Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Cruise control
Passengers visiting Cuba give first-day tours mixed reviews
Americans take in sights of Havana.
HAVANA — On a second day in the Cuban capital, scores of passengers aboard the ship Adonia rose early Tuesday to board 22 tour buses for guided excursions to local landmarks such as Colon Cemetery, the fishing town made famous by Ernest Hemingway and a pesticide-free farm outside the city.
At the farm passengers could choose a typical Cuban lunch of rice, plantains and chicken and again recall the pleasure they derived from the warm welcome they received Monday from hundreds of Cubans who waited outside the Sierra Maestra cruise terminal to cheer the arrivals of the first U.S.-based cruise ship in decades to sail to the island from America.
Many travelers, like Neuman Pollack, 68, of Lake Worth, were enjoying the trip.
“We had been toying with the idea of coming to Cuba for years, but just never did,” sad Pollack, standing on the sea wall in Cojimar, Hemingway’s old haunt. “I’m glad we did it.”
Pollack, the former dean of Nova Southeastern University’s business school, was traveling with his wife Marla. He said he appreciated Cubans’ eagerness to share their history and their life stories. And he was largely satisfied with the 704-passenger ship Adonia and
the way tours have been handled.
At the same time, many of those who had gone on Monday tours arranged by officials of Carnival Corp. and its new Fathom brand voiced criticism of the planning and execution of their first-day outings. Especially harsh in their reviews were those who had paid $200 per person for an all-inclusive, two-drink nighttime show at the famed Tropicana nightclub.
“The music and costumes were fine, but the whole experience was horrible,” said Angie Wheeler, 65, of Glen Mills, Pa. “We got there two hours before the show started after 10 p.m., and had to pay $3 for a bottle of water while we waited.”
Math teacher Ruth Barondo, 65, of Florence, S.C., echoed Wheeler’s opinion that service at the Tropicana was poor, the arrival at the open-air club far too early and the package tour — conducted jointly by Fathom and the state-run agency Havanatur — was overpriced.
“I have been to shows at Las Vegas and Atlantic City,” said Baronda, 65. “That was worth maybe $100.”
Other Adonia passengers said the walking tours of the cobblestone streets of Havana Vieja were too long and arduous for many of elderly travelers. According to Carnival officials, only one third of the Adonia passengers on what it calls the maiden “social impact” trip to Cuba are under 50.
Becky Luka, a travel agent from Decatur, Ill., said dissension flared during an after-lunch walking tour she took part in when about half of the 20-member group announced they wanted to go back to the ship, which serves as the travelers’ hotel. When those passengers began to walk away, Luka said, “the guides brought them back and told them they had signed a paper that obligated them to stay with the tour group.”
Those passengers returned and finished the walk, Luka said.
But in at least one other tour group, people did walk away. Ohio retiree Dorothy Bell, who is 85, said that under the hot Cuban sun, she also became too tired to continue walking. She and others hailed a taxi.
But Bell and the others did not leave before tour guides “chastised them for leaving,” said Veda Nami, 69, Bell’s traveling companion. “They said they had to participate. Clearly, that is something they have to work on.”
Luka, the Illinois travel agent, spent $129 for a show at Havana’s Cabaret Parisien. The price included one drink and the bus transportation to and from the club.
She lauded the show, but found it “a little overpriced.” She could have purchased a ticket at the door for $35, she said.
But Luka praised the niche concept of “people-to-people” tourism that Fathom is trying to define. “I think what they are doing in the Dominican Republic is the type of travel more people are wanting,” she said.
Fathom president Tara Russell said she had heard the complaints, and by 9 a.m. Tuesday had taken actions to address them. The arrival time for the Tropicana will be pushed back, and Havanatur will instruct guides to allow visitors to leave tours by simply giving them their names and ship cabin number.
“We never expected to be perfect,” said Russell, who is on the cruise with her family. “What we do expect is to make progress.”
Fathom advertises its cruises as designed for people who want to do more than take part in traditional leisure activities such as sunning at beach resorts. Indeed, under the 12 categories of travel to Cuba now authorized by the U.S. government, sunbathing does not qualify.
The Fathom brand was launched just three weeks ago with a week-long cruise to the Dominican Republic. There, passengers can take part in hands-on projects such as working at a chocolate-making cooperative or planting trees.
Those activities are not available in Cuba, where the communist-led government keeps a tight rein on the economy and visitors. The average age of passengers on its first two trips to the Dominican Republic is 34, Russell said.
For Lighthouse Point resident Rick Jennette, choosing between the two cruises Fathom offers was clear. “I am not here to work,” the 60-year-old management consultant said while strolling past the plots of vegetables on the family farm.
Jennette and his wife Bonnie, a retired Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue paramedic, take foreign trips at least twice a year. He has visited more than 70 countries, but never Cuba.
“The arrival there was phenomenal,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d be that enthusiastic about Americans.”
The Jennettes, who paid a total of $7,800 for the Cuba trip, said the tours they took Monday and Tuesday serve “as a good introduction” to life on the island. He said the couple would likely come back for further exploration on their own.
As for the tour glitches they have encountered — including the too-early arrival at the Tropicana — Rick Jennette said, “This is the first cruise, so I’m open to a few problems. They’ll figure it out.”
At 7:15 p.m., there was an announcement over the PA that the ship was about to sail, and everyone was invited to the top deck by the pool for the start of a sailaway party with both live Cuban and rock music.
Fathom will be at sea for the next 36 hours before reaching Cienfuegos on Cuba’s south coast.
Editor’s note: Throughout the May 1 to May 8 voyage of the Adonia to Cuba, staff writer Mike Clary and photojournalist Joe Cavaretta will be sharing all the flavors, sights and sounds from aboard the 700-passenger Adonia and its ports of call. Join us on this historic journey in the newspaper and by going to SunSentinel.com/ cubacruise.