Cuba relents, allows Cuban-born travelers on historic cruise

MIAMI (AP) — Cuba has loosened a policy banning Cuban-born people from arriving by sea, allowing Carnival Corp. to go forward with the first U.S. cruise to the island in a half-century, the Cuban government and the Miami-based cruise line announced Friday. The company at first barred Cuban-born Americans from buying tickets for the planned May 1 cruise to comply with Cuba's ban, drawing complaints from the Cuban-American community in Miami and a discrimination lawsuit. Donald said Carnival negotiated a change in Cuban policy, and that now its cruise ships and other commercial vessels will be treated the same as aircraft, which already are permitted to carry Cuban-born passengers. The Cuban government said people born in Cuba will now be able to travel as passengers and crew on merchant ships and cruise ships, and will eventually be allowed on board yachts as both passengers and crew. Carnival originally adhered to Cuba's longstanding previous policy by preventing Cuban exiles from booking passage on the cruise, sparking protests by Cuban-Americans outside the company's Doral headquarters, criticism from Secretary of State John Kerry and local politicians and a federal lawsuit that claimed discrimination.