imobannon

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No. She said she didn't know. Egad. Read posts, and if you don't actually know the answer, don't provide one.

You are wrong. If the original poster was talking about the traditional Drinks On Us, yes... BUT there is a separate casino club promotion that existed a little before Covid, and is occasionally still offered to casino regulars, that offers Drinks On Us from the second you get on the ship, without casino points qualifications.That promotion is only valid while playing in the casino. --- HOWEVER --- There is also a pretty rare promotion from the casino club that offers "Drinks On Us Everywhere" - which is basically the Carnival Casino club comping the CHEERS! program for the customer. Alcohol drinks from any bar or restaurant on the ship, and non-alcoholic beverages and water, as well. From the moment you walk on the ship (Except Galveston and NY on day one, because of state laws). I have had the "Drinks On Us Everywhere" once in the past (2019), and am sailing next week with the offer from Carnival. I will also be spending time and $ in the casino, which is why I get these deals. But since the Covid restart of cruising, the casino has become the slowest place to get drinks on ships.

On a non-related note, but one people wonder about: The ArriveCAN app: Royal did not require it to be completed before cruising. I did not submit the app until the 3rd day of cruising, and we visited Victoria, Canada on the last full day.

And while I cruised on Royal for this trip, the primary social media voice of Carnival answered several questions about denial of boarding earlier this season (on Facebook), stating point blank that the cruise line does not, and never has, denied boarding based on such old histories. That said, U.S. customs and law enforcement will likely have access to your information, so if you have *active* warrants in either the U.S. or Canada, don't be an idiot.

This is why I was following the topic closely over the past few months.

There are several old, and a few newer, threads regarding cruising through Canada if you are a U.S. citizen on an Alaska cruise, and you maybe had a DUI or other arrest when you were younger. The following is my experience from 3 days ago (Aug 5-12, 2022) on Royal Caribbean. For people not aware that this might be an issue, Canada has the right to establish their own laws and requirements for entry. Don't try to argue this. Yes, an old DUI might be considered a reason for Canada to deny entry. If you're searching this topic and found this thread here as a result, you probably have already seen all of the scary and "don't even book" or "they won't let you board" websites. Here's my story from 3 days ago. I was worried about being admitted or denied, because of the posts on those scary websites and blogs. We had this cruise booked before covid, and rescheduled a couple times when the restart happened. We are experienced cruisers, but first time to Alaska or through Canada. This cruise was Royal from Seattle, returning to Seattle. A closed-loop cruise. Ports visited included Juneau, Skagway and Sitka (in Alaska), with a final port visit to Victoria, BC, Canada. My legal history: I am a Navy Vet, have a couple of college degrees, etc. I am 52. When I was 18, in 1988, I was arrested for DUI in Oklahoma. I deserved it. DUI is a crime and for a good reason. It was my first offense and I received a deferred sentence, which means no conviction. For those unfamiliar with legal issues, you can be found guilty and sentenced to probation or jail (that's called a conviction), -- or you can be found not guilty. Or... you can plead guilty, with conditions, and they set the charges on the shelf for 6 months to a year. If you don't get in any more trouble, they dismiss the charges. No conviction. That is what I got. But... Canada can see the arrest in most cases, and also often can see that you plead guilty, even if you were never convicted. There's more to my legal history: In 1997, after I returned from the Navy, I was arrested for what was apparently an old warrant from before I joined the Navy. Fingerprints/handcuffs/night in jail. At first, they charged me with felony embezzlement of rental property. Sounds horrible. It was a rental video game I hadn't returned, and the old felony limit in Oklahoma had still been $50 at the time. The charge was dropped to misdemeanor and eventually dropped, after I paid fines, court costs, etc. No convictions. AND: In 2008, 20 years after my first DUI, I drove drunk again. And got caught. And spent a night in jail. And deserved it. Honestly, I think DUI laws in the U.S. need to be harsher. Anyways, that one really did set me straight and I haven't driven under the influence of anything since. Since it had been so long since the prior arrest, I once again did not get convicted of DUI. I had to pay some serious court costs and fines, etc. And lawyer costs. CANADA: And then, in 2015 with my girlfriend and her kids (14 and 16 at the time), we decided to drive up into Canada when we were visiting a border state. And we got stopped at the border, questioned, and triggered enough checklist items that they asked us inside. (Oklahoma license plates, girls have diff last names than mom, etc). Good stop, but the result was they said no entry. (That was fun to tell the U.S. border agents when they asked how long we were in Canada... "about 1 hour." YES, I GOT INTO CANADA: No problems booking. No problems on board. Once the ship set sail, I knew that the worst they would do (which you might have seen on other post threads) is maybe ask me a few questions before the Victoria, Canada port and maybe not let me get off. But nothing happened. I listed to the announcements, and nobody's name was asked to go to a pre-screening room/event. We got off the ship, and went through the port visitor entrance, and it was actually less staffed than most Caribbean countries' ports. I think I saw 2 Canadian border officials, mostly gazing into the clear blue Canadian skies. Within my own view, not a single person was checked/stopped/anything. We spent about 5 hours in Victoria- a really beautiful city, but as far as cruise ports go is kinda meh, lol. I do like Canada though. So- when you read the posts here where people wonder if they will get stopped trying to board a cruise that visits a Canadian port, most of those people have far fewer legal problems than I've listed above. Or they are only admitting some of their history. Before the cruise, I did a background check on myself, and the legal issues I mentioned above are listed on my FBI background check. You can order one for yourself from the FBI, and supposedly the Canadians have access to the same thing (or more). The FBI "Identity History Summary Check" costs about $18 for the FBI to run the report, but then you have to go to a local major post office and pay $50 to have your fingerprints taken. The report is then sent to you via email and mail. I got my email within 30 minutes. https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks I also searched the state bureau of investigation and state court network, since all of my offenses happened in Oklahoma. They showed the same things. So, with a long-standing cruise booking, and old crimes that are still on my record, Canada had no problem with me visiting. A point to note for others, however, is that Canada's DUI laws changed in 2018. If you have a DUI in the U.S. after that, your experience could be much worse for a couple of reasons. Before that, they considered a DUI forgivable (for entry into their nation) if it was more than 10 years old. That might have been why I was denied at the border- the 2008 one wasn't 10 years old yet. They don't have to forgive it, but they can. But any DUIs after 2018 can be considered a "forever-ban" from Canada. There will be the usual people who say "don't even try to visit Canada" if you have an old DUI. My advice if you haven't booked yet, would be to try to clean up your record via expungement (that will clean your FBI check). To do so, you have to use a lawyer. I did not do this. I had serious stress issues, but ended up having no problems at all- zero. If you've already booked, I would recommend not asking the cruise line. If you make them worry, they might bump you. And don't ask the Canadian border agency, since that will put you on their radar. I think the best thing would be to order your FBI background check, just so you know. If you had one single legal issue 20 years ago, don't stress too much. A BIG DIFFERENCE THOUGH: If you are flying or driving into Canada to take a cruise from a Canadian port, like Vancouver, you might have a very different result. Entry into Canada by car or airplane goes through (I think) more substantial scrutiny. I am happy to answer any questions.

