Monday, August 21, 2017 Embarkation Tampa, FL Royal Caribbean “Empress of the Seas”
We left home about 10:00am and drove to Tampa. We parked in the public lot at Channelside. It was $75 for our 5 day cruise, paid in advance. The location to the port is very convenient. We were sitting in Windjammer’s by noon, having lunch. Upon boarding, we were given glasses to view the solar eclipse. Lots of people were topside, taking peaks at the eclipse thru their Royal Caribbean supplied glasses. The peak of the eclipse here in Tampa was 2:49pm. Tampa only had about 80% coverage, but the sunshine was noticeably less bright than normal. About 30 minutes before the maximum, Dave remembered he left his hat in the car. So he left me up on the top deck watching the eclipse and got off the ship, got his hat, and made it back in time to see the maximum eclipse coverage. All aboard was 3:00, so he didn’t have much time to spare.
After the eclipse, we met up with fellow cruise critic’s in the Viking Lounge. Only 8 folks showed up which was not surprising as our roll call was not very active. We only met for a short time as we were kicked out of the Viking Lounge to go to our muster drill at 3:30pm. The good news was that we didn’t have to bring or wear our life jackets.
Dave got pretty hot standing out in the heat with no breeze. Me, too, but it affected him worse. At 4:00pm we went to a talk on shore excursions. It was billed as a talk on Cuba, but it really was about the ship’s shore excursions offerings.
While in the “Cuba” talk, the ship sailed away from Tampa-probably about 4:15.
We have some status on Royal Caribbean, mainly because of our cruises on a Celebrity. Our Celebrity status gives us Diamond status on Royal Caribbean. One of the nice perks is we get 3 free drinks each (Dave and I are both Diamond status) between 5:00 and 8:30pm. Their vodka is New Amsterdam, so I had a martini and tried it. It tasted OK. I like Absolute better, but could drink the New Amsterdam martini. We sat at the pool bar and I was amazed at the pours.
There is no way I could have drank 3 of their martinis. I think it had 4 shots of vodka! Dave was not crazy about their house Chardonnay offering, but he suffered through it. While waiting for our drinks, an old geezer sat down next to me and started talking to me. AND, I wasn’t even in my car! Turns out he was a funeral director…I hope he didn’t look at me as future business – especially in the short term! Later, I found out he was actually sizing up Dave….if you know what I mean….After we got our first round of free drinks, it was about 6:00pm and we could see the I275 Bridge in the distance.
We went up to the top deck to watch as we sailed under the bridge. Dave said there was not much clearance. Lots of people were up there to watch going under the bridge, and the ship blared its horn as we went under. I can finally cross that off my bucket list as I have always wanted to watch as we sail under that bridge. It is about 2 hours from the dock. The last time we sailed under the bridge was a New Years cruise and we got too cold waiting outside, so we missed the sail under the bridge.
After going under the bridge, we went back to our stateroom, took quick showers and changed for dinner. It is an all casual cruise – no formal night – but Dave still put on long pants and I brought dresses to wear to dinner. Dinner was good – we both had pistachio encrusted salmon. After dinner we watched some entertainment in the atrium – basically name that tune. Thanks to Dave, I won a Royal Caribbean pen. Then we went to the show, which was an introduction to the entertainment onboard. They did feature a comedian and he was funny, but I don’t remember his name. Actually, his website is something like “what was his name?”, so I guess I’m not the only one that can’t remember his name. After the show, we went back to the atrium for more entertainment. This one was “finish the lyric”. We observed. Actually, we recognized most of the songs, but not all.
We went by the library, and it had the fewest books of any ship’s library I have seen. Dave did not find anything to read. Back in our stateroom, Dave is unhappy with the temp. I am ok, but he is concerned that he won’t be able to sleep as he thinks it is too hot.
