Carnival Corporation’s fathom line, which offered people-to-people cruises to the Dominican Republic and more recently Cuba, will see soon its final sailings. As I and many others have predicted, the concept of taking a vacation to do humanitarian aid in underdeveloped counties wasn’t what cruise goers wanted to do on their time off.
The one ship cruise line will cease operations “by June 2017” and the Adonia will go back to the P&O Cruises fleet where she came from. However, the “social impact” shore excursions that were designed to meet the requirements of Cuba cruising will be made available to the other brands under the Carnival umbrella.
Under the Obama administration, United States relations with Cuba were relaxed and cruises were allowed to resume as long as the trip to the country fell into one of these 12 categories as listed on Royal Caribbean’s Cuba FAQ page:
- Educational activities, including people-to-people travel
- Humanitarian projects
- Religious activities
- Professional research and meetings
- Family visits
- Official government business
- Journalism
- Public performances, clinics, workshops, exhibitions and athletic competitions
- “Support for the Cuban people”
- Activities of private foundations or research for educational institutes
- Exporting or importing information or “information materials”
- Travel related to some authorized export transactions
Carnival Corporation was the first cruise line to gain approval to sail from the United States to the land that time forgot and did so on fathom’s Adonia.
Earlier this week the Cuban government granted approval for more United States based cruise lines to begin sailing and so far there’s been no shortage of announcements regarding when cruisers can hop on their favorite ship-brand and sail. Here’s who will begin offering cruises to Cuba in 2017:
- Royal Caribbean: Empress of the Seas, first cruise set for April 2017 from PortMiami then the ship will be moved to Tampa. Now booking with prices starting at $479.
- Azamara Club Cruises: Ship TBA, not yet available for booking.
- Oceania Cruises: Marina, first cruises set for March 2017 from PortMiami. Now booking with prices starting at $1,999.
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises: Mariner, first cruise set for April 2017 from PortMiami. Now booking with prices starting at $2,999.
- Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL): Sky, first cruise set for May 2017 from PortMiami, not yet available for booking.
- Pearl Seas Cruises: Pearl Mist, first cruise set for January 2017 from Fort Lauderdale. Now booking with prices starting at $7,810.
So far, Carnival Cruise Line has not made any announcement concerning Cuba cruises for any of their brands following the news of fathom’s demise.
Royal Caribbean currently has the most affordable prices on Cuba cruises on the Empress of the Seas. The Empress is a 1,840 passenger ship which recently underwent a $50M revitalization after returning the the fleet following a run with sister-line Pullmantur Cruises.
For those who want to visit Cuba, it appears Royal Caribbean is the most affordable choice at the moment.