CUBA Tips from NCL Sky cruise

I will put more info later, but while fresh on my mind some key points:

1. To disembark early and not on NCL excursion, get to the hand out of numbers for disembarking about 25 mintues before announce time. The line gets long and you will not get a low number if you wait. They start handing out on time and it only takes a short time once the line starts moving. Ours started at 8am. I was in line at 7:40 and got #3 (but lucky they called numbers 1-3 when getting off).

2. Go to Atrium (by Customer Services) about 30 minutes before scheduled disembarking - with passport and disembarking tickets and ship card. They started about 10 min late and took 50% NCl excursion and 50% independent travelers - so we were probably # 20 to get off.

3. Once off the ship, there are about a dozen "stations" for immigration. Line up and wait until called. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes PER PERSON. They take your visa (both parts) and stamp your passport. You do not need visa later on and afterward, getting off or on the ship goes very fast.

4. You go through security, but pretty fast process.

5. Continue straight to currency exchange. This took us about 3-5 minutes total - no problem. But again, we were one of first off the ship, could be longer wait later on. If you have Euro, Canadian, British pounds, you get a much better rare. (There is a restroom to Left of currence exchage if need be). They gave us mostly 10 CUCs ($10) bills, so no problem with large bills. Few Cuban will take US $$ as hard for them to exchange.

5a. We left ship about 8:15am and were out on the street about 8:40am. Again we were close to 1st in line, which helped.

6. What to take: An umbrella for sun, sunscreen, map, list of places to go, moneybelt for extra cash and passports (not that we saw any crime at all), sunglasses, and your smile.

7. We used a private excursion called havana journeys. You can google it. If you do, get Ana; she speaks excellent English and very friendly. Goes where you want to. It was a super deal with guide for 2- 3 hours walking tour in the Old City and then added a driver for another 3 hours for about $100 total for 6 hours!! I gave a nice tip as it was such a great deal. Met on far side of square (Plaza San Francisco) directly across from the port by a statue of Chopin sitting on a bench. We met at 10am as unsure when we would get off ship. But wandered around a bit as many things to see near the port. Returned about 4pm. And Ana can take you to a nice lunch place - just let her know what type of place you want. We went to an excellent inexpensive place and, I think, were the only tourists there!!

Getting back on the ship was a breeze - 10 minutes tops.

More later..... Mike and Liz

Thanks for the tips! Was the tour $100 for both of you?

Thanks for the tips! Was the tour $100 for both of you?

I'm booked with the same company for my upcoming cruise, and yes, it's $100 for the car. We'll be a party of 3 and still $100 CUC total for the tour.

Thank you, Mike and Liz. Glad to hear you had a nice tour with HJ.

I'm booked with the same company for my upcoming cruise, and yes, it's $100 for the car. We'll be a party of 3 and still $100 CUC total for the tour.

 

Thank you, Mike and Liz. Glad to hear you had a nice tour with HJ.

Great! Thanks! There will be 7 of us so hoping we can do a 3 & a 4 person car.

Thanks for the tips! Was the tour $100 for both of you?

Yes, it was $100 (really 100 CUC) total for both of us for about 6 hours!! The car can hold 3 besides driver and guide (maybe 4 if you really squeeze). And they may have larger cars for bigger groups. Just make sure if you like the guide and driver, you give a nice tip as they work hard for their money. And as I said, see if you can get Ana for a guide. HavanaJourneys has a decent web site and works well as the site is based in Germany. Cuba has very slow internet.

I will put more info later, but while fresh on my mind some key points:

 

1. To disembark early and not on NCL excursion, get to the hand out of numbers for disembarking about 25 mintues before announce time. The line gets long and you will not get a low number if you wait. They start handing out on time and it only takes a short time once the line starts moving. Ours started at 8am. I was in line at 7:40 and got #3 (but lucky they called numbers 1-3 when getting off).

