A time to GETAWAY and see the SKY

[jsparents]

 

Cruise Terminal

 

 

 

New and Old

 

 

Port Entrance. You will want to be on the starboard side to see the city.

 

 

[jsparents]

We went to get our disembarkation ticket and were given group 4. We booked a tour through tours by Blexie. The cost was going to be 130 CUC for the 4 of us. We were to meet him outside the port terminal across the street at 10:00 am. We were not supposed to dock until 8:00 am, but were docked by 7:30 am. While we were having breakfast they were calling groups 1 & 2 to disembark. By 8:00 am, group 4 was being called and we were not ready to go yet as we had not finished breakfast. I had read that some of the first cruises to Cuba that the disembarkation process was less than fun. It appears NCL has figured this out as there were no issues.

 

We were ready to get off about 8:30 am as I did not know how long it would take to clear customs and exchange money. You have to clear customs first and they had 6 or so booths open so the process moved fast. You walk up to a booth when called and give them your passport and visa. They take your photo and stamp your passport and you are through. Less than a minute. Then you go through security (metal detectors) and your in the mail terminal. The currency exchange is all the way at the end next to the stairs leading downstairs to get out of the terminal. I would say the whole process took less than 15 minutes.

 

 

Terminal Hall. Line to go through security.

 

 

I was not going to figure out the exchange rate because of the 10% penalty and then the conversion rate, but I exchanged $450 and received 393 CUC.

 

 

 

 

View coming out of cruise terminal

 

[jsparents]

 

Custom Booths

 

 

 

View of Cruise Terminal

 

 

This is a banking building that is similar to our Wall Street

 

 

[Karmary]

I cant wait to hear about your tour with Blexie. We spent the day with him last summer on July 4th and he exceeded all expectations.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jsparents]

So as you can tell we were a little early in getting to our meeting point. We walked around the square and took some photos. There are people around dressed up wanting you to take a picture with them. Of course, they want a payment to do so. There are also people will walk up to you and draw your picture and want a payment. If this is something you do not mind, make sure you have small bills for a tip. I only had a $3 bill so that is what they got which is great for them.

 

I found our Tour through CC and had emailed Blexie back in January to book. The communication was routine and he said we were all set. No deposit and all we were told was he would have a sign with my name on it. I had also read reviews about one of his employees named Jorge who also does tours with him. Both had really good reviews.

 

About 9:50 am my named appeared on a sign. He did not look like the photos of Blexie I had seen on Facebook. He introduced himself and he was Jorge and was perfectly fine for the day. He was not dressed like a tour guide, but more of a tourist as he had a camera around his neck and was dressed the same as me (shorts & t-shirt). He told me that Blexie wasn't feeling good.

 

I learned that Blexie was a professor at the University and Jorge was his student. Jorge said he taught at the University as well and earned $23 a month. He said there are several tour guides that studied under Blexie.

 

Jorge asked what we wanted to do and see. I told him I wanted to see as much as possible and avoid the masses. I wanted to visit a cigar factory, but otherwise we would leave it up to him. I asked him if he was required to show us certain things and he said no. He told us we would start with a 40 minute walking tour and then get in the car to move onto other locations. We walked around for about 40 minutes seeing several plazas and learning about the history.

 

 

 

They put cannons in the street to keep cars from driving down them.

 

 

This is one of the plazas. The tables are for a government run coffee shop. Jorge said having a cup of coffee is an experience and it is not like starbucks where you are in and out. The business was very nice and the waiters were very nicely dressed similar to a high end restaurant in the states.

 

 

 

They also put cannon balls in the road to use as cones and keep cars out.

 

[jsparents]

While in Cuba, I was very surprised by the amount of construction. This was not as a result of any hurricanes, but just Cuba updating itself. Jorge said if you came back in 10 years, it would look completely different. The city was already beautiful with different colors of buildings and the tile work.

 

This was one of the many museums around our tour. There were probably 10-15 museums along our 40 minute walk and all within a 5 minute walk of the port.

 

This is one dedicated to the firefighters that lost their lives in a fire. This is a fire station museum.

 

 

 

Another museum. This time an armory.

 

 

 

There was a graduation ceremony in one of the plazas. These are the uniforms the school kids wear.

 

 

This is a photo of one of the University which they are remodeling.

 

[Bostonjetset]

Great review! I did the Central America/Mexico itinerary on Carnival years ago and loved it. We called at Belize City but everything else was the same. I sailed the Sky to Cuba last October and now have scheduled the same trip again in 3 weeks. It really is a wonderful place to visit. I can't wait to see the rest of your review and what you thought about Havana.

