Passenger Vessel Service Act / Jones Act

[mihusker]

We have a long cruise vacation setup for next year consisting of 5 different segments/3 ships/2 cruise lines/2 B2B's starting from Los Angeles to Sydney, around New Zealand and Australia (B2B), Sydney to Honolulu and on to Vancouver (B2B). We just noticed a one day cruise from Vancouver to Seattle which we thought we'd like to take at the end but our TA cautioned that it might violate the Jones Act (actually the Passenger Vessel Service Act apparently).  Because we start our long trip from a US port (Los Angeles) she seemed to think we couldn't do the one day cruise at the end back to the US and the searching on here has not really given me a good clear-cut answer.  Details are:

1. 29 day cruise on Princess ship from Los Angeles to Sydney
2. 5 days ashore in Sydney/Brisbane
3. 14 day cruise on different Princess ship around NZ
4. 28 day cruise on same Princess ship (B2B) around Australia
5. 5 days ashore in Brisbane/Cairns/Sydney
6. 19 day cruise on Celebrity ship from Sydney to Honolulu
7. 10 day cruise on same Celebrity ship (B2B) from Honolulu to Vancouver
8. Disembark from Celebrity ship to a Princess ship and embark to Seattle on same day

 We obviously pull in at many different "foreign" ports through all this and I've read that there's no problem if you stay overnight (ie. Vancouver) before sailing to Seattle (not possible) or if you change ships (which is what we would be doing); not only would we be changing ships, but also cruise lines.

 

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience with similar situations?  Thanks.

 

[Heidi13]

If US citizens are cruising on a foreign flag ship between US ports, the PVSA requires a stop at a distant foreign port.

 

Your schedule meets this requirement.