Hiring US crew would be great and I’m not against it.. I just don’t think there is enough of a demand for passengers to pay a premium to go on a cruise around various regions in the US. If there was a demand, “cruise to no where” and “coastal” cruises wouldn’t be so cheap every time its offered. In addition, there would be more US built cruise ships if the demand was there.

There are niche markets like Hawaii and Alaska that can justify the premiums and people will pay... Also small river cruises have a market. The problem is in the US we are limited in places cruise ships can go that can attract enough of a premium to cover the cost of labor. That leads into the question of are vacationers willing to pay a higher cruise fare to cover the cost?

Most loyal of cruisers would, like how frequent flyers will pay more and even go out of their way to fly on their preferred airline. Same goes for cruise lines... the loyal and most frequent cruisers will more than likely to continue to cruise regardless of destination and routing. The question is will there be an enough of a demand for regular and first time cruisers to pay the premium to go on cruises to places they can drive to or fly to easily.