[jsparents]

This is a photo of a building on the left of the walkway (road).

 

 

And across the street (20 feet) is this. An artist did this in sand. It is a reflection of the first building with the windows and door being in the same locations. The guy in the orange shirt is Jorge. Jorge said and artist glued sand to the one building and then completed it.

 

 

We continued to the Plaza de la Catedral.

 

 

 

 

 

This Cathedral was beautiful and brought memories of the Pantheon in Rome to me which I was blown away with.

[jsparents]

We walked around the Cathedral and then we were off.

 

We saw where Hemingway drank, at least one of them.

 

 

I keep saying how we walked for about 40 minutes, but it really was not that far. Below is a map of the area. We docked and started our tour in Plaza de San Francisco and went to each of the plazas shown on the map. We ended the walking tour by the number 11 (red circle) on the map where we met our driver. Sorry the map is turned, but it gives you an idea of how much you can see within walking distance of the terminal.

 

 

 

 

We waited a couple minutes for our driver and enjoyed the view.

 

 

And then our chariot arrived. 1960 Oldsmobile.

 

[jsparents]

We drove by the malecon (road next to the water)

 

 

 

 

 

We went to a place called Fusterland. This is a neighborhood with an artist, Jose Fuster that became poplular by doing mosiac art. He started by doing the outside of this house and people thought he was crazy, but then learned to love it. In this neighborhood the exterior walls are done.

 

 

We then went to his house and studio.

 

[oncruisecontrol]

 

We returned to our stateroom and found a gift from Ronnie. It was a bottle of champagne and a chocolate plate. It seemed that it had been there for some time as the chocolate was starting to melt. Our friends had a similar plate in their Haven suite and said some of the things had no flavor. I sampled one thing and did not eat anything else. I thought the gesture was nice.

 

So let me talk about our room steward. We met Marc the first day and always saw him in the hallway. He knew our names after one meeting and always asked how we were doing. He was friendly, but did some weird things IMO. First thing was he left the above chocolate plate in our room for three days before removing it. Second was the bottle of champagne we were given we were not going to drink so I asked him if he could use it. When I asked him he looked at me like we did not speak the same language. He said he could open it for me. I told him that I did not want it and I was not going to throw it away. He said he could not use it. He removed it and I am not sure what happened with it.

 

The other thing was the towel situation. DW and I have no issues reusing our towels. We would hang them on the bathroom door so they could air out and dry for the day. We would return at night and find the towels removed and nicely folded towels on the towel racks. No biggie right? Well we did not figure out what was going on until the next morning when DW showered and got out to dry off with a wet towel. Marc was taking our towels and then refolding them to make them look nice even though they were not dry. Just weird.

 

.

I'm really enjoying your review. Regarding the bits I've highlighted in red: We've had stewards leave chocolates and other treats in our room for much longer than we would have liked, so we finally just started leaving a politely written note on the item that read something like this, "We've enjoyed the chocolates, but are finished. You may remove them. Thanks". I think some stewards may be wary to remove things to quickly for fear that the guest may later complain that they were not yet finished. Guest complaints are a crew member's worst fear. Also, he may have been reluctant to take the champagne for fear that if found in his crew cabin, a supervisor may have thought he lifted it from one of his guest cabins. And lastly, regarding the towels: I wonder if the steward had left your towels hanging on the shower door, might he have gotten in trouble with his supervisor for having 'seemingly' left your bathroom 'untidy'? We sometimes want things in our cabin left the way we leave them and I always leave a clearly written note for the steward to explain our intentions. "Please leave our towels as they are. Thanks".

[oncruisecontrol]

 

 

And then our chariot arrived. 1960 Oldsmobile.

 

Wow! Just Wow! These cars! I'd like Cuba to be my next cruise destination, but I kinda don't want to go on the Sky, as it's an older ship. But you're photos are starting to sway me. Thanks for your wonderful review.

[Shore>Mom]

I am really enjoying your post. We are booked on the Cuba Sky in the fall. Unfortunately, no balconies were available for 4 people so we are ocean view. We are traveling with our 2 teens, our son will be a senior in HS. Our daughter a sophmore. Both are honors Spanish students who are looking forward to using their Spanish. We know we will be cramped in the cabin. We were able to get 1 that has a fold down bunk for our daughter and a small couch for our six footer. We figured we would leave the beds as twins so more room. Going to be tight lol.

