The U.S. Senate Has Passed the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act

The Alaskan Cruise Industry has been crushed since last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada’s decision to ban cruising and not allow any cruise ships to dock at Canadian ports through February 2022, was a major hit to this year’s cruise season which produces a $1.2 billion dollar industry to Alaska. This hit was a major problem for the industry due to the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) which requires any foreign-registered ship to stop at a foreign port between embankments at any two U.S. ports.

However, just recently the U.S. Senate has passed the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act. What does this mean for the cruise industry? Insiders this is good news and this means that any U.S cruise ship will be allowed to forgo stopping at a foreign port. This is great news for the industry and hopefully will allow the cruise industry to start coming back sooner than later.

The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, is sponsored by Alaskan senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, this is giving larger cruise ships a major lifeline and a way around the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) for as long as Canada’s cruise ban is in place. Previously most itineraries had one day spent in Vancouver to satisfy the PVSA law. The new legislation from senator Murkowski would be allowing passengers to sail directly from Washington to Alaska.

With that in mind, according to the current CDC guidelines, cruise ships must provide proof that 95% of passengers as well as 98% of crew members are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order for sailings to resume. However one major flaw for Alaska is that every Alaskan cruiser will need proof that they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

We are very excited about this news and we now have hope to be returning back to Alaska by Cruise Ship this year. Disney cruise line has removed all alaskan sailing from its website as of right now but this does not mean they will not be returning this year. We are still holding out hope that it is a possibility with this good news we could be spending the summer in Alaska. With that in mind as of right now Disney cruise line is showing that they will be returning in May of 2022.