The Seas are very calm. Could not even feel movement on the ship.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017 Key West, Florida
Today we will dock in Key West, but not until about 1:00pm. We got up about 8:00, showered and went to breakfast in our Diamond breakfast location. The rest of the ship is having brunch starting at 9:30am, but we are happy to just go to breakfast. There is a separate location for Diamond and above, so we took advantage of our Diamond breakfast. I had a smoked salmon omelet, which is my favorite. Dave had pancakes and sausage. We did note them turning away a lot of people, whom I assume did not have the status that we have (thank you Celebrity). After breakfast we went to two talks on Cuba. Many of our questions were answered, and we made a shopping list for Key West. We decided it would be a good idea to take a light backpack – of course that is one thing I didn’t bring, so we put that on our Key West shopping list. Also, did not bring our hand sanitizer, so we planned to buy that in Key West. Also, some water, an umbrella, and a few snacks.
By the time the two talks were over, we had docked in Key West. The ship docked right in Mallory Square. How convenient, except we would not be there for Sunset. We decided we would eat/drink lunch off the ship, a little late, as we had reservations for Chops, the specialty restaurant at 8:00 and we wanted to be hungry. So after disembarking we headed for Hemmingways House. I had been there once before, in a prior life (🙂), but did not remember anything except there was a swimming pool. So, we toured Hemmingways House. He had 70 six toed cats, and they still have 55. We saw cats all over the place. They definitely make themselves at home. We saw the house, his pool, and the place where he wrote 7 books in 7 years, which was a separate structure at the back of his property.
After Hemmingways House, we were hungry and started to try to find a place to eat. The first place we saw, and many after it, were outdoor eating establishments. It was pretty hot, so I was on a mission to find someplace air conditioned. We tried Sloppy Joes, but it was packed. We wandered down Duval, and discovered “The Rum Runner” no longer existed. So we decided to walk to the “Conch Republic” which is an outside venue, but has great mojitos. And that is where we landed. Fortunately, with lots of fans, we had a little air movement and it was OK. I had a mojito, and Dave stuck to his wines. We shared some fish tacos, but Dave was still hungry, so he had a side of fried fish.
After the “Conch Republic”, we finished our Havana shopping list at CVS, and then boarded the ship. It was about 5:00, so we showered and dressed for dinner, and set about to get our 3 free drinks. The pool bar is the best for generous pours, so we went there first. I asked if I could get a mojito as one of my 3 free drinks. The bartender said no, but he would make me one anyway 🙂.
Then we barhopped a bit, watched out the windows to see if anyone was running for the ship, listened to some trivia, and finally made our way to Chops for our 8:00PM reservation. As usual, Chops was great. I had lamb and Dave had steak. We decided to reserve another night, so we are going again Friday, which is our last night on the ship.
After Chops, we had had enough to eat and drink, so we went to our stateroom to chill.
Tomorrow is Havana. It is a late arrival – about 1:00PM, but we think we are ready!
Wednesday, August 23 Havana, Cuba
This morning we attended another lecture on Cuba, but not sure we learned any new information. We grabbed a bite to eat in the buffet before arriving in Cuba. We watched the sail in, seeing the ship that Tim and Nicole will be on in two weeks. It was leaving as we were arriving. Havana looks like a city in disrepair. There have been many years where the buildings had no repairs or maintenance. As we learned much later in the day, the people vote, but there is only one political party. It reminded me of St. Petersburg, Russia. Except, the people in St. Petersburg hated the Americans, and were obviously unhappy people. The people of Havana are friendly, happy and optimistic. I saw several young men who were sporting the newest haircut fad which is cut very short on the sides and longer on top. One other thing we were told – the government does not want people to bring in “donations” as it is going to breed a culture where people are waiting for the ships to come in to see what they can get. Unfortunately, that is already happening. We had young boys hassling us asking for candy. Well meaning people don’t realize what behavior they are encouraging.
Anyway, we arrived in Havana. We had a ship’s tour, so we were one of the first groups to get off the ship. We had to go thru security, where we were scanned and anything we were bringing off the ship was scanned. Again, they do not encourage you to being “donations”. Then we went thru immigration. Not sure what they do, but my immigration officer took much longer than Dave’s. You do have to fill out a visa form. We were told that they would collect the visa, but they didn’t collect them as we exited the first time. After getting thru immigration, we walked down a long hall. At the end of the hallway were the money changers. US citizens are taxed higher than anyone else. Everyone pays a 3% exchange fee, but US citizens pay an additional 10% surcharge. So for every $100 we exchange, we get 87 Cuban “CUC’s” or convertible pesos. We got our 87 CUC’s, and boarded our bus.
