Why doesn't Princess do R/T Alaska from Vancouver?

[sonomaphil]

Looking to head to Alaska on Princess in May 2008 (I know, schedules won't be out until April or so) and I noticed that Princess does not do round trips to Alaska from Vancouver as most other lines do. Anyone know why? It would be nice to eliminate that short day in Victoria.

[dforeigner]

System acting up again.

[dforeigner]

Looking to head to Alaska on Princess in May 2008 (I know, schedules won't be out until April or so) and I noticed that Princess does not do round trips to Alaska from Vancouver as most other lines do. Anyone know why? It would be nice to eliminate that short day in Victoria.

 

Good "?". I do (or used to) know that they do round trip from San Francisco and even stop at Sitka. The other option is round trip from Seattle.

[cruiseco]

The BIG money in Alaska cruising is the pre- and post-cruise land tours. They make an incredible amount off of those since they are very rarely discounted. Those tours really only coordinate well with the one-way sailings -- northbound sialings with post-cruise tours and southbound sailings with pre-cruise tours. Princess is smart to dedicate as many sailings as possible to feeding passengers into those land tours.

[LEtue]

The BIG money in Alaska cruising is the pre- and post-cruise land tours. They make an incredible amount off of those since they are very rarely discounted. Those tours really only coordinate well with the one-way sailings -- northbound sialings with post-cruise tours and southbound sailings with pre-cruise tours. Princess is smart to dedicate as many sailings as possible to feeding passengers into those land tours.

 

Not sure I would agree with that....

 

I booked the Serenade for my return trip this year because I didn't want to do the one way trip again this time. Some of us can only do one vacation week at a time and in my opinion Princess is giving away business to the cruise lines that do offer RT from Vancouver. Why can't they put one ship there? I know there are a lot of others that fly in and out of Seattle and head to Vancouver independently to catch their ships - without booking a cruise tour!

 

Maybe some day Princess will move a ship back there....

[spongerob]

Maybe the reason has to do with available berths in Vancouver. I assume that each cruise line contracts for a certain amount of space, and given that one-ways have to begin or end in a foreign port, that is why all the Inside Passage cruises to and from Whittier use Vancouver. There are a LOT of ships that cruise Alaska, so there must be some pressure on the available berths in Vancouver.

[Colo Cruiser]

Doesn't that violate the Jones Act or something along those lines???

 

Vancouver is not considered a foreign port. Is it? :)

[Cruise Junky]

Doesn't that violate the Jones Act or something along those lines???

 

Vancouver is not considered a foreign port. Is it? :)

 

No it doesn't. Tons of other ships do the Return Vancouver, just unfortunately not Princess. They use Seattle a lot.

[Colo Cruiser]

No it doesn't. Tons of other ships do the Return Vancouver, just unfortunately not Princess. They use Seattle a lot.

 

Then why when you disembark in Vancouver on Princess do you have to stay off the ship for 24 hours before starting a new trip on the same ship??

[dsfitz]

Doesn't that violate the Jones Act or something along those lines???

 

Vancouver is not considered a foreign port. Is it? :)

 

Vancouver is in Canada, so it is a foreign port.

[sonomaphil]

Doesn't that violate the Jones Act or something along those lines???

 

Vancouver is not considered a foreign port. Is it? :)

 

Vancouver is not part of the US last time I checked. So a R/T to and from Vancouver is subject to Canadian regulations, not US regulations.

 

Celebrity, HAL, RCI and most other do this R/T.

[Colo Cruiser]

Vancouver is in Canada, so it is a foreign port.

 

 

I know it is Canada, and no for US shipping rules it is not considered a foreign port. :)

[Colo Cruiser]

Vancouver is in Canada, so it is a foreign port.

 

 

Wow it is!!! And all this time I thought it was in Cananda.:eek:

 

 

BRILLIANT!!!

[JohnLauben]

Seriously, though, a lot of the reason behind the move to Seattle has to do with Vancouver's air access. It's much easier, and cheaper, for us US folks to fly into/out of Seattle, which is a much larger airport anyway. Since the one-way cruises generally arrive/depart Vancouver on Saturdays and Sundays, these passengers provide much of the load on the airport. Add the round-trips to this, and the problem is compounded. Moving some departures to Seattle helps to alleviate this. Remember, the Jones act (or whatever it is really called) prohibits moving the one-way cruises (those that end/start in Seward or Whittier); so, only the round-trip cruises are eligible here (with a stop in Victoria).

