Alaska 2025 Sailings

[swigso]

Hello

can anyone advise when Celebrity release the sailings for May 2025, we are sailing from Hawaii to Vancouver

on the Edge and would like to stay onboard for the next sailing which looks like Alaska to Seattle based on 2024 

sailing schedules.

many thanks

[mahdnc]

To give you some idea to your question, here was the deployment schedule published by Celebrity on Nov 2 2022.  I think the actual deployment date for Europe was a week later than published because of a problem.

 

Here is a thread that followed the cruise sailings as they were being released: link

Edited April 29, 2023 by mahdnc

[bigbenboys]

There might be an issue with doing a b2b. You will be starting and ending in a US city. Check into the The Passenger Vessel Services Act . Talk to your TA and or Celebrity. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

OP, @bigbenboys makes a good point.  You will need one day between arriving in Vancouver from Hawaii on the Edge, and then getting back on the Edge to sail to Alaska and ending in Seattle.

 

So for example, if the Edge, cruising from Hawaii arrives in Vancouver on a Thursday, I believe the only way you could sail to Alaska and end in Seattle is if the Edge sails from Vancouver Friday or later.  Pretty sure if the second part of your B2B left the same day (Thursday) that the Edge arrived in Vancouver, you will be notified that one of your cruise legs will have to be cancelled.

 

Be extra careful as travel agents in the UK might be unaware of this rule/law.

[bigbenboys]

I have heard of others getting off the ship in Victoria with a overnight bag. Flying (seaplane) to Vancouver BC and spending the night in a hotel. Spending the night in a hotel breaks the b2b. There is also a bus/ferry from Victoria to Vancouver BC.

Other option is to end your cruise in Vancouver and leave on one of the Celebrity ships out of Vancouver other than The Edge.

[swigso]

On 4/29/2023 at 4:21 PM, bigbenboys said:

There might be an issue with doing a b2b. You will be starting and ending in a US city. Check into the The Passenger Vessel Services Act . Talk to your TA and or Celebrity. 

Hi 

thank you for the heads up but I believe based on 24 sailings that as the Hawaii sailing finishes in Vancouver this does not effect a B2B which ends in Seattle 😎

[bigbenboys]

7 hours ago, swigso said:

Hi 

thank you for the heads up but I believe based on 24 sailings that as the Hawaii sailing finishes in Vancouver this does not effect a B2B which ends in Seattle 😎

Please check out this thread.

 

 

[cruisestitch]

7 hours ago, swigso said:

Hi 

thank you for the heads up but I believe based on 24 sailings that as the Hawaii sailing finishes in Vancouver this does not effect a B2B which ends in Seattle 😎

You cannot take the same ship from Hawaii to Seattle.  The fact that the first cruise ends in Vancouver and the second one starts there has nothing to do with it. You would be on the same ship from Hawaii to Seattle and that is not allowed.

[Ferry_Watcher]

On 4/30/2023 at 8:13 AM, bigbenboys said:

I have heard of others getting off the ship in Victoria with a overnight bag. Flying (seaplane) to Vancouver BC and spending the night in a hotel. Spending the night in a hotel breaks the b2b. There is also a bus/ferry from Victoria to Vancouver BC.

Other option is to end your cruise in Vancouver and leave on one of the Celebrity ships out of Vancouver other than The Edge.

 

We had that situation last season on the final Celebrity sailing.  Most passengers who were affected by this found out before arriving at Pier 91.  There were a small handful that were told at check-in that if they wanted to continue on their B2B that they would have to get off the ship in Victoria, spend the night and get themselves to Vancouver to embark the following day.  Not ideal, but it beats missing out on the second half of your planned cruise.

 

One thing to think about is, this ship would be sailing from Hawaii to Vancouver, so there may not be a stop in Victoria.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Ferry_Watcher

[prmssk]

10 hours ago, swigso said:

Hi 

thank you for the heads up but I believe based on 24 sailings that as the Hawaii sailing finishes in Vancouver this does not effect a B2B which ends in Seattle 😎

For any cruise that starts in one US port (Honolulu) and ends in a differ US port (Seattle), there needs to be a distant foreign port stop.  Canada may be foreign but it does not meet the distant requirement. 
 

As a different example, one way Panama Canal cruises between California and Florida must stop at a port in South America (like Cartagena) or the ABC islands as the Caribbean/Mexico in general are not considered distant to the US.  

[swigso]

So that is why when we sailed from Los Angeles round trip to Hawaii the ship pulled into Ensalada for an hour. However I will be booking 2 separate cruises which will have different booking references. This just does not make sense

Edited May 2, 2023 by swigso

[Ferry_Watcher]

@swigso, if the Edge leaves Vancouver (going to Alaska) on the same day that you arrived from Hawaii, and that 2nd cruise ends in Seattle, I don't think the cruise line will allow you to to sail on the second half of your B2B.  The fact that it is 2 separate cruises doesn't matter.   

 

Let me give you another example.  I live in Seattle.  If there is a 1 night cruise from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, and then that same ship leaves Vancouver, BC (the same day it arrives in Vancouver, BC) and sails to  Hawaii on a 10 day cruise if I want to do the 10 day cruise, I can not sail from Seattle.  I would have to take the train or up up to Vancouver and start my cruise in Vancouver - even though the ship is offering a 1 day cruise from Seattle to Vancouver, BC.