Unfortunately, our tour guide was very hard to understand, and we did not get much out of our tour. We did take the tunnel to go to the adjacent island to see the Jesus statue.
It is a pretty phenomenal sight. It was carved out of marble by a woman. Next to the park with the Jesus statue is a military, civil patrol building, with big signs saying do not trespass. After the Jesus statue, we drove on El Malecon, which is the 7 kilometer road along the harbor front. Here you will see the setups for Carnival as well as the US Embassey. Lots of people walk along the harbor front. We also saw the capitol building here, which is very similar to the US Capitol . However, our cruise director said it was 1 foot taller, so it is different. We drove into the city cemetery. Here we picked up a local guiide. Along the entrance road in the cemetery , where we pulled in, were monuments and chapels built by the wealthy. There is also a monument to firefighters, as 29 firefighters lost their life battling a fire. The firefighters monument is the tallest one in the cemetery, and no future building is suppose to be higher. The firefighters responded to a fire in a building containing illegal explosives. The fire set off the explosives and the burning building collapsed on the fire fighters killing them. This incident is very memorable in Havana because our guide tomorrow will point out the building to us (a new building was built on the site). Our guide also explained the burial procedures to us, and indicated that dying is free in Havana. You only pay for the flowers. Of course, this is assuming your family already owns a plot. The deceased is buried in a pine box for two years. At that point, the body has decomposed, and the bones are put into a box inside the gravesite. She took us to the most famous grave. A woman died during childbirth, and was buried with the stillborn baby between her legs. When they dug up the grave 2 years later, her corpse was cradling the baby in her arms. This was a miracle. Now people come to her grave to pray.
After the cemetery, we went to Revolution Square. People gather here for political speeches. It is a huge open area and next to the square, lots of the old cars are parked next o the square. Our guides have told us that most of the old cars are actually taxis. Also, probably few, if any, original parts. They have been very creative with keeping these old cats running.
After revolution square, we rode on the bus to “Centroid” which is basically a flea market. Dave and I are not interested in this stuff. It is apparently hand made by locals
We wandered around for awhile and then went back and sat on the bus. Before getting on the bus, we evaluated the distance back to port (we considered walking), but decided it must be too far. As we later found out, it would have been very walkable.
The bus left us at the port about 6:00PM, and our tour to the Tropicana started about 7:45 PM. We hurried and went to the buffet to get a bite to eat, and then went to our stateroom to change for the Tropicana.
We were gathered in the appropriate spot by 7:45PM, which was our meeting time. We were #27. Interestingly, there were buses for #25 and 26, also 28 through 32. Upon arriving, we got seated in the second tier where people on buses 31 and 32 got seated in the first tier, or right against the stage in front of us. I later determined that our second tier seats were perfectly fine. The show itself was interesting with music, dancing and singing. Lots of ladies butts (😁), but they were not busty. One act had men in thongs – but of course, not as revealing as the ladies. The dancers wore beautiful costumes. My 3 favorite acts were:
- Two women used an apparatus and did amazing balancing feats.
- Two men did amazing balancing feats, without an apparatus.
- A story of love where others were trying to keep a couple of young lovers apart. Near the end, the girl makes an amazing leap and is caught by the other performers.
Each table sat about 12 people. The seating is tight and people are packed in. One man in a motorized cart could barely make it through the aisle to get to his table. We were given a welcome glass of champagne. We had 2 buckets of ice for everyone (12 of us at our table) to share. We did request a refill of ice which we got (it was very hot outside). Then we got one can of cola per person, and every 4 people got a bottle of rum to share. I drank most of my rum over ice because I was concerned with the caffeine in the cola. I did add a small amount of cola, but not much. Other tables were able to order additional drinks, but our waitress never offered. The people at the table in back of us must have ordered bottled water, and I don’t know what else. Each person at the table also got a little dish of nuts to snack on. We did pay a little addition money for “VIP” seats, but I think everyone got the same drinks and snacks. The venue is outdoors – I don’t know what happens if it rains. While there is a main stage, there are performers on different levels, including the bar. So you need to look around.
