While air travel to Cuba has yet to establish a real foothold, cruise-based travel to the island continues to grow. Carnival, which started visiting Cuban ports only two months ago has already added five extra cruises for 2018.
Carnival’s biggest rivals, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean, have also begun cruises to Cuba and are experiencing steady sales. A number of smaller companies are also cruising to Cuba.
Like the others, Carnival’s itineraries include one or two days in Havana, set into a 6-to-14 day cruise package. Going by ship eliminates the real or perceived difficulties of arranging for hotels and transportation, and also makes it easy to comply with U.S. rules that officially limit U.S. visitors to “people-to-people” and cultural activities, and ban pure tourist activity.
Carnival’s five added cruises, like the 12 previously announced, will use the Carnival Paradise, a 2,052-passenger ship. The itineraries all start from Tampa, and also include stops at other ports including Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Key West.
