Adonia docks in Havana

HAVANA – At about 10 o’clock on Monday morning, Carnival Corp.’s Fathom Adonia docked at the Havana cruise terminal reestablishing the U.S. cruise travel business to Cuba. For almost an hour the hundreds of Cubans sitting on the wall of Havana’s famed Malecon could see the Adonia as it  approached Cuba’s capital city.

It was another step forward in the rapprochement begun by Presidents Raúl Castro and Barack Obama on Dec. 14, 2014. This one tying the two countries touristically by sea.

“At first I only saw the silhouettes of people on the ship,” said one of the hundreds of curious photographing the event, as cameras and smart phones worked non-stop to capture the moment.

Included among the Fathom Adonia’s more than 700 passengers were about 20 Cuban Americans. Shedding a tear or two was Milly Gonzalez Martin, a Cuban American who had not stepped on Cuban soil, where she was born, for 46 years.

At the end of the day, everything ran as it should and all passengers seemed happy.