Carnival Corporation announced Monday that it will delay its cruises to Cuba if Havana requires that it discriminate against Cuba-born travelers while traveling from Florida to the island.
“We want everyone to be able to go to Cuba with us,” Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, said in a statement released Monday. “We remain excited about this historic opportunity to give our guests an extraordinary vacation experience in Cuba.”
For the first time in more than 50 years, Carnival is set to begin cruises to Cuba aboard its Fathom line May 1. But last week a controversy erupted over the Cuban government barring Cuban-born Americans from traveling on those ships.
The decision by the Castro regime to require a private company to discriminate against certain travelers spurred legal action in the U.S., and Secretary of State John Kerry was forced to wade in to advise Carnival not to go forward with its trips under those rules.
“American citizens, Cuban-Americans, have a right to travel, and we should not be in a situation where the Cuban government is forcing its discrimination policy on us,” Kerry said in an interview with the Miami Herald and CNN en Espanol. “So we call on the government of Cuba to change that policy and to recognize that if they want full relations and normal relationship with the United States, they have to live by international laws, not exclusively by Cuban laws.”
Carnival on Monday said it would continue negotiations with the Castro regime to allow cruise ships to operate in the same manner as air charter operations, which don’t discriminate against Cuba-born Americans in transporting them to the island.
“While optimistic that Cuba will treat travelers with Fathom the same as air charters today, should that decision by Cuba be delayed past May 1, Carnival Corporation will delay the start of its voyages to Cuba accordingly,” the company said in its release.
The company said it remains “confident” that its discussions with the Castro regime will “result in a positive outcome for everyone who wants to travel to Cuba, including those who are Cuba-born.”
Since the controversy erupted last week, the company has updated its reservations process to allow all travelers to book its cruises to Cuba, including Cuba-born individuals.
Carnival is the first U.S. cruise company to gain approval from the Cuban government to begin regular trips from the United States. It is planning weeklong voyages with stops in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba.
Initially, the company agreed to the Cuban government’s demands that barred Cuba-born Americans from participating. The company informed Cuban-Americans born on the island who tried to buy tickets that they could not make the trip.
On Wednesday, attorneys filed a class action lawsuit in Miami against Carnival on behalf of a Cuban-American couple who the cruise line had denied. In the suit, the couple argues that the company is violating a federal law barring discrimination based on national origin.
Carnival posted a statement on its website that said its policy is to obey the regulations and laws of the countries “we sail to around the world.”
