The Curious Case Of Costa Cruises And A Canceled Kosher Group; Was Antisemitism A Factor?

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A viral article

Last week, an article made the rounds with the title, “Cruise Company To Kosher Travelers: Stay Off.”

The article referenced an alleged antisemitic incident that occurred last month (July 2024) between Costa Cruises and kosher cruise organizer Yossi Zablocki.

Costa Cruises is a Genoa, Italy based cruise that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, but operated separately from the Carnival Cruise Line. Yossi Zablocki, proprietor of Destinations 613, alleges that his kosher group was canceled for reasons unknown, but possibly due to antisemitism.

Carnival Corporation was founded by Israeli-American Ted Arison. His son Micky Arison was the CEO from 1979-2013. The company’s current CEO is Josh Weinstein.

Could antisemitism really be a problem at such a company? After several reader requests to dig into the situation, I decided to investigate further.

The DansDeals Kosher Cruise to Antarctica

I have some experience myself in organizing kosher cruises.

A few weeks before I won a Starwood auction to throw out the first pitch before game 7 of the 2016 World Series, I wrote about how I bid in a Starwood auction for a cruise to Antarctica. However, National Geographic/Lindblad could not offer kosher meals and refused to allow me to bring perishable kosher food onboard.

But that was more about logistics than anything else. 2 years later I organized the first 21st century kosher cruise to Antarctica, with more than 50 kosher observant travelers joining together to make it a reality.

It takes numbers like that to make a kosher trip a reality.

Costa responds to accusations

So was the Costa Cruises incident a logistical problem, antisemitism, or something else?

The first thing I set out to do was reach out to both Yossi Zablocki and Costa Cruises to get to the bottom of things.

Costa Cruises was first to respond, with this statement,

“We regret that the facts about the Destination 631 [sic] Tours situation have been misrepresented. Each year Costa welcomes hundreds of thousands of guests from all different religions, backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures, and with proper notice and coordination, we happily accommodate a variety of special requests, including dietary requirements. We are very familiar with Kosher meal requirements, and we have successfully supported Kosher meal requests onboard Costa ships multiple times per year for decades and will continue to do so in the future.

Unfortunately, last July, Destination 631 [sic] Tours failed to reach the minimum cabin booking thresholds (50 cabins) necessary for us to provide Kosher meal service. Costa was fully transparent with the tour operator, communicating them well in advance of departure that if the tour did not meet the required minimum cabin reservations, it would be impossible for us to provide Kosher meals.

These requirements ensure we have the adequate operational set-up to fulfill the special meal requests, as we will do this summer for two other Kosher groups organized by other tour operators [who met the necessary terms without issue].

Relatedly, because the Destination 631 [sic] tour operator repeatedly failed to make timely payments according to the fee schedule and failed to reach booking thresholds for the Kosher program [and then blamed our company], we have terminated our business relationship.”

Aside from calling them Destinations 631 instead of Destinations 613 (gosh I wonder what those 18 new commandments are going to look like, you can post the ones you expect to see on DDF. 😉 ), the statement paints a very different picture than the article. It alleges that the cruise line is familiar with kosher logistics and still works with several other kosher operators, but blames Destinations 613 for failing to meet minimum cabin requirements and payment deadlines.

Yossi Zablocki refutes Costa’s claims

I sent this statement to Yossi Zablocki and asked once again for comment.

We then spoke, and he gave me his version of the story:

He has organized dozens of kosher groups on cruises and has been organizing kosher cruises with Costa for the past 8 years, without issue. Last year, he booked groups on 2 cruises that would sail in July 2024. He also booked a group on a cruise that would sail in October 2024.

His original contract was for 25 cabins and 50 guests, but the contract allowed for changes and cancellations.

He said that there were no minimum requirements for a kosher group. He even did a Costa cruise to Iceland with 23 cabins last year, and had no problem running the kosher program. I was surprised that the contract didn’t have any minimum group size, but indeed, there is nothing specified in it.

When we ran the Antarctica cruise, we had a minimum number of cabins that we guaranteed would be filled in order to move the program forward.

Costa offshores the US office

Yossi says that he dealt with Costa’s USA office, but found that they closed the office on 12/31/23 without telling him. A contact reached out to him privately to let him know that the entire US-based staff was fired.

In 2024, his inquiries were all ignored. Finally, months later inquiries to the USA office were answered by representatives in Brazil, who didn’t know anything about the kosher requirements. So he sent in all of his requirements for kitchen space, prayer spaces, new dishes, and kitchen access for kosher supervisors so that the Brazil office could relay that to the cruises, just as the US offices have done for the past 8 years. This required starting again from scratch, whereas the US office already knew all of the group’s needs.

The bills were paid

Yossi shared that his credit card was on file with Costa’s offices, and they frequently charged it when further balances and deposits were due. He offered his credit card history to show some of these payments, which were all initiated by Costa’s offices:

Yossi also shared this email, showing that he had credit balances with Costa.

