What happens to the Cuba cruises?

[Cruise Junky]

5 minutes ago, Granny DI said:

Daily Mail is reporting all cruise ships sailing from US ports are banned from visiting Cuba....effective tomorrow.

Here's the whole paragraph on that...

 

"Cruise lines carrying passengers booked before Tuesday had been hoping that they could request specific federal permits to complete their trips to Cuba, said Pedro Freyre, a Miami-based attorney who represents Carnival and three other major cruise lines.

'For now, it's prohibited unless the cruise lines requests a specific license,' Freyre said. He said cruise lines had been trying to determine 'if there's any opening there to at least complete trips that have been booked and passengers that have made travel plans.'

Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement that it was scrutinizing the new rules and consulting with lawyers and trade experts"

[Lottie A]

This probably means a few cheap deals on Caribbean cruises are being planned! I must confess I have never really understood the lure of Cuba. Perhaps it's "forbidden fruit" to Americans but Europeans have never been restricted from going.

 

Personally, I have no interest in going there at all, but I hope those of you who are booked get the option to cancel if you want to. 

[TrulyBlonde]

12 minutes ago, Lottie A said:

This probably means a few cheap deals on Caribbean cruises are being planned! I must confess I have never really understood the lure of Cuba. Perhaps it's "forbidden fruit" to Americans but Europeans have never been restricted from going.

 

Personally, I have no interest in going there at all, but I hope those of you who are booked get the option to cancel if you want to. 

Same for me. No desire whatsoever and I am American.

[uktog]

Beyond fed up. 5 Nov messed up already 26 Nov (which WAS a .Caribbean before it became Cuba) messed up Nov 2020 waiting to hear about it, current cruise seriously messed after final payment. 

Tonight im thinking all this uncertainty cruising is no longer for us 

My mega plea Azamara take a decision now on the November cruises and stick to it.  

Edited June 4, 2019 by uktog

[Lottie A]

7 minutes ago, uktog said:

Beyond fed up. 5 Nov messed up already 26 Nov (which WAS a .Caribbean before it became Cuba) messed up Nov 2020 waiting to hear about it, current cruise seriously messed after final payment. 

Tonight im thinking all this uncertainty cruising is no longer for us 

My mega plea Azamara take a decision now on the November cruised and stick to it.  

Oh Ann, not again! I'm truly sorry. 

[Charlies Aunt]

 

12 minutes ago, uktog said:

 

My mega plea Azamara take a decision now on the November cruised and stick to it.  

 

An overnight in Bermuda would be a good start.

[Richard&JohnSTX]

I second that!!

[upwarduk]

25 minutes ago, Charlies Aunt said:

 

 

An overnight in Bermuda would be a good start.

Where could they start from that would be legal?

[donaldsc]

17 minutes ago, upwarduk said:

Where could they start from that would be legal?

 

Fly to canada and take a land tour from Canada - http://www.authenticubatours.com/index.html

 

DON

[Granny DI]

1 minute ago, donaldsc said:

 

Fly to canada and take a land tour from Canada - http://www.authenticubatours.com/index.html

 

DON

We had friends do this and their passports were confiscated entering the US from Canada. Not going to take a chance that we are the lucky ones who get special treatment in immigration. You need a passport to enter the US from Canada now....no drivers license and everything is in the cloud so once your passport is scanned they know where you have been. 

This would have worked great several years ago.

[donaldsc]

1 minute ago, Granny DI said:

We had friends do this and their passports were confiscated entering the US from Canada. Not going to take a chance that we are the lucky ones who get special treatment in immigration. You need a passport to enter the US from Canada now....no drivers license and everything is in the cloud so once your passport is scanned they know where you have been. 

This would have worked great several years ago.

 

Yes I know that you need a passport to enter the US from Canada.  However, how would the US know if Cuba had not stamped their passports?  I know people who have done flights to Cuba and their are no Cuba stamps on their passports.   

 

DON

[Granny DI]

1 minute ago, donaldsc said:

 

Yes I know that you need a passport to enter the US from Canada.  However, how would the US know if Cuba had not stamped their passports?  I know people who have done flights to Cuba and their are no Cuba stamps on their passports.   

 

DON

I have no idea what happened. When we lived in Venezuela we warned not to visit Cuba. We had friends who did it once and vowed not to try it again....wasn’t worth the aggravation.

We were hassled many times when we lived in Trinidad....it was always a nightmare returning from the US. We lived in that part of the world for too long so not interested in the thought of what if. Will travel to sane places in the world until the Cuban government falls. 

