Bad decision few years ago, but want to cruise Alaska

I hate admitting this but I am sure many others made bad decisions in their lives, and we are not criminals. We are 67 and 61 and both have a dui 6 and 7 years ago, weren't together at the time, just happened. Anyhow , I am trying to plan a trip to Alaska at the end of August, give or take.

Been researching a little bit, and thought if we didn't do the Vancouver stop we wouldn't have to fill out all the paperwork because of the dui's, also not get off the ship in Victoria.

Would like to probably do a 7 day, and then a few days at Denali and ???. Would like to see Glacier or Hubbard.

I was trying to find out where it says the ship and their port information with lengths of time.

I may have just not researched enough for this. I have planned all my trips off of this and trip advisor and they were perfect.

It just makes me sick, because I want to get working on this, but don't know if it is possible because of the dui's. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated, thank you.

You will always need to do the paperwork. They will not accept your word that you will not get off the ship in Canada. In fact, you will be in Canada even while on board.

Canada is very serious about it. The ships have to stop in Canada.

The itinerary is found on the websites

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Thank you, appreciate the reply back.

'...a few days at Denali...' means you're thinking about a one-way cruise. Which means you have no option except to either start or end in Vancouver. Which means dealing with the fact that, by Canadian legal standards, you actually are both criminals.

Since it hasn't been 10 years yet, you should apply in advance for Rehabilitation - this does involve a fee and a wait, but if you've kept your noses clean since those DUIs it's very likely to be granted. Details are here - current fee is CAD$200. Since it has been over 5 years, but not 10, you could chance your arm and show up at the border, but it's risky - the CBSA officer has total discretion to deny you entry whereas >10yrs the default assumption is that you're deemed rehabilitated (but you still may need to show paperwork to prove dates).

The only way you're exploring Denali without dealing with the above is to fly there from the US and not enter Canada at all. RTs from Seattle that use Victoria as a PVSA-compliance stop see lots of reports of individuals being pulled aside, forbidden entry, and having to stay on the ship - but 1 way cruises mean you cannot 'opt out' of entering Canada.

NB: not a lawyer, but I do know that 'DUI' covers all manner of offences in the US, some of which are classified differently up here. Especially if your DUI was a 'bargained-down' charge, you may still be on the hook for what the original offence(s) actually would have been under Canadian law rather than just an Impaired Driving charge - and we have higher sentencing depending HOW drunk someone was (double the legal limit or more), relevant if your court docs list your BAC. If you both just had one beer or glass of wine too many and failed a breathalyzer with no damage done to people or property, my assumptions about likelihood of success/fee stand - but if you crashed your car into something expensive, or injured a person, the Canadian Criminal Code levies multiple and more serious charges that may cost $1000 each to process or may render you inadmissible for life.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but without ALL the details of your particular case it's impossible to say where on the spectrum of criminality you fall - so giving you worst and best case scenarios seems to cover all the bases...

Unless you are legally eligible to enter Canada, you would be denied boarding.

There are some Alaska cruises that don't include Canada such as this one:

http://www.silversea.com/destinations/alaska-cruise/tokyo-to-seward-anchorage-ak-3709/?ga=list

My suggestion would be that you think outside the box and consider doing the above sort of cruise or something strictly in Alaska such as this:

https://www.expeditions.com/destinations/north-america/alaska/itineraries/exploring-alaskas-coastal-wilderness/overview/

No, it will not be as cheap as a cruise that goes through a Canada port, but it will be a great experience.

you might also investigate the Alaska Marine Highway system. Starts in Bellingham, WA and goes all the way... It has one possible stop in Prince Rupert in Canada, but you wouldn't get off there. It would be a hop on, hop off type of thing. EM

http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/routes.shtml

OP, email me at sun underscore lovin1 at yahoo and I will put you in touch with someone who can help you. I'm a 57 year old female who got as DUI in 2008. I was able to get Canadian Rehabilitation and can now enter Canada. Email me and I will get you a referral to someone who can help you.

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Unless you are legally eligible to enter Canada, you would be denied boarding.

I'd thought this too but in a couple posts in a felony thread in the Ask A Cruise Question topic, some knowledgeable people have said this is not true. The person could board but by the time the ship ported in Canada the Canadian officials would have vetted the manifest and scheduled that passenger for an onboard interview which would either let the person off ship to visit the Canadian port, or would notify ship security to keep him aboard, or in rare case arrest.

I'd thought this too but in a couple posts in a felony thread in the Ask A Cruise Question topic, some knowledgeable people have said this is not true. The person could board but by the time the ship ported in Canada the Canadian officials would have vetted the manifest and scheduled that passenger for an onboard interview which would either let the person off ship to visit the Canadian port, or would notify ship security to keep him aboard, or in rare case arrest.

This MAY be the case on an RT Seattle trip - but since OP stated they wanted to spend time in Denali after, that means starting in Vancouver. In other words, they have to prove admissibility to Canada before they even GET to the ship. If they're refused - no cruise, end of story.

I'd also wager that most of the tales of folks with records not hearing anything from Canadian authorities until the day before their Victoria stop are not from the last couple of years. The new info sharing goes both ways - we tell you about our criminals, you tell us about yours - so it's much more likely that someone with a record will be refused boarding in Seattle than used to be the case...

The ONLY ways to guarantee cruising Alaska with a criminal record are either not entering Canada at all (via the alternative cruises, or similar, mentioned above that are allowed to move pax Coastwise per PVSA rules) or clearing your record in advance. Anything else has a risk of No Cruise For You - and nobody can give a straight answer to how big that risk is, there's simply too much variability of types of offence and discretion of individual CBSA officers.