OLDCAR Tours or Ship's Shore Excursion

Looking forward to our cruise on NCL Sky in September - overnight in Havana - really want to tour the city in

one of those "classic cars"

Wondering if we should book the ship's shore excursion - where you drive a classic car - or book independently via OLDCAR Tours (great reviews on TripAdvisor)

Pros in booking via cruise ship - no problem with exchange of money - even though total cost is more and you can't select which car

Pros in booking on our own - choice of cars and time of tour - but you must pay in Cuban money

Any comments/suggestions ?

THANKS !

Comments?

Yeah. The ship's tours (whatever ship) and any online provider (whatever tour company) are essentially no different from just walking down the street to where groups of classic cars wait for tourists.

And it's been covered pretty thoroughly here recently:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2464587

You can exchange money in the cruise terminal. We also had no issue paying in US dollars in State Stores (cigars and rum), private restaurants and also our private tour guide. On our cruise people were surprised how much money we did end up spending in Cuba, my advise is to bring extra cash with you. I found a great English speaking tour guide that helped us plan 2 full days in Havana. Her name is Lianne, email is lianne29@nauti.cu.

Just FYI, the cruise tour offered, you do NOT drive the car yourself. It is worded this way on NCL (I don't know if that's true on other cruise sites), but you don't drive the car. At least, when I asked NCL, I was told that. Just FYI.

Also, I highly recommend Old Car Tours with Nacho or Yasser for a guide. SO smart, funny, helpful and gallant. I was in Havana in May this year and Nacho was my guide for day 1 and Yasser was my guide for day 2. The cars are GORGEOUS!

You can exchange money in the cruise terminal. We also had no issue paying in US dollars in State Stores (cigars and rum), private restaurants and also our private tour guide. On our cruise people were surprised how much money we did end up spending in Cuba, my advise is to bring extra cash with you. I found a great English speaking tour guide that helped us plan 2 full days in Havana. Her name is Lianne, email is lianne29@nauti.cu.

Did you shop cigar shop at the Casa del Habano in the Conde de Villanuesva La Habana hotel? Did they take US dollars?

We went with Havana Journeys when we did a land tour in Cuba. I would highly recommend them (I reviewed them on Tripadvisor).

I don't believe anyone would let you drive one of the cars. These cars are their livelihood and they treat them like their children. Repairing them isn't easy due to the unavailability of parts and they oftentimes just make what they need to fix the car. So I can't see them letting a random stranger drive their babies around and risk damaging them.

OTOH, there is so much to see and the guides are so informative. Let them do the driving and story-telling and you can enjoy the sights.