Major cruise operators in the US have confirmed Wednesday they will no longer operate cruise trips to Cuba from the US following the ban of Cruise travel by the Trump administration to the Caribbean island.
The sudden shutting down of cruise line operations to Cuba due to the ban has resulted in many angry travelers showing their anger on social media sites and many cruise operators making modifications to their cruise itineraries.
The US State Department Tuesday has announced that the US will no longer permit travel to Cuba by cruise ships, yachts, private and commercial aircrafts.
It has been learnt that the new restrictions are in place because of the Cuban government’s support to Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela. The Trump administration has earlier imposed restrictions in April this year on non-family travel and how much a Cuban can send money to his / her relatives from America. Critics see these restrictive measures as a way of pressurizing the Cuban Government to stop supporting the current Venezuelan government and also as a rollback of President Obama’s move to open relations with Havana.
Most US cruise operators have been changing their existing itineraries and attending to customer calls regarding cancelled cruise trips to Cuba and are worried about their profitability on cruises to the affected port-Havana.
Carnival Corp says “Due to changes in US policy, the company will no longer be permitted to sail to Cuba effective, immediately.”
A spokeswoman for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd has confirmed Wednesday the company has stopped all new booking to Cuba and is now modifying its existing itineraries.
The ban was in effect Wednesday and it’s not only the cruise operators who are affected by it, even the air travel to Cuba is now banned from the US. Most US airlines like United, American and JetBlue have been reviewing the new regulations.
Cruise operators in the US are planning to pacify the anger of their affected passengers by way of compensating with money. For example Carnival has modified their existing itineraries to stop at different non-Cuban ports along with a compensation of $100 to its affected passengers. Carnival says “We are working as quickly as possible to secure alternate itineraries for the remainder of our Cuba voyages and expect to have information for sailings further out in the next 2 – 3 days.”
Meanwhile this terrible inconvenience of cancelled and changed travel itineraries to Cuba has led to several affected travelers taking to Twitter and venting out their anger on the cruise operators.
