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The End To Future Cuba Cruises!!


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Doesn't surprise me....I was more surprised at how long it lasted that people got to go the Cuba under the false pretense of one of the 12 categories you could claim....come on, your on vacation..drinking on cruise and its a cruise stop....or if your flying in and staying at a resort or casa and drinking on the beach....its a vacation no matter how you want to try to slant or color it....

 

I think its a part of a bigger push to put some pressure on Venezuela at the end of the day and this is some collateral damage.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens to all the cruises currently booked for Cuba.

 

 

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26 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Will be interesting to see what happens to all the cruises currently booked for Cuba.

Hmmmm...maybe embark out of Cozumel with no US port stops(?). Some cruise lines have passengers embarking and disembarking at several ports on an itinerary.

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Just now, AdventureKenandCar said:

Well, crap!  We are booked on Empress of the Seas for June 23, 2019!  What does this mean?!

It might be cancelled, BUT, when policy changes, there is usually a "grace" period before it takes affect, so, cross your fingers that the "grace" period expires after you cruise.

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32 minutes ago, twangster said:

Umm, hello?  I think you mean "Perfect Day"...

Overnight at Perfect Day to replace overnight in Cuba.  Hmmm.

Won't happen for cruises, like mine, where the second day is in Cozumel.  Too far to travel in one day, I think.

PS - this is all my fault.  My final payment for my Cuba cruise was 4 days ago.

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16 minutes ago, bcarney said:

Won't happen for cruises, like mine, where the second day is in Cozumel.  Too far to travel in one day, I think.

PS - this is all my fault.  My final payment for my Cuba cruise was 4 days ago.

Nope.  Mine.  I got a comp cruise from MyVegas and confirmed a June 10 cruise on Majesty yesterday.

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Crowne PlazaThey have no information yet, they are still evaluating. I am guessing that it will probably take a few days or longer to sort out what they can do. If I were to venture a guess, I would guess that they will replace Havana with Cozumel Nassau or CocoCay. Hotel & Resorts Fort Lauderdale Airport

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In my case they are taking a full day to reach Key West, then Havana overnight then back to Florida. I see Nassau and Perfect Day in my future, depending how these new restrictions are implemented and the dates.

At least I'm fully refundable.  I'll probably lose the $200 OBC I got for when they chartered another ship though.  I've got some CUCs left over from my last visit.  Oh well.

If my cruise luck continues I'll be giving back C&A points in 2019.

In the bigger picture it's going to cost Royal a ding on the balance sheet.  They have two ships for this market, bringing them back just for Cuba.  Money spent refreshing them, sprucing them up, crew, etc. It was an investment for them to service Cuba. 

They hardly need or want these ships doing the short cruise FL cruise market so now what? 

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43 minutes ago, Jaymac Radio said:

I Was Just Thinking That They Could  Move Majesty Or Empress Back To Tampa To Sail For 4 &5 & 7 Night Caribbean Cruises Because When Brilliance And Rhapsody Leave They Have No Other Ships There.

I'm doubtful they'd do that after making all the improvements and refurbishments to Navigator and Mariner so that those ships can make those shorter sailings. Goal is clearly to get new cruisers (overall, or just with Royal) to try out the brand and see how amazing their ships are, with a message that all of their ships are (or soon will be) similarly amazing and these new cruisers should try out longer sailings on their other ships. Putting a much older and non-upgraded ship like Majesty or Empress back into service for those itineraries alongside those ships would I think risk confusing the message.

Since the Radiance and especially Vision class ships are still big in Europe for sailing more exotic itineraries to hard-to-reach ports, I could see Majesty or Empress moving there to help service some of those itineraries.

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2 hours ago, Jaymac Radio said:

I Was Just Thinking That They Could  Move Majesty Or Empress Back To Tampa To Sail For 4 &5 & 7 Night Caribbean Cruises Because When Brilliance And Rhapsody Leave They Have No Other Ships There.

 

1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

Since the Radiance and especially Vision class ships are still big in Europe for sailing more exotic itineraries to hard-to-reach ports, I could see Majesty or Empress moving there to help service some of those itineraries.

 

The challenge is that it's now almost May.  Assuming they need to place them somewhere for January 2020 that's only 7 months away.  Seven months to fill a ship is a tall order since its a very short sales cycle.   People have booked other ships and made vacation plans.  Where ever they place them they may lose money until they work through the interim period.  That's assuming they find a place to stick them for January that doesn't compete with existing ships nearby.  That's not easy either with so many ships competing for the same ports that all cruise lines use.    They might be better to put the original plans back in the works and shift them out of the fleet.

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Here's an article that represents what I have been hearing from several sources...

Ultimately, I think the government wants more pressure to be put on the Cuban government by their citizens...maybe thinking that removing the dollars that are going there now will do it...my view is that it is inconsistent since travel to mainland China and even North Korea isn't necessarily restrictive. Saying that tourism dollars somehow legitimizes that government also seems ridiculous. There needs to be more dialog, not less...just my opinion...worthless that it is.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/trump-administration-imposes-restrictions-on-travel-to-cuba

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Do we know for certain that they are going to stop allowing cruises to go to Cuba next year ?  I thought it was just a "maybe".

Here is what each cruise line had to say about the Cuba restrictions:

Royal Caribbean “We have not altered any of our sailings at this time.”

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings - “We are closely monitoring recent developments with respect to US-Cuba travel. At this time no new regulations have been issued and accordingly, the Company’s itineraries which include Cuba as a destination will continue as scheduled.”

Virgin Voyages“At this time there are no changes to travel policies for cruises sailing to Cuba. We will continue to monitor Cuba travel policies and we will update our Sailors if there are any changes.”

Carnival Corporation“We are still evaluating this announcement, but have not made any changes to our itineraries. Booked guests will receive a communication if their itinerary is impacted.”

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I'll avoid the politics and focus on impacts to cruising, which is nothing, yet.

We can speculate but in reality we don't know and we have to sit tight and wait. 

One possible outcome is modified itineraries.  If you have a cruise and don't have travel insurance now might be a good time to consider it to protect your vacation investment.  

There are other possible impacts but until we learn more there is little point in speculating.  

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