Fathom Hits Rough Waters
by Daniel McCarthy /Fathom's Adonia. Photo: Facebook.
In what was already a difficult week for Carnival Corp.’s social-impact cruise brand, Fathom is being sued by two passengers who were turned down from its Cuba sailing because of their Cuban heritage.
Robert Rodriguez, one of the lawyers who filed the complaint, said the two Cuban-Americans were told by a Fathom booking agent they could not book the sailing because they were born in Cuba. The lawsuit alleges that Fathom’s decision, though it is due to Cuban law, is a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
Carnival is headquartered in Miami, a city with one of the highest populations of Cuban-Americans in the country. It responded by saying “this is not a decision by our Fathom brand, but rather a Cuba decision."
Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell said in a?statement that the company has "requested a change in the regulation and [is] actively working on the issue. It is our hope and intention that everyone can travel and we will continue to pursue a change in the regulation that puts cruising on the same footing as aircraft travel is today in Cuba."
Though diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba have thawed, the new relationship between the two countries has done nothing to change Cuba’s decade-old policy of not letting ex-pats, many of whom fled the Communist regime, return home.
Cuba was slow to approve any American cruise lines sailing to its ports, including Pearl Seas Cruises, which has had to cancel scheduled sailings.
Fathom was the first to get approval, though it took the Cuban government eight months from the day the cruise line got approval from the U.S. government to do so.
Meanwhile, the first sailing of Fathom’s other itinerary in the Dominican Republic was supposed to kick off this week, but its ship, the Adonia, failed multiple parts of its inspection with the U.S. Coast Guard.
According to the Coast Guard, multiple “sliding fire screen doors [sic] are inoperable.” Fathom says the problem is being addressed and its April 17 sailing will go ahead as planned.