Jones Act question

[FrogCruiser]

On the recent Hawaii to Ensenada cruise the captain explained why we had to disembark in Ensenada instead of going with the ship back to San Diego...(the ship actually beat me back to SanDiego as it was parked at the pier next to the airport by the time I arrived at the airport)...

He explained that just stopping at the port in Ensenada would not satisy the criteria of the Jones Act which demands that a non US flagged ship visit a foreign port if it embarks and disemarks from a US port.

Now I see the Radiance of the Seas is scheduled for a RT San Diego to Hawaii cruise in May of 06 - and has a stop in Ensenada on the way back from 11:00 pm to 11:59 pm....so what is the truth here? Why couldn't the Serenade or the Radiance have stopped in Ensenada this year for an hour and then continued on to San Diego if they are going to do just that next year? Could the 79 dollar each person bus transfer fee times 2000 passengers have made a difference or am I being too cynical here?

It certainly was an inconvenience to disembark in Ensenada instead of San Diego and added an expense.

[wrp96]

The difference with the Radiance next year is that it is a round trip. Because the Radiance begins and ends in the same US port, they only have to stop in a foreign port (it doesn't matter which one). But because your Hawaii to Ensenada cruise doesn't begin and end in the same port, to be able to end in a different US port than you started in you would have to stop in a distant foreign port. Ensenada doesn't count as a distant foreign port, so that is why you can't disembark in San Diego.

 

Sorry.

[macpiper]

From a previous post, just confirms the above;

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by artkoll

Why cant the 11 night eastbound cruise to Hawaii do the touch and go in Ensenada, Mexico like the 14 night Hawaii circle cruise do.

 

 

 

Because the 14 night cruise returns to the same U.S. port that it originally departed from. Thus it only has to make a stop in ANY foreign port.

 

If the cruise originates from one U.S. port and ends in a different U.S. port it must have a DISTANT foreign port in between. Mexico and/or Canada do not qualify as a distant foreign ports.

 

Therefore the one-way travel from Hawaii avoids the whole issue by just ending in a foreign country instead of a different U.S. port.

 

All of this only applies to foreign flagged ships. NCL gets arounds this issue in Hawaii by having a seperate brand (NCL America).

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