He was livid that Costa claimed he failed to make timely payments, as those payments were all initiated by Costa with his card on file.

There were also no emails from Costa even requesting a payment or stating that a payment was overdue.

Kosher problems arise

Just a month before the trip, in June, the Costa Brazil office said they wanted to provide a kosher program their own way, without Yossi’s requirements for things such as certified kosher food, a kosher supervisor, or new dishes. He responded that the group would not be able to eat anything if his list of requirements wasn’t followed.

The Brazil office later stated that his demands were rejected, with the mention of a 50 cabin minimum for kosher food for the first time. When Yossi asked to buy more cabins, he was told there were no more cabins available to purchase. He then purchased more cabins online without going through his group contact, but was later told they could not be merged into his group’s dining room as there was no more room there. In the end, the group’s dining room had plenty of extra space.

When he asked to just pay for the difference as if he would have bought the 50 cabins, he was also told no.

Group participants were informed by the Brazil office 2 days before the cruise that their kosher needs couldn’t be accommodated.

Costa asked Yossi to sign and agree to these terms 2 days before the cruise. When he refused, it was also sent to each kosher guest:

The letter is hilariously contradictory. It states that guests can eat meals suitable for kosher guests before making it clear that the meals will not be kosher. It’s written by someone who seems to have no experience with kosher needs, which is pretty shocking for a cruise line that regularly works with kosher groups.

It would be more shocking if not for the fact that Costa USA support was offshored to Brazil this year.

On the high seas, money talks 

The article didn’t mention it, but the July 2024 cruises did go off as planned with all of the kosher food and requirements, though it took greasing some hands onboard to make it happen. Some compromises were also made, such as paper plates being used because new dishes weren’t onboarded.

According to the cabin crew, the Brazil office never communicated any of the kosher requests to them, but they were able to work things out onboard.

I’d rather attribute things to incompetence before malice, and that seems like a likely result in this case due to the move from the US to an inexperienced Brazil office. Perhaps they just couldn’t be bothered to coordinate the logistics required for the kosher group?

From having worked on a kosher cruise, I can attest that those logistics are quite extensive. It’s certainly easier for them to be ignored and it seems like that’s what may have happened. Still, it’s impossible to rule out that antisemitism didn’t play a role as well.

An oversold cruise

Other mishaps happened as well. One grandfather was initially denied boarding as the cruise was oversold and his reservation was canceled without notice, despite Yossi having paid in full for all the rooms. Yossi consolidated his staff rooms to make another room for the passenger.

A room similarly disappeared on the 2nd July cruise despite it being paid for, due to another oversell situation.

It’s unclear why these passengers were denied boarding without receiving any warning about what was happening.

Post-trip troubles and an October surprise

Costa still hasn’t paid Yossi his commissions for the July cruises nor refunded his surplus payments for them.

When Yossi returned from his July cruise, he was unable to finalize the names for his upcoming October cruise. He contacted the Brazil office, who told him they were working on a technical issue.

Days later, they responded that his rooms for the October cruise were canceled and that he was no longer welcome to do business with Costa:

Surprisingly, the letter doesn’t mention any lack of payment or minimum room requirements. Given Costa’s official statement about those problems, one would expect those to be addressed in this letter. It also notes that “we want to assure you that this decision is not a reflection of your company” and that they have merely changed their business strategy.

Yossi says that the letter clearly exonerates him from Costa’s defamatory claims about his company and that it flies in the face of everything Costa has stated to refute his complaints about the company’s actions.

Yossi also sent me his October 2024 cruise contract. Notably, this cruise was also contracted for 25 cabins as a kosher group, and not for the 50 that the company claimed was the minimum requirement.

While I was surprised that a contract for a kosher group didn’t have minimum cabin requirements and the kosher guarantees more clearly spelled out, Yossi said that other cruise lines such as Holland work similarly. Holland informally requires 25 cabins, but the consequence for not having enough cabins is a fee for rooms canceled below the contracted level, not that you would lose out on kosher accommodations.

He was shocked by Costa’s behavior and at the cancelation of the October 2024 cruise contract, but even more shocked at the statement that Costa provided to DansDeals as his bills were always paid on time and the minimum number of cabins has never been previously brought up.

In his words, “How else can you explain this, if not for antisemitism?”

Cease and desist

Yossi sent this letter to Carnival Corp in response to the statement that Costa provided to DansDeals and is considering legal action against the company:

Costa evaluating legal actions

DansDeals reached back out to Costa asking for documentation or supporting emails for their statement. Their response was,

“Unfortunately, we cannot provide any internal document on this subject as the Company is evaluating the right to take appropriate legal actions to protect Costa’s reputation.”

Final thoughts

This is a pretty shocking case and it sure looks like Costa has some more explaining to do, though the company won’t respond further due to potential litigation.

As for Yossi, he originally thought that this was only about incompetence, but by the end, he’s convinced that antisemitism had to have been a factor in several decisions that led to this point.

What do you make of this incident? Would you blame it on incompetence, antisemitism, or something else?