The Alaskan Tourism Recovery Act passes

[K.T.B.]

At least in the Senate.  Now it heads to the House.  So an Alaskan cruise season is possible! Lots of good news today!

 

LINK

[Ken the cruiser]

Who knew!!! Gee, I wonder how the House will vote and more importantly how long it will take them to put it to a vote?? The news today just keeps getting better and better!! 😎

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[JRG]

Good to know this might be halfway home.

 

With PVSA out of the way,   Alaskan cruises might become the Test Cruises and open the floodgates.

 

I am going to bet that is a two hand slam dunk in the House .  (based on momentum)

 

This makes everybody look good.   Win Win for everybody.

 

Go for the scotch.   

 

 

 

 

[ShawninFL]

This is certainly a step in the right direction.

[SeaHunt]

I'm finally feeling that good times are coming our way again!

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Passed the Senate unanimously!  I didn't think anything could get unanimous approval in DC these days!

[NMTraveller]

I have an Alaskan (HAL) cruise still on the books for the first of August.

 

I had pretty much written it off.

 

Does it  not take 90 days after the CDC and the cruiselines give the green light for the cruises to start again as there are a bunch of moving parts to get the ships restaffed, vaccinated and supplied?

Edited May 14, 2021 by NMTraveller

[cl.klink]

2 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

At least in the Senate.  Now it heads to the House.  So an Alaskan cruise season is possible! Lots of good news today!

 

LINK

 

That's great.

 

I am kinda surprised, though.  Was this expected?

 

- Joel

[Ken the cruiser]

Wouldn't it be funny if the Millennium was reassigned to do its originally booked Alaska cruises this summer out of Seattle if the Act gets signed relatively quickly, say in the next week or two. When you think about it, she's pretty well staffed up with a vaccinated crew, and I would imagine the St Maarten cruises are going to be less in demand especially if the Edge and possibly the Equinox were cleared to start sailing out of FtL by mid July. 

 

What other ships might be in the queue to sail Alaska this summer? Maybe the Equinox? Both the Eclipse and Solstice are still in Singapore. Should be interesting to see what happens now.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Wouldn't it be funny if the Millennium was reassigned to do its originally booked Alaska cruises this summer out of Seattle if the Act gets signed relatively quickly, say in the next week or two.

The CDC still has to approve cruising from US ports.

 

But what you're suggesting would be an incredibly short-sighted move with regard to the permanent loss of goodwill, both with St. Maarten passengers who would never book a Celebrity cruise again and Caribbean ports that would never trust Celebrity again.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

The CDC still has to approve cruising from US ports.

 

But what you're suggesting would be an incredibly short-sighted move with regard to the permanent loss of goodwill, both with St. Maarten passengers who would never book a Celebrity cruise again and Caribbean ports that would never trust Celebrity again.

You're right, that probably wouldn't be too smart of a move.

[SWFL Cruisers]

8 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Wouldn't it be funny if the Millennium was reassigned to do its originally booked Alaska cruises this summer out of Seattle if the Act gets signed relatively quickly, say in the next week or two. When you think about it, she's pretty well staffed up with a vaccinated crew, and I would imagine the St Maarten cruises are going to be less in demand especially if the Edge and possibly the Equinox were cleared to start sailing out of FtL by mid July. 

 

What other ships might be in the queue to sail Alaska this summer? Maybe the Equinox? Both the Eclipse and Solstice are still in Singapore. Should be interesting to see what happens now.

It wouldn't be funny to me, I booked for June 12th.

[ChucktownSteve]

The last line in the story is the key, "If the bill moves through other branches of the U.S. government efficiently, the next step would be for the industry to gain CDC approval to operate. "

 

Does anyone have confidence in the CDC to do the right thing in a timely fashion?

[K.T.B.]

47 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

The last line in the story is the key, "If the bill moves through other branches of the U.S. government efficiently, the next step would be for the industry to gain CDC approval to operate. "

 

Does anyone have confidence in the CDC to do the right thing in a timely fashion?

 

Um, no.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, ChucktownSteve said:

The last line in the story is the key, "If the bill moves through other branches of the U.S. government efficiently, the next step would be for the industry to gain CDC approval to operate. "

 

Does anyone have confidence in the CDC to do the right thing in a timely fashion?

I would think an applicable cruise line would first have to submit their Phase 2A protocol plan to the CDC, to include the applicable port and medical services agreements for sailing between Seattle and the applicable Alaska ports, in order to get the ball rolling.

