Notes from Armonia Miami-Havana Jan 2019

[Beamafar]

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[Beamafar]

When we finished, we were escorted (past the very long queue) to our table for the show (it was held indoors as it was raining that night, unfortunately).  We were very close to the stage at the side which gave us a great view.  Some of the orchestra players entertained us on-stage for about half an hour before the show started.

 

 

 

This was quite boring (and very unmemorable), but I was entertained by the servers who seemed to run around like headless chickens.  The area behind us was used for organising the glasses for the sparkling wine (of which everyone received a glass) and stocking up the bottles of rum and cans of cola that would be distributed to the tables.  There was no order to this so we had a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to/from this area;  after the sparkling wine, the cans were given out, then there was a long wait before we finally received the rum (which was plonked down unceremoniously on each table!)

 

The show, itself, is very hyped, IMHO.  It was the same dancing throughout, with just an awful lot of costume changing - each one showing as much flesh as the last (I'll add here that even DH wasn't 'impressed'!)  The head-dresses were the most 'interesting'.  Due to the skimpy nature of the costumes I don't think it would be acceptable to post any photos here.  I'll add (without comment) that the girls all seemed to be practically the same size in the breast department (tiny) which made them look like 12-14 year-olds.

 

Speaking of taking photos:  there is a charge of CUC$5 if you wish to use a camera or your phone.  Now, I've read beforehand that this isn't policed as the staff wouldn't know who's paid this.  Well, I saw people approached on 2 occasions when they were taking pics and then I saw money being handed over so maybe they do look for proof that you've paid the charge.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

When the show was over, we headed out, hoping we wouldn't have a problem getting a 'regular' taxi (our driver from earlier in the evening had offered to return for us, but we declined as we weren't paying double what a normal taxi would cost).  When we got outside, we asked a bloke where should we go to get a taxi;  he asked if we were returning to Armonia.  When we said we were, he told us there were seats available on the bus if we wanted them.  We (very gratefully) accepted the offer!   😜

 

Would we recommend going to the Tropicana?  No!  Do we regret going? - No!  We just didn't think it was worth the cost (though, in fairness, there are a lot of musicians, dancers and servers that have to be paid).

 

Something I overlooked to mention about earlier that day on our arrival in Cuba.  We received a phone call from Guest Services - again (for the 3rd time) asking if everything was OK and if there was anything they could do for us.  We were then offered complimentary rain jackets which we said we'd be delighted to have. So DH went off to the desk to pick them up;  when he got there, the receptionist didn't know what he was talking about, so she asked a colleague who said she was the one who'd phoned us and duly produced the packaged capes!  We've never come across these on any of our cruises, before - even in YC.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

We had another excursion included in our fare for our second day in Havana but we decided to do the Hop-on, Hop-off instead and just see where it took us.  The stop for the bus was very easy to find;  just turn left outside of the terminal and wait directly under the 'San Pedro' street sign wall plaque.  The charge is CUC$10 pp, payable onboard.  There are no maps or headphones provided;  commentary is sparse and done from downstairs so can barely be heard upstairs.  However, we enjoyed our jaunt around Havana.  Unfortunately the place looks like it's just been through a war, though there were some fine architectural buildings to see, too.

 

Apparently there is a 'free' 3 hour walking tour to be had, but it takes 25 minutes to reach the starting point!  (This was told to us by people returning from it).

 

La Pergola was closed for lunch (again - must check the planners to see which days it was open) so we headed to the buffet.  The food offerings were very poor.  There were ribs on the carvery which we didn't have (they're never usually good on MSC ships, though these may have been?).  We had the chicken, which was awful, and everything was cold, despite us going early.  DH never had pizza on this cruise and I don't know why he didn't have it then, nor why I didn't go get a burger.  🙄

 

We headed back to the cabin to begin packing;  the wind was starting up and it began to rain as we left Cuba that afternoon.  Dave (Sidari) told me later that a tornado hit that evening and we were lucky that we left when we did!

