11/02/2021
This Cruise Ban Effectively Cancels Alaska Cruises Through Early 2022
Canada will extend the cruise ban it put in place last March as part of a continued response to the coronavirus, dealing a significant blow to this year's Alaska cruise season. The policy is "essential to continue to protect the most vulnerable among our communities and avoid overwhelming our health care systems," said Omar Alghabra, Canada's Minister of Transport, in a statement. "This is the right and responsible thing to do."
The safety measure applies to all cruise ships carrying more than 100 people, and it remains in place through February 2022—effectively canceling the summer Alaska cruise season, which runs from late April through September, for the second year in a row. The Cruise Lines International Association, the leading industry trade group, said in a statement that it was "surprised by the length of the extension," and hopes to "revisit this timeline and demonstrate our ability to address COVID-19 in a cruise setting with science-backed measures, as CLIA members are doing in Europe and parts of Asia where cruising has resumed on a limited basis,” said Charlie Ball, the chair of CLIA's Northwest and Canada division, in the statement.
To reach Alaska by cruise, ships have to sail through Canadian waters. Further complicating things, the Passenger Vessel Services Act, requires foreign-flagged ships to stop at a foreign port between two American ports—so a stop in Canada is necessary on Alaska sailings. Because the vast majority of cruise ships are foreign-flagged, the ban affects all but a few of planned Alaska sailings through February of next year. (It also affects New England coastal cruises for the same reasons.)
U.S.-flagged ships designed to carry fewer passengers are exempt from the law, so there will still be cruises to Alaska—just on a drastically smaller scale. American Cruise Lines, which is U.S. flagged, built, crewed, and owned, will still operate three Alaska itineraries this year between May and September, as well as five New England itineraries; a spokesperson said there is still availability on sailings in both destinations. UnCruise Adventures, which also operates small ship sailings, similarly announced that it is not affected by the ban, and shows several Alaska trips, from seven- to 14-night sailings, with availability from April through September on its website. Others that are exempt are sailings by Alaskan Dream Cruises.
