Banning Pineapples on Carnival Cruise line?
Recently John Heard, the Brand Ambassador of Carnival Cruise line mentioned that pineapple door decorations will now be removed and are banned from Carnival Cruise Line. I mean, who can blame him, after all, they are Pineapples!
What is next? Rainbow flags and unicorns? Well, we wrote an email to Carnival and we thought we would share it here:
Dear John Heard,
We have been made aware of your ban on pineapple decor and magnets on Cabin Doors on Carnival Cruise lines from several recent articles. I run a travel agency that sells a lot of cruises a year to people of diverse sexual orientations and I have heard from MANY of them that they are upset about this new policy.
Many have told me they will not cruise with Carnival if the ban on pineapples is in place. I am writing to you to reconsider based on a few facts I would like to share with you:
1. Not all pineapple decor and magnets that are used to decorate cabin doors are what you would refer to as "swingers" or ethical non-monogamists. Some people just like pineapples, and other tropical images like parrots, palm trees, coconuts and fruity drinks.
Everyone that puts a parrot on their door is not a Jimmy Buffet "Parrot Head", and not all passengers that put a pineapple on their door are couples looking for other couples on board.
2. If you ban one item (like a pineapple), people will just switch to another symbol (like a flamingo). Where does it stop? Will you soon ban all decor because you are afraid people are sending secret messages?
3. So what if they are "swingers" or that they have a different sexual orientation than you. Just because they might display a symbol, it does not mean they are soliciting, looking for others or having wild parties inside. Some people just like to be open about who they are whether they are in the LGBTQ+ community, a "Parrot Head", a military veteran, someone who rides Harleys, a Sports Fan or many other things that they put on their door as a representative of who they are.
By doing so, they might just meet other people into the same thing (music, sports, a hobby or even sexual orientation) as themselves.
4. What is next? Banning pride flags? Rainbows? Unicorns?
5. There have been studies that show that almost 5% (4.76%) have identified as swingers at some point in their lifetime and studies that show that just over 5% (5.5%) of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Can you imagine alienating the entire LGBTQ+ community? Well, you are alienating a segment of the US population that is almost as large (and growing fast according to new studies) and the LGBTQ+ community.
6. There are plenty of adults-only cruises where different sexual orientations are allowed in the open, but there are plenty of smaller groups, and everyday passengers that cannot go on these charters due to vacation time conflicts, prices and itineray limitations. They just want to decorate their door and they would like to add a pineapple or two so they can tell their story without worry of censorship or worse, punishment.
8. What about people wearing pineapple shirts or hats? Can people bring mugs or insulated cups with pineapples on them? Where does this ban end? You can’t ban everything and this will only encourage more people to find other ways to identify themselves to others.
9. Carnival's own policy states: "At Carnival, we are committed to a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion for our shoreside and shipboard team members, as well as our guests. Our company brings together many cultures, backgrounds, beliefs and points of view and every person shall be treated with dignity, courtesy and respect."
This is your chance to show that you actually mean what you say and stop discriminating against people who use pineapples as a way to reflect who they are, no matter who puts them on their door, whether they are right side up, sideways, crooked or upside down.
Show these customers the respect they deserve without you trying to decide which sexual orientation is OK and which is not OK to display.
It is very freeing for people to be able to be themselves on vacation without worrying that they are somehow wrong for being their true selves.
Look, I understand that you do not want anything obscene, crude, hateful or problematic that could cause issues on board. As someone that has been on over 120 cruises, I wouldn't want that either.
But a pineapple?
I respectfully ask you to reconsider this decision on behalf of pineapple-loving people everywhere.
#savethepineapple
Respectfully,
--
Bob Hannaford
CEO
Naughty Events, LLC
If you want to write to Carnival and voice your concerns, please join us by emailing them at cclsupport@carnival.com.
Let them know how you feel about this policy and the comments made by their spokesperson John Heald.
While writing a letter may not change their minds, we need to stand up and push back against anyone who thinks it is ok to limit how we can express ourselves and say that it is ok to be non-monogamous, just like it is OK to be monogamous. We need to be seen, not in a way that encourages people to make fun of us or further negative stereotypes, but to normalize non-monogamy.
We believe that we have a right to represent that we are non-monogamous without being told that we should not be able to coexist on board any cruise, or anywhere else for that matter. It wasn’t that long ago when many people believed that being gay was a choice, and that they were not “born that way”. Thankfully science and public opinion on this has changed quite a bit and being gay has made leaps and bounds and if overwhelmingly accepted today, when compared to just 25 years ago.
It is our opinion that we are also not born monogamous. That is a learned practice and something we are told to do, based mainly in religious circles that has become the norm over the past couple of centuries. We believe that people are born with the basic instinct to be attracted to more than one person and that our natural instinct is to be with more than one partner at a time. In fact, when you go back to early studies of man, it shows that early humans had multiple partners for most of the time humans have been on this earth.
I know it is just a pineapple, but it is a symbol for people who are open, who engage in non-monogamy and by banning this symbol, they are saying that we can not coexist, that somehow just by putting up a pineapple we are being offensive or crude.
After all, it’s just a pineapple…
… and pineapples never hurt anyone.
Check out this link to see what others are saying:
https://ncsfreedom.org/2024/12/03/carnival-cruise-lines-makes-waves-over-upside-down-pineapples/