Cuban Cruise Review - May 1st, 2017 - The very FIRST Norwegian sailing!!!

[Mr. Muster]

Hello Dearies:

 

Always be sure to look back at your Guest Ticket Contract for the cruiseline's bottom line on these things. See below--especially what I've put in bold print regarding what happens in the event the welcoming arms of Cuba are closed to the USA.

 

"© Itinerary Deviation: The Guest agrees that the Carrier has the sole discretion and liberty to direct themovements of the vessel, including the rights to: proceed without pilots and tow, and assist other vesselsin all situations; deviate from the purchased voyage or the normal course for any purpose, including,without limitation, in the interest of Guests or of the vessel, or to save life or property; put in at anyunscheduled or unadvertised port; cancel any scheduled call at any port for any reason and at any timebefore, during or after sailing of the vessel; omit, advance or delay landing at any scheduled or advertisedport; return to port of embarkation or to any port previously visited if the Carrier deems it prudent to do so;substitute another vessel or port(s) of call without prior notice and without incurring any liability to theGuest on account thereof for any loss, damage or delay whatsoever, whether consequential or otherwise."

Toot-Toot!

 

Ole!

[joshlangan]

Well, it seems like Mr. Muster has ALL the information.

[missdenise]

I just called them and Cuba is excluded from this clause as well as many others. It will not benefit us if we change course

 

 

 

 

They have all the exclusions depending on what state you live in and now what port you are going to. Stinks.. so pretty much a useless clause. :(

[joshlangan]

We all just need to think positive thoughts and stopping worrying about these "what ifs..."

I am setting my sights on Cuba and not looking back.

"When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you."

[Stinsy23]

We are on the plane headed to Florida now. We board Sky today for the 3 day Bahamas and then B2B for the 4 day Cuba next week. Did NCL have any of the evening parties (White Hot or Norwegian Night Out) while on board? I threw a white dress in just in case (can never hurt!) but was curious what the onboard schedule looked like.

 

A little too late to help jenidallas, but we just got off the 4 day that left on June 5th and they did have the White Hot Party on the final night! We did not do a B2B though, so are back in the real world. :(

[Sea_Legs38]

 

 

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[Sea_Legs38]

 

 

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[Peacemkr59]

I guess we will all find out if we are going on our Cuba cruise or not this Friday when Trump comes to Miami to announce his Cuban policies! Ugggghh [emoji849]

 

 

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[Mr. Muster]

Helloooooo Dearies!!!!!

 

We're all just trying to stay as positive as we can. I'm confident the DD (Dear Donald) will not roll back EVERYTHING relative to USA support of their fledgling attempt to modernize and bring greater equality for all Cubans. All will be made known come Friday....or at least we'll have a better idea of where we go from here.

 

Toot-Toot!!

 

Ole!

[grandmarnnurse]

I hope you all get to go on your cruise to Cuba, as my granddaughter just returned this past month, and loved it there! She just finished her first year of college/nursing school, and needed a celebration vacation. She did not cruise there, she went and stayed at a hotel for a week. She has traveled the Caribbean extensively over the years with her family, and said that this is now her favorite island.

[marcyjane]

We booked for April 2018 for Cuba. Keeping fingers crossed on Trump's decision. If not we will decide from there were our cruise will be but probably not Sky to Bahamas though. Will pick another ship and ports if NCL allows us to change.

[KBRum2397]

Hello from Monroe CT! My husband and I are cruising to Cuba on the 24th.

 

Is there any one thing that would absolutely loved and is a MUST do? Anything you hated?

 

What type of room did you have on the ship? I have heard it is a no frills ship and for the best experience to book a suite. Is this true?

 

Thanks for all of your information. I can't wait to go!

[CruiseGal999]

Hello from Monroe CT! My husband and I are cruising to Cuba on the 24th.

 

Is there any one thing that would absolutely loved and is a MUST do? Anything you hated?

 

What type of room did you have on the ship? I have heard it is a no frills ship and for the best experience to book a suite. Is this true?

