New rules on visiting Cuba

Thank you for posting this. Did you learn how many hours per day you needed to spend on an approved excursion?

Sorry, no, I didn't learn or ask, because our cruise line, Viking Ocean, was using the group People to People reason for travel, not the individual People to People reason that trump disallowed. For whatever reason, Viking chose to hire a travel agency that specializes in People to People type visits to plan and oversee excursions. We could choose which ones we wanted and Viking picked up the tab. The travel agency, through Viking, sent us paperwork to sign electronically, and instructed us to select the People to People reason for travel to Cuba. Members of the travel agency were on board when we embarked. They had a list of people who still needed to sign. If all was OK, they gave us a little packet that included our Cuban visa and other documents. I don't think they were there to monitor anything regarding the U.S. regulation. My guess is that they were hired by Viking to handle all the arrangements in Cuba and that was part of what they did. In any case, we all took the excursions we wanted and as far as I know, even people who took a 3 hour kayaking excursion in Cienfuegos were not restricted in any way.

The whole thing was a little goofy to me, because the travel agency is government run, and the guides are government employees. (That wasn't surprising, as we were told that 60% of Cubans work for the government.) The cruise line may not have been giving money directly to the Cuban military, but it WAS giving money to the Cuban government, and some Americans may not approve of that. However, the agency and the guides were fantastic, and we learned a lot about Cuba (at least from their perspective!), so it was OK in my book. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Why not? Hasn't that been the goal since Castro took over?

 

Are we not supposed to try to have a peaceful transition of how Cuba works???

 

If that's not the intention of the rules, what is? Just to restrict us?

 

The "support Cuban People" section does point out in words that the goal is to transition the system. That's exactly what I want to happen, and what I want to support. Not their government.

There is no point it is all political and in this case mostly about sending a message to certain groups and making a break from Obama more generally. The cruise visitors are a tiny drop in the ocean of tourism. Millions of Europeans, Canadians and others visit Cuba each year so a few thousand day tripping cruisers won't make much of an impact either way. I don't think any of these policies make much difference either way. North Korea regime survives with total isolation and China survives with almost total integration in world economy.

I would say go and enjoy Cuba and don't worry about trying to change the government.

Vinceb is correct, the Treasury Department issues the licenses, because of the US trade embargo. The State department has nothing to do with it. The State Department cannot restrict movement of US citizens. It is not illegal to travel to Cuba, it is illegal to trade (spend US dollars) with the listed businesses. We just returned from Cuba last week. We checked the box for the correct license when we bought our airline ticket. No one ever asked about it again. When clearing customs in Miami, there were no Treasury department agents checking us, we went through immigration and customs just the same as always.

This was our second trip to Cuba, one was before the new regulations and one after. The only difference was which box we checked. The first trip was with an approved US guide/tour group. The second trip we used all local Cuban guides and services. We are booked on a cruise in Cuba in 2019.

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It’s like smoking pot, it’s still illegal to do so according to the US Government.

 

 

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Not in some states

Not in some states

Still a Federal crime. Federal laws remain unchanged.

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Still a Federal crime. Federal laws remain unchanged.

 

 

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But the analogy is bad, it's legal to travel to Cuba. We are just not allowed to spend money directly with the government. We are allowed to spend money on individuals who are running businesses.