In this February 4 2016 photo, the MSC Opera cruiser passes the Morro Fortress as the sun sets in Havana, Cuba.
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The Cuban authorities lifted the ban just over a week ago. Those prohibitions were put in place in response to Cuban exiles launching attacks from the water in the first years after the Cuban revolution.
Passengers on board the Adonia watch as the ship leaves port in Miami, Sunday, May 1, 2016, en route to Cuba.
The Adonia’s seven-day cruise around Cuba, which will include stops in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, is only the start.
On April 22, the Cuban government scrapped its old rule, saying Cuban-born people could travel by sea to the island.
Over a week ago, Carnival and the Cuban government reached an agreement to allow Cuban-born USA citizens to sail to and from Cuba.
Before the 1959 Cuban revolution, cruise ships regularly traveled from the U.S.to Cuba, with elegant Caribbean cruises departing from NY and $42 overnight weekend jaunts leaving twice a week from Miami, said Michael L. Grace, an amateur cruise ship historian.
Another passenger Isabel Buznego, 61, left Cuba when she was five and was returning for the first time.
Carnival said the Adonia will cruise every other week from Miami to Cuba. The cruises will feature a variety of cultural and educational activities, including Spanish lessons, according to the company’s website.
Standing beside Cuban and American flags, the cruise manager touted the journey as “the beginning of a new era”.
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.
Aiming to change that as part of a policy of diplomatic and economic normalization, Obama approved US cruises to Cuba in 2015.
Back in the days of the Cold War, Cuba, a country run by communists who supported the Soviet Union had grabbed headlines all over the world when it allowed the latter to stage land-based ballistic missiles aimed at the US.
Travel limits were restored after Carter left office and US cruises to Cuba only become possible again after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente on December 17, 2014.
“To be a part of truly making history and preparing for an even more positive future for everyone, is one of the greatest honors any company can have”. The last cruise to Cuba from the United States was in 1978.
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Since the restrictions were lifted very recently, only a couple of Cuban-born American passengers were on the cruise ship.