 

Thanks for all of your information. I can't wait to go!

 

LOVED: OldCarTours.com ... company run by the PEOPLE and definitely meets the P to P exchange requirement. The people of Cuba are amazing. Not only friendly but SO helpful. My hat blew off on my Tues. OldCarTour of Havana and Nacho, the guide, INSISTED on running into the busy street and getting my hat! Weds. my tour ended early and Yaser, my guide for Hemingway, was holding Tshirts for me in his backpack. When he walked me to the port entry, we said goodbys and I went upstairs. THEN remembered my shirts! Yaser had remembered my shirts and came back but I was gone. He worked really HARD (talked to anyone and everyone at the port entry) to get my shirts back to me. FINALLY an officer from NCL came down and took the shirts and put my name on the bag and GS put a Lost & Found notice on my door! I was SO impressed! I was a solo traveler and did ALL of my tours and sightseeing through local companies and NONE through NCL. I had read a lot of unhappy reviews of the NCL excursions.

 

HATED? The humidity.

[CTCruiser001]

 

The humidity.

 

Glad you had a great time. Don't say I didn't warn you it was hot! [emoji1]

 

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[chiapet]

FYI ... BEWARE!!

 

When we were there last month ... we exchanged for CUCs at the pier. However, upon leaving, we tried to exchange our leftover CUCs back and discovered that we had received a counterfeit 3 CUC bill in our travels [emoji45] They would not take it back and even showed us how the imprint was a bit different. We're not sure where exactly we picked it up ... but had to take it home as a souvenir!

 

 

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[_drdesigns]

We booked for April 2018 for Cuba. Keeping fingers crossed on Trump's decision. If not we will decide from there were our cruise will be but probably not Sky to Bahamas though. Will pick another ship and ports if NCL allows us to change.

 

We're cruising in April 2018 as well, the April 9th sailing. Fingers crossed we're able to go.

[CruiseGal999]

Glad you had a great time. Don't say I didn't warn you it was hot! [emoji1]

 

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I did. It was amazing. I really need to go back and stay in a hotel and spend a lot more time exploring. I'm still emailing back and forth with one of the guides I had for my Hemingway tour.

 

YES ... you were SO right about the heat plus the humidity. I live in Utah ... VERY dry ... it took a lot of getting used to.

[owlgirl31]

We're cruising in April 2018 as well, the April 9th sailing. Fingers crossed we're able to go.

April 9th for us too, I hope! Booked an aft balcony cabin, first time trying aft balcony.

[whtbearfan]

April 9th for us too, I hope! Booked an aft balcony cabin, first time trying aft balcony.

 

 

Aft balcony on the Sky is great. This will be our third time in the aft when we sail July 3. We should have a great view of the port.

 

 

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[_drdesigns]

April 9th for us too, I hope! Booked an aft balcony cabin, first time trying aft balcony.

I'm sure it'll be amazing. I went back in to try and upgrade from picture window to balcony and they're sold out.

[CruiseGal999]

FYI ... BEWARE!!

 

When we were there last month ... we exchanged for CUCs at the pier. However, upon leaving, we tried to exchange our leftover CUCs back and discovered that we had received a counterfeit 3 CUC bill in our travels [emoji45] They would not take it back and even showed us how the imprint was a bit different. We're not sure where exactly we picked it up ... but had to take it home as a souvenir!

 

 

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Was it a CUP and not a CUC? Or was it a counterfeit CUC? Just curious. CUP has people on them and CUC has monuments on them. Just FYI. CUP is usable and you can purchase with them or give to a local but I guess maybe not exchangeable back to US or other currency. IF that was the case.

[jenidallas]

jenidallas, We are doing the B2B in November. Have not done a B2B on NCL. How did they handle your B2B? Did you have to leave the ship for a certain amount of time or were you escorted off and then allowed to scan right back on the ship? THANKS!

 

Because we were in the US, we had to briefly leave the ship in Miami. If we'd been in a different country/port, this might not have been the case.

