Tag Archives: Cuba

Carnival’s new Fathom brand to sail to Cuba

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P&O Adonia to become Fathom

Carnival Corp.’s new Fathom brand has already received permission from the U.S. government to mount cruises to Cuba and it plans to start next year.

Fathom’s Cuba cruises are scheduled to begin in May 2016, a month after the brand launches its inaugural social-impact travel experiences in the Dominican Republic. Carnival said the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments have signed off on the cruises, which will qualify for exceptions in the law that prevents general travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens.

“We are excited about receiving U.S. approval as the very important first step to ultimately take travelers to Cuba under the existing 12 criteria for authorized travel,” Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Cuban authorities for their approval to help make the social, cultural and humanitarian exchanges between U.S. citizens and the people of Cuba a reality.”

Donald appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday to talk about cruising to Cuba.

The move is a major departure for Carnival Corp., which like other U.S.-based cruise lines has strictly avoided business dealings with the Castro government.  The issue has been particularly sensitive in the large Cuban-American community in Miami, where Carnival and several other major cruise brands are headquartered.

Many Cubans in Miami emigrated there after the Communist-led coup in 1959, some emigrating after their businesses or properties were confiscated by the government and many leaving all of their possessions and property behind as they sought political refuge.

General travel to the island has been off-limits to Americans since a trade embargo enacted in the early 1960s.

The new diplomatic thaw with Cuba initiated by the Obama administration has several cruise lines seeking an opening for cruises to the island. Over the weekend, MSC Cruises, based in Geneva, Switzerland, said it will begin weekly seasonal cruises from Havana on its 2,106-passenger MSC Opera in December.

In the Dominican Republic, Fathom has identified two domestic organizations that are doing social-improvement projects already in the country. Carnival’s announcement didn’t say who it would work with in Cuba, or whether the organizations would be affiliated with the Cuban government.

However, the Carnival statement said one of its partners in the Dominican Republic, the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral, would be interested in partnering with Fathom in Cuba.

“IDDI has longstanding relationships in Cuba and more than a decade of experience working on the ground side-by-side with local officials to make a positive impact in Cuban communities,” IDDI founder and executive director David Luther said.

Carnival said prices for a seven-day Cuban itinerary will start at $2,990 per person, more than triple the cost of a typical seven-day Caribbean cruise from Miami on its flagship Carnival Cruise Line brand. It said the price includes onboard social-impact immersion experiences and on-the-ground cultural immersion activities, but excludes taxes, port charges and other fees.

Tara Russell, president of Fathom and global impact lead for Carnival Corp., said she was incredibly excited by the potential for expanding the brand’s mission to Cuba.

“We are looking forward to building what we intend to be a beautiful and lasting friendship with the Cuban people,” she said.

In Puerto Rico, a Cuba-like cruise experience

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This year, everyone is excited about visiting Cuba. With good reason: President Obama’s attempt to thaw relations revived dreams about the possibilities of the island nation 90 miles off Florida’s coast.

Yet except for the Celestyal Crystal operated by Cuba Cruises, and a few other small ships, cruising in Cuba is still not possible. Some cruise executives say it is at least three to five years off.

So what to tell clients about visiting the island? One answer is to suggest Cuba’s cousin, Puerto Rico. There’s a lot of what a client would experience in Cuba itself, with the bonus of being available today, not in the hazy future.

Cuba and Puerto Rico share a common heritage. Both were freed from Spain in the lopsided Spanish-American War of 1898. Cuba’s independence movement was more advanced, so it became a new nation. Puerto Rico became a territory of the U.S., which it remains today.

Much of what travelers would find in Cuba they can also find in Puerto Rico, including Caribbean-Latin cuisine, great music, fabulous beaches and intriguing Spanish colonial architecture. The mountains, the foliage, the urban energy and rural charms are the same.

An arrival at San Juan harbor with its picturesque 16th century forts is a real pleasure, with the ships docking conveniently at the foot of the Old San Juan historic district.

Some things are different, of course. Charming 1950s automobiles are harder to find, and McDonald’s and other signs of U.S. commerce are part of the landscape. Making up for that, perhaps, is widely prevalent bilingualism and the comforts of being in U.S. territory (with the simultaneous appeal of being someplace that feels foreign).

About 1.5 million cruise passengers arrived or departed a cruise in Puerto Rico last year. A Quantum of the Seas call in December marked the largest cruise ship ever to dock there.

San Juan is unusual in being both an active port of call and a homeport for Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Line, which offer southern Caribbean itineraries that are different and less traveled than those departing from mainland ports.