2. Go to Atrium (by Customer Services) about 30 minutes before scheduled disembarking - with passport and disembarking tickets and ship card. They started about 10 min late and took 50% NCl excursion and 50% independent travelers - so we were probably # 20 to get off.

3. Once off the ship, there are about a dozen "stations" for immigration. Line up and wait until called. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes PER PERSON. They take your visa (both parts) and stamp your passport. You do not need visa later on and afterward, getting off or on the ship goes very fast.

4. You go through security, but pretty fast process.

5. Continue straight to currency exchange. This took us about 3-5 minutes total - no problem. But again, we were one of first off the ship, could be longer wait later on. If you have Euro, Canadian, British pounds, you get a much better rare. (There is a restroom to Left of currence exchage if need be). They gave us mostly 10 CUCs ($10) bills, so no problem with large bills. Few Cuban will take US $$ as hard for them to exchange.

5a. We left ship about 8:15am and were out on the street about 8:40am. Again we were close to 1st in line, which helped.

6. What to take: An umbrella for sun, sunscreen, map, list of places to go, moneybelt for extra cash and passports (not that we saw any crime at all), sunglasses, and your smile.

7. We used a private excursion called havana journeys. You can google it. If you do, get Ana; she speaks excellent English and very friendly. Goes where you want to. It was a super deal with guide for 2- 3 hours walking tour in the Old City and then added a driver for another 3 hours for about $100 total for 6 hours!! I gave a nice tip as it was such a great deal. Met on far side of square (Plaza San Francisco) directly across from the port by a statue of Chopin sitting on a bench. We met at 10am as unsure when we would get off ship. But wandered around a bit as many things to see near the port. Returned about 4pm. And Ana can take you to a nice lunch place - just let her know what type of place you want. We went to an excellent inexpensive place and, I think, were the only tourists there!!

 

Getting back on the ship was a breeze - 10 minutes tops.

 

More later..... Mike and Liz

Thanks. Great information.

Yes, it was $100 (really 100 CUC) total for both of us for about 6 hours!! The car can hold 3 besides driver and guide (maybe 4 if you really squeeze). And they may have larger cars for bigger groups. Just make sure if you like the guide and driver, you give a nice tip as they work hard for their money. And as I said, see if you can get Ana for a guide. HavanaJourneys has a decent web site and works well as the site is based in Germany. Cuba has very slow internet.

Thanks so much! Hopefully we can get 2 cars for the 7 of us. I'll try to get Ana for one of them.

Thanks so much! Hopefully we can get 2 cars for the 7 of us. I'll try to get Ana for one of them.

My parents and I just returned from our cruise. I booked with Havana Journeys and we had Katia as our guide. She was fantastic and super sweet. Very knowledgeable and spoke English very well. We ended up with a beautiful green 1950 Cadillac with working a/c, which we were extremely grateful for.

My parents and I just returned from our cruise. I booked with Havana Journeys and we had Katia as our guide. She was fantastic and super sweet. Very knowledgeable and spoke English very well. We ended up with a beautiful green 1950 Cadillac with working a/c, which we were extremely grateful for.

Thanks, we've booked!

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but where/when do you get your paper visa? We paid our travel agent a fee to do the visa application/processing for us, but I haven't heard anything back in ages. Is it something the ship provides when you arrive, was it mailed to your home address, or do you pick it up once in Cuba?

We got ours when we checked in at the cruise terminal.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but where/when do you get your paper visa? We paid our travel agent a fee to do the visa application/processing for us, but I haven't heard anything back in ages. Is it something the ship provides when you arrive, was it mailed to your home address, or do you pick it up once in Cuba?

Since most of us didn't use the travel agent you did, that would be the best place to turn with this question.

How WE get our paper visa may not be the same as how your TA handles it.

Stephen

.

My parents and I just returned from our cruise. I booked with Havana Journeys and we had Katia as our guide. She was fantastic and super sweet. Very knowledgeable and spoke English very well. We ended up with a beautiful green 1950 Cadillac with working a/c, which we were extremely grateful for.

Another question - did this tour satisfy the people to people requirement?