Correo: Cubaball Tour

Cubaball XIII

www.prime-travel.com

February 23-March 2, 2015

 This is the first call for registrations for Cubaball XIII. Designed for the serious baseball fan and scholar, Cubaball offers a unique travel experience that will bring you in close contact with the Cuban baseball past and present.

The 2015 tour is scheduled for February 23 to March 3 and will feature games of the 54th National Series. The tour dates coincide with the second half of the Cuban season in which only the top eight teams compete for playoff positions. A detailed itinerary awaits the release of the second-half schedule in January. We will travel to games from our Havana base and usually manage to see four or five games in different stadiums located in the western part of the island.

Tour highlights include:

•        Attendance at games of the 54th National Series

•        Meetings with players and league officials
•        Meetings with veteran players, including Luis Zayas, the sole surviving member of the famed Havana Sugar Kings living in Cuba
•        Visit to the baseball monuments in the Cristobal Colon necropolis in Havana.
•        Visit to Tropical Stadium, the home of the Cuban Winter League from 1930-1946
•        Tour of historic old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage site
•        Visit to the Finca Vigia,  Ernest Hemingway’s estate in San Francisco de Paula
•        A seminar with Sigfredo Barros, the baseball beat writer for Granma, the national newspaper of the Cuban   Communist Party.
•        Visit to Cruces and the grave of Martin Dihigo accompanied by Martin Jr., a former teammate of Pete Rose and Tony Perez in the Cincinnati Reds organization

Cubaball offers unique access to Cuban players. For the last three years, we have been joined by Enriquito Diaz, the all-time leader in games, at-bats, run, hits, triples, and stolen bases. He is the Pete Rose and Rickey Henderson of Cuba. If the schedule includes a game involving the Matanzas team, we will likely have a clubhouse meeting with Cuban National Team manager, Victor Mesa. Mesa was one of the great stars of the Cuban game. We have also enjoyed visits with friends, all-time HR king, Orestes Kindelan, and Omar Linares, considered by most the greatest player in the post-revolutionary history of Cuban baseball.

The tour is limited to 25 registrations and 20 registrations are required to make the tour viable. The tour price of $2899 (double occupancy) is considerably less than the price charged by companies offering cookie-cutter tours of Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad. A single occupancy is available for a $400 supplement. This is a land-only package that inlcudes accommodation, all breakfasts,, a few additional meals, admission to all scheduled itinerary events, transfers, transportation and the services of a bi-lingual guide. Not include are airfare, gratuities, beverages, and a  $30 USD exit permit. Americans are required to purchase insurance upon entry into Cuba for $3 per day.

Cubaball books four and five-star hotels in Havana and the best available hotels outside of Havana. Our Havana hotels include the Nacional, the Habana Libre (formerly the Havana Hilton) and the Parque Central.

This year’s tour will be licenced by the US Treasury Department.

Please let me know if your are interesting in joining the 2015 tour. I will advance tour plans if there is sufficient interest.  Send an e-mail to confirm your place and registration details will follow.

Kit Krieger
Founder and “Jefe” of Cubaball Tours