1 night cruise to 7 night-can we do this?

[New York Nana]

As US citizens, can we take a 1 day cruise from Vancouver to Seattle, then stay on the same ship and leave that evening for a 7 night r/t cruise to Alaska inside passage? I've read on CC about US laws, but I am confused by the terms.

Thanks for any advice/guidance/explanations!

[Cruise Junky]

Yes, you should be able to. So it's one night Vancouver to Seattle and then a Seattle return right? So you're actually cruising Vancouver to Seattle so the PVSA wouldn't apply.

[Skai]

Cruise Junky gave you the correct answer above. (For the sake of further clarification) The PVSA only applies to voyages departing from a U.S. location.

 

Since your cruise starts in a foreign port(Vancouver), The PVSA rules only apply once you've departed from Seattle.

 

What would not be allowed under the PVSA (for example) would be to depart from Seattle to Vancouver on a 1-day cruise and then depart on the same day/vessel for a coastal cruise ending in Los Angeles.

 

Under the PVSA, closed-loop cruises departing from/returning to the same U.S. port require at least one stop at a near foreign port (ie. Victoria or Ensenada).

 

Cruises that depart from one U.S. port/arriving in another U.S. port must visit one distant foreign port (ie. Cartagena, Aruba) outside of North America -- including Central America and most of the Caribbean to be allowed under the law. For example, this scenario would come into play for full-transit Panama Canal cruises that involved departing from a port on one U.S. coast and arriving at a port on a different U.S. coast.

 

The PVSA is why the 1-day cruises from Vancouver to Seattle(and reverse) exist. Otherwise repositioning cruise ships would just sail from Los Angeles, San Diego etc. and sail straight to Seattle before departing for their summer schedule of 7-day RT Alaska cruises.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Skai

[cruiseintoheaven]

We are doing exactly that this coming May. Spending a few days in Seattle, taking the Amtrak Cascades rail from Seattle to Vancouver where we board the Crown Princess 1 night Vancouver to Seattle and stay on the the 7 night R/T Alaska inside passage. How did we determine if we could do this? The collective wisdom of Cruise Critic! [emoji4]

[New York Nana]

Thank you all for your help.

Skai - you explained it perfectly for me to understand it now!

We're excited about getting to go back for Vancouver for a couple days and then getting an 'early' start on our Alaskan cruise!

Thanks everyone!

[shanecindy21403]

Yes we are doing the same thing this May. Flying into Vancouver and spending 3 days there. Then boarding the Ruby for a 1 night down to Seattle and then the 7 night R/T out of Seattle. Can't wait.

[chengkp75]

Thank you all for your help.

Skai - you explained it perfectly for me to understand it now!

We're excited about getting to go back for Vancouver for a couple days and then getting an 'early' start on our Alaskan cruise!

Thanks everyone!

 

Just to clarify a part of your original post, and to amplify on Skai's post, the PVSA applies to everyone, not just US citizens. So, for example, a Canadian could not sail from Seattle to LA without going to Cartagena (distant foreign port) first.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...PVSA applies to everyone, not just US citizens. So, for example, a Canadian could not sail from Seattle to LA without going to Cartagena (distant foreign port) first.

 

OT: A very good point, and one that I was not aware of. Do you know if there are any similar laws that apply in other parts of the world, or is the PVSA a "one off"?

Edited November 2, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78

[chengkp75]

OT: A very good point, and one that I was not aware of. Do you know if there are any similar laws that apply in other parts of the world, or is the PVSA a "one off"?

 

I know for a fact that Japan and China have cabotage laws pertaining to passengers, very similar to the PVSA. There are probably others. The EU restricts transport of passengers from one port in a member country to another port in a member country to EU member nations' ships, unless the ship goes to another country in between (you could not travel from Naples to Venice on a Bahamian ship unless you went to Greece or Albania, for example, in between. About 50 countries (Brazil and Russia are a couple of major ones) have maritime cabotage laws of one form or another, I'm not sure how many pertain to passenger travel.

 

As a note, airlines have similar restrictions. You could not travel between New Orleans and Detroit on Air Canada, without a stop in Canada. This is why so many flights these days have multiple airline flight numbers, as the airlines essentially "share" the flight and get around the cabotage laws.

[skf]

I know for a fact that Japan and China have cabotage laws pertaining to passengers, very similar to the PVSA.

That's what I thought from looking into Japan cruises. They go to Korea or Russia so they can drop you in a different port in Japan.

 

You could not travel between New Orleans and Detroit on Air Canada, without a stop in Canada.

Just for fun I looked into flying AC to Europe...no problem. Then I tried to "book" from FLL to Montréal or Toronto and back to Boston. Couldn't be done without a legitimate stop in Canada or a hotel stay.

Steve