More Havana, please

Carnival Cruise Line plans to add 23 more cruises to Havana, Cuba, in 2019 and 2020.

Carnival Cruise Line plans to add 23 more cruises to Havana, Cuba, in 2019 and 2020, including the company’s first scheduled voyage to the island nation from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, the Doral-based company said.

The expanded offerings, announced this week, will also include the first-ever cruise to Cuba from Charleston, S.C., by the 3,002-passenger, 102,853-ton Carnival Sunshine, the biggest-ever ship to dock at Havana.

The new sailings complement previously announced trips aboard Carnival Paradise and Carnival Sensation.

The new sailings include: Carnival Triumph (Fort Lauderdale): Eight five-day cruises featuring an overnight stop in Havana and a daylong call in Nassau leaving Dec. 14, 2019, and Jan. 11, Feb. 8 and 22, March 7 and 21, and April 4 and 18, 2020; and a five-day cruise with an overnight Havana stop and a visit to Half Moon Cay, Carnival Corp.’s private island in the Bahamas, departing Jan. 20, 2020. Carnival Victory (Miami): A three-day voyage with a daylong call in Havana departing Nov. 22, 2019. Carnival Sensation (Miami): A four-day cruise featuring an overnight Havana stop and an extended visit to Nassau departing March 19, 2020, plus two five-day sailings with overnight Havana calls plus stops in Freeport and Nassau departing Feb. 15 and 29, 2020. Carnival Paradise (Tampa): A five-day voyage departing Nov. 18, 2019, with an overnight call in Havana and a stop at Key West. Carnival Sunshine (Charleston): A four-day cruise with a daylong call in Havana departing Nov. 21, 2019, along with eight fiveday cruises with Havana and Freeport calls departing Jan. 6, Feb. 3 and 17, March 2, 16 and 30

and April 13, and 27, 2020.

All cruises offer shore excursions that spotlight the island’s culture, natural scenery and architecture. Cuban-themed activities and entertainment are available, including “Havana-inspired deck parties, trivia contests and salsa lessons,” Carnival said in a news release.

Carnival’s website shows cabin prices starting at $224 per person for three-day sailings, and less than $400 per person for most of the five-day sailings. Port fees and taxes are extra.

Carnival Corp. pioneered its Cuba cruises in May 2016 via its Fathom line, billing them as “social impact” and “people to people” tours to comply with U.S. government requirements that all travel by Americans fit into one of 12 authorized categories.

In 2017, Carnival and its competitors, including Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean, began operating more voyages to Cuba or announced imminent plans to do so.

Carnival Cruise Line, the largest Carnival Corp. brand, began sailing its Carnival Paradise ship to the island from Tampa, then added more cruises on the Paradise and Sensation from Miami, Carnival Cruise Line spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Friday.

Although the Trump administration tightened some of the travel restrictions that had been loosened by the Obama adminsitration in 2015, cruise lines kept their shore excursions within the revised perimeters of allowable travel purposes.

The Cuban government requires all guests to present a tourist visa — called a “Tarjeta Turistica” — upon entry and departure, but those are available from Carnival for $75 a person, Gulliksen said. The fee is “conveniently added” to guests’ shipboard accounts and the visas are presented during embarkation, he said. A valid U.S. passport is required for all Cuba cruises.