Alaska is over a hurdle ... only CDC left

[kearney]

Just read that the bill to allow ships to sale from US mainland to Alaska...without stopping in Canada...has passed the House and now just needs Biden's signature...

Edited May 20, 2021 by kearney

[verizon]

I do hope this decision will stay.

Vancouver hotels are way too expensive when cruising out of Canada.

Edited May 20, 2021 by verizon

[JRG]

Grab your snowshoes!

[toddnix]

18 minutes ago, kearney said:

Just read that the bill to allow ships to sale from US mainland to Alaska...without stopping in Canada...has passed the House and now just needs Biden's signature...

 

12 minutes ago, verizon said:

I do hope this decision will stay.

Vancouver hotels are way too expensive when cruising out of Canada.

 

per the legislation, the PVSA waiver would terminate either when Canada drops its cruise ban, or on March 31, 2022.

[WestLakeGirl]

And what of the issue of work visas for the crew?  Wheee does that stand?

[markeb]

12 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

And what of the issue of work visas for the crew?  Wheee does that stand?

The way the act is written, the ship and crew are considered to have departed the US and arrived in Canada when the cruise line notifies Canada of departure from a US port, by email. It’s an interesting tactic to address the various issues all at once. So they’d still qualify for crew visas. Until March 31, 2022. 

[nocl]

57 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

And what of the issue of work visas for the crew?  Wheee does that stand?

The cruises made under the act are considered to be foreign cruises so US work/Visa/tax/revenue rules do not apply.

[SeaHunt]

HAL and Princess have both announced:

 

[middlehaitch]

Can anyone point me in the direction for information on how and when Canada agreed to this?

 

Cheers, h

[Fouremco]

1 minute ago, middlehaitch said:

Can anyone point me in the direction for information on how and when Canada agreed to this?

 

Cheers, h

As far as I can see, there was no need for Canadian agreement. The US has created a temporary waiver to the PVSA to enable the cruise lines to cruise to Alaska or Hawaii without having to visit a Canadian port. While our officials were engaged in initial discussions in a US attempt to get us to drop the temporary ban on cruise ships in our waters, the ban was upheld and the US resolved the problem by passing the waiver to the PVSA.

[JRG]

26 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

While our officials were engaged in initial discussions in a US attempt to get us to drop the temporary ban on cruise ships in our waters, the ban was upheld and the US resolved the problem by passing the waiver to the PVSA.

 

And they did it by merely "deeming" a change to the wording.

 

A simple solution to a complex problem that many said would never likely happen.   Some posters have written pages and pages and pages describing phantom barriers why it would never happen.   

 

Do you have any clue how enticing it is for US cruise passengers to sail to Alaska without having to stop in Vancouver and watch the same version of Wings over Canada.!

 

Let's see if the airlines add more flights now.....

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 hours ago, kearney said:

Just read that the bill to allow ships to sale from US mainland to Alaska...without stopping in Canada...has passed the House and now just needs Biden's signature...

It also needs to have ships with full crews that are trained and passed quarantine.  That will be a bit of a logical challenge and take some time.  India out for now.   Should have limited cruises in July.  Wonder if lines will do only out of Seattle or do Seward/Seattle runs

[harkinmr]

5 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

It also needs to have ships with full crews that are trained and passed quarantine.  That will be a bit of a logical challenge and take some time.  India out for now.   Should have limited cruises in July.  Wonder if lines will do only out of Seattle or do Seward/Seattle runs

Not to mention getting CDC authorization to sail...

[K.T.B.]

Here's hoping the Alaskan ports will all have enough people to work this summer.  Usually they would've had people hired back in April and trained by the time the first ship arrives in early May.  So this will be interesting to see how this develops. 

[nocl]

4 hours ago, harkinmr said:

Not to mention getting CDC authorization to sail...

According to one letter from CCL the ships from its owned lines that will be sailing to Alaska will be requiring vaccinations (HAL, Princess and Carnival). No word on if they will go the same route on other cruises out of US, but it is good to see them announcing it for the Alaska cruises.

 

 

[nocl]

1 hour ago, K.T.B. said:

Here's hoping the Alaskan ports will all have enough people to work this summer.  Usually they would've had people hired back in April and trained by the time the first ship arrives in early May.  So this will be interesting to see how this develops. 

I am flying to Alaska on June 1 to visit relatives. The hotels we are staying at. including in a couple of ports, have all indicated that they are getting lots of bookings. As one put it, no shortage of tourists, only workers.

[TeeRick]

9 hours ago, nocl said:

I am flying to Alaska on June 1 to visit relatives. The hotels we are staying at. including in a couple of ports, have all indicated that they are getting lots of bookings. As one put it, no shortage of tourists, only workers.

