Shops and tax's on ships for Alaska sailing's also will casinos be open

[timbom]

Understand passports are not required on these sailings.  In Texas they charge tax when in its waters.  As ship does not sail to international port will tax free liquor and other tax free items be available.  

 

Took a European cruse a few years ago where the ship never left EU waters and most of these stores were closed as they had to add VAT. 

 

Also have taken Hawaiian cruises where ship never goes to an international port and casinos can not be open.  Vould not get clear response from my TA as she said these things were being worked out. 

[aliaschief]

Your TA is right that things are still being worked out and changing almost daily.

 

You may want to watch and even ask the President of Holland America on his live Face Book session this afternoon.

 

 

[VMax1700]

Won't the ship pass through international (ie Canadian) waters on its way to/from Alaska?

Are casinos open during a 'normal' Alaska cruise?

[voyageur9]

20 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Won't the ship pass through international (ie Canadian) waters on its way to/from Alaska?

Are casinos open during a 'normal' Alaska cruise?

Canadian waters are not international waters. And casinos won't be open in Canadian waters. 

Edited May 25, 2021 by voyageur9
typo

[atexsix]

8 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Won't the ship pass through international (ie Canadian) waters on its way to/from Alaska?

Are casinos open during a 'normal' Alaska cruise?

They will not be in Canadian waters with a couple of exceptions: in the Strait of Juan De Fuca ships go out to sea on the Canadian side and come back on the American, it's unknown if they will deviate from this but I doubt it.  It's also unknown how they will navigate the area around the Queen Charlotte Islands.  There are ongoing disputes with Canada's international waterway borders and how far they extend out from any body of land, but these claims are usually not recognized internationally or by the U.S. government, but there's a small sliver of waterway they can use when leaving Ketchikan if the ships decide to honor that border.  I don't know much about maritime law, so don't quote me on any of this. 

 

**Only the Alaska Marine Highway System can use Canadian waters via the inside passage because the ferries are not required to go through customs and immigration.  

 

All Alaska cruises I've been on went out into international waters and the casino and duty free shops  were able to open, so sea days only. 

 

P.S. Boundary disputes between Alaska, the mainland, and Canada have been ongoing for over a century.

[VMax1700]

6 minutes ago, atexsix said:

P.S. Boundary disputes between Alaska, the mainland, and Canada have been ongoing for over a century.

Hey I'm Irish.  Who are you telling about boundary disputes! 🤣🤣

[atexsix]

18 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Hey I'm Irish.  Who are you telling about boundary disputes! 🤣🤣

😁

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, atexsix said:

**Only the Alaska Marine Highway System can use Canadian waters via the inside passage because the ferries are not required to go through customs and immigration.  

Not sure where you got this.  Many cruise ships use the Inside Passage.  It is the right of "innocent passage", where any ship from any nation can transit another nation's (Canada's) territorial waters provided they continue through the waters, without stopping or engaging in "prohibited activities" (anchoring, fishing, etc).  As you say, the Strait of Juan de Fuca has a traffic separation scheme, where the outbound traffic is in Canadian waters, so a cruise ship leaving Seattle (US waters), and proceeding directly to international waters, is engaged in "innocent passage".

[chengkp75]

As for the OP's question, gambling is not allowed in US or Canadian territorial waters (12 miles out), so the casinos would not be open in these areas anyway.  Taxes would depend on the state (Washington and Alaska), and would only apply out to 3 miles.  Duty free is somewhat complicated, and I would suspect CBP will have something to say about it, since the passengers are not considered to have left the US, but the crew are "deemed" to have left the US.