[Colo Cruiser]

Vancouver is not part of the US last time I checked. So a R/T to and from Vancouver is subject to Canadian regulations, not US regulations.

 

Celebrity, HAL, RCI and most other do this R/T.

 

Not true, if the ship is coming from a US and returning to a US port through Vancouver it is under US regs and you can not end a trip and start a new trip on the same Princess ship without being off it for 24 hours. :p

[LEtue]

Seriously, though, a lot of the reason behind the move to Seattle has to do with Vancouver's air access. It's much easier, and cheaper, for us US folks to fly into/out of Seattle, which is a much larger airport anyway. Since the one-way cruises generally arrive/depart Vancouver on Saturdays and Sundays, these passengers provide much of the load on the airport. Add the round-trips to this, and the problem is compounded. Moving some departures to Seattle helps to alleviate this. Remember, the Jones act (or whatever it is really called) prohibits moving the one-way cruises (those that end/start in Seward or Whittier); so, only the round-trip cruises are eligible here (with a stop in Victoria).

 

We were aboard the Island Princess when she sailed from Vancouver on a Monday - last May, and we were the only ship at Canada Place. Passengers are willing to do pre and post cruise stay around their sailing date so one Princess ship in Vancouver can't be a problem.

 

We also traveled by train from Seattle to meet the ship and would gladly do the same in reverse. A stop in Victoria really isn't an issue either. In addition, it wasn't that many years ago that Princess had a RT option from Vancouver and the Jones Act hasn't changed recently.

[Cruise Junky]

Not true, if the ship is coming from a US and returning to a US port through Vancouver it is under US regs and you can not end a trip and start a new trip on the same Princess ship without being off it for 24 hours. :p

 

The fact that Princess is using Seattle as it's home port for Alaska has absolutely nothing to do with the Jones Act or the Passenger act. RCI, Celebrity, HAL and Carnival all do Vancouver - Vancouver 7 day cruises. Princess decided to move to Seattle, maybe it was a space issue I don't know, but absolutely nothing to do with any naval laws and is recent. We've done Vancouver return on Princess.

[sonomaphil]

Not true, if the ship is coming from a US and returning to a US port through Vancouver it is under US regs and you can not end a trip and start a new trip on the same Princess ship without being off it for 24 hours. :p

 

 

True, but my original question was why doesn't Princess do R/T's from Vancouver. Meaning the Jones Act is not in effect since this is too and from a Canadian port, making your post about being a violation of the Jones Act irrelevant.

[chasetf]

True, but my original question was why doesn't Princess do R/T's from Vancouver. Meaning the Jones Act is not in effect since this is too and from a Canadian port, making your post about being a violation of the Jones Act irrelevant.

You all probably have part of the reason. Port capacity in Vancouver, ease of access to Seattle, desire to fill the land tours up north with one way legs, and maybe they got a offer they could not refuse from Seattle.

 

Sometime is makes business sense to do something the others aren't..... :D

[cruisecrasy]

You all probably have part of the reason. Port capacity in Vancouver, ease of access to Seattle, desire to fill the land tours up north with one way legs, and maybe they got a offer they could not refuse from Seattle.

 

Sometime is makes business sense to do something the others aren't..... :D

 

I suspect u have the solution & likely a cash 'thing' 'cause cheaper to berth in Seattle than Vancouver maybe?... Whatever the reason with enough interest shown Princess will go back to a R/T Van if there is enough $ to be made.. Other cruise lines are filling the gap so try one of them if they offer u what u want/when u want - u might be surprised how nice they can be - I luv Princess but am not adverse to trying something new..

 

Happy cruisin'!

[CruiseAholic]

Can't imagine why Vancouver is such a big deal, it's much easier and cheaper to fly into / out of Seattle.

 

As for me, done several round trips, much prefer a one way passage.

[westcoaster]

The RT cruises out of Seattle generally sail on the west (outer) coast of Vancouver Island and quite far from shore (it saves time) whereas the RT cruises from Vancouver sail the more scenic inner route through Johnston Strait. That's one reason people might prefer to do the Vancouver RT.

[JohnLauben]

Also remember that, being farther north, Vancouver is 5-6 hours closer to the Alaskan ports than Seattle. This has an impact on the port timings for the first and last ports, which are usually shortened on Seattle cruises. That additional 5-6 hours cruising time has a significant impact on fuel consumption, which may offset the cost savings (if any) related to using Seattle as a base.