So a number of months ago, my friend and travel agent, Chuck Maida from All Seasons Travel in Jacksonville, FL, called me and asked if I would like to travel with a group to Cuba on Fathom Cruiseline on the ship named the Adonia. This is a 7 night cruise.
Since Americans have just recently been given authority to travel to Cuba and this would be an "educational" trip, I decided since Disney will probably not be adding this location to their itinerary anytime soon, I would jump at the chance.
Now, my main interest in going to Cuba is because my father owned a business in the automotive industry and growing up I always had a fascination with his love of old cars. I remember giving him cars for his birthdays and Christmas. And I even remember making him a latch hook rug of a car one year.
I started my journey traveling from Orlando to Miami on Sunday September 18th. I arrived around 11:30 a.m. Now this ship is small (700 passengers) compared to the Disney Magic (2600 passengers), so I was a little worried about being on such a smaller ship, however, the seas were calm and I never even felt the motion, so all was well.
Check in was easy. We started boarding the ship around noon and they had a lunch buffet set up. Not anywhere near the selections as we get on Disney, but it was nice, nonetheless.
It was a beautiful day in Miami. Most of the guests are older. I have only seen 3 kids on the ship. We depart Miami and head off to Cuba at 4 p.m.
There is a band playing at sailaway, but it is nothing like a Disney sailaway party. Fathom calls their sailaway party a "Launch Event". It is held at the Crystal Pool on deck 9. The band playing is called the Craze Band. They are from the UK and play quite a range of music including Latin, Reggae, Country and Pop.
There is a presentation in the Curzon Lounge called Cuba: It all Starts Now. The purpose is to give us information on what to expect, how to get currency (currency is exchanged when you get off the ship and you can exchange euros or US dollars for Cuban "Cucs" (the exchange rate is about $1 for $1), whether you can use credit cards (no), and what some of the social norms are (no spitting in public).
Dinner each night is in the Pacific Restaurant. It is open seating. We have a group of 8 eating together tonight. The restaurant is simple, but nice. Menus are on a single page.
This appetizer is the whipped blue cheese. It was quite good. Every night in addition to the main courses you can have salmon, chicken or pasta. Tonight I had salmon.
Your cruise card works the same as a Key to the World card, however, on this cruise all my excursions booked through the ship were included in the price of the cruise as well as the gratuities ($13.50 per day).
There is a great library with lots of books, and I check out my first book. (I ended up reading 4 books over the course of the cruise.) There is also internet access. However, instead of paying by the MGs you pay for a 24 hour period. For email and social networks it is $18.75 per 24 hour period. If you want to stream then it is $37.50 per 24 hours. I decide I will use email and social network for our last sea day but besides that will stay off the internet. I didn't bring my laptop, just my Ipad. However, the library does have a computer available for your use if you purchase the package.
My stateroom is an oceanview room. It has lots of closet and drawer space. It is a single bathroom, with only a shower, no tub. The shower is small. It needs to be about 5 inches wider so you have elbow room.
Television is same size as Disney, however not anywhere near the channels. However they are streaming the football games for both college and NFL.
There are dances classes, scavenger hunts, classes on spanish phrases, game night and movies to be had. So lots going on. The have 2 stores for merchandise purchases. Most things are overpriced in my opinion. I was really interested in a small Cuban notebook from Cuba where I could write in journal form. It was about 4 x 6 inches in size. They used black and white and colored printing on light brown pages. I had sticker shock when I saw $50.00. They had about 25 of them, and I'd be surprised if they sold any! Also a Cuba t-shirt was $35.00 so I decided I would wait to do my t-shirt shopping in Cuba (bought one for $10 Cucs which is about $10 US)
Sunday night in our stateroom we receive our new "Soundings" (daily navigator) for Monday along with our disembarkation arrangements. We are assigned groups to disembark the ship. We are in the Impact group. We are expected to dock at 11:30 or so and by the time we clear customs our group is called around 12:00 to get off the ship. We are in Havana for 2 days.
It is a beautiful entry into Havana. The harbor is small. The dock is small. There is currently not space nor would the harbor hold a ship much larger than ours. In fact, the Fathom Adonia is the first passenger cruise ship allowed into Cuba. No other cruise ships come into Cuba, even from any other country.
Linda and Chuck:
This is the port where we are docking
Today we are doing the Old Havana Walking Tour with lunch. It includes an authentic Cuban lunch at a local restaurant.
