NCL Sky question

Any idea how much time we need for getting off the ship in order to meet a private tour at 10:00 am? Wondering if we will have time for coffee and breakfast onboard. thanks

depends what time you get up and have your coffee and rolls.

When we were there in May on it's first sailing to Cuba, it took a long time to get off the ship, we thought it was because this was NCL's first sailing into Cuba. We had an early ships tour, we got off of the ship over an hour later than the original tour start time. When going to Cuba, you have to go through Cuban customs. They don't rush tourists through very fast. You have to go into what I call a horse stall to drop off your Visa. There they also take a picture of you, stamp your passport & finally let you move on to the package x-ray & you go through a metal detector. We were back in Cuba last month on a Carnival ship that docked around 1 PM, we didn't get off of the ship until 3:30.

Listen to the announcements or read the ships paper for where to go to get your departure number, they call these numbers in order to leave the ship. It is just a piece of paper with a number on it.

Thank you Hannibal, so it sounds like we should aim to get off the ship a lot earlier than our tour time. If anyone else has recent specifics, I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks!

Thank you Hannibal, so it sounds like we should aim to get off the ship a lot earlier than our tour time. If anyone else has recent specifics, I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks!

We were on the Sky last week. It was announced on Monday night that tickets for departure would be given out at 7am the next morning. I showed up at about 6:40 and was about 5th in line receiving group #1! We were able to grab breakfast and were called about 8:40. There was quite a line for customs and security, a short wait at the money exchange then off we went to find our guide. We also had a 10 am tour and found our guide by 9:30. Hope it goes as smoothly for you!

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Thank you so much Debbie - that is exactly the information I was looking for!!! :)

For everyone that has been on sky recently. We leave 10/30 with a group of 16 and we all got together last night and there were 2 questions I couldn’t answer

1. Do we pay tax and tip on every drink even though it is all inclusive. My guess was no but I am not sure

2. Can you gamble on the ship the night it is docked in Cuba??

Thanks everyone!!!

To update this thread:

We just returned from the Sky to Cuba. They are no longer giving out tickets for departure from the ship. You just go down to whatever deck the exit is (5? 6? I forget) once it's announced that you can leave the ship. It took us about a half an hour, maybe a little more, to go through the terminal, show passports and visas, exchange money, use the bathroom, and leave the terminal. The bathroom in the terminal is pretty bad.

For the person above asking about drinks - you don't even sign for them. You just ask for a drink and they hand it to you :)

(and we didn't go to the casino)

To update this thread:

We just returned from the Sky to Cuba. They are no longer giving out tickets for departure from the ship. You just go down to whatever deck the exit is (5? 6? I forget) once it's announced that you can leave the ship. It took us about a half an hour, maybe a little more, to go through the terminal, show passports and visas, exchange money, use the bathroom, and leave the terminal. The bathroom in the terminal is pretty bad.

For the person above asking about drinks - you don't even sign for them. You just ask for a drink and they hand it to you :)

(and we didn't go to the casino)

Thank you for the great information!

Anything else you’d like to share? :D

Sure - we toured with Roly (Rolando) from Havana Tours with Blexie. I absolutely recommend him!!! It was an amazing day!!!

Also - some suggestions: wear sneakers to walk around Havana, much easier than walking the streets there in sandals. I also brought a few paper toilet seat covers in my bag and a pack of tissues in case we needed any pit stops.

And I recommend a visit to the Partagas Cigar Factory.

We also wandered the Univ. of Havana and met some students who showed us around.

Feel free to ask any questions. Have a great time whenever you go!!! Everyone was so friendly. :)