 

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

Here's some images of Havana (from a very limited selection ... DH takes most of our photos with his camera)







Che:

..
couldn't quite catch what the tour guide said this fella's name was, but he is as big as Che in revolutionary terms in Cuba:





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[NCTribeFan]

I've only made it through the first 3 pages but have to stop and actually get some things done today!  Hope to finish reading later as I'm booked on the 5/13 sailing and am anxious to read what you did in the ports.  Thanks for the tip about the GC tender! 😋

 

I rarely eat in the MDR for breakfast or dinner.  I always feel like I'm "wasting" precious vacation time as the service seems so random and slow (on all cruiselines I've tried).  But that fish & chips certainly looks good!!

 

DD is sailing with me for the first time since she married (5 years ago) and we're both very excited about visiting Havana.  I must get my excursions planned.  I'm a CPA and getting quite busy at work and soon just won't have the brain power available to give the planning much thought!

 

Was on Divina in December for my first MSC cruise and quite liked it, but, honestly, she was too much ship for my tastes.  Looking forward to being on a smaller ship again. 

 

We're in a Fantastica interior.  Can anyone tell me whether the cabin has a hair dryer?  When booking, it was not listed on MSC's site, but other sites show that the cabins have a hair dryer.  Don't want to pack one if I don't have to!

 

[Beamafar]

All MSC cabins have hairdryers, so no need to pack one.

 

If you like, I could post the Cuba excursions that MSC offered onboard - even if you don't want to book one, they may give you an idea of things to see and do.

 

I see the photo of Che didn't post.  I'll have to rectify that!

 

I just googled the other fella's name:  Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán.

 

Couldn't leave the most iconic guy of the revolution out:

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Beamafar

[abbeytravelstheworld]

I’d love to see the Cuba excursion list if it’s not too much trouble. Trying to work out of we’ll book private tours or use our included excursions

[Beamafar]

Just now, abbeytravelstheworld said:

I’d love to see the Cuba excursion list if it’s not too much trouble. Trying to work out of we’ll book private tours or use our included excursions

 

It'll take a bit of time as I have to upload the photos with the Tapatalk app which keeps logging me out.  It's time-consuming to log back in and post each time (Don't get me wrong - I don't have a problem doing it.  It'll take a number of posts so I'll try to get it done some time tomorrow morning).

[Beamafar]

OK ... so it'll only take one post (I thought there were more excursion pages than there are):

 

 

 

 

 

Jist right-click on an image and open in another tab if you want to see it more clearly.

 

We did the second excursion (CUB30A); some of the photos of Havana that I posted were taken at Muraleando.

 

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[SeaTheW0rld]

Do all those excursions count towards the "cultural exchange" (or whatever is needed for US citizens) to justify the visit to Cuba?

[Beamafar]

MSC excursions are counted as "People to People program".  Private excursions and classic car tours count towards the cultural exchange program "Support for the Cuban people".  The form you need to fill out (I posted a photo of it early on) and submit at embarkation has boxes of which you tick the one that applies to you (whether you're doing a ship's excursion or DIY).  I really believe this is only a formality;  a lot of people just got off the ship and explored without booking excursions.  In those cases, they just needed to tick the "Support for the Cuban People" box.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Beamafar

[abbeytravelstheworld]

Thanks so much for posting those. I need to find out if the child age is for under 2’s as well or if they’re free- otherwise private tours will be much more economical for us with a ten month old!

[Beamafar]

16 minutes ago, abbeytravelstheworld said:

Thanks so much for posting those. I need to find out if the child age is for under 2’s as well or if they’re free- otherwise private tours will be much more economical for us with a ten month old!

 

I've looked thru' the excursions booklet as well as the T&Cs on the website AND in the online brochure and can't find a mention of the age range that they charge for the child's rate.  (It was certainly posted somewhere at one time because there was a discussion on here about the upper age limit being 14).  However, there's no way they'd charge for a 10 month old!

[texasbluebonnet]

I am comparing MSC and the other cruise lines for a Cuba cruise. What sets MSC apart from the other cruise lines?

Do they offer good entertainment? Comedians?

 

 

[NCTribeFan]

Which excursion did you do when you first arrived in Havana?  I'm leaning toward NOT going to Tropicana that night but doing a ship tour upon arrival and again the next morning; one of them being the tour in a classic car.  I'm mildly concerned that if I don't go to the Tropicana show, I'll regret it.  But it seems so overpriced.  In another Armonia/Cuba thread, someone mentioned a different club that costs less, is indoors, and is basically the same show.  I'll have to hunt down that thread and see if I can find it again.