 

What happens in Miami is that we we met in the bar closest to the gangway around 10 am. There were about a half dozen B2B passengers plus a couple of officer's family members and a few contractors staying on. After the last guests left the ship, we were then walked off to wait in a lounge area in the terminal. Once the last passengers cleared immigration, we were called down to immigration. They were clearing the departing crew members (leaving the ship that day) as we came down. They did a verbal count off of the manifest with the purser to check the numbers of passengers on/off, crew manifests on/off, and then came and manually did a face-to-face of each of our passports and checked each of us off a list of those staying onboard.

 

They then declared the ship "cleared" and closed immigration and escorted us back to the lounge to wait again.

 

They then "opened" the ship and we saw the arriving new crew members walk onto the ship. About five minutes later, they gave the clearance for us to come onboard. From there, the dock activity started with items being loaded onto the ship. All-in-all, we were maybe off the ship for 30-45 minutes at most.

 

 

We were allowed to go anywhere in the passenger areas *except* back to the cabin areas which were being serviced so my only advice is to take whatever you need to be comfortable for the day - we grabbed our laptops, sunglasses, and reading material. We saw our first passengers on the ship about 60-90 minutes later.

[LuckyGuy1978]

Because we were in the US, we had to briefly leave the ship in Miami. If we'd been in a different country/port, this might not have been the case.

 

What happens in Miami is that we we met in the bar closest to the gangway around 10 am. There were about a half dozen B2B passengers plus a couple of officer's family members and a few contractors staying on. After the last guests left the ship, we were then walked off to wait in a lounge area in the terminal. Once the last passengers cleared immigration, we were called down to immigration. They were clearing the departing crew members (leaving the ship that day) as we came down. They did a verbal count off of the manifest with the purser to check the numbers of passengers on/off, crew manifests on/off, and then came and manually did a face-to-face of each of our passports and checked each of us off a list of those staying onboard.

 

They then declared the ship "cleared" and closed immigration and escorted us back to the lounge to wait again.

 

They then "opened" the ship and we saw the arriving new crew members walk onto the ship. About five minutes later, they gave the clearance for us to come onboard. From there, the dock activity started with items being loaded onto the ship. All-in-all, we were maybe off the ship for 30-45 minutes at most.

 

 

We were allowed to go anywhere in the passenger areas *except* back to the cabin areas which were being serviced so my only advice is to take whatever you need to be comfortable for the day - we grabbed our laptops, sunglasses, and reading material. We saw our first passengers on the ship about 60-90 minutes later.

 

Thank you,

 

This sounds similar to other BTB experiences I've had, tomorrow we board the Sky for Bahamas and are staying on for Cuba on Monday. we made plans in Miami so will ask if we can disembark and re board later in the day rather than stay onboard for the afternoon.

[kpjb]

"Under Trump's rules, which federal agencies have 90 days to implement, travelers will be subject to a Treasury Department audit of their trip to ensure they fall under one of the permitted categories. Educational trips and so-called "people-to-people" group exchanges will fall under greater scrutiny, with educational groups once again having to travel with a guide from a U.S. organization sponsoring the trip, a requirement the Obama policy had effectively eliminated. Commercial flights and cruise trips to Cuba will be allowed to continue, because paying landing fees at military-run airports and seaports will be exempt from the Trump ban."

 

So we can still go, but it looks like things such as wandering the city on your own to find a nice bar and going to a show at night won't be as easy to do now. I wonder if this will curb the high demand for these trips. The cruise we were considering went from $599 to $989 in just a couple weeks, so we decided against going until demand dies down.

[jenidallas]

Thank you,

 

This sounds similar to other BTB experiences I've had, tomorrow we board the Sky for Bahamas and are staying on for Cuba on Monday. we made plans in Miami so will ask if we can disembark and re board later in the day rather than stay onboard for the afternoon.

 

Yes, you can. You'll just want to go down the night before to swap out your keycard. You'll disembark as normal and can reboard once they've started letting passengers on.