Back When You Could Cruise to Cuba

This post originally appeared on CruiseInd eight years ago. At the time, it looked at how Americans could legally cruise to Cuba and why Royal Caribbean’s Empress of the Seas was likely to become the line’s first Cuba ship. As it turned out, that prediction was correct. I’ve updated the article to reflect what happened next.

Back in 2016, Cuba was one of the most interesting potential new destinations for the U.S. cruise industry.

For decades, Americans had faced significant restrictions on traveling to Cuba. But the Obama administration had begun easing those restrictions, and by 2016 the first U.S.-based cruise ship in more than 50 years was preparing to sail to Havana.

That ship was Carnival Corporation’s Adonia, operated by its short-lived Fathom brand.

The big question at the time was when would the major cruise lines follow?

How could Americans legally travel to Cuba?

The important distinction was that the United States had not actually legalized tourism to Cuba.

Instead, Americans could travel under one of 12 authorized categories established by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). These included family visits, journalism, professional research, educational activities, religious activities, humanitarian projects, and support for the Cuban people. That created an unusual situation for the cruise industry. A passenger could book a cruise vacation, but their travel to Cuba still had to qualify under one of the authorized categories.

Cruise lines handled this through organized programs, cultural activities and documentation intended to ensure passengers’ visits complied with the rules. It was complicated, but it worked.

Carnival opened the door

Carnival Corp’s Adonia made its first voyage from Miami to Cuba in May 2016, becoming the first U.S. cruise ship to visit Cuba in more than five decades.

The ship was operated by fathom, Carnival’s social-impact brand, and its cruises were specifically designed around the educational and cultural activities that allowed passengers to legally visit Cuba.

Fathom itself didn’t last long. Carnival announced later in 2016 that the brand would be wound down, with Adonia returning to P&O Cruises. But by then, the door had been opened. And Royal Caribbean was watching.

The case for Empress of the Seas

This was actually the reason I originally wrote this article.

The biggest takeaway I had from Royal Caribbean’s Q3 2016 earnings call was that the company was opening Empress of the Seas bookings further into the future. That was significant because Empress had been operating on a relatively short booking window since returning to the fleet in April 2016. At the time, it was widely suspected that Empress would become Royal Caribbean’s first Cuba ship.

The logic made sense. With roughly 1,800 passengers, she was considerably smaller than the ships Royal Caribbean was building at the time. Demand for Cuba was still unknown, so dedicating a smaller ship made sense. There was another advantage. By keeping her future bookings limited, Royal Caribbean could quickly replace existing Caribbean itineraries with Cuba cruises once the necessary approvals came through. During the Q3 earnings call, CEO Michael Bayley said Royal Caribbean would open Empress bookings further into the future and deal with any “itinerary adjustments” when they arose.

To me, that was a pretty strong indication that the company had decided it couldn’t wait forever for Cuba. As it turned out, that was spot on.

Royal Caribbean goes to Cuba

In December 2016, Royal Caribbean officially announced that Empress of the Seas would sail to Havana.

Her first Cuba sailing took place in April 2017, and she subsequently operated a number of Cuba itineraries from Miami and Tampa. Royal Caribbean eventually expanded its Cuba program considerably. By 2018, the company had opened a year-long program with dozens of cruises to Cuba, many featuring overnight stays in Havana.

Other major cruise lines followed as well. MSC Cruises operated MSC Opera and MSC Armonia to Havana, while Norwegian Cruise Line and other Carnival Corporation brands also developed Cuba itineraries. For a brief period, Cuba had become a legitimate part of the Caribbean cruise map.

Then politics changed again.

The end of Cuba cruising

In June 2019, the government changed the rules governing travel to Cuba. Group people-to-people travel was removed as an authorized category, and cruise travel from the United States to Cuba was effectively ended. The cruise lines had to quickly cancel their Cuba itineraries and substitute other Caribbean ports. Royal Caribbean removed Cuba from Empress of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas itineraries, offering affected passengers options including refunds or revised cruises.

And just like that, the Cuba cruise experiment was over.

Between 2016 and 2019, the major cruise lines had carried hundreds of thousands of passengers to Cuba. What’s important to consider, and has not been mentioned until this point, was that these cruises commanded quite a high cruise fare due to this new found demand for cruisers wanting to be among the first to visit Cuba. The cruise lines were generating extraordinary profit from these older, smaller ships. When the plug was abruptly pulled, the lines needed to quickly pivot. Since they were sailing older, smaller tonnage on these trips, converting them to the short 3 & 4-night cruises out of Miami at rock bottom prices no longer made sense.

What happened to Empress?

There is an interesting final chapter to the Empress story. The ship eventually left Royal Caribbean altogether. After spending much of the pandemic laid up, Empress of the Seas was sold in late 2020 and eventually entered service with India’s Cordelia Cruises.

Can Americans still travel to Cuba?

Yes, but tourism is still not one of the authorized reasons for travel. The 12 categories remain in place, including family visits, journalism, professional research, educational activities, religious activities, humanitarian projects and support for the Cuban people. The rules have changed somewhat over the years, but simply booking a vacation to Cuba as an American is still not permitted.

And, for now, the cruise ships haven’t returned.

There is also an interesting legal postscript to the whole story. The cruise lines are still dealing with lawsuits stemming from their use of Havana’s port facilities during those years. In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that claims against Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and MSC could proceed under the Helms-Burton Act, reviving a case that has been working its way through the courts for years. So even though the Cuba cruise experiment ended in 2019, the consequences aren’t quite finished yet.