SUPER ALASKA CRUISE
A. Cruising Alaska
I took an inside passage cruise (Glacier Bay) on the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ship Norwegian Wind, departing June 12, 2000. In 2000 the Norwegian Wind’s inside passage cruises have two different itineraries, depending on the date of departure. All the voyages begin and end in Vancouver, British Columbia and have 4 intermediate ports of call in Alaska (Juneau, Skagway, Haines and Ketchikan). On the Sawyer Glacier cruises day 3 is spent visiting Sawyer Glacier and days 4-6 are spent visiting the Alaskan ports of call. On the Glacier Bay cruises, days 3 and 4 are spent visiting Juneau, Skagway and Haines, day 5 is spent cruising Glacier Bay, and day 6 is spent visiting Ketchikan.
NCL also offers Alaskan inside passage cruises on its newest ship, the Norwegian Sky. These cruises begin and end in Seattle, a unique starting port in the industry. These cruises are different from the voyages of the Norwegian Wind in that rather than a port call in Ketchikan, Alaska, the ship calls for an afternoon in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Jones Act, signed into law in 1920 (also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920) is the reason that the Sky must have Vancouver on its itinerary. The act only allows ships with US ownership that were constructed in US shipyards to carry passengers between US ports. For cruises that begin and end in US ports, non-US flagged passenger ship must make a port call in a foreign port. Because of the uncompetitive labor laws that apply to US flagged ships, none of the large cruise ships sailing the world fly the US flag. (The last large cruise ship [besides some small vessels that sail the Hawaiian islands] was the SS United States that first sailed in 1952 and ended her career in 1969. Note: when NCL purchased the SS France in the 1970s for conversion into the cruise ship Norway [she still sails today out of Miami] it also considered purchasing the SS United States, but was barred from purchasing her because of legal restrictions. The current SS United States has been rusting away for the past 30 years and is presently sitting at the docks in Philadelphia, near where the retired USS New Jersey battleship was initially docked upon its arrival from the west coast. [ http://hometown.aol.com/ssus2 ] ).
Thus the Norwegian Sky substitutes Vancouver for Ketchikan, Alaska, to comply with the Jones Act, depriving a US port of 19 visits by the Norwegian Sky which carries a minimum of 2000 passengers and 750 crew members per journey (38,000 passenger visits a year and 14,250 crew member visits). Since visitors at each port of call typically spend in excess of $100 for excursions, souvenirs and other items, the Jones act is depriving the economy of Ketchikan of more than $3.8 million in passenger spending annually, plus the spending realized in 14,250 crew visits, as well as spending by the cruise line for supplies and ship services as well as port fees from just one ship.
Further examination of the Jones act reveals that it is depriving ports of the Northwest US of hundreds of millions of dollars in spending. More than 20 large ships bring more than 600 thousand passengers to Alaska for 5 months each year. By departing from Vancouver, BC rather than ports in Washington State and Oregon, the US ports are missing out on the selling and delivering the stores necessary to feed these passengers, providing port maintenance for the ships, and providing fuel. The Jones act also deprives the US ports of the revenue in hotel stays, restaurant sales, excursions, airport fees, taxi/airport transport fares, rental car fees, and other tourist spending currently being generated in Vancouver, BC by passengers before and after their cruises (as well as port fees which are $140 (US) per passenger in Vancouver [for just the Norwegian Wind – 1700 passengers & 19 voyages per season - the port of Vancouver, BC earns over $45million in passenger port fees] [for all 600,000+ Alaskan Cruise passengers port fees alone represent over $840million in earnings by the port of Vancouver]). In addition, US airlines are missing out on revenue because a considerable portion of the passengers is transported to Vancouver on foreign flagged air carriers (especially foreign tourists). I am sure that if the Jones act was repealed the cruise lines would change their itineraries to ports in Washington and Oregon (as soon as port facilities and transport were adequate) because of the easier accessibility to US residents of Seattle and Portland, and the elimination of the requirement for US passengers of a passport.
In addition, if the Jones Act were repealed, I am sure that the major cruise lines (most of which are publicly owned companies whose shares are available for purchase on US stock exchanges) would initiate new cruise itineraries such as the Gulf Coast (Houston-New Orleans-Mobile-Pensacola-Tampa-Keys-Miami), the Atlantic Coast (Keys-Miami-Jacksonville-Savanna-Charleston-Norfolk-Baltimore-Philadelphia-NYC-Newport-Boston-Portland), and the West Coast (San Diego-Long Beach-Monterrey-San Francisco-Portland-Seattle). In 1997 a congressman introduced legislation designed to deal with some of these issues and increase business in US ports and shipyards servicing cruise ships and their passengers, (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2420: ) but it did not pass.
E-Mail Me With Your Comments, Suggestions, Pictures, etc at:
Links to other pages in the Super Alaska Cruise web site