Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, is planning cruises to Cuba, USA Today reports.
During the company's second quarter conference call, NCLH President and CEO Frank Del Rio told USA Today that the company has applied for the People to People licenses from the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department, and is also in talks with the Cuban government.
"I don't know the timeline for any of those three licenses to come through, but I am hopeful that they will happen before the year is out," Del Rio said.
Del Rio told USA Today that the first cruises could be from NCLH's Oceania brand, which has small ships that would work best with Cuba's port infrastructure.
The announcement is the latest in a series of cruise lines moving to offer travel to Cuba.
In early July, Carnival Corp.'s new Fathom brand announced that the social impact cruise line would begin offering Cuba itineraries in May 2016. Additionally, MSC Cruises has announced that the 2,120-passenger MSC Opera will homeport in Havana for its winter 2015-2016 season on 16 seven-night departures. American travelers on the MSC itineraries must have either a special U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) license to travel, or fall within one of the 12 categories of permitted travel to Cuba under the regulations recently released by the Obama administration.
Read the USA Today story here, and keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for further updates on this developing story.