Alaska Cruising may happen this year after all!

[Radiioman46]

From the Cruise News:

 

"The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that will allow foreign-flagged cruise ships to operate in Alaska without calling on a Canadian port as the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act was passed on Thursday. 

It's a huge step to saving part of the 2021 Alaska cruise season. 

The legislation was the work of Alaskan Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

Next, the bill goes to the U.S. House for approval.

The House will need to vote it through and then President Joe Biden will need to sign it.

"Huge victory today in my effort to provide an opportunity for economic recovery for Alaskan communities who rely on cruise ship passengers -- the Senate just passed my bill," said Senator Murkowski in a social media post.

If the bill moves through other branches of the U.S. goverment efficiently, the next step would be for the industry to gain CDC approval to operate. "

[joepeka]

A thread I started yesterday but it was moved to the Alaska board:  

 

[Radiioman46]

Sorry didn't know you originally posted it. However, since Carnival is working on a Seattle - Alaska cruise this July, I think this is relevant for this Carnival board. But what I think doesn't count. lol!

[asalligo]

Am I wrong or does it seem far too late to save any of the 2021 Alaska sailing season. Carnival is talking about it's first cruises from the US being in July. I guess maybe they could get a cruise scheduled in Alaska for September, but that seems tight. 

[joepeka]

30 minutes ago, Radiioman46 said:

Sorry didn't know you originally posted it. However, since Carnival is working on a Seattle - Alaska cruise this July, I think this is relevant for this Carnival board. But what I think doesn't count. lol!

(Possibly a double post, sorry if so). No worries. I share your thought about relevance of this topic to Carnival and besides, it won't be seen by nearly as many interested members on the Alaska board as here but oh well. Like you say, what we think is not relevant!

[ProgRockCruiser]

Well, let's make it Carnival-specific/relevant!

 

If this passes, it will be a temporary measure as currently written.  One of the requirements is:

 

"the voyage begins not later than February 28, 2022"

 

If that is the case, would/could Carnival scramble to get more ships into position for late-summer-fall cruises from other ports like San Francisco?  Or are they a "one hit wonder", relying on the ships in their sister lines to capture most of that market?

 

I've never cruised to Alaska, and probably won't for a while, but the itinerary does interest me and I will make it one day.

[Eli_6]

I would personally love to see a CCL Alaska cruise this year.  Hope it happens!

[GonzoWCS]

Hope it happens too!

[Jamman54]

Carnival had announced that the Miracle would be replacing the Freedom doing Alaska cruises from July 27th through September 4th. If this bill passes the House and is signed by Biden this could happen. 😎

[cruisingguy007]

2 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Well, let's make it Carnival-specific/relevant!

 

If this passes, it will be a temporary measure as currently written.  One of the requirements is:

 

"the voyage begins not later than February 28, 2022"

 

If that is the case, would/could Carnival scramble to get more ships into position for late-summer-fall cruises from other ports like San Francisco?  Or are they a "one hit wonder", relying on the ships in their sister lines to capture most of that market?

 

I've never cruised to Alaska, and probably won't for a while, but the itinerary does interest me and I will make it one day.

 

If the price was right, I'd certainly cram one in before my Apr 2022 cruise, especially if it sails from SF. SF always seems more expensive than other ports, they need to lower the port fees for the lines and get more cruises from there. It's a large market and a lot more convenient than driving to SoCal to cruise.   

[parachutes63]

I don't think Seattle is going to open there port. They ate having rising cases and going back into some lockdowms.

[joepeka]

4 hours ago, parachutes63 said:

I don't think Seattle is going to open there port. They ate having rising cases and going back into some lockdowms.

You can bet that the cruise lines were lobbying Washington DC pretty hard for this and wouldn't do so unless there was some tacit agreement from Seattle/Washington State that they would support it. Nor would Congress pursue it without knowing that Seattle/Washington were in agreement.

[LadyMac72]

We are scheduled on one of the cruises from Seattle for Alaska.  They have already reassigned the ship and the cabins for our sailing.  I also heard they were in negotiations with Canada for a technical stop (no one gets off the ship) to comply with the PVSA.  Multiple avenues to sailing  

[tqc_cruiser]

4 hours ago, LadyMac72 said:

We are scheduled on one of the cruises from Seattle for Alaska.  They have already reassigned the ship and the cabins for our sailing.  I also heard they were in negotiations with Canada for a technical stop (no one gets off the ship) to comply with the PVSA.  Multiple avenues to sailing  

 

11 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

If the price was right, I'd certainly cram one in before my Apr 2022 cruise, especially if it sails from SF. SF always seems more expensive than other ports, they need to lower the port fees for the lines and get more cruises from there. It's a large market and a lot more convenient than driving to SoCal to cruise.   

According to the text of the bill just passed unanimously in the senate, there is no need to stop in Canada. A roundtrip between the states of Alaska and Washington would be permitted (the PVSA restrictions would not apply as long as the trip begins before February 28, 2022 ) 

But this bill would not apply to a sailing from San Francisco, California.

[ontheweb]

13 hours ago, joepeka said:

You can bet that the cruise lines were lobbying Washington DC pretty hard for this and wouldn't do so unless there was some tacit agreement from Seattle/Washington State that they would support it. Nor would Congress pursue it without knowing that Seattle/Washington were in agreement.

Another thing to consider was that the bill was first blocked by one of the Senators representing the state of Washington. Obviously for it now to pass and in fact unanimously, she no longer was blocking the bill's passage.