Following an industry-changing update last week, there is plenty of speculation about what's what in cruising Cuba.
There are some huge updates to come forward this week, but most cruise lines have already implemented changes to affected itineraries which mean no more calls to port in Cuba at all. Even Virgin Voyages, yet to set sail, has had to retract their rather extensive Cuba cruise selection.
While we await some firm update and in order to help minimise confusion and misinformation, look forward to a larger update in the near future as full statements and firm itinerary changes continue to develop from around the entire industry.
That's pretty much it at this time, folks.
Cruising and other tours organised for US passport holders to Cuba have been allowed but one area of respite in "grandfathering" existing bookings as of 04 June 2019 under any of the people-to-people group educational terms previously permitted.
That means only tours which had been subscribed or cabins sold in advance of the implementation date would be permitted any travel to Cuba. That may work for small group and private tours fully subscribed some time ago, but it doesn't work for a very dynamic cruise industry where cabins can undergo a few iterations or "shuffles" as I like to call them.
Already last year Celestyal Cruises removed Cuba from their itineraries, which was rather remarkable given that they only offered itineraries in Greece and Cuba; very specialist products with a focus on spending more time on shore.
As mentioned in my last post on the topic, even yet-to-launch lines such as Virgin Voyages have opted to reschedule their entire offering of itineraries featuring Cuba. The largest concern stemming from such change being that Cuba is in ideal proximity to PortMiami and any call to port there may have allowed more opportunity for passengers to disembark from the ship during a sailing.
Key West and Bahamas are likely to be the biggest winners, with most itineraries under 7-nights being rescheduled to feature these close at hand destinations.