We have a close group of wonderful friends (4 families). We have all known each other for years and spend almost every camping trip , celebrate birthdays, and almost every holiday with each other. We truly do consider them to be part of our family.
A few months ago we all were discussing (lamenting) the fact that we were approaching our mid 50’s, and decided to go on a holiday together… Cuba, HERE WE COME!
Why Cuba?
Simply put, Cuba checked all the boxes. It’s beautiful, warm, and just exotic enough to feel like a true escape without being overwhelming. It’s also relatively inexpensive, which matters when you’re trying to coordinate a group trip that works for multiple families.
My wife had already been the year before with her friends and came back genuinely enthusiastic about the experience. Not the polite “that was nice” kind of enthusiasm, but the kind that lingers. Stories kept resurfacing. Photos were re-shown. Little details were remembered. When the idea of a group trip started to form, Cuba wasn’t just an option on the list—it was the obvious choice.
Our Major Challenge
In October, 2025, we booked our February 2026, all-inclusive trip to Meliá Costa Rey in Cayo Coco with Air Canada Vacations. This gave us a lot of time to arrange transport to and from the airport, as well as get the necessary cash, and travel documents, and accessories ready.
Enter January 2026… the government of Canada elevated it’s travel advisory to “Yellow” due to worsening shortages of electricity, fuel and basic necessities including food, water, and medicine, which can also affect resorts, and flights.
We had been asking ourselves ” What are we going to do about this?” There’s two ways to look at it, cut our losses and cancel, or treat it as an adventure! We all love camping so if we lose power for a while, no big deal. We figured if things get bad enough, Air Canada would cancel their flights and so be it. But until then, we figured Cubans can use all the help they can get.
We were planning on loading up our check-in luggage with essential supplies such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, feminine napkins etc. I even went as far as asking my Dentist if he would be willing to donate any dental supplies. He was so generous to donate a large assortment of supplies to the Cuban people. THANK YOU SO MUCH, DR. LIM! The essential items are extremely difficult to get down there and anything we can do to help is something.
That being said, reports from the resort itself seemed to indicate that where we are staying, they had not really been affected yet. All the resorts have backup generators, extra fuel, and supplies. Apparently, they were prioritising tourist travel as it is one of the few industries down there that is functional.
Sigh…
On February 9, 2026, we got an email from Air Canada officially cancelling our trip, citing:
We’re sorry, this flight is cancelled because unexpected local restrictions outside our control are impacting our operations.
Local restrictions can include regulatory or governmental limitations; changes to customs, health, or safety processes; disruptions to transportation infrastructure, network connectivity or essential supply chains; and other social or geopolitical developments.
Situations surrounding flight disruptions can be complex and have multiple causes. We’re required to inform you of the reason for a flight disruption. Please note the reasons provided for a flight disruption may change as the situation evolves, new issues arise, or new information is received.
What a nice and generic explanation! Essentially, the airports ran out of JET FUEL for the planes. sigh… With all our planning, and research, the one thing we didn’t count on was jet fuel.
So in the end, we had to decline Dr. Lim’s generous donation, put a pin in our Cuban adventure, and search for a last minute alternative.
Rest assured, we will revisit a Cuban adventure in the future…