Posted on 02/17/2021 7:38:23 AM PST by Capt. Tom
Norwegian Cruise Line provided an update on February 16 and cancelled its sailings through May 2021. NCL also updated guests and travel agents on the state of the cruise ban in Canada, which has severely affected the cruise industry’s plans to sail in Alaska this summer.
No Cancelations, Looking at Alternatives In the statement released on the companies website, the cruise line states it will not be canceling any voyages to Alaska. The cruise line will stop taking any bookings for the 2021 Alaska season as it looks to ‘explore several initiatives that may allow such cruises to continue.’
The cruise line says it will be working through the available options as soon as possible. Given that this is an extremely fluid situation, it will also work with the Canadian Government to find possibilities to amend the current suspension.
It is the first time the line has made any comments towards the Canadian cruise ban. As it looks to find a way to save the Alaska season, it could be false hope as the alternatives are looking less likely by the day.
Are There Any Alternatives Available? Both Royal Caribbean last week and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings this week have said they will not be canceling any voyages. Both lines say they will wait for further options and communicate any changes to guests later. But how realistic is this?
According to a report on Travel Weekly, the chances of finding any alternatives to the Alaskan season will be a tough nut to crack. Canadian government officials have been less than optimistic about any possible amendments to the cruise ban, while a possible amendment to the Passenger Vessel Service Act seems to be increasingly unlikely.
Canada backing down seems to be unlikely. In several newspapers, there have been news reports that the crackdown on the cruise industry has been payback by the Canadian Government concerning the shutting down of the Keystone XL pipeline project by the US.
A columnist for the Toronto-based National Post even suggested Canada should “kneecap the Alaska cruise industry” by denying cruise ships the chance to make scheduled stops in Canada, which would “decimate whole swaths of the American cruise industry.” Of course, this would make little sense as the Canadian Cruise industry would suffer as hard, with thousands of jobs in jeopardy.
However, the Canadians are not open to cruise ships making technical stops in Canada either, according to Clay Cervoni, a spokesperson for Transport Canada, which would make for only one other option.
The other alternative would be to amend the Passenger Vessels Services Act. There are ways that the law can be amended; however, economic reasons are usually not a binding factor in this.
According to Charlie Papavizas, chair of the maritime practice for Winston & Strawn, on travel weekly, the law states that any waiver has to be in the interest of national defense. In virtually every denial, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has found little to no national defense interest.
This leaves very few options for a battered and bruised industry, for whom the hits keep coming. However, this is not to say there are no positive points happening in the cruise industry.
The fact that Carnival Corporation brand AIDA cruises is planning to set sail in Europe with four ships next month speaks volumes about the pent-up travel bug that many are feeling and the willingness of cruise lines to send out ships whenever there is a possibility.
Although AIDA is a cruise line that mainly serves German guests, any positive results from the cruise lines in Europe, together with positive news from Singapore, could very well convince Canada to allow some form of cruise ship travel to pass through its ports.
IMHO If the SHTF an American is better off in the USA or Canada, somewhere in an alleged friendly country. Not to mention just about everybody including my relatives that have done an Alaskan cruise and loved it.
The answer of whether cruises to Alaska will make it anytime in 2021 should be coming shortly. -Tom
So the cruise lines don’t stop in Canada?
So what?
People won’t see a few kangaroos.
Big deal.
AND, no matter how hard you try, you can't legislate what people are going to be scared of.
These cruise ships are foreign flagged and USA law says they must visit a foreign port, (Canada in this case) before returning to the USA if they left from a USA port . -Tom
USA law says they must visit a foreign port “
That is a curious law. Why? I thought maybe Alaska cruises could just leave from Seattle and not stop in Canada. When we went on ours l don’t think we stopped in Canada. However we did leave from Vancouver.
IMHO the cruise ships will have no trouble getting customers. In fact we recently looked into a fall cruise and the 3 dates we looked at were almost sold out.
Nope. Not according to the law.
If they were American flagged, they could do that, but almost all cruise ships are foreign flagged and can't do that legally, unless they visit a foreign port before returning to the USA.
There is an American flagged cruise ship in the USA state of Hawaii that does cruises from there, and because it is American flagged it can do cruises around the Hawaiian Islands legally, without having to visit a foreign port before returning to it's homeport in Hawaii. -Tom
The bees will still be working overtime at Butchart Garden, the butterflies will still be sucking up the nectars, eagles will sit high atop forests in nests , bears will poop in the woods, whales will sound and bush pilots will fly.. somehow oh somehow, Alaska will get by.. not the same may be true for you or I.
Alaska in 2022 .. or Bust!!
Scaring the sheeple was done to allow mass mailing of unsolicited ballots. Made it much easier to commit fraud.
Republicans will either learn to cheat better or be relegated to a minority party for decades.
To be US flagged the ship has to be American made, cruise ships aren't made in the US, and US crewed. So existing cruise ships can't be American flagged and a US crew would be a serious disadvantage. The net effect today, the cruise industry aside, is higher freight rates for US to US ship transit. One of the reasons US "exports" are expensive in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. If your Alaska cruise left from Vancouver, that's the foreign port required.
Please tell your people about the Jones Act.
S Jackson did that in post 11.
The way to help out cruising Americans is, as you have said in previous posts, to waive that act or amend it to allow foreign flagged cruise ships to sail port to port in the USA.
With the democrats in political power in our country, it will be difficult to do that as these socialists, communists, American haters want everything under their control, and more tax money to squander to buy votes. -Tom .
Nothing against S Jackson, but it’s YOUR thread!! Just saying....
Couldn’t a ship leave from Seattle and make a quick stop in Canada pick up some supplies to satisfy the law and head on up to Alaska?
Canada has banned cruise ships until Feb.28, 2022, thus killing the 2021 season.
Right now, the Cruise lines are trying to get Canada to change that prohibition.
It doesn't look good for the cruise lines .-Tom
What l’m thinking is no excursions or even anyone getting off, just stop at a Canadian port pick up some supplies to get around the Jones act and leave.
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