I was able to look at the daily activity sheets you were kind enough to post. My biggest concern is teenage boredom. Our cruise is the one that stays overnight into the next day. Looks like there is still plenty to do on the ship if they get bored. Our guys are very keen on history so I think they will love Cuba. Anyway, hoping to do the same tour you did with Blexie (sp). Looks perfect. Then maybe return to the ship for so relaxation and venture out again to the bars nearby to enjoy some music. Next day souvenirs and markets around the terminal. I know everyone is different but any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to more of your post!

[jsparents]

I'm really enjoying your review. Regarding the bits I've highlighted in red: We've had stewards leave chocolates and other treats in our room for much longer than we would have liked, so we finally just started leaving a politely written note on the item that read something like this, "We've enjoyed the chocolates, but are finished. You may remove them. Thanks". I think some stewards may be wary to remove things to quickly for fear that the guest may later complain that they were not yet finished. Guest complaints are a crew member's worst fear. Also, he may have been reluctant to take the champagne for fear that if found in his crew cabin, a supervisor may have thought he lifted it from one of his guest cabins. And lastly, regarding the towels: I wonder if the steward had left your towels hanging on the shower door, might he have gotten in trouble with his supervisor for having 'seemingly' left your bathroom 'untidy'? We sometimes want things in our cabin left the way we leave them and I always leave a clearly written note for the steward to explain our intentions. "Please leave our towels as they are. Thanks".

 

Your points make perfect sense.

[jsparents]

I am really enjoying your post. We are booked on the Cuba Sky in the fall. Unfortunately' date=' no balconies were available for 4 people so we are ocean view. We are traveling with our 2 teens, our son will be a senior in HS. Our daughter a sophmore. Both are honors Spanish students who are looking forward to using their Spanish. We know we will be cramped in the cabin. We were able to get 1 that has a fold down bunk for our daughter and a small couch for our six footer. We figured we would leave the beds as twins so more room. Going to be tight lol.

I was able to look at the daily activity sheets you were kind enough to post. My biggest concern is teenage boredom. Our cruise is the one that stays overnight into the next day. Looks like there is still plenty to do on the ship if they get bored. Our guys are very keen on history so I think they will love Cuba. Anyway, hoping to do the same tour you did with Blexie (sp). Looks perfect. Then maybe return to the ship for so relaxation and venture out again to the bars nearby to enjoy some music. Next day souvenirs and markets around the terminal. I know everyone is different but any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to more of your post![/quote']

 

I'll post the rest of the Freestyle Daily as I continue. No work today so hopefully I will get moving on it.

[jsparents]

So at Fusterland there is a house that has been converted to a studio and Mr. Fuster lives next door.

 

 

 

 

Jose Fuster (the back of him)

 

 

One of the walls in the neighborhood

 

 

We spent about 30 minutes here. There are a couple shops selling all types of things. Our friends bought a license plate that said Cuba on it.

 

[jsparents]

We drove around and then went to the Tropicana. I was not super familiar with this, but DW and friends were. It used to be a nice hotel, but is now only an event location that does a cabaret show at night. Jorge said the place does not look like much during the day, but at night it really looks different due to the lights in the landscape. We did not go inside, but just got some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

After about 15 minutes here, we were off again and went to lunch.

 

The restaurant was in the middle of neighborhood.

 

 

The restaurant was called La Casa. There were a lot of tour people at this location as it must be a local spot that they take the tours to. No big tours though.

 

[jsparents]

 

This is the owner and came over to make sure everything was okay. This is him in the picture.

 

 

The restroom was upstairs and there is another room that most of the tour guides were hanging out in. They were watching the World Cup and the owner invited us to come in. We passed as we were almost done.

 

The menu was fixed price and there were three or four price selections. For 18 CUC your choices were chicken or roasted pork. I think the next price was 20 CUC and you could select from shrimp and another fish selection and for 22 or 24 CUC you could chose lobster. Each meal came with a starter which was soup, rice and black beans, dessert, and a cup of coffee.

 

I asked Jorge what he recommended hoping he was going to say the pork or chicken because I know these are staple Cuban dishes. Jorge recommended both of these. I ordered the pork, DW the chicken, and our friends ordered the chicken and the shrimp. If I remember correctly the soup was potato soup and was bland, but good. I would not say I would order it again, but when in Cuba you have to try different things. Sorry, but I do not remember what the other soup option was and am not sure why I did not take a picture of the menu.