At the end of the evening, there was about 1/3 bottle of rum left from the couple we were sharing with. Dave grabbed it and we brought it back to the ship and our stateroom.
During our talks on Cuba, we were told that the ship would not confiscate rum because they consider it a souvenir. We had no problem carrying bottles of rum onto the ship and into our stateroom. As a side note, with our Diamond status on Royal Caribbean, we get 3 free drinks each night, plus other drink discounts,. This will be our lowest bar bill ever.
And now the rest of the story, or how Dave got upset with me….😳. We are still on the ship as I write this, so I may still be headed to jail. While drinking our rum at Tropicana, out of Havana Club logo glasses, I decided the glasses would make nice souvenirs. I was going to just stick them in my purse, but Dave nixed that. So I asked a waitress if I could buy them. She did not speak English, so she didn’t know what I was asking. A lady at our table across from me spoke fluent Spanish, and asked me what I wanted. I told her, and she said she would ask for me. This was early in the evening. As we were getting up to leave at the end of the evening, the lady at my table had gone somewhere, came back and said “The waitress said they don’t sell the glasses, just take them”. At this point, I don’t know if the “just take them” part was coming from the waitress or the lady, but I didn’t need any more encouragement. I carried them in my hand with my little jacket hiding them as we walked out. I was very willing to buy them, so in my rum soaked mind, that made me less of a thief. Meanwhile, Dave is very unhappy with me and keeps telling me that iI’m going to jail in a Cuban prison and reminding me about the American kid that tried to take a poster in North Korea. There is a little more to this story….but it happens tomorrow.
By the time we are back on the ship and ready for bed, it is 1:00 am and we have a 7:45 am tour tomorrow morning. A short night for us…..
Thursday, August 24, 2017
This morning we are doing a walking tour. A short sleep last night – in bed at 1:00am and up at 6:00am. We are still docked in Havana. Each time we get on or off the ship, we have to go through immigration. Getting off the ship, after the face to face with the immigration officer, everything you are taking off the ship is scanned and you go through airport type security by Cuban authorities. Getting back on the Ship, you and your possessions are scanned again, then the face to face with the Cuban immigration officer, then an additional scanning by the cruise ship security as you re-board the ship. At this point, the Cuban immigration officials still have not collected my visa, but they have collected Dave’s. Dave still thinks it is because they are going to throw me in jail. Yesterday, our guide told us that if someone is caught stealing a cell phone, they get 10 years in prison. How long in prison if you steal 2 Havana Club logo glasses? Anyway, my passport was stamped, and the Cuban immigration officers just look for the stamp after your first trip through. So I still have my visa. Later today, they gave my passport a second stamp.
So we get off the ship and meet our guide for our walking tour. His name is Ramon, his English is self taught, and we are his first group of Americans. I’m sure he has led Canadians and Brits before. Unfortunately, he is hard to understand, but not as bad as our guide yesterday. He walks us around, very slowly, through some of the squares in Havana and points out various monuments and buildings, quoting Cuban history and dates, for about 2 hours (it is a 4 hour tour). One thing we did pick up is that the Cubans are still rationed. I think they get 5 eggs per adult per week, and 6 lbs. of rice. Not sure what else is rationed. Ramon did point out a little store, with a big sign that said they did not accept CUC’s which was the currency tourists are suppose to use. The locals use CUP’s, which are worth about 25 times less than CUC’s. Dave and I hang in there on the tour – even though we are a bit bored – because what else are we going to do. He did lose some other people who bailed out and went back to the ship. So after about 2 hours of this slow wandering, he took us to a (state run) rum and cigar store. Here we could buy….rum and cigars! We made our donation to the government of Cuba, and then stopped in the hotel next door to take a little break. We could get something to drink, use the bathrooms, and/or sit for a few minutes. The bathroom was unisex, and had toilet paper. We were advised many times to bring tissues as many bathrooms do not have toilet paper.
Another side note here – when we were on the tour buses, the buses were very new, Chinese buses. I didn’t use the bus bathroom, but we were told to use the bathrooms on the bus if we needed to, and those bathrooms would have toilet paper.
After our rest stop, we walked some more and met up with a bus to continue our tour. Our bus driver was a little guy – maybe only 5’ tall, but he looked like Geraldo Rivera. We even saw someone get their picture taken with him! Anyway, he drove us to a bar.
