Yunah

Here is one as an example and as you can see it is $75 and you would probably have a shipping charge also.

 

http://oncubatravel.com/visa-process/

 

 

As I said before I would just have NCL do it so you can relax and enjoy your vacation without documentation worries.

Thanks Colin, I guess that's our best bet yes. I'll give them a call soonish to arrange everything. :)

Yes, I've heard that the pink tourist card for arrivals from the US costs (at least) $75 no matter who you buy it from (not sure what the fee would be directly if you applied directly with the consulate in Washington, DC, but if you're in the Netherlands this wouldn't be an option anyway).

Well at least that explains the price. We've got companies over here who do the work for you and they would be the ones asking $ 75 where as the actual visa over here costs "only" $ 25. I guess that we would in fact be better off letting NCL do the work for us, yes. :)

There is a Cuban Consulate in New York that may be able to help you. That said, as someone who worked and lived in South America, you are likely better off paying the $75 and having the cruise line do it for you.

 

https://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of-cuba-in-united-states

Thanks bigpuma. I had no idea there was a difference between a consulate and an embassy. :) Learn something new every day! I'll get in touch with them anyway and see what they can do for us.

I Googled and looked at a couple of different sites and honestly the $75 doesn't seem overly expensive. Compared to having to run around to embassies and wasting time I would just pay NCL to do it for me hassle free to ensure I have it in plenty of time.

May I ask which websites you found? I tried looking online but couldn't find anything. Do you need to send off your passport in order to get that visa or would they send it to you?

However it does seem expensive to us as the visa we can get over here is "only" €25 (which equals $ 26). :( That would just be a two sided card on which you need to fill in some stuff (name, passport number, etc) and that would be all. NCL would have the visa ready for us on check in so I guess that's definitely in time.

Hi all,

I'm back, back again! :D Two and a half months until we'll be on the Sky to Cuba and the Bahamas... but this change of itinerary has caused some headache for us....

To keep it short: my parents and I are Dutch citizens but because we'll be travelling to Cuba from the US we need a visa (we wouldn't need one if we were travelling from the Netherlands to Cuba). The only visa we can obtain over here is a pink one and apparently we need a green one.

I just spoke to the very nice Malcolm (I think) at NCL on the phone who checked some stuff for me. We can use airlinebroker.net (however, this only seems to be for people travelling to Cuba by plane) and cubadiplomatica.cu but this only allows you to obtain a visa at the embassy. Now, you can allow NCL to arrange a visa for you at the ridiculous cost of $ 75 per person or we can try to get one ourselves.

Since there's a lot of Americans on here I'm hoping you can help us.. :o

We'll be in New York first for a week but we won't have time to head to Washington DC to go to the embassy. We will also be in Miami for a few days before we get on the cruise so we would have some time to arrange something there however the Cuban embassy is in Washington DC.

Where and how do we get a Cuban visa? :eek:

Thanks for the replies so far!

With regards to my citizenship. I am in fact dutch and I live in the Netherlands however since we board the ship in the US we are considered US citizens.

When travelling from the Netherlands there are no additional rules, except for the visa of course.

I guess I'll just have to make a looooot a photos and keep track of everything just in case. :) thanks again!

As Dutch citizens, not sure what effect OFAC would have on you. This only applies to US citizens, and their dealings with certain designated individuals and entities. As far as I know, the limitation on going to Cuba for specific categories of travel (people to people cultural exchange, as you say) is only for US citizens, and Dutch citizens have been allowed to visit Cuba all along.

That is true but since we are sailing from Miami (ie US) we need to fill this in too.

Hi everyone,

I searched this forum but couldn't find much on the OFAC and the cruise to Cuba. My parents and I will be sailing to Cuba (and Great Stirrup Cay) on May 29th from Miami. We are Dutch citizens so we will arrange for the Cuban visas over here as the website states that this needs to be done by the passenger(s) themselves. So that's ticked. :)

Now there's the issue with the OFAC. This needs to be emailed at least 30 days before departure, ok fine, we can do that. But what about the activities?? We'll be going under the people to people category but are we meant to talk to people in the street? Do we need to do some special activities? What constitues "full time" people to people activities? Do we need to keep a record of who we talked to and when? I'm confused :confused: And I'd rather not be arrested on departure for not complying with the rules, haha.

Any help is appreciated!

There will be a fee for the visa, plus they will make you buy special health insurance coverage. For comparison, Oceania is charging $125 for this, but for example jetBlue charges $75 for the same things for flights to Cuba.

 

You raise a good point about the passport. Many passengers on the Sky probably don't have one, and I think that's going to be a problem for Cub…

Do you not need a passport to travel to the Bahamas too? We're from the Netherlands so we need a passport to travel to the US anyway, so for us it's no problem. Just wondering now.. Would NCL take care of the visa or would we need to arrange this ourselves through the Cuban embassy here?

On your new itinerary can you please tell me what time you disembark from

Havana on day 2.

Thank you

Sure, this is the itinerary they send us:

Miami - depart 5pm

Havana - arrive 8am

Havana - overnight

Havana - depart 2pm

Great Stirrup Cay - arrive 9am - depart 5pm

Maimi - arrive 7am

Hope this helps!

We're due to sail out on May 29th and received an email today stating that our itinerary had changed from Miami-Freeport-Nassau-Great Stirrup Cay-Miami to Miami-Havana-Havana-Great Stirrup Cay-Miami.

Does anyone know how the overnight in Havana works? Do you go back to the ship and sleep there?

And would anyone happen to know anything about the tours they are going to offer there? The website hasn't been updated yet with information on this.

Okay just found out more info "a short dry dock for technical work and upgrades to some public areas. Full Norwegian Edge enhancements will come at a later date."

 

Bummer

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Not sure what the full Norwegian Edge enhancements are, I'll look that up, but at least an update is better than no update, I'd say! :D Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the replies so far! Also, thanks for posting the link ColinIllinois. I'll keep that in mind when packing :)

Borntobehappy, lucky you, you'll get to experience the Bahamas even sooner! Please let us know what they've done to the ship in those two weeks!

Lido_Deck, from what I understood there's a Captain's Dinner on the last night of the cruise where you get to dine in the same room as the Captain. People would be required to wear a dress or a suit, or something equally dressy. I guess you could call it formal night too.

Hi all, I'm new to this forum so apologies if I picked the wrong category or anything! :)

I tried using the search function but nothing came up so I figured I'd ask my question here. Are there captain's dinners on the Norwegian Sky on the 4 night cruise to the Bahamas? I've never been on a cruise and I don't own a dress (more of a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl, sorry! :o). What would they expect you'd wear on such a night?

Also, I read something about the Sky being refurbished in 2017. Does anyone know what and when they'll be doing? Just wondering if we'll get to see the newly updated ship or not! :D We'll be sailing out at the end of May.

Look forward to reading your replies and many thanks!