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Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruises this week announced that they have received permission from the Cuban government to sail from the U.S. to Cuba.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings plans sailings on ships from two of its brands, Norwegian Cruise Line and Oceania. Both ships will include port calls in Havana as part of longer Caribbean itineraries. The Marina will sail from Miami on March 7 and Norwegian Sky will begin overnighting in Havana in spring 2017.
Royal Caribbean will also sail on two lines, Royal Caribbean International and Azamara Club Cruises.
In May, Carnival Corp. became the first U.S. company in decades to sail to Cuba. Carnival鈥檚 Cuba trips take place on its Fathom brand, which alternates week-long trips to Cuba with week-long trips to the Dominican Republic.
All of these cruises are subject to U.S. rules that ban pure tourism by American travellers to Cuba. Instead the cruises must be 鈥減eople to people鈥� trips themed on permitted categories of travel such as cultural exchanges.
On the U.S. side, all of the cruise companies had been allowed to proceed with plans to sail to Cuba as part of the Obama administration鈥檚 policy of opening up relations between the two countries.
Some in the travel community are concerned that Donald Trump may reinstate restrictions on travel to Cuba.
The U.S. president-elect鈥檚 intentions are unclear, but three days after Fidel Castro鈥檚 death, Trump tweeted: 鈥淚f Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.鈥�
