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Trump Administration announces suspension of all cruise ship travel to Cuba


Giventofly
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The new restrictions take effect Wednesday, but the government will allow anyone who has already paid for the trip to go ahead with it.

 

*****, I leave on the 1st of July. Hopefully, Royal Carribean sticks with it.

Edited by CincyBoston
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16 minutes ago, CincyBoston said:

The new restrictions take effect Wednesday, but the government will allow anyone who has already paid for the trip to go ahead with it.

 

*****, I leave on the 1st of July. Hopefully, Royal Carribean sticks with it.

I was wondering that because I know a group who headed there yesterday on the NCL Sky!

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4 minutes ago, Giventofly said:

 

 

My concern would be...paid passengers are ok, sure.  If a sailing is only at 50% occupancy, and there's no legal way for the cruise line to sell more tickets to fill the ship, I have no doubt that they'll change itineraries. 

 

I completely agree. We (were/are) supposed to go in October so our cruise is definitely not sold out, however now no new people can book and be exempt. This was my exact thought. Boooo. I just hope they don't replace with Nassau, but we will go anyway.  Hopefully the price drops, especially since we are 2 months before final payment.

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Right.  The "anyone who has already paid" is a bit vague.   Will they still allow ships to come in with passengers paid prior to today?   If so, I would hope they will honor the sailings in the next 60 - 90 days.   But as Giventofly pointed out, is a ship that is not full  going to still sail at a potential loss?     We know cruise lines reserve the right to change ports of call, so it's possible people within penalty period may be stuck unless the cruise line offers full refunds.   This is a hard one because most people choose this cruise only for the Cuba port of call, not the others that may be included.   A revised itinerary to Cozumel or Nassau is not going to cut it if that happens.    Only time will tell how this shakes out.  

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9 minutes ago, SuziCruises said:

Right.  The "anyone who has already paid" is a bit vague.   Will they still allow ships to come in with passengers paid prior to today?   If so, I would hope they will honor the sailings in the next 60 - 90 days.   But as Giventofly pointed out, is a ship that is not full  going to still sail at a potential loss?     We know cruise lines reserve the right to change ports of call, so it's possible people within penalty period may be stuck unless the cruise line offers full refunds.   This is a hard one because most people choose this cruise only for the Cuba port of call, not the others that may be included.   A revised itinerary to Cozumel or Nassau is not going to cut it if that happens.    Only time will tell how this shakes out.  

We are booked in August on NCL for Cuba.  We have done the crappy Bahamas cruise and specifically booked this one to go back to Cuba.  Thankfully I have trip insurance with a cancel for any reason policy.

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6 minutes ago, troyers said:

We are booked in August on NCL for Cuba.  We have done the crappy Bahamas cruise and specifically booked this one to go back to Cuba.  Thankfully I have trip insurance with a cancel for any reason policy.

 

If you booked the NCL travel protection, you'll get back 75% or 90% in the form of a cruise credit, plus lose the cost of the insurance to do so.    I really hope if either the ships can't go or if they change the itinerary they will offer full refunds.   They don't have to since the cruise contract you accept says they can change your ports of call.  

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Let's keep this about cruising, there are plenty of places to talk politics and this thread is more helpful to people if we stick to cruising. Since my cruise is so soon and is sold out, I probably one of the lucky ones. RC is currently tweeting out that they are in the middle of evaluating the policy and will let us know soon. My assumptions:

1. PAY IN FULL TODAY if your cruise is booked in July. Tomorrow is the official start of the executive order so as of today you can technically still book.

2. If your cruise is full aka no longer listed on the website your chances of hitting Cuba are higher

3. If you sail late summer/fall your best bet is to hope the order allows all current bookings to stay put but I won't bank on this yet, decent chance the cruise sails and the ports change.

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The actual text of the order, which will become effective tomorrow, is at https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-11755.pdf.  Note that there is an exemption for "certain group people-to-people educational travel that previously was authorized where the traveler has already completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation) prior to" tomorrow.  But, as many have noted, that does not necessarily mean that your cruise line is going to continue visiting Cuba, particularly where the ship is not substantially booked already.  I'm on a December Oceania cruise, and it looks like I'm going to cancel because I have no interest in being re-routed to Cozumel, Nassau, etc.

 

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1 minute ago, ndabunka said:

 Hopefully those on here with bookings will be able to still go even though TODAY'S policy is "no cruise ship travel to Cuba commencing immediately"... unless the news articles are wrong.

 

What I'm reading is that effective June 5, 2019, if you haven't already paid your fare, you cannot sail to Cuba on a cruise ship.  The language in the Associated Press article indicates that if you've got a ticket, you can sail...but as myself and others have speculated...if the cruise line cannot legally book additional passage to Cuba after tomorrow...we all know they're not going to send empty ships.  

Odds are, itineraries get rerouted (as allowed in the cruise contract) or some sailings get outright cancelled.

Again..I'm just speculating...but it I don't see other likely scenarios.

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22 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Seriously? 

People are dying in Venezeula fighting for freedom. Cubans live in poverty...

YOU are complaining about a first world problem of a cruise port.

