Coppelia Ice Cream Park

"Nothing about this place is easy, but you come here for the atmosphere of being in the biggest ice cream shop in the world. We had a great time with our kids, but we had had tempered expectations and knew fully that there is a long wait and the standard level of "service" you can expect at government-run businesses like this in communist / socialist countries. My kids were very keen to come here but it was closed twice when we drove by on week days. Seems to be only open reliably on weekends. On our last day in Havana, we came by on a Sunday afternoon. Five lines with ~20 people in each line, and the security guards estimated 30+ minutes waiting outside in each line. Walk inside and chatted with the security guy asking about the lines in Spanish - was told that it was 30-60 minutes in line unless we had Cuban pesos, where 300-400 would get us an immediate seat upstairs. We paid 400 Cuban pesos = $1.15 USD and were immediately helped upstairs into one of the 5 seating areas where other locals were waiting. Is this fair? No, but this is not at all unique to this place or this country. Once seated in an area upstairs, the service was all equal with other locals sitting there. Roughly 10 minute wait to be asked our order. We bought 9 scoops total, which was 87 Cuban pesos = $0.25 USD. Another 15 minutes to get the order. I would recommend ordering more to avoid having to wait after ordering more. Was the ice cream amazing? No, but the building was pretty amazing, and my kids loved the experience. The picture of the ice cream is an "ensalata", which includes 5 scoops, after two scoops were eating and some melted. The flavors available vary by the day. When we were there, the flavors were coconut, butter, and chocolate. Everyone there was very friendly! Among experiences available to tourists, this felt like a unique place that is much more frequented by locals (maybe 100 to 1). It's extremely different from other "sights" in Havana."

Xiao Tan

"This is a terrible place - and that's why I liked it! No service that would deserve that name, you'll get what they have. The ice-cream is good, but just vanilla the day we were here. Served without love in a plastic tray. But it's so cheap, you could call it free (like, 0,50 € for 5 scoops). It's so depressing, you'd want to lick the toilet seat just to get this life over with.
Come with the right expectation and you'll like this place. Come expecting an ice cream café with service and a selection and what not and you'll give one star."

Daniel Hommrich

"Coppelia is supposed to be an experience... Let me share mine.

1. There are several queues outside. We waited 15 min there.
2. Once we got in, we were directed to seat in the closest area to our entrance. We only discovered that there are other area in the center building.
3. We waited about 25 more mins for them to serve the ice cream. There's no menu and we couldn't pick what to get. They had only 3-scoop chocolate in a plate. The four of us asked for 2 of them.
4. When we paid, the waitress asked around for 2 min and finally decided that we should pay 90 pesos. Later we read on the menu in front of the center building that 3-scoop was 27 pesos each. Were we treated specially? You decide. 1 star for us."

Qiang Qian