This bar had signs that it didn’t open until 8:00PM, but I think during the day it caters to tourists. Here we got some free samples. It was billed as a pairing of rum, coffee and cigars. So, everyone got a cigar, a shot of rum, and a little cup of coffee. Dave was able to order a coke. It was 3 CUC’s (on the ship they’re $3.84). They had a band playing and singing Cuban music. Afterwards, 2 girls came around offering CD’s for purchase. We did not buy. Then back on the bus. Just before boarding the bus, I saw a guy pushing what looked like a clothing rack. It looked like he had long stings of garlic and onions. He saw me trying to take his picture, so he smiled and paused a second so I could get a good picture.
All the people we came in contact with were very nice and friendly. Even walking on the streets, people would say hello, even school kids. I didn’t see any homeless people – Dave said he saw one guy sleeping in a doorway. The also keep the streets very clean – no liter. I did have to step over dog poop a couple of times, as there are dogs that wander around. The dogs don’t bother you, but we were advised not to try to pet them as the dogs are not used to human interaction.
The bus took us back to the area near the ship, and we did a little more walking, this time to a square that had more expensive type stores, an outdoor coffee shop, etc. Then we walked back to the square where we started from, San Francisco Plaza, which is right across from the ship. Ramon pointed to a hotel and said they had good mojitos. It was about 12:30, so we got back on the ship, and had lunch. There was one more thing I wanted to do – and that is have a mojito in Havana. So now we are going out on our own in Havana.
We walked back into San Francisco Plaza, and into the hotel our guide recommeded. They had a gift shop, so I bought one postcard to mail to Sandie. She always asks me to mail her a post card. So, Sandie – watch your mailbox! The postcard was 1.5 CUC’s, but that included “local” postage. I didn’t have a pen, but the lady at the reception desk lent me one, and directed us to the post office. Again, very nice, friendly people. The post office lady sold us a stamp for .5 CUC’s and even put the stamp on the card for me.
We walked back to the hotel for a mojito and Cuba libra. It was an inside courtyard, and the drinks were 4CUC’s each.
We walked around a bit more, and the doorman (for lack of a better description) at Hotel Rachel enticed us in telling us there was a rooftop bar. So up we went up an ancient elevator to the roof. Service was slow, but bartender was very nice. He said mojitos were 4 CUC, but for us only 3.5 CUC’s 😁. We enjoyed sitting up on the roof. It was hot, but we were sitting in a covered area, so it was OK. This is where Dave and I found our mission! Or, what we were going to do with the rest of our afternoon.
Remember my Havana Club glasses? Dave and I decided we would try to find some legal ones and buy more. This is the rest of the story…assuming I don’t get thrown in jail once I return to Tampa. At least Dave is liking the Havana Club glasses souvenir at this point. So we started wandering around in the touristy area, tshirt shops and other stuff. We walked, walked, walked. Finally we stopped in one shop that looked promising, but wasn’t. A young woman in the shop tried to be helpful and sent us a few blocks away to where she thought we might find the glasses. She was so nice we gave her a 2CUC tip. And then we walked, walked, and walked some more.
Another side note – while walking through these touristy areas, we were approached several times by locals trying to sell us cigars. We were warned many times, by ship crew, our local tour guides, and stuff I read online on Facebook and Cruise Critic, to never buy cigars from people on the street as they are fake. One person on Facebook said his tour guide hooked him up with a local on the street – and he bought fake cigars.
So as we are walking, we are approached by a guy who we initially thought was a crew member. He spoke very good English. He is just friendly and talking to us, telling us to be sure to get back on the ship on time. We decided to ask him where we might find Havana Club glasses. He sent us 3 or 4 blocks away to Sloppy Joes bar. He thought they might have a gift shop where we could buy the glasses. He even walked us 1/2 block to get us on the right street. Then, he asks us for 20 CUC’s, for the baby…as they are still rationed….we gave him 3 CUC’s and headed to Sloppy Joes….and then it started pouring rain. We got very close, and could see the sign for Sloppy Joes, but hung out at a bus stop shelter with 20 or so other folks trying to stay dry. Finally the rain let up and we went to Sloppy Joes. No, they don’t sell the glasses. But, the very nice bartender (he really was very nice) took our map and suggested we go to the Museum of Rum, and even marked the location on our map. Fortunately, it was near our ship, so we headed back to our ship. As we got close to the ship, it was about 5:00. Dave said he bet the museum closed at 5:00, so we abandoned our mission, and with have to live with our 2 illicit, sin-scarred Havana Club glasses that I swiped from Tropicana.
