

[burm]

I must be totally low class because I love Camembert right out of the fridge.

 

I love camembert on crackers - especially with a nice glass of red wine.

 

We can't all be as elegant and sophisticated as Senator Ruth.:rolleyes:

[ONT-CA]

Thanks for your reply, which I quoted in red above - let's hope they do not think twice about that one before next year.

 

They will now.....:D

[ONT-CA]

I love camembert on crackers - especially with a nice glass of red wine.

We can't all be as elegant and sophisticated as Senator Ruth.:rolleyes:

 

I loved the headline;

 

SHE CAMEMBERT IT

[burm]

LOL. I had not seen that headline, so did a search. This is what came up. I changed one word (senator) and the he's to she's, otherwise it seemed to fit.

 

 

The Demise of Camembert Poem by Ron Slate

 

 

I remember my mother squeezing

the camembert. She bought it five days

 

before unwrapping it, unwrapped it

two hours before she served it.

 

But what the French sociologist calls

la déstructurisation of family meals

 

means there's no more patience

for ripening on the cold shelf.

 

Pah! A senator rejects the bland cheese couplets.

And the premoistened serviette.

 

Now she sits on a bed, on the bedspread

in a motel on the edge of Las Vegas

 

or a hotel near Narita Airport,

eating an engineered salty snack.

 

So hear me. Compassion begins in the pasture.

Adoration of cow breed, grass strain,

 

The marketing man from Coeur-de-Lion,

the number-one brand of camembert,

 

is revising the résumé of his ripe life.

And you and I, paring away the rind,

 

do you and I have a patient nose

for the creamy inwardness of things?

 

 

Ron Slate

[ElandMar]

oneidealvacation thanks for the info on talks.

 

ElandMar - the link I used was in a previous post here, regarding 10 things americans should know about Cuba - she does say there is a second installment to come.

 

Retiring soon - Enjoy whatever holiday you do next, whatever that is. Must admit, having returned from a norhtern lights and solar eclipse cruise quite ill and after a number of problems onboard, cruises are not high on my list for future hols. We did see both the total eclipse and northern lights though, so that is two boxes ticked.

 

Looking at one of the new reviews, I note someone said that they had to leave all luggage at the dock, including carry ons, when they arrived to embark the Louis Crystal. I find it very worrying as we will have valubles and breakables in our hand luggage (e.g. documents, cameras, computer things etc) and last time we were in Cuba some people were reporting on trip advisor that things even went missing from their hotel safe. Do you really have to leave all luggage on the keyside?

 

Also, is there a safe in the cabins and, if so, how big is it? As we are going for a month long tailor made holiday, we will have all sorts of travel documents and vouchers for flights, hotels, transfers etc. with us.

 

We were able to take our roll along hand luggage suitcases with us ... there was n question that we weren't able to ...checkable suitcases were delivered to rooms very promptly. We had a junior suite (very large room but no balcony). We had a safe but I understand that some people didn't but it was possible to rent one ...I find this rather odd, but it would seem that the lower category rooms didn't have safes and the higher category rooms did. I would take reports of things going missing from safes with a pinch of salt to be honest. We didn't even use ours, we just locked our documents into one of our suitcases under our bed. Our room stewards were honest to a fault. All the crew are delightful, waiters, entertainment, room stewards et al. The only people who could have been friendlier were a couple of guys on the reception desk.

 

The one thing that I find unsafe is the fact that the room keys had the number on them ... so if you lose it, anybody could access your room. I can't remember if they had our names on too .. I think they did. Hope this helps. Regards Ellie

[ElandMar]

We were able to take our roll along hand luggage suitcases with us ... there was n question that we weren't able to ...checkable suitcases were delivered to rooms very promptly. We had a junior suite (very large room but no balcony). We had a safe but I understand that some people didn't but it was possible to rent one ...I find this rather odd, but it would seem that the lower category rooms didn't have safes and the higher category rooms did. I would take reports of things going missing from safes with a pinch of salt to be honest. We didn't even use ours, we just locked our documents into one of our suitcases under our bed. Our room stewards were honest to a fault. All the crew are delightful, waiters, entertainment, room stewards et al. The only people who could have been friendlier were a couple of guys on the reception desk.