Directly across from the port is the San Francisco de Assisi Square. The cathedral was built in 1608 and stand tall amid the cobblestones in the plaza, and over the years has been joined by the fountain of lions and a status of "El Caballeroo de Paris."
The statute of El Cabalero de Paris.
López LledÃn lost his mind and became "El Caballero de ParÃs" when he was arrested in late 1920 and sent to the prison at "El Castillo del PrÃncipe" in Havana, Cuba.El Caballero de ParÃs wandered the streets of Havana for many years and this is how he got his measure of fame. El Caballero never traveled outside of Havana after he became mentally ill. Several times he was arrested and once, or maybe twice, he was bathed and his hair was shaved completely, but the reaction of the public when the event was reported by the press, resulted in his immediate release.
If you touch his beard and hand it is suppose to bring you luck.
Built in the 16th Century, Old Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Plaza Vieja was built in 1559 and is referred to as the "old square". It has lots of stained glass.
Next we are off to lunch at La Imprenta. This restaurant is owned privately, however the government really owns 51% of the restaurant, as that amount of money goes to the government.
They bring you lemonade to the table. And then they bring you a bottle of Vodka. Then you add your own rum to the drink to make it as strong as you want. I just had the lemonade. It was delicious.
Popcorn soup. Very good!
I had chicken
Chuck had lobster. He stated it was very good.
An old printing press inside the restaurant.
Continuing our walking journey to the next plaza:
The mural of Marques de Arcos by the artist Andres Carrillo, the architect Jaime Rodrigues Cunill and a group of students and teachers. The mural was inspired by 67 Nineteenth Century artists, poets, writers and thinkers all who dedicated their lives to Cuban independence.
The cobblestone street
Now I was fascinated before I went about the old cars in Cuba. What I didn't know is that most of these old cars are owned by the cab company, and all the tourists ride in them. Of course, the government gets their share of the income of the cab company. The drivers basically work for tips. There were newer cars in Cuba, but I loved seeing all the old cars.
After our walking tour, we headed back to the ship for a quick dinner. Tonight, Chuck has arranged a private excursion for us to go to The Tropicana. The ship offered this tour for $175 per person. But Chuck went online and bought us the best seats in the house for $95 and then the guys in our group negotiated round trip transportation in a convertible for $60. So it ended up costing us about $110 each. We had a blast. The show was phenominal.
We had two convertibles. Yellow and pink!
The African inspired section
Afterwards we headed back towards the ship in our convertibles. It was a beautiful night. On Tuesday we decide we are going to have Ray (our driver from the night before) be our personal tour guide and take us around Havana. We meet him after we get off the ship and we are off on our tour. We first wanted to go to the Car Museum, so that's where we headed. All the old cars were very fun to see.
Next we head to the flea market. Outside the building is an old train
Next we are off to explore more of the city
Chinatown in Havana, however the Chinese left Havana in 1959
This is Revolution Square where millions of Cubans gather. The square is notable as being where many political rallies take place and Fidel Castro and other political figures address Cubans. Fidel Castro has addressed
more than a million Cubans on many important occasions. Pope John Paul II, during his 1998 first visit by a Pope, and Pope Francis in 2015, held large Masses there during papal visits to Cuba.
The forest of Havana
In the forest, there is a little stand selling pina coladas. We order up our drinks. The Cuban man brings us our drinks and then proceeds to bring out the bottle of rum for each person to add their own amount to their drink. The pina colada was delicious non-alcoholic style!
Guiness Book of World Records, the longest cigar in the world
Our ship from the castle. As you can see, the ship takes up the whole port!
Next we are off to a secret location for Chuck and Virgil to buy cigars from the black market. We headed up to this little apartment, and the product was set out nicely on the table. I was waiting for the police to come in an arrest us for buying stolen cigars from the factory. But alas, I wasn't buying any, just Chuck and Virgil and I guess it was worth it for them $5 per cigar instead of $13.50 from an authorized dealer. However, leaving the apartment I felt like I was in an episode of Law and Order with all these people watching us Americans leaving with our product in white plastic bags. Then since I was going back to the ship, I got volunteered to bring them back on the ship. I told them if I ended up in a Cuban jail they needed to come bail me out, but I made it back successfully.
