B2B2B on Pearl - Questions

[Angelcreek]

We have booked the last sailing of the Alaska season on the Pearl this year (Sept. 16-23) but have now thought of extending our vacation a little and including the 1 nighter from Seattle to Vancouver (Sept 23-24) and the Pacific Coastal from Vancouver to LA (Sept 24 - 28). :D How easy is this to do in terms of customs, etc? Will we be able to stay on the ship? Or, if not, will our luggage be able to remain onboard? I know that I have seen threads from some of you who do B2B2B's. Any info you can give would be appreciated since we have never had the opportunity to do this.

PS - I did try a search, but I keep coming up with "fatal error":eek:

Thanks!:p

[electricron]

B2B2B you will not be able to do.

The Passenger Services Act prevents it.

 

What you want to do >

Embark in Seattle for a 7 day cruise to Alaska.

Stay aboard for the over night cruise to Vancouver

Stay aboard for the Pacific Coastal cruise to California (either San Francisco or Los Angeles).

Disembark in California.

 

Ships not sailing under the American flag can not embark and disembark passengers in different American ports without visiting a "Distant" Foreign port. The closest "Distant" Foreign port to the US West Coast is in Asia, or Fanning Island in the Pacific.

 

Whereas each individual leg of your B2B2B cruise is legal because they are round trips, or American port to Canadian port, combined they aren't.

 

It takes 4 to 5 sea days to reach Hawaii from the West Coast, and another 4 to 5 days to come back. Fanning Island is 2 sea days from Honolulu. So your short Pacific Coastal cruise now is 2 weeks in length.

 

What you can do >

Take your roundtrip Alaska cruise from Seattle.

Ride Amtrak's afternoon Casade train, or a bus to Vancouver.

Take the Pacific Coastal cruise from Vancouver to California.

 

Now you embark and disembark twice, all perfectly legal.

 

Another option is to use different cruise ships. for one of the three legs.

Never-the-less, you will have to embark and disembark more than once.

 

I hope this helps!

[Angelcreek]

Thank you, electricron! That was EXACTLY the info I was looking for!:D We will definitely have to rethink what our plan of action is going to be. I do like your suggestion of riding the train up to Vancouver from Seattle....that might be kind of fun and interesting.:cool: I think we can live with missing the one nighter. Now, to see if we can get the extra time off..............:p

Thanks again!