Dana's Travelogue Jan '19 Cuba!

Cuba Cruise Jan 2019 part 1

Not only has Cuba been on my bucket list forever but also on my radar as a potential place to go even before the embargo on travel was loosened. When Heather texted me a pic (thanks Shel li!)  of a crumpled sheet with the best Cruise Cuba itinerery I'd seen yet, and with the bonus of a swing dance group onboard, I was sold. It also didn't hurt my feelings that there was another travel agent (not me!) doing everything and I could just go as a guest. Besides, most of our group were already committed to AJ&Jen's Mexican cruise out of NOLA. Marsha heard about us going and joined the group bringing the total to 30 dancers.

Jan 12, Flew out of Sac for Miami with a brief change in Phoenix. Uneventful and typically uncomfortable as all domestic air travel is in economy these days.

Checked into the Dorchester Suites on 18th &Collins in South Beach. We all really enjoyed it's art deco accents and being right in South Beach. So we walked about checking out several hotel lobbies along the strip. Luckily there were a couple places to get food since it was almost midnight in Florida and dinnertime to our bodies.

Jan 13th, Embarked on the Empress of the Seas

Although it is the smallest and oldest of the fleet for Royal Caribbean, the staff, food and entertainment is great! I'd say even better than some of the fancier/newer ships I've been on. They also have a nice setup for food times which means you don't have to force yourself to get up and out before 9 or you miss breakfast like on some ships.

I do miss the thermal suite but we've kept busy dancing every evening, going to the headliner shows(some super funny comedians)and dining with the group.

January 14th A relaxing day at sea!

It feels like we are trying to catch up on the sleep we don't allow ourselves at home! We keep getting 8-10 hours and not having an alarm to wake up to is a treat. Arleene who is the dance instructor and travel agent organizing this cruise has arranged times and places for us to set up music and dance throughout the week. (Like I did when I put together the Alaska cruise for our dance group) Unless she has arranged a time in the Bolero's lounge with a dance floor, we have been meeting in the evening outdoors on the back deck. They set up speakers a laptop and we dance until it's Showtime or time for one of the ship's arranged dances. Inevitably some extra people will randomly show up and start dancing with us which is fun.

Most of Arleene's group do East Coast Swing, a couple of them Lindy and I believe some are ballroom trained as well.  There's even a lady named Allison who Kim and I recognize from dancing in SF. She, Marsha,Kim and I are the only ones who dance Balboa.

Jan 15 Cozumel

We caught the free shuttle to downtown by attending the raffle at a diamond shop on the pier and one gal from our group won! Once downtown we window shopped for a bit. We had won a kids t-shirt on the ship the day before so I traded it in for a big enough, I hope, size to fit my youngest nephew whose birthday it was yesterday. Then we joined about 12 of our group for tacos at a bar on the main drag. This turned out to be a funny bawdy group...some got up to do a hat dance to the live Mariachi band and Kim and I did a little swing dance when the loud recorded music called for it.

After that everyone split off in separate directions. Marsha and Kim walked the 3 miles back to the ship. Others shopped and I went and got a lovely massage for an hour.

We all try and meet up for dinner at 5:15pm each evening as a large group and sit round robin style. Then on to the big show followed by the outdoors dance dj'd by Arleene.

Jan 16 At Sea

Jan 17th Cinefuegos Cuba

It felt super early to get up and be dressed, fed and ready to catch our shore excursion by 8:15 but we made it.

We boarded a coach and headed out to a 100 year old botanical garden that specialized in trees of all kinds. Our guide there was fantastic and super knowledgeable. After the gardens we were driven into town and ate lunch in the Hotel Jagua. I couldn't help but recall that back in Sept when we were in Peru we'd visited a native village of the same name.

After that we toured through a magnificent and eclectic architectured building with some musicians playing and Cuban rum &coke cocktails being doled out. Next stop was pretty much across the street which I found funny. We were entertained by a fabulous choral group who sang some traditional Cuban songs as well as a few more western ones.