 

The one thing that I find unsafe is the fact that the room keys had the number on them ... so if you lose it, anybody could access your room. I can't remember if they had our names on too .. I think they did. Hope this helps. Regards Ellie

 

should have said NO question that we couldn't take our hand luggage with us!

[ONT-CA]

We are wondering if anyone had the opportunity to taste local Cuban tomatoes ashore. They were served to us at lunch in Cienfuego and again at dinner in Havana. One would have to be my age to remember tomatoes like these. My grandmother grew such tomatoes in her garden, long before the cross breeding and development of our current red "tennis balls"... Even the Heritage variety that are grown locally could not compare to that served to us in Cuba. There are probably many reasons why they have retained the lineage and true original flavour of the fruit but that was not our interest. What we wanted was to be able to purchase some of their tomato seeds. When asking how we could go about that we were met with a lot of laughter. No explanation, just laughter. When next we return to Cuba, and we are not even sure we could process the seeds from that being served, but we will probably look foolish sliding the slices of tomato from our plates in an effort to smuggle them home.

[Liz54]

I read an article about how Cuba is the word leader in organic farming. Because of the embargo they have never had access to chemicals and pesticides. Their soil is not tainted from residues. Heaven knows they would have manure! I hope they are able to exploit this area of expertise to their benefit.

[ONT-CA]

I read an article about how Cuba is the word leader in organic farming. Because of the embargo they have never had access to chemicals and pesticides. Their soil is not tainted from residues. Heaven knows they would have manure! I hope they are able to exploit this area of expertise to their benefit.

 

Thanks Liz54, we had not put that thought together with our question of genetics. But of course those two points would go hand in hand. Local farmers have said that the qualities of the early 20th century tomato will never be seen again. But now I'm not so sure. I wonder if we could successfully harvest the seeds to bring home.

[burm]

My mother used to grow tomatoes like that. She bought beefsteak tomatoes and threw all her compost on them. By the time my kids were 2 years old, they could tell the difference between store bought, or even locally farm grown tomatoes, and grandma's.

 

My brother told me years ago of a guy in Waterloo who was written up in the newspaper for having spread septic sludge on his brand new lawn for some reason. To his amazement , his entire lawn sprouted huge plants bearing luscious tomatoes. Of course the paper carried a photo. Knowing where they came from, I think I might have a problem eating the tomatoes, but apparently they were delicious.

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

Ron ~ funny you should mention produce from Cuba. Last night on TVO

"Around the World in 80 Gardens" they featured gardens growing in & around Havana & kiosks around the city where people would buy seeds & other gardening products. People would make a garden on spaces where buildings had entirely collapsed. The show also showed some amazing gardens in Mexico.

 

Hard to get a tomato like the ones we had growing up.:(

 

Chimo!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[retiring soon]

HI again!

 

I just noticed there's a new review of Cristal. Here it is:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=500481

[KandCsailing]

I had 2 lovely giant tomato slices in with my shrimp in Trinidad at the restaurant our taxi driver took us to.

I don't like raw tomato, but DH said they were delicious when I put them on his plate. The shrimp were also large and excellent.

 

[Cruise Critic Chris]

My Hits and Misses from the cruise: http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2015/04/06/just-back-from-cuba-cruise-hits-and-misses/

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

Kerri ~ wow those shrimp are big!:D Wish I'd eaten with you instead of the buffet that was part of my tour. One good thing was that's where I met Cat.

 

Chris ~ very nice balanced report. Did they say why they're dropping those 2 ports next season? I met Adam last year on the Cuba Life tour which we both really enjoyed.

 

Chimo!

 

~ Jo ~ :)