Our driver, Ray. He was a great guy. Married, has a baby. Lives in a 3 room "house", if that's what you call it, with 9 family members. The Cubans are a very humble and gracious people. All young men at the age of 18 are required to go to military school for 2 years. Ray did his time. He loves driving for the taxi company. He was amazed that there were 700 people onboard the ship. We explained it was a small ship, that there are bigger ships out there that hold up to 6,000 people. That was really overwhelming to him. There is no way currently that Cuba could handle a ship with 2,600 guests in one day. Not only does the port not support it, but Havana is not currently able to handle that many people. As time goes by, it will be interesting to see what American influence does to change the people of Cuba.
We left Havana at 7 p.m. and headed to our next port of Cienfuegos. However, we have trouble with one engine, so not going as fast as the Captain hoped, so we will be arriving later than planned.
Tonight we have a quick dinner and then our group has signed up for Wine and Paint $29 and we bring out our artistic talents for the evening. It is amazing that we were all painting the same, and following instructions from our artist, but yet our paintings turned out so differently! LOL
Lucille and Mike and Janice and Chuck
Monica
Janice
Chuck
The artists: Linda, Virgil, Lucille, Mike, Janice, Monica and Chuck.
Their "Sears" store:
The florist on the street
Their baseball stadium
The nicest hotel in town
The hair salon
The theater
We were honored for our educational opportunity for the day to listen to a private performance in the 950 seat theater and had an opportunity to hear directly from the musicians about their life on the island after their performance. Their voices were very well trained, singing acapella, they were excellent
Yummy black bean soup
After our visit to the fortress we headed to the Santiago city center to experience and learn about the music of Eastern Cuba. On the way we get to see artists in the streets (yes, she is totally painted)
And who could leave Cuba without having a glimpse of a hidden Mickey at the top of the hill!
Since Americans have just recently been given authority to travel to Cuba and this would be an "educational" trip, I decided since Disney will probably not be adding this location to their itinerary anytime soon, I would jump at the chance.
Now, my main interest in going to Cuba is because my father owned a business in the automotive industry and growing up I always had a fascination with his love of old cars. I remember giving him cars for his birthdays and Christmas. And I even remember making him a latch hook rug of a car one year.
I started my journey traveling from Orlando to Miami on Sunday September 18th. I arrived around 11:30 a.m. Now this ship is small (700 passengers) compared to the Disney Magic (2600 passengers), so I was a little worried about being on such a smaller ship, however, the seas were calm and I never even felt the motion, so all was well.
Check in was easy. We started boarding the ship around noon and they had a lunch buffet set up. Not anywhere near the selections as we get on Disney, but it was nice, nonetheless.
It was a beautiful day in Miami. Most of the guests are older. I have only seen 3 kids on the ship. We depart Miami and head off to Cuba at 4 p.m.
There is a band playing at sailaway, but it is nothing like a Disney sailaway party. Fathom calls their sailaway party a "Launch Event". It is held at the Crystal Pool on deck 9. The band playing is called the Craze Band. They are from the UK and play quite a range of music including Latin, Reggae, Country and Pop.
There is a presentation in the Curzon Lounge called Cuba: It all Starts Now. The purpose is to give us information on what to expect, how to get currency (currency is exchanged when you get off the ship and you can exchange euros or US dollars for Cuban "Cucs" (the exchange rate is about $1 for $1), whether you can use credit cards (no), and what some of the social norms are (no spitting in public).
Dinner each night is in the Pacific Restaurant. It is open seating. We have a group of 8 eating together tonight. The restaurant is simple, but nice. Menus are on a single page.
This appetizer is the whipped blue cheese. It was quite good. Every night in addition to the main courses you can have salmon, chicken or pasta. Tonight I had salmon.
Your cruise card works the same as a Key to the World card, however, on this cruise all my excursions booked through the ship were included in the price of the cruise as well as the gratuities ($13.50 per day).
There is a great library with lots of books, and I check out my first book. (I ended up reading 4 books over the course of the cruise.) There is also internet access. However, instead of paying by the MGs you pay for a 24 hour period. For email and social networks it is $18.75 per 24 hour period. If you want to stream then it is $37.50 per 24 hours. I decide I will use email and social network for our last sea day but besides that will stay off the internet. I didn't bring my laptop, just my Ipad. However, the library does have a computer available for your use if you purchase the package.
My stateroom is an oceanview room. It has lots of closet and drawer space. It is a single bathroom, with only a shower, no tub. The shower is small. It needs to be about 5 inches wider so you have elbow room.
Television is same size as Disney, however not anywhere near the channels. However they are streaming the football games for both college and NFL.
