Royal Caribbean and Celebrity PR departments work against their own best interests
I am a columnist, and inveterate traveler. I have recently released my memoir, and in it talk about my travels around the world. I mention today I love cruising, and often do it on Celebrity ships, even including a picture of me in front of the Celebrity BEYOND. I have written extensively about Celebrity, both blogging from their ships, and doing columns on their ships, senior crew, and special programs. In the past I have gotten requests from Celebrity, and advance notice, so I could write about their new ships and programs. I have written about their Pride events, their female Captain, and senior crews, and access on their ships for the disability community. My column on Captain Panagiotis Skylogiannis of Celebrity APEX, written in 2021, is still being seen and read by many today. My columns are posted on medium.com, in the Washington Blade, and Georgetown Dish, among other outlets.
In the last year all communication of any value with their PR departments has come to a halt. The last contacts with Emma Mumford, in the Celebrity PR department, was incredibly disappointing, to put it politely. When I tried to share this information with both the CEO of Celebrity, and their parent company, Royal Caribbean, I got what I perceive as a ridiculous email from Andrea Shey, VP of loyalty and communications for Celebrity Cruises. I had asked her among other things, why they don’t allow any more onboard interviews with their Captains and Cruise Directors. Mind you, I explained I only do positive stories, sent her examples, and give anyone I interview on the ship final approval before any story is published. Her response was “We need to keep our onboard teams maniacally focused on delivering the elevated vacation experiences our guests know and love. To do this, we need to minimize distractions they face so they can stay focused.” Well clearly, based on this, Celebrity doesn’t trust their onboard teams to know what to do. On my last transatlantic cruise out of Barcelona in October 2024, on the Celebrity ASCENT, I met and had a nice conversation with both the Captain and Cruise Director, as they were walking around the ship and casually chatting with passengers. They were charming, and when I asked if they would have fifteen minutes at some point during the cruise to do a short interview, they both responded enthusiastically, YES. The caveat they said, was that corporate had to approve it. They told me it was turned down by corporate. Again, it is clear to me corporate doesn’t trust their onboard teams to decide what to do with their time. I am glad I trust them to keep me safe.
I write this in the hope someone will put it in front of the CEOs of Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean. There needs to be a better explanation of why they would turn down positive publicity for their people, and cruise lines.
My columns related to Celebrity, both interviews and blogs, when I post them on the Washington Blade, the largest and oldest newspaper for the LGBTQ+ community, are often the most popular with readers in both the print edition, and their nearly 90,000 online followers. Celebrity has gotten many new cruise passengers because of my columns. I have actually gotten calls from many who appreciated learning about cruising, and Celebrity, through my columns. Now I want to make it clear, I have never asked Celebrity for anything based on the columns I have written, never received anything, and am not looking for anything from them in the future. In my letter which Andrea Shey responded to, I offered, if sent advance information from their PR department, to write about the new XCEL, which btw I am booked on for a transatlantic cruise out of Barcelona in October 2026, and on Celebrity’s planned entrance into the river cruise market.
So again, I am posting this critique of the PR departments, to try to bring to the attention of Celebrity and Royal Caribbean CEOs, how they are missing easy opportunities to promote their company. It makes no sense at all, and their PR departments should be called out on it.
