On Monday, February 4, the Reverend Julia Seymour, RevGalBlogPals’ board president, received the following response from Carnival Cruise lines to our Open Letter.
Your recent experience on Carnival Magic was brought to our attention, as well as the follow up communication in which you and others expressed that more should be done to address your point of view.
We have clear guidelines for music that is played in our public lounges. Some latitude is extended to the DJs in our nightclubs in order to accommodate the preferences of all of our guests. All music that is played is “radio version” recordings of popular music that is edited for offensive language.
We certainly respect your point of view. And in the incident on Carnival Magic, we counseled the DJ and the Entertainment team to be respectful of your concerns as you clearly felt that they were not. But we feel that the onboard credit we offered was appropriate.
Carnival carries over 5 million guests every year, representing a wide array of nationalities, races, ethnic groups and cultures, and its onboard crew hails from over 100 nationalities. Every day we work to make sure our guests and crew feel welcome. While you may feel we failed to do so in this incident, we will not have our record of inclusion and diversity called into question.
Sincerely,
Shelley Wilcox
Guest Care Executive – Office of the President
Carnival Cruise Line | 3655 NW 87th Avenue | Miami, FL 33178 |
800-929-6400
iCare@carnival.com
RevGalBlogPals will continue to call into question Carnival’s record on inclusion and diversity based on our experiences and this response from the corporate office.
We encourage our supporters to follow the Call to Action in our last post on this matter:
- Share the open letter and this response with people in your online and in-person communities.
- Host a conversation in your context about institutional violence like that experienced by the Black women and those allied with them in our group using the open letter and its points as a guide.
- Donate to the RevGalBlogPals continuing education scholarship fund for Clergywomen of Color.
- Reach out to Carnival on social media (Twitter/Snapchat:@CarnivalCruise, @CarnivalPR; Facebook/Instagram: @Carnival) and telling them they can #ChooseAccountability to customers who’ve experienced harm or discrimination aboard their ships.
RevGalBlogPals 
WOW: I am appalled at most of the letter … but the final statement (we will not have our record of inclusion and diversity called into question) ,,, is not acceptable.
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dbjrochester said it — not acceptable! Hardly a customer-friendly letter, and certainly not an apology. It is clear that this group’s use of Carnival’s services over the years is not important to them, nor do they respect a group of women clergy as a prime component of their market. Too bad. There are other cruise lines. I will remember this any time I consider or am in discussion of a potential cruise. (Incidentally, the letter *to* Carnival was exceptional, but it is clear that their minds are not set on such high things as you referenced. Romans 8:5.)
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