Just be patient, ferry services  probably won’t start until late this year or early 2017, and could take longer, according to companies involved in the ventures.

Spain’s ferry veteran Balearia said that it has proposed to invest more than $35 million to build a ferry terminal and related facilities in Havana to help speed the start of Florida-Cuba service. Havana has to approve that project because Cuba needs to develop terminal facilities for proposed ferries from Florida, complete with customs and immigration processing and room to handle passengers and freight. That requires millions of dollars in investment.

I personally think the Balearia Ferry will be one of the first ships to sail to Cuba because it’s operated by Spain and doesn’t have all the U.S. Government restrictions in place to overcome.

I know that the Balearia Ferry operating out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas is a very nice ship and about the size of a smaller cruise ship.  Last spring the ship had 1st class accommodations with really good food in the dining room too.  We paid about $165 each for a 1st class ticket to Ft. Lauderdale from Freeport, Bahamas. The journey was approximately 4 hours.

A regular ticket on main deck is somewhere around $75 now to the Bahamas.  I don’t know if they still have 1st class, but an “Economy Premium” ticket is $110. Also, full service bars with other cheaper fare was available if we had opted to budget or skip the fine dining.  A round trip ticket with departure taxes and all is approximately $232 if you select economy premium status now.