There are dances classes, scavenger hunts, classes on spanish phrases, game night and movies to be had. So lots going on. The have 2 stores for merchandise purchases. Most things are overpriced in my opinion. I was really interested in a small Cuban notebook from Cuba where I could write in journal form. It was about 4 x 6 inches in size. They used black and white and colored printing on light brown pages. I had sticker shock when I saw $50.00. They had about 25 of them, and I'd be surprised if they sold any! Also a Cuba t-shirt was $35.00 so I decided I would wait to do my t-shirt shopping in Cuba (bought one for $10 Cucs which is about $10 US)
Sunday night in our stateroom we receive our new "Soundings" (daily navigator) for Monday along with our disembarkation arrangements. We are assigned groups to disembark the ship. We are in the Impact group. We are expected to dock at 11:30 or so and by the time we clear customs our group is called around 12:00 to get off the ship. We are in Havana for 2 days.
It is a beautiful entry into Havana. The harbor is small. The dock is small. There is currently not space nor would the harbor hold a ship much larger than ours. In fact, the Fathom Adonia is the first passenger cruise ship allowed into Cuba. No other cruise ships come into Cuba, even from any other country.
Linda and Chuck:
This is the port where we are docking
Today we are doing the Old Havana Walking Tour with lunch. It includes an authentic Cuban lunch at a local restaurant.
Directly across from the port is the San Francisco de Assisi Square. The cathedral was built in 1608 and stand tall amid the cobblestones in the plaza, and over the years has been joined by the fountain of lions and a status of "El Caballeroo de Paris."
The statute of El Cabalero de Paris.
López LledÃn lost his mind and became "El Caballero de ParÃs" when he was arrested in late 1920 and sent to the prison at "El Castillo del PrÃncipe" in Havana, Cuba.El Caballero de ParÃs wandered the streets of Havana for many years and this is how he got his measure of fame. El Caballero never traveled outside of Havana after he became mentally ill. Several times he was arrested and once, or maybe twice, he was bathed and his hair was shaved completely, but the reaction of the public when the event was reported by the press, resulted in his immediate release.
If you touch his beard and hand it is suppose to bring you luck.
Built in the 16th Century, Old Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Plaza Vieja was built in 1559 and is referred to as the "old square". It has lots of stained glass.
Next we are off to lunch at La Imprenta. This restaurant is owned privately, however the government really owns 51% of the restaurant, as that amount of money goes to the government.
They bring you lemonade to the table. And then they bring you a bottle of Vodka. Then you add your own rum to the drink to make it as strong as you want. I just had the lemonade. It was delicious.
Chuck had lobster. He stated it was very good.
An old printing press inside the restaurant.
Continuing our walking journey to the next plaza:
The mural of Marques de Arcos by the artist Andres Carrillo, the architect Jaime Rodrigues Cunill and a group of students and teachers. The mural was inspired by 67 Nineteenth Century artists, poets, writers and thinkers all who dedicated their lives to Cuban independence.
The cobblestone street
After our walking tour, we headed back to the ship for a quick dinner. Tonight, Chuck has arranged a private excursion for us to go to The Tropicana. The ship offered this tour for $175 per person. But Chuck went online and bought us the best seats in the house for $95 and then the guys in our group negotiated round trip transportation in a convertible for $60. So it ended up costing us about $110 each. We had a blast. The show was phenominal.
We had two convertibles. Yellow and pink!
Afterwards we headed back towards the ship in our convertibles. It was a beautiful night. On Tuesday we decide we are going to have Ray (our driver from the night before) be our personal tour guide and take us around Havana. We meet him after we get off the ship and we are off on our tour. We first wanted to go to the Car Museum, so that's where we headed. All the old cars were very fun to see.
Next we head to the flea market. Outside the building is an old train
Next we are off to explore more of the city
The forest of Havana
In the forest, there is a little stand selling pina coladas. We order up our drinks. The Cuban man brings us our drinks and then proceeds to bring out the bottle of rum for each person to add their own amount to their drink. The pina colada was delicious non-alcoholic style!
Next off to the Lighthouse and the Castle of Tres Reyes del Morro. The cigar company sells cigars from inside the castle.
Guiness Book of World Records, the longest cigar in the world
We left Havana at 7 p.m. and headed to our next port of Cienfuegos. However, we have trouble with one engine, so not going as fast as the Captain hoped, so we will be arriving later than planned.
Tonight we have a quick dinner and then our group has signed up for Wine and Paint $29 and we bring out our artistic talents for the evening. It is amazing that we were all painting the same, and following instructions from our artist, but yet our paintings turned out so differently! LOL
Lucille and Mike and Janice and Chuck
Monica
Janice
Chuck
The artists: Linda, Virgil, Lucille, Mike, Janice, Monica and Chuck.
