Empress of the Seas to Cuba

[blazerjan]

We are thinking of a cruise to Cuba.   The cruise we are most interested in is the Best of Cuba Cruise on the Empress which makes stops in three different Cuban cities.  However, I  can't seem to find any cruises after December of this year.    Does anyone know if this cruise is being discontinued.   Thought I'd start here before call RCI.  TIA

[vacationlover_mn]

I periodically look at the Cuba cruises, and it seems that the new ones are posted later than the other Caribbean cruises...

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, blazerjan said:

We are thinking of a cruise to Cuba.   The cruise we are most interested in is the Best of Cuba Cruise on the Empress which makes stops in three different Cuban cities.  However, I  can't seem to find any cruises after December of this year.    Does anyone know if this cruise is being discontinued.   Thought I'd start here before call RCI.  TIA

 

Royal does not seem to have a pattern to releasing Cuba itineraries.  So more may come out at any time.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, blazerjan said:

 However, I  can't seem to find any cruises after December of this year.    

Cuba and China itineraries are the last to be released - you'll probably see more next month.

[LYOUNG47]

were booked for 4/29 leaving out of Miami, key west, cuba, cozamel

 

[lgarely]

DOING an all woman cruise on 

Line:	Royal Caribbean
Ship:	Empress of the Seas

 

We are leaving DEc 9 ;19.  Also could not get info for Jan.  I see that you posted in Feb.  Did you make a decision.?  I know there are still cabins available in Dec 9 cruise.  They book fast so see what you can do.

[Faye G]

Me and my sister are on the October 17th 2019 Cuba from Miami - 4 stops over 8 days with an overnight in Havana, looks like a really nice one.  It's also called The Best of Cuba.  

[myolite]

We were on a Best of Cuba with 3 Cuban stops but it turned into two cuba stops and one Grand Cayman. We paid more per night due to the best of cuba status, but ended up with what I'd call a more "average" itinerary. These things happen and it was still a nice cruise, but I wouldn't have paid as much if I'd known upfront that was where we'd go.

[Bookish Angel]

You might be dealing with more restrictive travel to Cuba.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/17/cuba-trump-new-restrictions-canada-europe

 

Glad we went in January as we suspected this would happen.

[Faye G]

31 minutes ago, Bookish Angel said:

You might be dealing with more restrictive travel to Cuba.

Glad we went in January as we suspected this would happen.

 

Would I be able to find out in advance if the journey would change. I love Cuba, its a fabulous country.  

[Faye G]

21 hours ago, myolite said:

We were on a Best of Cuba with 3 Cuban stops but it turned into two cuba stops and one Grand Cayman. We paid more per night due to the best of cuba status, but ended up with what I'd call a more "average" itinerary. These things happen and it was still a nice cruise, but I wouldn't have paid as much if I'd known upfront that was where we'd go.

 

Myolite.... could I ask to what extent the Cuban ports was affected - e.g. did you still have a Havana overnight, which is the thing I am mostly going for?

[tinkr2]

With the latest Trump Bolton announcement, I am assuming there will be no more cruises to Cuba.

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

With the latest Trump Bolton announcement, I am assuming there will be no more cruises to Cuba.

As usual, the devil is in the details.

 

Biker, who would not make that assumption.

[myolite]

16 hours ago, Faye G said:

 

Myolite.... could I ask to what extent the Cuban ports was affected - e.g. did you still have a Havana overnight, which is the thing I am mostly going for?

We were not scheduled to stay overnight in Havana, but we did get extended until 1:30 AM. Santiago is the port we had that got cancelled. Grand Cayman was replaced. On Grand Cayman day, the waters were very rough and two other ships decided to skip the port. Our Captain went ahead and stopped but we went to the alternate port in Grand Cayman. It still worked out pretty well. Had the Captain opted to skip Grand Cayman, I'm afraid the guests would not have taken kindly to it, as many were still upset about Santiago being cancelled. 

[tinkr2]

8 hours ago, Biker19 said:

As usual, the devil is in the details.

 

Biker, who would not make that assumption.

 

I hope you are correct bc I would really not like to be on a Carnival ship just to go to Nassau and Key West, or lose the deposits on 4 cabins. It keeps coming up with Trump though and this is the most clearly and strongly worded speech ,that even included a date.

[Biker19]

Just now, tinkr2 said:

 It keeps coming up with Trump though and this is the most clearly and strongly worded speech ,that even included a date.

There was similar talk during the last tightening - it just ended that up you having to fill out a different form with different check boxes.

[tinkr2]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

There was similar talk during the last tightening - it just ended that up you having to fill out a different form with different check boxes.

 

As I said, I hope you are correct. I had a NCL Cuba cruise booked at that time. I do not recollect the language as being so strong and specific.