HAVANA — Locals lined Havana’s famed
seaside promenade, the Malecon, as Fathom’s Adonia motored into the harbor shortly before 9 a.m. on Monday after an approximately 17-hour trip from Miami.
“Our
ship is small. But our voice is huge and it will resonate around the
world,” Capt. David Box said over the public address system on the final
approach to the Cuban capital.
The Adonia was still awaiting its
formal landing at Havana’s Terminal Sierra Maestra at 10 a.m. Monday. Its landing will mark the first time a cruise ship from the U.S. has docked in
Cuba in the history of the modern cruise industry.
Havana’s combination of gleaming
high-rises and decaying Spanish colonial buildings emerged in the distance as
first light broke over the Straits of Florida shortly before 7 a.m. Monday.
As the ship got closer to shore,
several passengers were caught up in the historic moments.
Jonie Lipson from Philadelphia
said she was getting emotional as she thought about the Cuban Missile Crisis in
her youth, and of hiding under her desk as a part of nuclear preparedness
drills.
“It’s like a big moment for Cuba,”
she said. I’m happy for them.”
Leaning along the starboard rail
of the ship, a Cuban woman from the town of Cienfuegos cried as the Adonia
moved toward Havana. She declined to give her name, but said it was her first
trip home in 15 years.
Meanwhile Luis Rodriguez, a travel
agent whose parents are from Cuba, was excited as he approached the island for
the first time.
“It’s completely different. I
expected it to be much smaller,” Rodriguez said of Havana.