Cuba Gets Cruise Tourism from the USA
HAVANA TIMES — Carnival corporation’s “Adonia” cruise ship docks today in Havana, having left the port of Miami on Sunday afternoon. It is the first such vessel to arrive in Cuba from the United States in a half century, reported dpa news.
Back in 2005, then President Fidel Castro gave a scathing review of cruise ship tourism calling them: “floating hotels, floating restaurants, floating theaters, floating diversions” that “visit countries to leave their trash, their empty cans and papers for a few miserable cents.”
But times have changed, and now the government of his brother, Raul Castro, hard strapped for revenue, has welcomed and licensed this type of tourism. Meanwhile, Fidel has publicly backed his brother’s economic policies.
Fathom boat, a subsidiary of “Carnival Cruise” left the Port of Miami at 4:00 p.m. local time on Sunday with about 700 passengers headed to Havana. The “Adonia” was scheduled to dock on the Caribbean island on Monday around 10:00 a.m. local (16:00 GMT).
The inaugural trip between the two shores of the Straits of Florida, separated by about 90 miles at its closest point, was possible after the Cuban government rescinded its prohibition on anyone Cuban born arriving to the island by sea.
Carnival had come under fire from Cuban Americans for abiding by the Castro government’s prohibition and lawsuits were threatened. In the end, the Cuban government yielded after Carnival said they may have to postpone their voyages.
Previously, new dispositions from the Obama administration, thanks to the rapprochement between the two countries began in December 2014, made it possible for Carnival to skirt the embargo and travel to Cuba.
Venezuela and organizations like the World Health Organization pay the Cuban government the money or oil, ostensibly to be transferred as salaries to the doctors serving them. These clients are not allowed to pay the doctors directly, and there is no indication that they are being paid at all for their services. In the past two years, 3,100 Cubans have used a special travel visa to escape to the United States, in a program designed for doctors. Doctors are forced to travel abroad through extortive measures such as denying university admission to a doctor’s children or firing family members from state jobs (the only kind).
It’s called trade. Medical, educational and sports training services for oil. Cuba doesn’t have the option that the US has to maintain it’s false prosperity – printing greenbacks.
Fidel Castro Ruz should arise briefly from the comfort of his wheelchair in Siboney and travel a little bit west to the Playa Salados one of those ‘beaches’ where Cubans were allowed to play while the tourists had use of Varadero, Playa d’Ancon and the like. Although there have been no tourists there, there are huge amounts of trash, empty cans and papers. Unlike his own two island paradise retreat of Cayo Peidra with the dock for his yacht Aquarama II, he would find a rocky foreshore with a miniscule beach, a three story concrete edifice with huge entrance hall – but kept locked – several cafes in the two wings of the edifice but with only one open that sells fried plantain and a shop with lots of rum and believe it or not – toilet paper although there is only one seatless toilet for both sexes. But the volume of trash, especially plastic, glass and metal and stretching two km on either side of the ‘resort’ has to be seen to be believed. Two km. closer to Siboney there is the remnants of another peoples resort with a former swimming pool half filled with garbage and rubble and neighbouring houses with tethered pigs. Such is the reality!
Is that a threat to Granma Gordon? No doubt you will then regurgitate the Stalinist views of Ventura Machado. I don’t know if you have studied economy as a University subject or are merely an enthusiast. But lesson number one that Marino Murillo should learn, is that the economy of a country is based upon its production, hence Cuba’s decline. Your friend Ventura is frequently shown on Cuban TV visiting sugar plants (the Ministry of Sugar comes under GAESA) but production continues to decline. As you have spent so much time in Cuba making ‘research visits’ perhaps you can explain why production of everything from sugar, to beer, to toilet paper, to coffee continues to decline. I’m write merely one who observes rather than researches and who only briefly studied economics at large prior to more detailed study of agricultural economics.
Have you read the US Cuban Democracy Act? To which specific parts are you opposed? Maybe you should get informed rather than just sounding off!
The ‘tiny little island’ is 1300 km from one end to the other and its land mass is larger than all the other islands of the Caribbean combined. The land mass is almost as large as that of England. A black mamba is a fraction of the size of an Anaconda – but far more poisonous! If you wish to sympathise with Cuba, then keep your sympathy for the people of Cuba who are subjugated by the poisonous communist Castro family regime. Don’t continue to be fooled by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Cuba. Be discerning!
Erm. Apparently not in terms of depth. Ships too big these days.
I can believe it. The first 30 years don’t count. Cuba “survived” under the skirt of the Soviet Union. Then came 9 years of using condoms as cheese on pizza and eating cats known as the Special Period. Then Chavez took over as the Cuban sugardaddy and Cuba was able to press on. Through it all, life in Cuba has never been. ..well, Switzerland. Nonetheless, the Castros have managed to crush even the possibility of an uprising. So, if giving tyrants credit for their tyranny is your thing, I take your point.
No I don’t. If I did like bullies, I would be a fan of Fidel Castro.
That tiny little island has been subsidized with billions of dollars on a yearly basis by the communist Soviet Union from 1960 to 1991. Then by Hugo Chavez Venezuelan oil from 1999 to present. Thats how they have survived…
You sound like you like bigots and bullies. USA/Cuba Embargo=Bullying American Style
He may be eating his words but that tiny little island has resisted the US for 50 years. The mighty US government couldn’t topple them. That alone is unbelievable. I can’t believe they/he survived this long.
According to WSJ 5-2-16 “Most of the money goes directly to the Cuban government, council head John Kavulich said. He estimated that the cruise companies pay the government $500,000 per cruise, while passengers spend about $100 per person in each city they visit.” I researched the pricing for trips now and they range from $2,662 to $8,767 per person, double occupancy. Anyone here on this blog planning to go on the cruise?
Havana will never be the same again! Good thing or bad thing?
I study the Cuban economy and there are 10 more cruise companies looking
to visit or home port in Cuba. Major changes are coming to all aspects
of the Cuban economy. Since 1993 I have made 90 research visits to Cuba
and will be in Granma province in two weeks.
Gordon Robinson Port Alberni & Niquero Cuba.
[email protected]
The new dock has been built for quite a while. We saw it in Nov.
Fidel must have a fierce case of indigestion. After all, day after day, he is forced to eat more and more of his words. He ripped Rock ‘n Roll and the Rolling Stones came to Cuba. He ripped US professional baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays arrived. And the main course, Barack Obama on prime time Cuban television. And now this. …cruise ships. What’s next? Walmart?
Plenty of space in the Havana harbor-
http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/cu0402.jpg
from the series, “See See Havana”,
http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/cuba.htm