My husband and I were very excited to visit Cuba before any changes started occurring. Taking the Fathom's philosophy of people to people and sailing on the Adonia appealed to us. The sessions on Cuba's history were very interesting and gave lots of information. The food quality I would also give a poor rating as all of the main dishes were overcooked, dry and difficult to cut.... pretty impossible to imagine shrimp being difficult to cut.

Excursions: We had been instructed not to give anything to the street people, and it was stressed in many seminars as to Fathom's beliefs about this. Yet, on our tour of Santiago de Cuba, our guide had no ability to enforce this and the group was encircled by those looking for a hand out. Finally a uniformed officer had to step in and chase them away. The whole group was quite intimidated with the situation. Havana and Cienfuegos were fascinating and most of the guides were eager to talk to Americans and answer our questions as honestly as they could. Seeing Cuba was the highlight of the trip, and we would do it again, just not on the Adonia.

When we became ill the last day at sea, we found out the ship had an outbreak of norovirus. We were confined to our cabin and not allowed to disembark with the other passengers. We were kept over 2 hours before we could leave with minimal assistance with our luggage to get to the terminal. Quite a sour note to end the week on.