[Host Jazzbeau]

The Senate's unanimous consent to this bill makes me think the political landscape for cruising has changed.  It wouldn't have happened without the leadership of both parties being on board, and that likely means the White House was also included.  If it passes the House in a similar fashion, I would expect the CDC to be pressured to drop all the red tape.

[K.T.B.]

36 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

The Senate's unanimous consent to this bill makes me think the political landscape for cruising has changed.  It wouldn't have happened without the leadership of both parties being on board, and that likely means the White House was also included.  If it passes the House in a similar fashion, I would expect the CDC to be pressured to drop all the red tape.

 

IMO, the CDC has already been pressured in some ways based on the "no need for masks if you're vaccinated" announcement yesterday.  Just a week ago they were saying the complete opposite.  The science doesn't change THAT quickly for a pandemic that's been happening for nearly 16 months.

 

I just hope this gets through the House very quickly and Biden signs it just as quickly.  That could mean Alaska cruises by July-ish.  And there are cruises in Alaska, that means ALL of cruising is open.

[grandgeezer]

4 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

The last line in the story is the key, "If the bill moves through other branches of the U.S. government efficiently, the next step would be for the industry to gain CDC approval to operate. "

 

Does anyone have confidence in the CDC to do the right thing in a timely fashion?

The right thing according to who??

[Ken the cruiser]

39 minutes ago, K.T.B. said:

I just hope this gets through the House very quickly and Biden signs it just as quickly.  That could mean Alaska cruises by July-ish.  And there are cruises in Alaska, that means ALL of cruising is open.

Any guess as to which Celebrity ship(s) might be chosen to offer Alaska cruises if this actually happens?

[markeb]

The Act has some interesting shenanigans that everyone's agreed to. An email to Canada qualifies as a crewmember leaving the US. And the ship to have made an international stop. Interesting concept!

 

It basically completely avoids touching the PVSA.

 

There's one section regarding taxes and tariffs that will probably take a team of lawyers to sort out (it may or may not mean the ship and/or crew are taxed).

 

(e) Exception.—Notwithstanding subsection (b), a voyage described in such subsection shall not be deemed a foreign voyage for purposes of section 446 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1446) or any other provision of law relating to levying duties or taxes on goods, including consumables, purchased for use onboard the covered cruise ship.

 

That sounds like goods and services only, but let's see.

 

And the entire act doesn't apply :

 

(f) Applicability.—This section shall not apply to a roundtrip voyage during any period for which the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an order under section 361 or 365 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264 and 268) that requires covered cruise ships to suspend vessel operations.

 

And it expires March 31, 2022. Just mentally adding up that there's not much time for cruising by the time they get crews and ships in place. Mid July to early August start up? Haven't cruised to Alaska, but memory is the season ends late summer to very early fall?

 

Short read if anyone's interested. https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/s593/BILLS-117s593es.xml

[verizon]

Its time to do the right thing.

[shipshape sam]

On 5/13/2021 at 10:13 PM, NMTraveller said:

I have an Alaskan (HAL) cruise still on the books for the first of August.

 

I had pretty much written it off.

 

Does it  not take 90 days after the CDC and the cruiselines give the green light for the cruises to start again as there are a bunch of moving parts to get the ships restaffed, vaccinated and supplied?

Hopefully you can get confirmation this week and start planning what to pack!   😃 We sailed in late August 2019 and it was great.  We were on Celebrity.

[keels81]

The travel agent call right now with a VP from Celebrity and VP from CLIA said this is the make or break week for Alaska cruising, and that all the lines and CLIA are now working with public health officials to determine protocols, etc., in all of the port locations to make cruising work.

 

They felt confident they would either get a Jones Act waiver or permission from Canada for a technical stop be enough to meet the requirement. 

 

Fingers crossed! I'd LOVE a break from the Louisiana summer in Alaska!

[cruisestitch]

Who cares if they get a Jones act waiver? Cruise ships don’t carry cargo, they carry passengers; thus the relevant rule is the PVSA, not the Jones act🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Edited May 18, 2021 by cruisestitch

[Fouremco]

2 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

Who cares if they get a Jones act waiver? Cruise ships don’t carry cargo, they carry passengers; thus the relevant rule is the PVSA, not the Jones act🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Amazing. After all this time and the extensive media reporting, people continue to refer to the Jones Act. I hope that the two VPs weren't discussing the wrong act too, or we're all in bigger trouble than we thought!