They Will Start May 1st
The above photo is courtesy of Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. It shows a Semester at Sea cruise ship entering Havana Harbor in November, 2014. Such cruises skirted the U. S. embargo because of their educational aspects, but for over a half-century commercial U. S. cruise ships have been denied permission to visit Cuba. BUT THAT WILL CHANGE IN A FEW DAYS -- on May 1st, 2016!!
This photo is courtesy of Cristobal Herrera/European Pressphotoagency. It shows the 704-passenger Adonia, the pride of Carnival Cruise Lines. On May 1st the Adonia will sail to Cuba on a 7-day cruise. It will dock at the Bay of Havana for two nights and then go westerly around the island and dock at the southern city of Cienfuegos. The third and final stop before returning to Miami will be Santiago de Cuba on the island's eastern tip. The original plans were postponed because Cuba has a decades-old rule that prohibits Cuban-born people to visit the island via ships or boats, although it allows hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans to visit each year via airplane flights. But the Cuban airports have the capacity to screen the visitors who might be terrorists while its ports do not. But the furor that discriminated against Cuban-Americans caused Carnival to postpone the cruises that both the U. S. and Cuba had permitted. But yesterday, Friday, Cuba relented and said it will allow Cuban-Americans to arrive on the Carnival cruises, which will greatly help the Cuban economy. Also, cruises will not tax the Cuban hotel capacity that has been strained by the influx of tourism since Presidents Obama and Castro, back in December of 2014, announced plans to normalize relations, which now allows Carnival cruises to Cuba.
Arnold Donald, a native of New Orleans, is the President and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. He arranged the May 1st cruise to Cuba and he didn't give up when the uproar that banned Cuban-born passengers postponed the historic enterprise. After Cuba relented Friday, Mr. Donald said, "We were very positive this would be the outcome and were proceeding in that fashion." He added, "if Cuba feels safe and believes it is being treated fairly, U. S. companies can negotiate with the island that has so much promise now that the U. S. government is opening up to it." {Carnival is opening doors for other American companies}.
And therefore, Arnold Donald can now cruise to Cuba!!
Pedro A. Freyre, who was born in Cuba, is the top lawyer for the Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines. Mr. Freyre supports normalizing relations with Cuba. After Friday's announcement that Cuba will allow Cuban-born Americans to travel to the island via cruises, Mr. Freyre said, "When the ban caused the furor, I said why are people so upset? 300,000 Cuban-Americans travel to Cuba every year. But the ban tugged at heart strings. What the Cubans did Friday reveals it is glad to be engaged with the United States. You can talk about things instead of shouting at each other." {Cuban-Americans like Mr. Freyre are now in the majority}.
This map shows the three Cuban cities where Carnival's cruise ship, The Adonia, will dock. The 704-passenger vessel will leave Miami on May 1st and dock first in Havana. And then it will take a westerly cruise around the alligator-shaped island till it docks in the south-central city of Cienfuegos. The third and final stop will be at Santiago de Cuba on the island's south-eastern tip. Then, after the historic 7-day journey, it will return to Miami as the first American cruise ship to visit Cuba in over half a century.
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There are, to be sure, a lot of very rich Cuban-Americans in the Miami area. Many of them, such as the Sunset Harbour Yacht Club, own luxurious yachts docked in Miami, Miami Beach, Dodge Island, Fisher Island, etc. For many years, they have begged Cuba and the United States to allow them to sail back-and-forth to Cuba. Those pleas accelerated Friday when Cuba agreed to allow Carnival Cruise Lines to take Cuban-Americans on its cruises to Cuba starting May 1st, easing the island's acute security concerns.
So, don't be surprised if luxury Miami yachts like this beauty soon can set sail for Cuba. After all, Cuban-Americans who own such toys have a whole lot of money that they could be spending in Cuba.
In fact, even if you don't own a yacht, Miami Five-Star Yachts based in Miami-Fort Lauderdale will be very glad to rent you a yacht that will take you in style across the Florida Straits to enchanting Cuba!!
Meanwhile:
Dilma Rousseff, the two-term President of Brazil and Cuba's dear friend, took her fight against impeachment to the United Nations in New York yesterday, Friday. The photo is courtesy of Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. It shows President Rousseff speaking at the UN yesterday. She said: "I cannot conclude my remarks without mentioning the grave moment Brazil is undergoing. Despite this, I must say that Brazil is a great nation with a society that was able to defeat authoritarianism and build a vibrant democracy. Our people are hard-working and have great esteem for freedom. I have confidence that they will be able to prevent any setback." Within minutes, her enemies back in Brazil assailed her trip.
After her address at the United Nations yesterday, President Rousseff signed the program and then held a news conference in which she repeated her claims that the impeachment process back in Brazil is "a coup being led by conspirators. In the past, coups were carried out with machine guns, tanks and weapons. Today all you need are hands that are willing to tear up the Constitution." President Rousseff said that those "hands" belong to members of Brazil's Congress and to the owners of Brazil's major newspapers that have ties back to the military thugs who mounted the 1964 coup that terrorized Brazil, and imprisoned and tortured her, till they were dealt with by Brazilians "who have great esteem for freedom." She hopes similar Brazilians will support her now and she worries about anti-Cuban U. S. elements "against me in America."
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