The Havana Club is the latest addition to Carnival’s Vista class, which includes the Carnival Horizon, Carnival Panorama, and Carnival Vista.
During spring break 2019, I had the opportunity to stay in the Havana Club while sailing to the southern Caribbean on the Carnival Horizon.
The Havana Club is a unique cabin category that offers guests exclusive amenities including the Havana pool, two hot tubs, a 24/7 bar, clam shell loungers, and plenty of deck chairs for sea days.
You must be staying in a Havana Club cabin category to have access to these amenities. Staff is on call at the pool deck to monitor that only Havana Club members are using the facilities both day and night.
Within the Havana Club cabin class are interior staterooms, traditional balconies, aft-facing extended balconies, suites, and the unique Havana cabanas.
These Havana cabanas are not your typical stateroom. They feature a patio with a single swing chair, two loungers, and a small table. Unlike a traditional ocean view balcony, these state rooms have gate access to an outdoor promenade that leads straight to the Havana Club pool deck.
While staying in the Havana Club, we had an interior cabin for my brother and myself, while my parents had a 6th deck aft-facing extended balcony, one floor above the pool deck. Our interior cabin was on the 5th deck with direct access to the Havana Bar and pool. We did not notice any extra noise from this location due to the double entry way into the cabin hallways.
My parents’ balcony was one of our favorite parts of the Havana Club. The extended balcony had two full lounge chairs, which were a great convenience to sit out and tan. However, with little shade, the balcony did get very hot during the day.
Each room was decorated in a “Havana theme” with special Havana-themed bath products.
If you have ever been on a cruise, especially during peak season like spring break, you know the struggle with finding a pool chair during sea days. Well, with three sea days on this 8-day cruise, the privacy and limited number of guests in the Havana Club made it easy to find pool chairs any time of the day. The pool and hot tubs were never crowded and getting a drink was convenient and speedy. Having your room so close by was also amazing to be able to come and go from the pool as you please.
I would say the only con of the Havana Club is its location to food options on board. Breakfast was the easiest, as there is another lounge outside of the Havana Club that offers a small buffet breakfast. Once we’d discovered this “mini buffet,” we found ourselves eating breakfast here to avoid the crowd and long walk to the main buffet. It would have been nice if, on sea days, the Havana bar offered food options.
As an avid and experienced cruiser, I would say the Havana Club is 100% worth the money. If your itinerary calls for multiple sea days, and you are someone who enjoys being on the pool deck – or not being in a hot tub with 50 people – then this VIP section is for you!
