Norwegian Cruise Line Passengers Upset After Cuba Trip Diverted

PORT CANAVERAL — Passengers on a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship who arrived back to Port Canaveral on Friday morning are not happy after a stop in Cuba was canceled.

• Norwegian Cruise Line decided to turn around after restrictions
• Cruise line will offer some form of compensation for passengers
• St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman was aboard cruise ship
• RELATED:
  • Traveling to Cuba Just Got Harder; US Announces New Restrictions
  • Cruise Passengers Getting Answers Following New Travel Restrictions to Cuba

Norwegian Sun returns to #PortCanaveral. Passengers unhappy after new Cuba travel restrictions prevented a stop in Havana this week. pic.twitter.com/yRe9Htilxl

— Jerry Hume (@JerryHume) June 7, 2019

Norwegian Cruise Line made the decision after the Trump administration announced new travel restrictions to cut off money to the island’s communist government.

With almost 2,000 passengers on board, the Norwegian Sun left Monday on a weeklong voyage with planned stops in Key West and Havana.

On Tuesday, the White House announced it was banning cruise ships from making stops in Cuba. Passengers were told one night before the ship was expected to dock in Havana.

The Norwegian Sun’s in Havana on Wednesday was rerouted, and the ship instead went to the Bahamas.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman was aboard the ship when the port change was made.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?'” Kriseman said about the rerouting.

Cruise travel from the U.S. to Cuba began in 2016, after then-President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on the island.

The Norwegian Sun made its first sailing to Cuba from Port Canaveral in May 2018.

President Donald Trump put some of those restrictions back in place this week, concerned about Cuba’s role in destabilizing other countries in the Western Hemisphere, like Venezuela.

Passengers expressed frustration at being rerouted.

“From the first time I went to Cuba to the last time I went to Cuba, I saw a difference,” Kriseman said. “I think this is a step backward.”

Debbie Mitchell, a passenger from Deltona, was celebrating her fifth wedding anniversary on board.

“We booked the cruise about a year ago and didn’t get to go,” she said.

At least one passenger took to Twitter.

We are Norwegian Sun passengers re-routed to Nassau. Your crew is very kind, but we’ve gotten no answers. Will you refund visa fees we paid? Difference in fares? Why were we not allowed courtesy calls to our families to advise them we were rerouted?

— Alexis Henshaw (@Prof_Henshaw) June 5, 2019

Norwegian Cruise Line is offering passengers on future sailings full refunds if they want to cancel their booking, or if they decide to sail on the revisited itinerary, they will get a 50 percent refund.