Cruise Lines Fined for Visiting Cuba, UK Travel Chaos, and American Cruise Line Partners with SpaceX

In Travel News forJanuary 4th, 2023 we talk about a massive fine on cruise lines operating in Cuba, more travel chaos coming to the United Kingdom, and American Cruise Line partners with SpaceX. 

American Cruise Line gets StarLink Internet

In July we talked about how the Federal Communications Commission has authorized SpaceX StarLink for use on planes, ships, and other vehicles.  Recently American Cruise Lines has announced that they have rolled out StarLink internet on their fleet for all 2023 sailings. StarLink is a massive network of satellites that provides consistent high speed internet to just about anywhere on the planet which make it very attractive to travel companies.  American Cruise Lines operates ships throughout the United States, from Glacier Bay, Alaska down to Napa Valley, over to the Mississippi, in Florida, on the Hudson River, any so many other places.  American Cruse Line has an amazing small ship, all inclusive, river cruise offering and now with better and consistent internet during the entire sailing,

U.K. Border Force Strikes to Continue

In the United Kingdom, over the Christmas holiday UK Border Force workers took part in 8 days of strikes, and it looks as if they will continue into 2023.  The continued strike actions being discussed include an expansion from existing airport to other ports including Dover and could take place within the next few weeks.  The initial strikes involved over 1,000 union members including passport control workers and took place on December 23rd through the 26th and again on December 28th through the 31st.  While there was minimal impact on travel, there is concern that the number of people being stopped at passport control dropped by over 95 percent.  Due to this concern its more likely that future strikes will be far more disruptive.

Cruise Lines Forced to Pay for Using Port in Havana, Cuba

Recently a court in Miami awarded Havana Docks Corp over $440 million dollars from cruise lines in a court case over use of the port in Cuba.  The ruling is against Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and MSC Cruises, each of which will have to pay about $110 million dollars.  Now this is where it gets interesting, the company is owned by two individuals who claim to be descendants of the last owner of the port before it was seized in 1960 by the Cuban government, so they don’t currently have possession of the port.  They sued under a law that allows U.S. national to sue over the use of property seized by the cuban government after 1959.  Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean are appealing the ruling.  Depending on the outcome of the appeal taking a cruise to Cuba could become more difficult or costly in the future.

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