Continuing on from my post about the Majesty of the Seas and our time in Key West, it was now time for the big enchilada, the entire reason we chose this cruise: it was time for Havana.
We pulled into Havana right around sunrise, and being on the port side of the ship, had an excellent view of the Faro del Morro lighthouse and the Christ of Havana statue directly out our balcony.
We would get a closer look at the Morro Castle later in the day, but first we had to meet up with our tour. Since this was our first time in Cuba, and also because there are still some quirks around the visa requirements for US citizens in Cuba, we opted for a shore excursion through the ship. Doing this ensures that your tour meets the requirements needed for your 30-Day Tourist Card, and handles processing of the Visa for you for a flat $75 fee.
Going through customs and immigration in Cuba was fast, as we were some of the first off the ship — 10 minutes process total — and then we stopped by the money exchange to trade our US Dollars into CUCs – Cuban Tourtist Money, essentially. You’ll get hit with a 10% fee that they charge to change US Dollars, which you can avoid by trading for Euros or Canadian Dollars before you leave home, but as our bank’s exchange fee was nearly 10% anyways, we just went ahead and took the hit.
You also might wonder about whether you really need CUCs at all, or if you can simply use American currency. We found that right around the port, in the Habana Vieja area, most vendors were happy to accept USD, but at the state-run restaurants and vendors further from the center of town, everything was listed exclusively in CUCs.
Once we’d cleared the port building, it was time for our tour, which was called the “Havana Bucket List” tour. Regularly sold for $142 per person, we actually were able to buy during a promotional sale on the Royal Cruise Planner website, bringing our per person price down to $127. Given that the tour lasted around 9 hours and included our full lunch, as well a tasting later in the day, I found this very reasonable.
The first portion of our day consisted of a walking tour through the Habana Vieja or Old Town area. We visited the Plaza de San Francisco de Asis and the Plaza de Habana Vieja.
I particularly loved how the Spanish colonial architecture and cobblestone streets melded with the Caribbean color palette. We also learned how most churches and mosques in the city were transformed to museums or other government buildings during the Revolution, and how some Catholic churches have recently re-established their services as the prohibition against religion has been relaxed in recent years.
After exploring the Old Town, we boarded a nice air-conditioned charter bus to take us over to the Habana del Este district, where we could get up close and personal with the Morro Castle that we had glimpsed as we sailed in earlier that day. The castle, actually more of a fort, was built in the 1500s to protect the harbor of Havana, though these days their collection of giant cannons just make for a picturesque frame looking back at Downtown Havana. And because the cruise port is right in Old Town, you can get a great photo of your ship from up here as well.
Nearby, we also saw the “Cristo de la Habana” sculpture, which was erected just days before the Cuban Revolution. This was just one of many things we saw in Cuba that showed the somewhat curious relationship between the Church and the State under communism.
Returning to the main portion of the City, we then visited the Plaza de la Revolución (or Revolutionary Square), which, despite its fancy name, is really just a very large parking lot where Cubans have frequently gathered for speeches and political rallies. Here we found the José Martí Memorial and the iconic Che Guevara mural.
After all the sightseeing, we’d worked up quite the appetite, so we headed for lunch at the state-owned restaurant El Aljibe for some traditional fare of rice and beans, roasted chicken, fried plantains, and more. The food here was great, but we also enjoyed a few drinks. Because of their Communist system and the sanctions and embargos against the country, you won’t see Bud Light or Heineken on offer; instead you have your choice between the State-Brewed Light Beer, Cristal, or the State-Brewed Dark Beer, Bucaneros.
After lunch, we headed to a nearby state-owned bar, El Tocororo (named for the national bird), to enjoy the Cuban “menage a trois”: Cuban coffee, Cuban rum, and a Cuban cigar. During our tasting, we also got to enjoy some traditional Cuban music, in the style of Buena Vista Social Club.
After the tasting, we had more time to take in the sights both by bus and on our own, before eventually ending up back in the Old Town District.
After a very full day of sightseeing, we went out in search of some items to take home with us. We brought back cigars, rum, and coffee, of course, but also made a side trip to a “propaganda market” in order to pick up some Cuban movie posters — a special request from a friend. These propaganda markets are really as close to “souvenir shops” as Havana has; you’re not likely to find shops selling t-shirts, magnets or shot glasses, but you can take home literature, posters, and videos on Communism, as well as relics of their Revolution like spent ammunition casings and military insignias.
Right around dinner time, an intense thunderstorm started to blow in, so we skipped our plans to eat dinner in town, and high-tailed it back to the port just in time to see our ship get hit by lightning! The lightning shattered a window in the buffet area, but luckily didn’t affect any navigational systems, and we sailed out again around 9pm.
The next day we enjoyed a relaxing sea day, before finally sailing back into the port of Tampa around 7am. After a smooth disembarkation, we decided to take advantage of the fact that our flights home weren’t till the evening, and headed to Clearwater Beach for another day of fun in the sun.
And luckily, this is where I had made an excellent travel discovery: a new website called Resort Pass allows you to easily purchase day passes, spa passes, and rent cabanas and day rooms at resorts all over the country. Through this site, we were able to check in to a pool cabana at the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Resort & Spa for just $100.
This was a really fantastic option for us, because it gave us a lockable, private, air-conditioned space to store our luggage and change in and out of swimgear, complete with a private bathroom. It also came with towels for the pool, souvenir cups for the bar, and complete access to the pool, rooftop hot tub, and beach area, with waiter service to bring us drinks and snacks as needed.
Finally, around 4pm it was time for us to head to the airport to catch our flight home. All in all, despite some less-than-pleasant issues with the cruise ship, we were thrilled to get to check out Havana and glad we took advantage of this trip.
Have any Havana or Majesty of the Seas questions? Ask me in the comments.