 

At what point did you do your currency exchange?

 

Really enjoying your photos and insightful comments.  I just love reading reviews of ships/itineraries I'm about to take!

 

[Beamafar]

11 hours ago, texasbluebonnet said:

I am comparing MSC and the other cruise lines for a Cuba cruise. What sets MSC apart from the other cruise lines?

Do they offer good entertainment? Comedians?

 

 

 

Armonia is a small ship so entertainment is limited and there are no comedians onboard.  I can't compare it with other lines as I only cruise MSC.  There are, however, lots of threads with comparisons to other lines on the forum which may answer your questions.

[Beamafar]

9 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

Which excursion did you do when you first arrived in Havana?  I'm leaning toward NOT going to Tropicana that night but doing a ship tour upon arrival and again the next morning; one of them being the tour in a classic car.  I'm mildly concerned that if I don't go to the Tropicana show, I'll regret it.  But it seems so overpriced.  In another Armonia/Cuba thread, someone mentioned a different club that costs less, is indoors, and is basically the same show.  I'll have to hunt down that thread and see if I can find it again.

 

At what point did you do your currency exchange?

 

Really enjoying your photos and insightful comments.  I just love reading reviews of ships/itineraries I'm about to take!

 

 

Thank you, NCTF!  We did the second excursion in the first photo I posted, which was code #CUB30A.  The handicraft market was a huge warehouse-like structure which contained stalls where souvenirs and craft work were on sale.  You really have to haggle with them and, even when you get them down to what you think is a fair price, they laugh at you after you've paid as if to say "Sucker!" (well, that was our experience, anyway).  TBH, we found this particular excursion rather boring.

 

Here's a link to the thread you may be referring to:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2618986-just-off-the-armonia-cubachristmas/

 

You should check out the Ports of Call section of the forum, too, for alternatives to Tropicana.  Personally speaking, if I were to visit Havana again, I would go to one of the cheaper venues.

 

There are currency exchange booths in the terminal.  Don't worry about getting too much - they will buy back what you haven't used at a similar rate.  We were able to get our CUCs on the way out to our excursion bus without any problem or delays (something that we've never been able to do on MSC excursions in other ports).

[Beamafar]

So ... to return to where I left off:

 

Another 'gift' arrived in our cabin on that last evening - 2 Musica (!) lanyards, with a lovely card, from Daniela, the Guest Relations Manager, whom we had met both at the M&M and the Black Card event

 

 

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Edited February 19, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

This was our last night onboard to enjoy the wonderful ambiance in La Pergola. The dining room was almost deserted! Here's the menu of our last supper onboard:






There was nothing appealing to us so we both ordered the NY strip:



I was sorry I hadn't ordered this before - it was surprisingly good ( I say that because the "Always Available" beef 'paillard' that used to be on menus in the Med was just awful).

For dessert, I had Peanut Butter Pie (yum! I just loved these US-focussed menus):



 

The last photo I have in my phone from onboard is one of a Shanghai Margarita, so I'm assuming I had at least one that night.  (I'm working from memory now as I've exhausted my notes - Heaven help us!  Whatever 'structure' there was to this thread before is probably gone for a Burton, now).  I'm pretty sure that we went to bed at a reasonable hour because the luggage was due to be left outside the cabin at 11pm and I know we were somewhat on time with this.
 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

Earlier on in the cruise, I had gone to Guest Services to advise that, although we could have priority disembarkation, we actually wanted the very latest disembarkation time slot.  There and then, the receptionist handed me orange coloured luggage tags which were for the 10am slot (there was just a 10.10am slot after that).

 

On our last morning, we had everything packed and the cabin tidy, so, before we went to breakfast, I went looking for our steward to advise him that we wanted to keep access to the cabin for as long as possible (being Black Card members, we could have a later check-out than normal).  I told him that we just needed to store our hand luggage and that he was welcome to do whatever he needed to do.  He told us no problem and we headed off.  La Pergola was closed on that morning (just as well we'd tipped our waiter the night before), so we had (a very leisurely) breakfast in the other MDR.  We had no problem getting seated as it wasn't busy (this was really surprising as it's usually a madhouse on the last morning - and that's even in the Med, where not everybody is disembarking on the same day!).