Last stop was at the main town square for a walk from their mini arch de triumph past the statue of the original town founder and through the theater despite its being covered in scaffolding as it's under renovation.

Made it back in time for dinner show and dance followed by the ship's White Party up on deck by the pool area. We danced and then line danced and it was later described by Kim as a Zumba class from 10-11:30pm.

Jan 18th Day at Sea

Another relaxing day with a late group breakfast at 10 -since they had a class from 8:30-10-which we keep sleeping through. We also had lovely sun and warm weather to sunbathe in, a private dance hour from 2:30-3:30 inside on the dance foor, group pictures at 4:45, group dinner at 5:15 followed by dancing to the Latin band and Then the piano player.

Turning in a bit early as we are pulling into Havana at 7am.

Jan 19th Havana Cuba!

Classic American car tour of Havana

Started with Kim getting a cortado at the bar of the Hotel Amadores de Santander. Then rode in a 1955 red and white Bel Air to our first stop at Hemingway's house and then to the little fishing village where Hemingway celebrated his Pulitzer with the fisherman who inspired his book “The Old Man and the Sea”. Our next stop was to see the large statue of Jesus known as the ‘sexy Jesus’. It is very noticable when coming into port and has it's reputation because the artist used her boyfriend as the model when creating the statue. Then on to Sloppy Joe's for Cuban sandwiches before driving through the town center.

A swim and nap revived us enough to make it to the Big Band set to dance, then out with the group for ‘Legendarios’. It is a famous nightclub in Havana and the show is music with some dancing but mostly musical performances by the last living members of Buena Vista Social Club. It was really special. At one point the singer dragged Kim up on stage to dance with her which was very funny and later most of our group was conga lined through the club and then dancing up on stage.

Don't miss this of Kim up on stage with The Pearl of Cuba!
https://gopro.com/v/B2pM1klqWWNV2

After the show a few of us wanted to try and go out to a jazz club to dance. 6 of us climbed into a pink Galaxie but when the driver got to the club there was a huge line snaking around the block and so we asked him to drop us at a different jazz club. We stood in line for a few minutes but after talking to others found out that it's a very small club, no dance floor and simply seating for listening to the jazz. The option was then to go salsa dance or head back to the ship. It being after midnight and none of us huge salsa dance fanatics, we opted to head back. I requested that we first walk into the National Hotel which is a historic site. It is gorgeous so I snapped a few photos and we then caught taxis back to the Empress.

Slept in and were in no hurry to get off the ship quickly, as it was pouring rain.

The nice thing about the rain, and it being Sunday, is it meant there were none of the old convertible American cars cruising about trying to get tourists to go for rides as well as overall less traffic. This meant the pollution was significantly less than the day before. Unfortunately, it was pretty awful and harshed out our throats. The gal in our group with asthma was wrecked and Marsha relapsed into a terrible cough that she'd gotten 98%over before Saturday's. smog assault.

Eventually the rain eased up and we headed into town. Allison, Kim and I wandered about in search of a large hotel in hopes of finding one that would sell me stamps and mail my postcards...the two days we were in town were Saturday and Sunday so the post office was closed. No luck, so yet again my stamps and postmark will be from home even though I got the postcard in an exotic place.

When that goose chase proved to be useless, we walked down to the big flea/artist/tourist market. I did find some fun fans which I've taken to collecting along my travels..sort of...i do actually use them at dances to cool down between songs and they wear out/break/get lost eventually. But at one time I did have one from Rome, Venice, Hong Kong etc. At the moment I still have ones from Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and now Cuba!

Farewell dance, packing and turning in early is the plan as tomorrow we disembark in Miami and have one more night in South Beach at it's National Hotel before flying back home to Sacramento.

It's been a terrific vacation,6 full days unplugged from electronica and signal-woot!! Once we get home we tend to work hard and dance a bunch so lots of sleep and a change of scene is a great recharge.

The building in the upper left of this last set is the Blackstone Hotel that my Grandfather built back in the heyday of Miami Beach. I think it was the first hotel at the time to let Jews and people of color to stay overnight.