Cruises to Nowhere

[sharpie13]

Seeing today's daily poll, the question came to mind: How come there are no west coast Cruises to Nowhere? Anyone have a reason why? Would anyone else be interested in such a cruise?

 

Just curious.

[Splinter]

Well, one reason I can think of that except during the summer, the west coast can be cold, and rough water is common except right along shore. In addition, you would have to have at least one stop in a foreign port to meet legal requirements (generally Mexico or Canada) if the embarkation/disembarkation port was in the USA.

[leoandhugh]

Splinter's second reason is exactly why the Monarch of the Seas on her 3 and 4 day cruises out of LA makes the day stop at Ensenada; it fulfills the requirement that a ship carrying passengers in and out of the same US port has to stop at a foreign port, so "nowhere" doesn't count. nor would Catalina or San Francisco or Santa Barbara.

[starshine]

I would love a cruise to nowhere from the west coast. I would just like more choices of cruises from L.A. period. I also wish the cruise lines would offer more Pacific Coastal cruises than just the repositioning months of May and September. Or a roundtrip Pacific Coastal would be good. I would definitely be interested in 4-7 day cruises that went to Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and/or Monterey if they were offered. Throw in some sea days and I'd be good to go. :)

 

As far as the colder seas, that problem could be solved by stationing a ship with an atrium pool such as one of the ships that sail Alaska. When ships sail 5 days enroute to Hawaii, they must run into the same problem of cold sea days.

[Cuizer2]

There have been cruises to nowhere from the west coast, but they are very rare. Most likely because of the limited number of ships and the fact that the ships that are on the west coast are running regular routes.

 

I know someone booked a two night cruise to nowhere last year on the NCL Spirit out of San Francisco. As you know, a cruise to nowhere does not stop in any ports. It runs around in the ocean and returns to the departure port.

 

A lot of times these tend to be filler cruises. In other words, the ship arrives at a new port on Thursday, but is scheduled for a Saturday to Saturday cruise. So the ship will have a two night cruise to nowhere. Basically it spends all of Friday cruising in a slow circle in international waters. That way the ship earns a little money and does not have to pay any extended docking fees.

 

Doing a little research, I see the NCL Pearl is scheduled to do a one night (Friday, September 28, 2007) cruise out of Los Angeles ...

 

1-night Nowhere (no port stops) (Los Angeles roundtrip)

 

Cruise line: Norwegian Ship name: Norwegian Pearl

Ports of call: Los Angeles, California; Los Angeles, California 2007 departures: September 28

 

 

Book it if you are interested.