 

When we got back to the cabin, we found that the steward had stripped the bed and re-made it, ready for the next guests, so we just hung about on the couch 'til it came close to leaving.

 

Disembarkation was a doddle with no delays;  I felt quite sad to be leaving the ship and we never got an opportunity to say goodbye to the wonderful Gabrielle, Director of Hotel Services.  I had phoned him the night before (he'd given me his number early on) to thank him for everything and he said that he'd be on the gangway the next morning and would say goodbye then.  I said at the time that maybe not and it turned out I was right - he wasn't around when we left.  We did, however, get to say goodbye to Kevin, the Cruise director and Robert, the Hotel director as we walked thru' the ship after breakfast earlier on.

 

Well ... that's just about it, folks.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it on later - or if anyone has any other questions that I can answer, I certainly will.  I won't post the dailies as they're already in the thread that I gave a link to.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Beamafar

[Captain-John]

Thanks Bea - sounds like you had a great trip. Really interesting itinerary - still not sure I could manage the ship (not that there's anything wrong with it per se, but the ship is 50% of the experience for me and I prefer newer/wider range of amenities).

[Beamafar]

If that's the case, Cap'n, then the Lirica-class ships are definitely not for you.

 

However, small ships often have more interesting itineraries as they can access ports that the larger ships can't (as, of course, you know!  😉)

[Captain-John]

Yes - that's the problem! Fred Olsen do some cruises that leave locally (no need for a flight etc.), to some interesting places (Norway, German rivers etc.) - but I just couldn't fully enjoy myself on an older, smaller ship like those in Fred's fleet. I used to feel very strongly the same way about Thomson/Marella cruises - although I think some have been refurbished and aren't too bad now.

 

Now a smaller luxury ship - that might be different. Seabourn, Regent, Azamara etc. But then, I'd be afraid I'd be bumping into the same people over and over - sometimes a good thing, more often not - we're not very sociable on holiday (hence we'd never, ever, EVER, share a table in the MDR with strangers - I just about died on Orchestra during a lunch service where I specifically asked for a table for 2, and even had an argument with the Maitre D' as he led us away with another party of 2 - he assured me it was a table for 2 so I complied. We were sat at a 4 top (set for 2) with 2 empty seats and the other couple were directed to a similar set up near by. Escape, or so I thought - until 5 minutes later a French couple were shown to the empty seats and the place settings promptly made up!). Although a perfectly nice couple, the language barrier combined with my growing anger at the deception of the maitre'D made it hard to enjoy that meal....

[SeaTheW0rld]

9 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

Yes - that's the problem! Fred Olsen do some cruises that leave locally (no need for a flight etc.), to some interesting places (Norway, German rivers etc.) - but I just couldn't fully enjoy myself on an older, smaller ship like those in Fred's fleet. I used to feel very strongly the same way about Thomson/Marella cruises - although I think some have been refurbished and aren't too bad now.

 

Now a smaller luxury ship - that might be different. Seabourn, Regent, Azamara etc. But then, I'd be afraid I'd be bumping into the same people over and over - sometimes a good thing, more often not - we're not very sociable on holiday (hence we'd never, ever, EVER, share a table in the MDR with strangers - I just about died on Orchestra during a lunch service where I specifically asked for a table for 2, and even had an argument with the Maitre D' as he led us away with another party of 2 - he assured me it was a table for 2 so I complied. We were sat at a 4 top (set for 2) with 2 empty seats and the other couple were directed to a similar set up near by. Escape, or so I thought - until 5 minutes later a French couple were shown to the empty seats and the place settings promptly made up!). Although a perfectly nice couple, the language barrier combined with my growing anger at the deception of the maitre'D made it hard to enjoy that meal....

 

I had that happen to me once (forget which line, thinking Carnival).  I just excused myself (no need to be rude) then went to the maitre'd and explained that I really do want to sit alone. No problem the 2nd time.