Next year, Carnival plans to station a larger ship in Puerto Rico, the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory, which will visit Barbados and St. Lucia, among other stops. It is expected to carry 150,000 passengers annually.

For someone who really wants a Cuba-like cruise experience without waiting for the bureaucratic and diplomatic wheels to turn, Puerto Rico is a good bet.

Cuba cruise operator sees doubling of inquiries since rules relaxed

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The Louis Cristal sailing for Cuba Cruise in Havana.

The No. 1 operator of cruises to Cuba reported last week that phone inquiries had doubled since new U.S. regulations regarding travel to Cuba were issued two weeks ago, and 50% of the calls were coming from U.S. citizens.

Website traffic has tripled, said Dugald Wells, president and CEO of Calgary, Alberta-based Cuba Cruise.

Wells said that immediately following the surprise announcement of a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, Cuba Cruise also saw an uptick in bookings from residents of Canada, its top market.

“In some part, we attribute that to people saying, ‘I want to see Cuba before it changes,’” Wells said.

Cuba Cruise is in its second season of sailings around Cuba, using the 35-year-old Louis Cristal, a ship it chartered from Cyprus-based Louis Cruises. The Cristal carries some 960 passengers at double occupancy. It is currently running about 60% capacity, which Wells described as “break-even territory in our second year of operations. Obviously we’d love to sail full.”

(At least one other cruise operator, Star Clippers, offers sailings from Cuba, but a  spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.)

Cuba Cruise has a jump on numerous U.S.-based cruise companies that have to varying degrees expressed interest in sailing to Cuba, but until the U.S. government-imposed embargo is lifted, those lines have no immediate plans to start going there.

In a recent forum for travel agents on the Freedom of the Seas, Michael Bayley, president of Royal Caribbean International, said, “Obviously, the latest announcement about the liberalization of relations is of interest to us.”

But speed bumps lie ahead.

Bayley said Royal has a team studying the possibilities, but most of the ports in Cuba are incapable of handling ships of the size of the Freedom of the Seas. The one exception, he said, is Havana, but that port has serious infrastructure issues.

“At the moment, there’s effectively been no change for our industry,” said Bayley who estimated it might be three to five years before major cruise companies go to Cuba.

Operators of smaller ships are somewhat more optimistic. Edie Rodriguez, president of Crystal Cruises, said that if conditions were right, it would be relatively easy to add a port call in Cuba.

Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean’s president, said that most of the ports in Cuba are incapable of handling ships of the size of the Freedom of the Seas. The one exception, he said, is Havana, but that port has serious infrastructure issues.

“We’re able to switch itineraries very quickly,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll just swap out a port.”

But like other cruise executives, Rodriguez said the Cuban infrastructure was an obstacle. “The roads are so bad you’d have to go very slowly,” she said. “Our guests would not be happy about that.”

Wells agreed that the infrastructure lags. “Cristal is the biggest ship we can safely maneuver into and out of these ports we go to,” he said. “So we’re kind of limited in our future growth by the infrastructure.”

But some facilities are good, including a terminal in Havana that was upgraded for Pullmantur before the Spanish line was acquired by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and stopped sailing into Cuba.

And all the terminals in Cuba are well located, Wells said.

“These passenger terminals may be dated and frayed, but they’re right in the middle of town,” Wells said. “You walk off the ship and cross the road and you’re in that postcard with the cobblestone streets and the old American cars and the big churches. It’s fantastic.”

Currently, fewer than 5% of the passengers sailing with Cuba Cruise are U.S. citizens. Those who are come through two tour operators, Road Scholar and Insight Cuba, which have Treasury-approved people-to-people programs in one of 12 travel categories, such as education or athletics.

Previously, such trips involved detailed documentation, reporting and approval from Treasury officials. Now, under general licenses, there is less paperwork required.

“It’s much less onerous than it was, but you still need to be part of a group that is under the auspices of a [company] that operates such tours,” Wells said.

Cuba Cruise does offer a way to book directly through its website. However, after booking, travelers must register with the nonprofit Fund for Reconciliation and Development and receive back a participant letter of authorized travel. The cost is $75.

For agent bookings, Cuba Cruise has been paying 12% commission, but it is increasing that to 15% for the balance of its season through mid-March. It pays 8% on shore excursions.

Wells said he expected to be competitive even if Cuba opens to larger cruise companies.

“We’re focused on the destination,” he said. “We’re going into smaller ports. Our entertainment program is 90% Cuban and a couple of Canadian acrobats from Cirque du Soleil. We’re really working hard to present a program that is an authentic, somewhat in-depth exploration of Cuba as a destination.”