Hawaii, cruise destination crisis

Norwegian Cruise Line is taking two of its three U.S.-flagged ships out of the all-Hawaii market before the summer season, partly because U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed a change to the Passenger Vessel Services Act could stop non-USA ships from sailing to Hawaii altogether.

It comes about because most American cruise lines register their vessels in a foreign country so they can employ international crewmembers, sail foreign-built ships and avoid U.S. labour laws which are relatively restrictive about hours, pay and conditions.

But under the current ruling such cruise liners must call on at least one international port when transporting passengers between destinations in the USA - making a round-trip cruise from Honolulu impossible because all the Hawaiian Islands are part of the U.S. In order to offer Hawaii cruises, lines such as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, Princess, and Holland America are forced to sail roundtrip from Californian ports with mandatory visits to Ensenada (the closest non-U.S. port) or offer one-way trips between Honolulu and Ensenada or Vancouver, which is not a route that most people find thrilling beyond belief.

But it’s about to get worse the current amendment, if passed, means that foreign-flagged ships must spend at least 48 hours in a foreign port and/or that the amount of time spent at the foreign port must be more than 50% of the cruise. As a result, cruise liners are leaving Hawaii out of their itineraries.