Should I keep my RT Seattle Cruise

[disneydiane61]

Help,

 

I have the NCL Pearl booked for August 08 round trip out of Seattle. I have been reading on some of the other boards that there may be a problem with these cruises because of a Maritime law that has been little used in the past. I have read that it is NCLA that has tried to push this law in order to "save" their Hawaii cruises. I am still uncertain how it may affect Alaska. So I asking for advice from others who may be better informed.

 

Should I keep my NCL RT Seattle Cruise? This is really the ship I want and have booked an AE Penthouse looking forward to all its perks....but perks mean nothing if I will miss ports to keep it.

 

Should I switch to a Vancouver RT? Could not convince DH to go one way.

 

Should I book a backup trip that would put me out $$$ until we know more?

 

I would hate to book airfare and then find out that our RT Seattle is switched to a RT Vancouver. Do you think that is a possibility as well?

 

What I'm concerned about is having their be major changes to a RT Seattle cruise and then there being a scramble for other Alaskan cruises.

 

Any insight or information is greatly appreciated.:D

[qiangf2]

just my humble opinion: anything could happen if they really want to enforce the old law. But I would bet it will probably hand out waiver for 2008 cruise season so not to disrupt the travel plan and local economy.

[mrsmoore07]

I have the same dilemma right now. We are booked for a May 31 RT from Seattle on HAL. I even tried to ask HAL if they had a back up plan. They won't respond to my e-mail and on the phone they claim to know nothing about any rule changes.

 

I don't know what to do. I am tempted to change. We did book with HAL directly, so wonder if they would let us change easily.

[thecruisers723]

What is this maritime law you are all talking about? We are looking into the rhapsody out of seattle this summer.

 

Thanks,

[SeattleCruiselover]

I'm scheduled to go out on Golden Princess in September. The latest info is that the final wording of the regulation is expected prior to the beginning of the Alaska season, but no one knows for sure.

 

I'm going to proceed as if I will still be able to go, and pay for the cruise and everything. Princess will also not say what they are planning to do (in fact they are "playing dumb" right now by saying that it will only affect Hawaii, even though they know that is not the case).

 

The worst thing that can happen is that they pull the ships out and send them to Vancouver, in which case they will offer you the option to keep you booking, change to another ship/itinerary, or cancel (probably without penalty since it is neither your fault nor theirs).

 

I wouldn't let it totally stress me out just now. Just keep eyes and ears open on these boards. I will let you know as soon as I hear anything (on the Princess forum PVSA thread--to which you can subscribe) from my contacts at Princess corporate (because they will hear as soon as anyone does).

[JessLCH]

OP- can you elaborate on what the issue is? We are booked on Pearl in for August too. I have no clue what you are talking about.

[SeattleCruiselover]

Rather than reiterating it all here, you can read about it in depth at the following link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=687517&page=1

 

There are also threads on the Cunard, NCL, RCI and Alaska boards.

[JessLCH]

Thanks for the info. When is a decision expected on this issue?

[SeattleCruiselover]

Anywhere from two minutes from now until sometime later this year (sorry, but that is the way it is with the government, and CBP is no different than any other governmental agency :confused: ). CBP spokesman's exact words "It isn't going to be 18 months from now." Says a whole lot, right?

 

We will be keeping everyone up to date as news becomes available. Keep reading the boards.