On Thursday
we arrive in Cienfuegos, Pearl of the South. This port has a collection
of French-influenced Neoclassical buildings, with seaside boulevards
and sparkling bay. The downtown has been designated as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.
We start with a bus tour and go by the most popular hotel and the Yacht Club.
The florist on the street
The nicest hotel in town
The hair salon
The theater
After we leave Cienfuegos, we head to our next port of Santiago de cuba which was the Capitl of the Spanish colony of Cuba from 1522 to 1589. Santiago has a rich and colorful history. It is considere the birthplace of "Ron, Son, and Revolucion", the watchtowers and cannons used in the Spanish-American war and they still protect and guard this port city.
Our next stop is the site of the Battle of San Juan Hill which was a decisive battle of the Spanish-American War. The names San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill were given to the
location by the Americans. This fight for the heights was the bloodiest
and most famous battle of the war. It was also the location of the
greatest victory for the Rough Riders, as claimed by the press and its new commander, Theodore Roosevelt, and who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for his actions in Cuba.
Next we headed to lunch and we were lucky enough to eat at the restaurant located at The Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, the fortress on the coast of this Cuban city. It overlooks the bay. It was designed in 1637 as a defense against raiding pirates. It was constructed on a series of terraces; there were four main levels and three large bulwarks to house the artillery. During the 20th Century the Rock fell into decay, but it was restored during the 1960's and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997, cited as the best preserved and most complete example of Spanish-American military architecture.
For our educational experience, we listened to a music group and watched a couple dance. Of course, Chuck was volunteered for the task. The Cubans love their music and dance.
We had just a few minutes in the square in Santiago before we needed to board our bus back to the ship. When we got back to the port, we went to the currency booth to exchange our Cucs back to US dollars. I saw a dance studio practicing on the way back. No air conditioning, open windows to the street. Don't know how they do it without passing out.
We are on our way shortly after 4:30 p.m. to head back towards Miami. We will have a day at sea before returning. The ship has offered an incredible deal to stay on the ship next week to go to the Dominican Republic for $199. If I didn't have plans already, I would have jumped at staying on the ship for another week. Beautiful views as we left the port.
And who could leave Cuba without having a glimpse of a hidden Mickey at the top of the hill!
For the last day of the cruise, I spent time reading out at the pool and then Chuck and Janice hosted all of us for dinner in the Ocean Grill (the upscale restaurant, like Palo on Disney). The food was very good.
The next morning we arrived back into the port of Miami. We were off the ship by 9 a.m. I picked up my car and was on my way and home by 1 p.m.
My favorite things about the cruise:
1. I loved going to Cuba and meeting the people. They were humble and very appreciative of our visit there.
2. When you are shopping, if you say no, they respect that (not like the Bahamas, where they keep following you and saying "Hey lady".
3. The pool area always had plenty of chairs and loungers and there was never alot of people out.
4. No where on the ship did it seem busy. You could always find a place in the lounge and we never had to wait more than a few minutes for a table for all of us.
5. The size of the stateroom was nice and I liked the bathroom set up.
6. The cruise staff (the impact staff they are called) are very friendly and do their best to make sure you are having a great time.
7. The smaller size of the ship did not bother me at all.
8. I liked that the price of my excursions were included in the price of the cruise.
9 I liked that the gratuities were already included in the price of my cruise.
10. I met some great new friends that actually cruise on Disney, but I just hadn't had the opportunity to get to know them well when we sailed on Disney together even though they were Chuck and Janice's clients. I hope to sail with all of them again! Thanks for everyone for being so kind to me and watching out for me since I was the solo traveler!
The things I found different from my Disney cruises:
1. I missed my towel animals and chocolate on my bed at night. I did not really know my stateroom attendant.
2. I missed having the same servers for dinner each night.
3. I definitely missed the variety of food on deck anytime during the day and evening (ice cream, chicken tenders, french fries, pizza). Not that I have them all the time on Disney, but I like the availability of getting food when you want it. (The food they had available was not a great selection, in my opinion.)
4. I missed the Broadway style shows and adult comedy on the Disney ships.
5. The prices in the shops were very expensive.
So, would I do it again? Definitely. I think it was a great experience going to Cuba. I would like to go to the Dominican Republic, and if Fathom comes out with a great deal again on that and it fits into my schedule I would jump at the chance.