Interesting.  I was in Maine last week.  Many places were closed due to labor/worker shortages.  They expect it to be even worse after Memorial Day with the summer season.  In previous years the area derived a lot of temporary workers from Canadian students and also a number coming from eastern Europe.  The travel by land in the US will increase dramatically this summer due to reduced restrictions and vaccines.  But the labor shortage is very real in high tourist areas.

[RedneckBob]

9 hours ago, nocl said:

According to one letter from CCL the ships from its owned lines that will be sailing to Alaska will be requiring vaccinations (HAL, Princess and Carnival). No word on if they will go the same route on other cruises out of US, but it is good to see them announcing it for the Alaska cruises.

 

 

HAL opens today to book cruises from Seattle to Alaska from July 24 to Oct 2; no stop in Canada. Yea! If it happens

[JRG]

16 hours ago, nocl said:

The cruises made under the act are considered to be foreign cruises so US work/Visa/tax/revenue rules do not apply.

 

Can you explain how the experts on board missed this solution.....?  I think I can.

 

As I said months ago,   any proposed legislation would have ALREADY considered the work visa/tax/revenue implications.

 

This is such an OBVIOUS assumption to anybody who has clarity of thought.

 

Naysayers,  Debbie-Downers and Staunch defenders of the PVSA constantly used this work visa/tax/revenue argument as a 'cheap suit' argument and it has fallen apart.

 

Therefore,   that work/visa/tax/revenue argument has just been PUT TO BED.

 

For the same reason,   the work/visa/tax issues will not be a problem when the long term solution is implemented.  IMHO

 

If posters continue to be Naysayers, Debbie-Downers and Staunch defenders then they cannot use this argument in the future with any credibility.

 

 

[sanger727]

15 hours ago, middlehaitch said:

Can anyone point me in the direction for information on how and when Canada agreed to this?

 

Cheers, h

 

Canada doesn't have any say in how a cruise line operating outside of Canada runs. The ONLY reason that Canada is really included in these cruises in the first place is due to a US law. And now the US is creating an exemption for this law. It's a US issue, not a Canada issue.

[LEtue]

19 hours ago, verizon said:

I do hope this decision will stay.

Vancouver hotels are way too expensive when cruising out of Canada.

I only cruised out of Seattle once and it can't compare to those in and out of Vancouver.  I don't see much difference in hotel prices either....

Looking forward to the next RT from Vancouver 😀

 

 

[K.T.B.]

1 hour ago, LEtue said:

I only cruised out of Seattle once and it can't compare to those in and out of Vancouver.  I don't see much difference in hotel prices either....

Looking forward to the next RT from Vancouver 😀

 

 

 

I've sailed out of Seattle twice.  First time I stayed at Inn at the Market and paid a pretty penny for it, but well worth it. Second time I booked through AirBNB and it was a third of the overall cost, even though we stayed 5 nights as opposed to 2 the previous time.

 

I do love Seattle though....

[cangelmd]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Interesting.  I was in Maine last week.  Many places were closed due to labor/worker shortages.  They expect it to be even worse after Memorial Day with the summer season.  In previous years the area derived a lot of temporary workers from Canadian students and also a number coming from eastern Europe.  The travel by land in the US will increase dramatically this summer due to reduced restrictions and vaccines.  But the labor shortage is very real in high tourist areas.

I've thought about this both locally (we're a tourist destination) and on the first cruises.

Personally, I'm not going to care much if the onboard experience on our first cruise (which might just be this August!) is back to normal - I'm going to be happy to be on my balcony, enjoying vacay without cooking and dishes or worrying about where and how to go to dinner. But, I don't think it will be normal because I don't think the staff-passenger ratios will be back to pre-Covid, even with reduced capacity.

 

Down at the beach here, we are seeing 2 problems - people in low paying jobs, especially food service related, are not coming back until their pennies run out (north Alabama for unemployment checks), hence the push to cut out the benefits, also though many of the people that work actually on the beach are imported workers, many from Central Europe or Central America and new groups of them have not been able to get to the US. I don't see a lot of people not wanting to work because of fear of Covid and many of the lower paying  employers have actually made efforts to get people vaccinated, with mixed success.

[jgmorgan]

21 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Down at the beach here, we are seeing 2 problems - people in low paying jobs, especially food service related, are not coming back until their pennies run out (north Alabama for unemployment checks), hence the push to cut out the benefits, also though many of the people that work actually on the beach are imported workers, many from Central Europe or Central America and new groups of them have not been able to get to the US.

One strategy would be to pay a living wage to hospitality workers.

[nocl]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Interesting.  I was in Maine last week.  Many places were closed due to labor/worker shortages.  They expect it to be even worse after Memorial Day with the summer season.  In previous years the area derived a lot of temporary workers from Canadian students and also a number coming from eastern Europe.  The travel by land in the US will increase dramatically this summer due to reduced restrictions and vaccines.  But the labor shortage is very real in high tourist areas.

Yes, a lot of the tourist areas, including Alaska, depend upon seasonal workers, often students (both domestic and foreign).