[swigso]

Thanks for all the info will need to wait and see when the itineraries are released 

[swigso]

I have just looked at some other cruises. HAL sails from Seattle round trip but docks at Victoria from 8pm to 11:59 so why is that allowed I am really confused😵‍💫

[martincath]

41 minutes ago, swigso said:

I have just looked at some other cruises. HAL sails from Seattle round trip but docks at Victoria from 8pm to 11:59 so why is that allowed I am really confused😵‍💫

The PVSA has a 'Closed Loop' exemption - start in the USA and return to the exact same port and all you have to do is visit ANY port outside of the USA (a Foreign Port).

 

But a one-way cruise (or 'Coastwise Transportation on a Foreign-Flagged Vessel') requires a port outside North America, which is what a Distant Foreign Port means in the context of the PVSA.

 

Personally I'd make plans now, as it is 100% guaranteed you will be forbidden to combine these trips regardless of how many booking references you have. CBP only cares about 2 points of data related to you cruise on any given vessel: which port YOU board in first and which port YOU disembark in last. If those are both in the USA, they then check whether a Foreign or Distant Foreign port are visited depending whether it's a Closed Loop or 'Coastwise Transportation' that you are doing on the ship.

[Cruising Is Bliss]

2 hours ago, swigso said:

So that is why when we sailed from Los Angeles round trip to Hawaii the ship pulled into Ensalada for an hour. However I will be booking 2 separate cruises which will have different booking references. This just does not make sense

 

It doesn't matter how the cruise line chops up the voyage into separate cruises for booking purposes because that's not what the PVSA covers. It's specifically about transporting passengers, on the same ship, from one US port to another US port. A passenger vessel that onboards you in Hawaii and disembarks you in Seattle would be in violation of the PVSA. It would still be a violation of the PVSA if you boarded in Hawaii and then stayed on to do the entire season of Alaska cruises before you disembarked in Seattle.

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Cruising Is Bliss

[swigso]

But I am disembarking in Vancouver 😱😱😱

[Cruising Is Bliss]

You asked why you can't stay on for the following Vancouver to Seattle cruise. If you did that, your combined feet-on-the-ship trip would then be Hawaii to Seattle *on the same ship* and the PVSA covers the transport of passengers from one US port to another US port *on the same ship* and that would be a violation.

 

Disembarking means close out your shipboard account and walk off the ship with all your baggage. And you can't turn right around and get back on. A break in your trip, to satisfy the PVSA, would require spending at least one night ashore before the start of a next cruise *on that same ship*.

 

If there was another ship in port sailing the day you disembark in Vancouver, even if it's the same cruise line, no problem, take your bags across the port to board a different ship for a Vancouver to Seattle cruise and the PVSA could not care less. You could have breakfast on one ship and lunch on the other ship.

[martincath]

12 hours ago, swigso said:

But I am disembarking in Vancouver 😱😱😱

If you just book your first cruise, true - but if you book the second leg too you might get off the ship in Vancouver, but by getting back on again then legally you have not Disembarked... it's just a Port of Call on one long cruise by CBP rules, and that is the only ruleset that matters for US border controls!

 

People have tried all sorts of justifications: taking all their stuff off and reboarding later, even with a different booking reference, does not work. For these Canada-US cruises, both CBSA and CBP are given the full passenger manifests and share info with each other. ANY person that moves between 2 US ports on the same ship must comply with the Distant Foreign Port requirement. You can change cabins, even change cabin-mates - zero help, CBP track you by your passport number so they'll see that you are still you on the second leg!

 

You can only legally move on a foreign-flag vessel between Hawaii and Seattle if you make two completely-separate trips under CBP rules - either by changing vessels, or by disembarking a port early thus creating two legally-separated cruises from Hawaii to Victoria (legal, ends outside the US) and then Vancouver to Seattle (legal, starts outside US) on the same ship with (the important part) an overnight gap before coming back to the vessel.

 

Since there are many travel options Victoria-Vancouver it's potentially fairly affordable (ferries cost less than $20pp and transit buses either side work out to another ~$10pp) and a lot of folks would love extra time in Victoria as most port stops there are tragically short. Throw a bit more cash at the problem and you can fly harbour to harbour by floatplane or chopper - mad convenient, both are an easy walk from the cruise piers, but not cheap even if booked long in advance.

 

Edit - while typing this, another explanatory warning post has appeared. Seriously - none of the folks warning you have anything to gain by misleading you! We're not trying to snag the last cabin by getting you to cancel a leg! If you don't plan for this now, you're just going to end up spending buckets of extra cash due to short-notice bookings of hotel, flights etc. to deal with this when Celebrity finally run manual checks on validity of cruise combos and you officially find out from them this combo is unlawful...

 

The entire point of Cruisecritic is sharing useful info about cruising; this info is extremely useful to you; multiple folks are all telling you the same thing; search the boards you will also find folks who have found out the hard way about this issue year after year!

[swigso]

Hello all

many thanks for all your help and knowledgable replies. It really seems I am not going to stay on the ship, there is no stop before the ship docks in Vancouver.

so that option is removed. What a silly situation oh well look at other plans but I would have loved to have stayed on the ship. Once again many thanks

[hobbsie65]

Sorry to hijack this post but I am looking at doing something similar except on the Solstice 2025 from Hawaii to Vancouver. The difference is (going by 2024 itinerary) the Alaska sailing will be from Vancouver back to Vancouver (7 day cruise) so I presume that would be fine as we will not be disembarking in a US port. The Celebrity sales team seemed to think this was fine but I know the UK office are not clued up on this sometimes.