After a half-century wait, US cruise leaves Miami for Cuba
MIAMI
(AP) -- After a half-century of waiting, passengers finally set sail on
Sunday from Miami on an historic cruise to Cuba.
Carnival
Corp.'s 704-passenger Adonia left port at about 4:24 p.m., bound for
Havana. Carnival's Cuba cruises, operating under its Fathom band, will
visit the ports of Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.
The
seven-day cruise comes after Cuba loosened its policy banning
Cuban-born people from arriving to the country by sea, a rule that
threatened to stop the cruises from happening.
When
it first announced the cruises, Carnival said it would bar Cuban-born
passengers due to the government's policy. But the Cuban-American
community in Miami complained and filed a discrimination lawsuit in
response.
After that, the company said it
would only sail to Cuba if the policy changed, which Cuba did on April
22. Cuba-born passengers were aboard Sunday, the company said.
Carnival
says the Adonia will cruise every other week from Miami to Cuba.
Bookings will start at $1,800 per person and feature an array of
cultural and educational activities, including Spanish lessons,
Carnival's website says.
Seventy-three-year-old passenger Rick Schneider told The Sun-Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1SH4Zi1)
that he waited 60 years for the chance to make the journey. He bought a
Cuban flag for the occasion, which he waved at protesters who opposed
the cruises.
He added that he passed up a chance to take a ferry to Havana in 1957.
"We postponed that trip, but the time is now," he told the paper.
The
cruise is among the many changes in U.S.-Cuban relations since a thaw
between the old Cold War foes began in late 2014. The thaw also led to a
historic, two-day trip to Cuba in March by President Barack Obama, who
met with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, among others.
The
Cuban government says the shift in policy removes prohibitions enacted
when Cuban exiles were launching attacks by sea after the first Cuban
revolution.
On Sunday, Arnold Donald,
Carnival's president and CEO, said the company worked and prepared to
make the cruises a reality despite the challenges.
"Times
of change often bring out emotions and clearly the histories here are
very emotional for a number of people," Donald told reporters."
Restarting
the cruises was an important element of the Obama administration's bid
to increase tourism to Cuba after the Dec. 17, 2014, decision to restore
diplomatic relations and move toward normalization. The most recent
such cruise, from another U.S. port, was in 1978.
The Miami Herald ( http://hrld.us/21ohkxc
) reported that a boat carrying some activists protesting the trip to
Cuba was nearby in Florida waters before the ship's departure Sunday. It
said the boat pulled away before the Adonia set sail for Havana, where
it was expected to arrive Monday.
Mary Olive
Reinhart, a retired parks service ranger, told the newspaper that she
and some friends from the Philadelphia area were drawn to the voyage by
the adventure of it all.
"It's exciting to go places where we're forbidden. For me, I want to be at home in the world - the whole world," she added.