We got back on the ship, ate dinner and went to the show. This show was one of the best we have ever seen in our 17 years of cruising. Not only us, but you could tell the whole audience enjoyed it. It was a band from Toronto Canada and they played 50’s and 60’s songs. They were young – maybe in their 30’s. The lead singer was really energetic. Dave thought he was going to have a heart attack just watching him! The bass guitarist had a bit of a John Lennon look. They got a standing ovation and came back for an oncor. They were really good. They are billed as Toronto’s premier rock and roll cover band, “Rookie”.
Tomorrow is a sea day, so I don’t expect to have anything for my blog. We have reservations for Chops, the specialty restaurant. Tomorrow is August 25, Lily’s birthday. We plan to see her Saturday after we get off the ship. Unless I get thrown in jail. If that happens, you all will probably know, because I’ll be calling everyone I know for bail money. 😳.
Final thoughts on Cuba
People in Cuba are very friendly. The immigration people were serious, and did not interact with you, but they were not unfriendly. The only people that I felt were “cold” were the money changers at the port. People on the street, in shops, bartenders, post office, etc. were all very friendly.
We were on Royal Caribbean, so some of my impressions may be different than someone traveling a different way or a different line. We were given one bottle of water for each excursion, because it was so hot. Dave and I bought more water, and carried it in our first excursion, but it was not needed. The one bottle was plenty. However, it may have been different if we had a full day excursion. Ours were only Half day or 4 hours. The ship also recommended taking snacks in sealed packages. Fruit, sandwiches, unsealed cookies, etc. would not be allowed into Cuba. All your possessions are scanned entering and leaving the port area by Cuban officials. We bought some peanuts, but never needed them. Again, maybe because we took the shorter excursions. Even our walking tour stopped so we could rest. I’m pretty sure we could have bought a snack at the hotel where we had our rest stop if we wanted.
I used a light, nylon, string backpack to carry tissues, hand sanitizer, water and anything that we purchased.
You are advised to bring an umbrella or rain gear. This is a good idea. It rains most afternoons – kinda like Florida. We lucked out the first day – no rain. So the second day we didn’t go prepared and could have gotten soaked. We lucked out and found shelter when it rained, but then we were stuck there until the rain stopped.
The Cuban people are culturally mixed. There are Cubans who have fair skin and some are very dark. According to our guide Ramon, this is because they have a very mixed heritage that includes other Caribbean people, Spainards, British, Africans, Chinese, etc. The Cubans had African slaves. There is a big hotel being built and our discussion leader on the ship told us they brought in Indians from India to do the labor because if they used Cubans the materials would have ended up in Cuban homes!?!?!?!
There are many dilapidated buildings, some still occupied. Apparently in 1959, Cubans could no longer buy or sell homes. As children married, the just added bedrooms, and sometimes the building became unstable. Some homes are very nice and some have been rehabbed. To me, it reminded me of St. Petersburg Russia, and the influence of Russian communists. Russia has pulled out of Cuba, and now Cuba is friends with the Chinese. Thus the nice, new Chinese tour buses. The children in school used to learn Russian but now they learn Chinese. English is not universally spoken, but those Interacting with tourists seem to speak some English.
We did not have a problem with mosquitoes. Someone told us that the government actually goes into private homes and spray for mosquitos. The streets are very clean with no liter. There are dogs that wander. Sometimes they do their “business” in the streets, so you have to watch for that. We also saw some cats, and a few chickens. These animals are not used to human interaction and we were told not to try to pet them.
We did not have any problem with drinking beverages with ice cubes, however we only got drinks from hotels.
