The latest news on Cuba Travel
The good news is that travel restrictions for US citizens are starting to lift. After decades of status quo, we are now on a positive path to open travel to Cuba.
The key phrase in the previous paragraph is starting to lift. The recently and heavily publicized lifting of travel restrictions were limited to Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba but is a promising step towards opening up Cuba to all US travelers.
The restrictions in place are technically economic, for the most part. For example, it is not illegal to travel to Cuba, it is illegal for most US citizens to spend money in Cuba. And few countries want tourists who can't spend money on their trip. Other laws, prevent ships that visit Cuba from entering the U.S. for 6 months after leaving Cuba. I hope to see a steady change to some of these economic measures over the next few years.
The first "cruises" to Cuba out of the U.S. will most likely be repositioning of some of the Ft. Lauderdale to Bahamas day-trip boats to Miami for day or overnight runs to Havana. These small ships are able to change itinerary much quicker than ships from the major cruise lines. The ports in Cuba are currently not set-up well to handle large cruises ships. The mega-ship cruise lines have shown a willingness to spend millions of dollars on port improvement projects, that allow their ships to dock and I would think that is possible both for Havana and potentially a "resort" port away from capital. Major cruise lines with smaller ships, such as Oceania, whose president was born in Cuba, will be able to offer port calls in other cities, such as Santiago de Cuba.
We here at Triangle Cruises look forward to setting up and taking cruises to Cuba and hope that you will join us.