Possible Return to Cruising
 

Light at the end of the tunnel?

I'm willing to get underway and 'sea' how it goes.. Hopefully fair winds and following seas.

CDC 'committed' to U.S. cruise industry resuming operations by mid-summer

Wonder if this will have any impact on Canada to open their ports and waters to the bigger cruise ships? There doesn’t seem to be any traction in Congress to waive provisions of the PVSA so the Alaskan season will not happen even if other US based cruises start up in July.

Would seem that a waiver of PVSA should be possible. Would a Seattle, Alaska, Seattle itinerary be reasonable?

Possible if a waiver is passed by Congress but the issue then becomes bypassing Canada by going out into the Pacific and staying in International waters until in US waters. I have made the inside passage typically used by cruise ships a number of times and even that can get rough. Going out into the open ocean up there is no Caribbean and can get downright nasty.

I really see no harm of sailing through Canadian waters if not docking. If a ship did dock for an emergency easy enough to quarantine the entire ship.

How other countries welcome ships back will determine how successful the resumption of cruising will be.

Maybe Canada is just PO'd with America for not sending more vaccine their way.

I agree and was actually surprised the ban wasn’t just Canadian ports but also Canadian waters. I would have thought the Alaskan cruise season was a nice boast to at least Vancouver, BC. Canada actually doing fairly well now with vaccines but did get off to a slower start because of an initial shortage.

Absolutely not.

If you think that, you haven't been paying attention. BC is under severe restrictions until at least the end of May, and we still have to wait four months for our second shots.

The issue that hasn't been addressed is where the crew (at least the non-European big wigs) will get their vaccines from.

Canada's ban on cruise ships carrying over 100 people is scheduled to be in place until February 22, 2022 and applies to Canadian waters not just ports.

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-c...e-vessels.html

The ban pre-dates America loaning Canada a million doses of Astra Zeneca, a vaccine that is not approved by the FDA and is prohibited for use in America.

I was going by this article. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/corona...hots-1.5247509

That's a very small piece of the whole story. Provinces are setting new records every day with infections and hospitalizations. Hospitals are near capacity in several provinces, some places still have curfews, and most have significant restrictions. Canada got hit very hard with variants.

It's understood that Canada has banned cruise ships from their ports and waters until some later date. I was wondering what harm would be caused by a transiting ship with no scheduled port calls?

No harm would be done but sovereign nations typically do not take kindly to foreign vessels violating their territorial waters when they've been told to stay out. Spain tried it in the 90's on Canada's east coast and one of their ships was fired upon and seized.

Not suggesting such action, just wondering why Canada would keep the transit restriction in place if the U.S. resumes cruising. Nothing more! I'm not suggesting that they open their ports. In a transit from the U.S. mainland to Alaska the inside passage is the safest route. While I'm confident cruise ships can tolerate heavy weather I'm not so sure about the passengers. Removing the transit option seems heavy handed and unnecessary in my opinion.

I suspect there's either a real or perceived fear that if a ship transiting their waters has an outbreak, there'd be pressure for Canada to assist/let the ship dock. It might take international or per-cruiseline agreements that the ship won't even hint that Canada should accept them, and perhaps waivers signed by the passengers saying they accept the risk of being on a cruise is...being stuck on a cruise until they clear their cases. You don't want a repeat of the Zaandam with people who got on a cruise in *March* after the risks were crystal clear crying that nobody would accept poor infected them.