[Covepointcruiser]

Would be great if for the 11/5 cruise they could add back Key West and a lengthier Bermuda stay.    Could we go to Puerto Rico and another island instead of Havana.   We went to Havana in May and we were not impressed except with the friendly Cubans.   The Infrastructure is in terrible shape, treatment of sewage is limited and although heath care is good for Cubans it is expensive for visitors.   If you want an aspirin you need to go inside of one of the tourist hotels.   Cubans need a prescription for all of the normal over the counter medicines[aspirin, Tylenol, antacids).

[CA Oceanfront]

Travel and Leisure also reporting on this development:

 

https://apple.news/AJe8MEnjTQm-Dx9ceWkfrSw

[upwarduk]

1 hour ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Would be great if for the 11/5 cruise they could add back Key West and a lengthier Bermuda stay.  

Surely a visit to Cuba would be legal as this is the TA which leaves Barcelona. It’s ships leaving Miami that are illegal.

[jj6961]

Turns out Azamara had to change the itinerary last week dropping Key West and adding Miami as a port(the cruise ends in Miami).  Ship would ONLY be allowed to visit Cuba if it came from directly US port... Bermuda was between Key West and Cuba

that was last week...the rules have changed again.  

This is going to be a mess for the industry 

[finny2]

All I can say is .... well I can't say it on a public forum. We had booked the Nov 25 cruise and now I am really disappointed.

[suzzek]

We are also booked on Journey 11/25 cruise. When I view the Azamara website it still shows it as viable. Final payment isn’t due until mid July, so I’m hoping this will work out in our favor before then.

[Shawnino]

Still selling the Cuba Cruises on the Az website.

Wow.

[don731]

RCL is rerouting departures as early as tomorrow, avoiding Cuba.

[Host Jazzbeau]

The press releases have been very confusing, and comments from several cruise lines indicate that they are equally confused!  On the one hand, the government statements say that cruisers who have already made a reservation are grandfathered.  On the other hand, those same statements say that no cruise ships are licensed starting tomorrow.  So the passengers are good to go, but the ship can't take them?  Plus, even if already-booked passengers are grandfathered, it is quite clear that no new bookings are allowed – so the bean counters must be tearing their hair!  Between the confusion and the ban on new bookings: the only safe approach is to drop Cuba from all itineraries.

[rallydave]

14 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

The press releases have been very confusing, and comments from several cruise lines indicate that they are equally confused!  On the one hand, the government statements say that cruisers who have already made a reservation are grandfathered.  On the other hand, those same statements say that no cruise ships are licensed starting tomorrow.  So the passengers are good to go, but the ship can't take them?  Plus, even if already-booked passengers are grandfathered, it is quite clear that no new bookings are allowed – so the bean counters must be tearing their hair!  Between the confusion and the ban on new bookings: the only safe approach is to drop Cuba from all itineraries.

Hi Greg.  If you read closely nothing is said about "cruisers" who have already made a reservation.  The information about people who have already booked also mentions for group travel and only examples for payment are for air or accommodations.and is in a separate paragraph after the cruises not being given  the required licenses so pretty sure like you said ships will not be getting licenses after tonight so no way for already booking people to go as you said without ships.

 

Two separate issues in two separate paragraphs and from another board, NCLH has announced the cancellation of all cruises to Cuba effect tomorrow so pretty clear that having already booked and paid for a cruise will not get one to Cuba after today.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Department of the Treasury FAQs about Cuba travel

cuba_faqs_new.pdf

Edited June 5, 2019 by suzyluvs2cruise

[CA Oceanfront]

Royal Caribbean Facebook post minutes ago:

 

“Cuba Travel Update: We are aware of the announcement and are analyzing the details to understand the impact on our itineraries. In the meantime, we are adjusting the itineraries of our June 5 and June 6 sailings, which will no longer stop in Cuba. We are communicating with our guests about those changes. We will provide other updates as needed.”

[Host Jazzbeau]

RallyDave – so I have just read all 36 pages of the Treasury document that suzyluvs2cruise so helpfully posted, and I don't find that it makes the matter any clearer.  The word 'cruise' doesn't appear anywhere in the document.  The grandfather clause applies to persons who have reserved 'accommodation' – since you sleep on the cruise ship, wouldn't that be considered 'accommodation'?  But obviously the cruise lines aren't going to wait for a court to sort this out, and they are immediately cancelling all stops in Cuba.