U.S. cruise ship in Cuba for the first time in decades
More than a dozen lines plan island cruises.
With its horn blaring and salsa music pouring from its speakers, a U.S. cruise ship docked in Havana on Monday morning, the first time that has happened in nearly 40 years.
“We’ll never forget this day,” Capt. David Box said over the ship’s public address system as the ship approached the harbor, according to The Miami Herald.
The trip represents the latest step in the normalization process between the Cold War foes that was started by President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro on Dec. 17, 2014. Since then, the countries’ embassies have reopened in Washington and Havana, Obama visited Cuba, and more U.S. businesses operate on the long-isolated island.
The voyage of the Adonia, a 704-passenger vessel operated by Fathom Travel and owned by Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, was a source of controversy long before it set sail. At first, the Cuban government forbade anybody born in Cuba from traveling on the cruise, citing national security concerns. Cuban Americans in Miami filed a federal lawsuit to stop the cruise because of that restriction. Two weeks before the Adonia was scheduled to depart the port of Miami, the Cuban government dropped the restriction.
The U.S. still maintains an economic embargo on Cuba that forbids U.S. citizens from traveling there purely as tourists. Americans can travel to Cuba under 12 categories that include educational, religious and humanitarian reasons. The voyages will include onboard workshops covering Cuba’s history, culture and music, which qualifies the cruise as a “people-to-people” educational tour.
Passenger Carey Rybicki said she received a lot of grief for booking a ticket on the cruise. Like so many other Americans who have fantasized about visiting the mysterious, communist island, she said she couldn’t resist.
“Some of my friends thought I was foolish,” she told WSVN-TV. “But it was something I always wanted to do.”
The Adonia’s seven-day cruise around Cuba, which includes stops in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, is only the start. Carnival said the ship will cruise twice a month to Havana.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Cruise Lines said it was in negotiations with the Cuban government to begin sailing to the island this year. In addition, Connecticutbased Pearl Sea Cruises has been trying to get approval for Cuba trips, and small-ship specialist Ponant plans to start sailing in 2017.
More than a dozen lines have announced plans to run USA-to-Cuba cruises, which could lead to more than 100,000 people passenger visiting Cuba from the USA by 2017, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. That could result in more than $300 million in revenue for cruise operators, about $88 million of which would go directly to the Cuban government, council President John Kavulich said.
That income is a lure for the Cuban government, which has struggled over the decades to improve impoverished conditions for many of its 11 million citizens.
Tourism from the USA has increased more than 50% after the announcement in 2014. Hotels, restaurants and transportation services in Havana have operated at or near capacity ever since, straining the country’s ability to accommodate the rush. Passengers aboard the Adonia, and other cruise ships, will sleep and eat most of their meals onboard, easing that strain.
Before the Cuban revolution in 1959, cruise ships regularly traveled from the USA to Cuba. Caribbean cruises departed from New York, and $42 overnight weekend jaunts left twice a week from Miami, Michael Grace, an amateur cruise ship historian, told the Associated Press.
He said the United Fruit company operated a once-a-week cruise service out of New Orleans.
“Cuba was a very big destination for Americans, just enormous,” Grace said.
Cruises dwindled in the years leading up to the Cuban Revolution and ended entirely after Fidel Castro, Raúl’s brother, overthrew the U.S.-backed government in 1959.
Monday, the first passengers off the Adonia were a Cuban-American couple.
Arnie Pérez and his wife, Carmen, experienced the difficult negotiations to get a U.S. cruise ship in Cuba for nearly a year. Pérez is Carnival’s chief legal counsel and was in the middle of the long process, which included the federal lawsuit, protests outside Carnival’s offices and months of uncertainty. He said the opportunity to help change the situation in Cuba made the effort well worth it.
“The time is now to do something different toward Cuba,” he told The Miami Herald. “We’re engaging with people, and we are hoping for the best.”
More than a dozen lines have announced plans for cruises, which could mean more than 100,000 people visiting Cuba from the USA aboard cruise ships by 2017.