 

$ being funneled to Maduro--- and like dealing with the Russians being there (supporting criminal Madurao)-- anything they can do to squeeze Maduro is worth it. We have friends who have family in Venezeula--it is a nightmare. Having been to Cuba in the last year--the poverty the Cuban people live with it ridiculous. Lack of facilities-- and the Cuban gov holds its people prisoners. They cannot travel (except to leave $ and family behind) and only to "approved" places like Venezuela.

I agree that what is going on in Venezuela is criminal.  My point was that Cuba is too poor to contribute much (if anything) to the GOVERNMENT of Venezuela for the same reasons you pointed out. Cuba NEEDS the cruise and travel business simply to support its OWN people. 

For our government to state that "somehow" millions of $s are flowing from Cuba to Venezuela is a insulting.  It's purely a political "scare tactic" based on a fake news narrative & YES, the cubans NEED the 1st-world $'s to pay for their food, not routing Hundreds (at most) to Venezuela

Edited by ndabunka
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Let's keep the political talk out of this, the policy goes into effect tomorrow. We all just want to know how the cruise lines are going to address the situation so we can all make our decisions on what to do?

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15 minutes ago, rwdtgb said:

Let's keep the political talk out of this, the policy goes into effect tomorrow. We all just want to know how the cruise lines are going to address the situation so we can all make our decisions on what to do?

Why? It is politically motivated why this is happening. 

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Please, people, keep this thread CRUISE-RELATED.... Each cruise line will announce decisions in their own time, hopefully sooner rather than later BUT all off topic political posts will be removed. 

 

You can also check boards for each cruise line for updates on their plans to address this ban.

 

I'm sure you can find forums on some news channel and other websites where you can discuss your political opinions but your cruise plans won't  be relevant... find those news forums, please.

 

Thank you!

 

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40 minutes ago, alwaysonaship said:

Why? It is politically motivated why this is happening. 

Because people like myself would like a spot to discuss and share news about our actual cruises that are in jeopardy without others violating the rules which now have been affirmed by a mod and getting the threads shut down. 

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One of my friends coworkers got an email from carnival saying they will not be cruising to Cuba in August. Which was when he was supposed to go. They are offering credit or to book another trip. 

 

I haven’t heard anything from Royal Caribbean about my cruise in July to Cuba. So this will be interesting to see what happens. 

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4 hours ago, CincyBoston said:

The new restrictions take effect Wednesday, but the government will allow anyone who has already paid for the trip to go ahead with it.

 

*****, I leave on the 1st of July. Hopefully, Royal Carribean sticks with it.

where did you see this.....someone told me this but cannot find confirmation.

 

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Several sources on Twitter are saying that no Cuba-bound ships will be allowed to depart effective midnight tonight. 

This seems to be in conflict with the language in the regulation that says those that already purchased travel will be grandfathered. 

 

https://twitter.com/CNN_Oppmann/status/1135999989723779074?s=19

 

https://twitter.com/mweissenstein/status/1135956931548499968?s=19

 

https://twitter.com/reuterssarah/status/1135999923407785984?s=19

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4 minutes ago, nicedream said:

Several sources on Twitter are saying that no Cuba-bound ships will be allowed to depart effective midnight tonight. 

This seems to be in conflict with the language in the regulation that says those that already purchased travel will be grandfathered. 

 

https://twitter.com/CNN_Oppmann/status/1135999989723779074?s=19

 

https://twitter.com/mweissenstein/status/1135956931548499968?s=19

 

https://twitter.com/reuterssarah/status/1135999923407785984?s=19

 

The document said "flights" and "accommodations" so maybe they don't consider a cruise as accommodation?

Edited by El turista
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24 minutes ago, drafterdw said:

where did you see this.....someone told me this but cannot find confirmation.

 

 

1 hour ago, RVAcruiser said:

I don't know that it's a clear-cut that if you already paid in full for your cruise, you will still go to Cuba, and if you have only partially paid, you won't.  

 

https://cruiseradio.net/how-the-cuba-travel-ban-will-impact-your-cruise/

 

Our cruise is in November. We have not paid in full. Should we do that today and cross fingers that we go?

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29 minutes ago, El turista said:

 

The document said "flights" and "accommodations" so maybe they don't consider a cruise as accommodation?

Actually, the document says "at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodation)".  Under normal rules of legal interpretation, "such as" is not a phrase of limitation, so paying for a cruise would likely be a "travel-related transaction" under any reasonable interpretation.  As I and others have noted, the problem will be that even if you can go, the cruise line may re-route the trip so that it can sell cabins after tomorrow.  And I'm guessing that we won't know that for some time.  Even if they know that they are going to re-route, it takes time for them to figure out where they are going and to make all the necessary arrangements.  So I'm doubting we will be getting much news soon.

Edited by Capitals Fan
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53 minutes ago, MsMills79 said:

One of my friends coworkers got an email from carnival saying they will not be cruising to Cuba in August. Which was when he was supposed to go. They are offering credit or to book another trip. 

 

I haven’t heard anything from Royal Caribbean about my cruise in July to Cuba. So this will be interesting to see what happens. 

We, hopefully, have a Cuba cruise that leaves August 3 and I have not gotten any emails from Carnival.  I just checked and they are still offering excursions for the trip.  Not sure if your friend's office mate was being dramatic or has a cruise later in August.  Our cruise only has 39 cabins remaining, with a 2100 passenger capacity, so hopefully that will be enough to avoid changing port stops.  

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