Nobody was talking about active warrants. Jacouser was posting about a 10+ year old arrest that had been long since resolved. - And yes, anybody with an active warrant in the U.S. who takes a cruise is giving the authorities 7+ days to know where they will be, lol. Most of the social media posts referencing handcuffed passengers on arrival... that's what it was. (Including child support! If you owe back child support, don't be taking a cruise until you take care of your kids!)

Thanks for the update, Jac- as I'm sure you know, there hasn't been a lot of post covid/post 2018 updates on this topic from actual cruisers, with before and after reports. Did you use passport and how far in advance did you do online checkin?

If they need to try to get out of the cruise, with no insurance, they might try to claim they have covid symptoms- which most cruise lines still consider a no-go, and will allow a future cruise credit.

New cruise? Recent?

Thousands of U.S. travelers have already sailed this season on Alaska cruises that went through Victoria, and there are no google/youtube personal stories of this happening. There are tons of websites for Canadian law firms, but no personal "I was prevented from boarding" posts or videos. In the age of youtube/facebook/insta/CruiseCritic/etc, there would be hundreds by now. Apx 2% of the U.S. population has had a DUI or other arrest that would be vulnerable to Canadian immigration law. 3000 people per ship. 10 ships per week. 5 month cruise season. ??? No personal stories on social media about getting refused entry. I think the original poster is gonna be fine.

Thousands of U.S. travelers have already sailed this season on Alaska cruises that went through Victoria, and there are no google/youtube personal stories of this happening. There are tons of websites for Canadian law firms, but no personal "I was prevented from boarding" posts or videos. In the age of youtube/facebook/insta/CruiseCritic/etc, there would be hundreds by now. Apx 2% of the U.S. population has had a DUI or other arrest that would be vulnerable to Canadian immigration law. 3000 people per ship. 10 ships per week. 5 month cruise season. ??? No personal stories on social media about getting refused entry. I think the original poster is gonna be fine.

Thousands of U.S. travelers have already sailed this season on Alaska cruises that went through Victoria, and there are no google/youtube personal stories of this happening. There are tons of websites for Canadian law firms, but no personal "I was prevented from boarding" posts or videos. In the age of youtube/facebook/insta/CruiseCritic/etc, there would be hundreds by now. Apx 2% of the U.S. population has had a DUI or other arrest that would be vulnerable to Canadian immigration law. 3000 people per ship. 10 ships per week. 5 month cruise season. ??? No personal stories on social media about getting refused entry. I think the original poster is gonna be fine.

American law (PVSA?) states that most ships that leave American ports that aren't registered in the U.S. must visit at least one foreign port before returning to the U.S. The big cruise lines are not registered in the U.S. because labor laws would require them to pay much much better. So the big cruise lines have to visit a foreign port. However, a few (very few) smaller cruise lines do register as American and follow American labor laws. That allows them to go from a U.S. port to any other U.S. port without visiting a foreign one. And also, Norwegian Cruise Lines has one ship in Hawaii, which is registered as a U.S. vessel, that only visits the islands of Hawaii. As such, they pay U.S. minimum wages (or maybe Hawaii minimum wage), and are subject to more U.S. laws than other foreign flagged vessels.