Cruise to Havana


jacketfan

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My son, @Ethernut clued me to a post yesterday, from @GotaCohiba who is on a cruise to Havana, and having immigration procedure delay issues.  I'm in Florida for the cold months, and scheduled to sail on this cruise, with Royal Caribbean, on Sunday from Miami.  We stop in Nassau, Key West, and Havana (7am to 5pm) on Jan 25.  To be legal, we scheduled a 3-4 hour tour, and will have 3-4 hours to ourselves and the Cuban taxi drivers.  The tour is actually looking pretty good, with a drive down the Malecon, and stops at Revolution Plaza, the Capitol, Morro Castle, El Cristo del la Habana statue, and a drive through Fusterlandia.  Royal Caribbean makes trip certification easy by using the following procedure:

For ease of completion, of travel docs, Royal Caribbean has arranged the affidavit Into 3 parts:

  • Part A: Guests exclusively participating in the Royal Caribbean tour program should select Part A and complete the identification information in the last section.
  • Part B: Guests traveling on a self-guided people-to- people exchange program should select Part B and complete the identification information in the last section. Part B does allow for guests to split their full-day schedule between tours purchased from Royal Caribbean and activities organized on their own.

I chose Part B, and looking forward to a day of full of running around and enjoying Havana for a day.  If anything unusual happens in the procedure, as with GotaCohiba (above), I'll post back here.

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16 minutes ago, jacketfan said:

My son, @Ethernut clued me to a post yesterday, from @GotaCohiba who is on a cruise to Havana, and having immigration procedure delay issues.  I'm in Florida for the cold months, and scheduled to sail on this cruise, with Royal Caribbean, on Sunday from Miami.  We stop in Nassau, Key West, and Havana (7am to 5pm) on Jan 25.  To be legal, we scheduled a 3-4 hour tour, and will have 3-4 hours to ourselves and the Cuban taxi drivers.  The tour is actually looking pretty good, with a drive down the Malecon, and stops at Revolution Plaza, the Capitol, Morro Castle, El Cristo del la Habana statue, and a drive through Fusterlandia.  Royal Caribbean makes trip certification easy by using the following procedure:

For ease of completion, of travel docs, Royal Caribbean has arranged the affidavit Into 3 parts:

  • Part A: Guests exclusively participating in the Royal Caribbean tour program should select Part A and complete the identification information in the last section.
  • Part B: Guests traveling on a self-guided people-to- people exchange program should select Part B and complete the identification information in the last section. Part B does allow for guests to split their full-day schedule between tours purchased from Royal Caribbean and activities organized on their own.

I chose Part B, and looking forward to a day of full of running around and enjoying Havana for a day.  If anything unusual happens in the procedure, as with GotaCohiba (above), I'll post back here.

Quick update

 

We were just told by the cruise director that individuals on Royal Caribbean tours would be allowed to leave the boat first

He said that it may be as late as 10am before we are allowed to disembark

Needless to say I’ve been to guest services and they are going to work us in around 8:30

Overall RC has been very helpful through our journey to this point.

I’ll provide additional updates after we return to ship tomorrow 

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We are going in May  with Oceana for 8 days out of Miami. We will spend 2 days docked in Havana. We booked before the new rules so we are grandfathered in...no restrictions. We booked the guide that Rob mentioned a few days ago for a full day of cigar shopping and seeing the sites. The second day we will explore on our own. The trip is a dream come true for me. My wife is a good sport. 

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39 minutes ago, JY0 said:

We are going in May  with Oceana for 8 days out of Miami. We will spend 2 days docked in Havana. We booked before the new rules so we are grandfathered in...no restrictions. We booked the guide that Rob mentioned a few days ago for a full day of cigar shopping and seeing the sites. The second day we will explore on our own. The trip is a dream come true for me. My wife is a good sport. 

Dream for me as well and my wife has agreed to be a pack mule for the cigars ( also known as a good sport )

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16 hours ago, JY0 said:

We are going in May  with Oceana for 8 days out of Miami. We will spend 2 days docked in Havana. We booked before the new rules so we are grandfathered in...no restrictions. We booked the guide that Rob mentioned a few days ago for a full day of cigar shopping and seeing the sites. The second day we will explore on our own. The trip is a dream come true for me. My wife is a good sport. 

Can you give me info or a link to this?  I want to go, lol

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Dad said he was the first one off the boat this morning into Havana. About 2 hours later I received a call from a Havana number I didn't know but figured it was him. B) I'd asked him to see if they had any BCG's, so he asked the shopkeeper at the Hotel Nacional. Answer was...

 

NOPE. :D

 

He'll be back on later this evening and I or he will give an update.  

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Any of you Havanafest guys remember this place? I think the Maracas player looks familiar and apparently, somehow, (most likely mojito driven) he's swapped hats with a member of the band!

 

@Corylax18

IMG_6508.jpeg

IMG_1821.JPG

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27 minutes ago, Ethernut said:

Any of you Havanafest guys remember this place? I think the Maracas player looks familiar and apparently, somehow, (most likely mojito driven) he's swapped hats with a member of the band!

 

@Corylax18

I can't say I remember it, but that doesn't mean I've never been there. :party:

That Cohiba shelf looked pretty much just like the rest in November, not a huge selection, but plenty of quantity for what they did have. Seeing all these photos is motivating me to finally get all my photos up from November! Are the Winnies still everywhere?

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3 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

I can't say I remember it, but that doesn't mean I've never been there. :party:

That Cohiba shelf looked pretty much just like the rest in November, not a huge selection, but plenty of quantity for what they did have. Seeing all these photos is motivating me to finally get all my photos up from November! Are the Winnies still everywhere?

Didn't have him look for them specifically this time round Cory. 

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