The dress code for the Tropicana is for men – long trousers and closed toe shoes. We bought our tickets for Tropicana through the ship. I understand it is much cheaper to buy them online directly from Tropicana, but then you are arranging your own transportation to and from the Tropicana. When we arrived, we were seated at tables of 12. Each person is given a welcome glass of champagne. Then they brought a can of cola (not a brand you would recognize), and a 700 ml bottle of 7 year old Havana Club to share between 4 people, whom you may or may not know (so there were 3 bottles per table). We also had two buckets of ice to share among 12 people. It was very hot, and we used a lot of ice. We asked for our ice bucket to be replenished, and it was. Each person got a small dish of peanuts for a snack. Some tables were able to order additional items, i.e. bottles of water, but our waitress did not speak English and did not offer. Our tickets did not include dinner, either. At the end of the evening, our bottle of rum still had about 1/3 left. No one else seemed interested, so Dave picked it up. We carried it back to our stateroom with no problem.
Royal Caribbean did not confiscate bottles of rum bought in Havana. They considered them souvenirs and allowed us to bring them back to our room.
I did not see any homeless people, and Dave thought he saw one. As a discussion leader on the cruise said, the rations are enough to live on. This discussion leader also said the average monthly wage is the equivalent of $42 (US) per working adult. I think about our tour guides that received tips – probably at least $5 per person for half day tours, with at least 20 people, which would be $100 for 1/2 day of work. I wonder if they have to turn that money over to the government or something, because the locals are only suppose to have CUP’s. CUP’s is the money for locals. Tourists use CUC’s, or convertible pesos.
The people did not seem to be lazy. Even though the government takes care of people, they work. Cuba has a very high literacy rate.
The Royal Caribbean Empress of the Seas staterooms are small. This ship has been refurbished expressly for these short trips to Cuba. The shower is tight. I don’t know why, but the water in our shower was lukewarm at best. No amenities in the bathroom other than bar soap and liquid soap in the shower. We enjoyed having Diamond status on Royal Caribbean. We got free internet for one device for 24 hours. There are other benefits, but we enjoyed the internet and 3 free drinks, between 5:00pm and 8:30pm each evening. There’s also a one time buy one get one, and a 20% discount on one drink. We had a special venue for breakfast, and Diamond Plus and Pinnicle had breakfast in the Chops restaurant. We were not impressed with the food in the buffet. Today they were suppose to have chicken noodle soup. When I went to get a bowl, there were no noodles in the chicken noodle soup. So, they needed to replenish the soup. The Crew were very good and all our needs were taken care of. In the restaurant we always had to give our room number, and then the staff would call us by name.
Room service now has a $7.95 service charge for everything except a continental breakfast. Lunch was never served in the dining room, but you could go to Chops for $15 per person for lunch. Chops is $35 for dinner, but they do run specials. On Tropicana night, when most of the ship went to Tropicana, Chops had a 2 for 1 special. We booked at embarkation and got a 20% discount. I like the internet fees are for 24 hour periods and generally run $14.95 to $19.95 for one device for 24 hours, rather than requiring you to purchase so many minutes. I think it was $14.95 if you bought it before getting on the ship. On the last day, they offered a $9.95 special.
There are very few balconies on Empress of the Seas, all junior suite or higher, so we had an ocean view stateroom. There was a lifeguard at the pool, which I haven’t seen on a ship before. Probably because too many parents are not watching their children…..
You are allowed to bring into the US 2 liters of rum and 100 cigars. However when we came thru customs, I told the customs officer that we had 3 bottles and he did not make us pay duty.
Do not buy cigars from street vendors. We were warned many times that these cigars may be fake. The street vendors use all sorts of things, other than tobacco, to fill the cigars. The tour guides will take you to official (government?) stores that sell cigars, rum and coffee. One of the official stores that we went to gave samples of the rum to taste. One of our shore excursions took us to a bar where we were able to sample rum, coffee and cigars.
We did not see any supermarkets, or convenience stores. I am not sure where the locals shop. The Cubans are still rationed. One guide told us they get 5 eggs per month and 6 lbs. of rice. He did point out a “hole in the wall” which was a store. There was a sign that said “we do not accept CUC’s” which is the currency tourists use. Locals use CUP’s. It was dark and dingy. Against one wall was a blackboard with items listed and I assume their prices.
