Cuba has granted permission to Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line to sail passengers to the island.
Cuba also approved all three of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) brands, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which will start cruising there in March.
Oceania will first send the Marina to Cuba from
Multiple news sources are reporting that a Carnival cruise ship spotted a boat packed with dozens of Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits Tuesday night.
The Coast Guard says the Carnival Ecstasy spotted the migrants’ vessel Tuesday evening. Officials say the small boat wasn’t seaworthy and lacked lifejackets and navigation equipment. I think that goes without
Earlier this week the Disney Wonder was involved in another incident where it picked up Cuban rafters at sea trying to sail to South Florida. This was the third such incident where a cruise ship stopped rafters at sea in the last ten days.
You can read about the prior case involving the the Disney
A passenger aboard the Disney Wonder sent a couple of photographs of the boat "rescued" between Cuba and South Florida.
As we mentioned yesterday, the Disney Wonder and the Carnival Conquest cruise ships were involved in separate incidents where they picked up Cuban nationals who had set out to sea to try and escape
The U.S. Coast Guard is reporting that yesterday two cruise ships responded to migrants at sea in two separate incidents. A Coast Guard representative characterized the migrants as floating in two "rustic vessels" south of Key West Florida.
The cruise ships involved are the Disney Wonder home ported in Miami, and the Carnival Conquest which
This evening my twitter feed came alive with a number of fascinating tweets by passengers sailing aboard the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas as it sailed between Florida and Cuba.
The passengers, Jason Cochran, whose Twitter name is @Bastable and has a cool website, and "Nomadic Matt" (I could not figure out his real
WSVN News 7 in Miami reports tonight that Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas cruise ship sent a lifeboat to pick up five Cuban refugees who were floating in a raft after escaping Cuba.
A cruise passenger sent Channel 7 a video of the "rescue" operation. A cruise passenger was quoted saying "I was kinda
The Miami Herald reports that Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas "rescued" twenty-three Cuban rafters as the cruise ship sailed from Falmouth Jamaica to Cozumel Mexico.
The story was also reported by the online cruise community Cruise Critic which uploaded a YouTube video about what it is also calling a "rescue." Cruise Critic says that
NBC Miami reports today that twelve Cuban migrants on a raft trying to sail to the U.S. were intercepted after Royal Caribbean alerted the U.S. Coast Guard.
Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas cruise ship spotted the Cubans today and radioed the location of the raft to the Coast Guard in Miami.
The NBC affiliate reports
Happy Fourth of July!
Two hundred and thirty-five years ago – on July 4, 1776 – the Second Continental Congress voted to declare the independence of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain.
In the 1700"s my family’s ancestors got in a boat and sailed from Great Britain to the U.S. I have always thought about what that must have been
The Miami Herald reports that Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas stopped to pick up nine Cubans (eight men and one woman) as the cruise ship sailed back to Fort Lauderdale around 2 p.m. today.
The newspaper indicates that the migrants had been at sea for eight days. The cruise ship personnel provided food, water and medical attention to the Cubans.
I have written a couple of articles about the the cruise industry and Cuba lately, U.S. – Cuba Politics: No Cruise Ships In Havana and Royal Caribbean Intercepts Cuban Immigrants. Notwithstanding the U.S. embargo of Cuba for over the past four decades, there is no question that U.S. based cruise ships will stop in Havana as an integral part of their Caribbean
The news today is filled with stories about a cruise ship which "rescues" rafters adrift in the Atlantic.
What the news reports fail to mention is that the "rafters" were trying to get to Florida. They are probably already back in Cuba pursuant to U.S. immigration policy.
Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship reportedly "rescued" six people who were