 

Since I was in Cuba, I had to order a mojito. It cost 2.50 CUC. Pretty good price if you ask me. It was strong, but cold and refreshing.

 

 

 

 

[jsparents]

 

 

 

Good amount of shrimp for the price.

 

 

Dessert was passionfruit ice cream and pound cake. Delicious.

 

 

And then our coffee. I don't drink coffee, but love Cuban Coffee. Go figure.

 

 

Lunch cost DW and I 40 CUC. I don't think this was unreasonalble based on the type of food we got and the amount of food plus an adult beverage. I would go back anytime.

[jsparents]

We drove around and continued our tour seeing old Havana some more. Our friend is a volunteer firefighter and he wanted to trade patches if possible. We went to a firestation.

 

 

 

Our friend traded patches and was happy to have a cuba patch.

 

We went to the famous square.

 

 

 

 

[jsparents]

Off to a cigar factory.

 

 

 

While this may not look like it, there is a cigar factory upstairs. It looks more like a house, but nope. Jorge said they do tours mostly in the morning at a cost of course. Due to time, we just went to their store in the same building.

 

 

 

 

We purchased a few cigars. I spent 100.75 CUC and got 12 cigars. Our friends bought cigars and rum and said the rum is pretty good.

[jsparents]

We saw the capital and other historic buildings. This included the original Sloppy Joe's and the original bacardi building.

 

 

 

Another Hemingway bar

 

 

We parked and started to walk around again. I saw a statue that I could see when we pulled into port and new we were not too far from the port. Amazing how close so many things are to the port.

 

 

 

This another museaum, but these photos are taken from the sidewalk outside the museum.

 

[PhillyTravelBug]

What a fascinating read this has been!

[jsparents]

Jorge said this truck was used to smuggle guns during the war. You can see bullet holes in it by the door.

 

 

Across the street from this museum was the Museum of Art.

 

 

We continued walking and was out of the car for about 30 minutes. By this time is was 5:00 pm and we were starting to tire. Plus, the battery on my camera was starting to die after taking over 400 photos. We boarded our car and made a right turn and traveled for about a minute and saw this.

 

 

The ship was only 1-2 miles from our last stop. Jorge dropped us off directly in front of the terminal. We had purchased some hygiene items to give to Jorge as I knew these were in demand. We gave him the items and paid for the tour.

 

All in all, we thought this tour was well worth the money. We started at 10:00 am and were dropped off about 5:20 pm. So for the four of us it cost 130 CUC (close to $140 or so) for a 7 hour tour. I dare anybody to find a better deal at any cruise port. I enjoyed the history of the tour and learning more about the culture. I read postings about people asking about the visa and what category to check. The one thing I have not read is about how they have been contacted to prove there visa after the trip. Eitherway, I'll keep my documentation.

 

We looked around a couple shops (and there are only a couple) in the terminal and then made our way back to the ship. Back on the ship in less than 10 minutes. I think we lucked out as the weather was warm, but there was a breeze. It still tired us out and when we got back onto the boat we decided to just go eat dinner in the buffet. They had Cuban food for dinner and I basically had the same meal for dinner that I had for lunch. It was very good.

 

After dinner, we got a couple adult beverages and went to Outrigger where again it was nice and cool and empty. We had a nice view of the street and watching the cars go by. We were trying to decide what to do that evening. We talked about going to a show, but knew if we went to one of the cabarets we would have to dress up. Then our decision became pretty easy because the sky changed. It started to rain, thunder and lighting. This continued for 4 hours and I could see how much water was on the road outside the port.

 

We freshened up and decided to stay in. We went to the comedy show at 9:30 pm and it was horrible. A 60 year old women with pink hair that really was not funny. The comedians on GA were way better. We ended up leaving half way through the show. After listening to so music we called it a night. We knew we would not be awake for sailaway.

I think it was about 11:00pm when we went to our cabin. It was still raining and very windy.

 

Jorge had told me that there are 3-4 large travel companies that do all the tours in Havana. All are government run and have the large buses. These are who the cruiselines use. Jorge used to work for one of them, but found having a tour with 40 plus people was not what he liked. Kind of funny how the US goverment does not want you to conduct business with the Cuban government yet the tours that meet the OFAC requirements are government run.

Edited July 25, 2018 by jsparents
adding more info

[jsparents]

Day 3- Sea Day

 

Freestyle Daily