After taking many lovely cruises, my husband and I were intrigued by Carnival's "voluntourism" concept for Fathom. The idea of helping others in a different culture appealed to us. So, last Spring, we booked the DR cruise Nov. 6-13 and signed up for the various volunteer opportunities. To our surprise - and subsequent delight- the DR trip did not have enough participants, while many people want to go to Cuba these days.. Fathom switched our itinerary to Cuba. They did a fabulous job of very smoothly transitioning us from DR to Cuba. Gotta be flexible.

What a wonderful trip to Cuba! The Impact Guides were delightful. Katie, Colin, Gabe, Winslow, Jeff and others have fascinating personal backgrounds. Peace Corps, international study and immersion, passionate concern for all humanity. Since we really did still want to have the DR experience, we signed up for Jan. 1, 2017 before we went on our Cuba trip. It was fun to chat with the Impact Guides about both Cuba and DR. Now we are so eager to go to DR. The terrific music everywhere in Cuba impressed us a lot. If you like New Orleans, you must visit Cuba. Our fellow passengers were so friendly. Housekeeping service was perfect. Thank you- Linet! The on board sessions were interesting and different from other cruises. Try it and see. We learned so much about Cuba on the shore excursions, which were carefully planned by Fathom for us. If you are looking for a different sort of cruise, have a go with Fathom!