No More Cruises To Nowhere

The U.S. government is at it again and they don't seem to want us to have any fun or relaxation. First there is the Passenger Services Act (often mistakenly referred to as the Jones Act), which requires that itineraries that begin in one U.S. port and end in another must call at at international port, and now the folks in Washington DC have dug up a regulation that restricts cruise lines from sailing their popular cruises to nowhere.

Say goodbye to those short voyages that sail out to international waters and return without calling on any international ports. Due to the type of visas carried by foreign crew members, foreign-flagged ships sailing from U.S. ports will be required to call on at least one foreign port before returning to the U.S. starting in 2016. Apparently, in government-speak, bureaucrats don't consider cruises to nowhere to actually "depart" the U.S. because they don't call at an International port.

So far, Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line have cancelled cruises to nowhere that were on their schedules for 2016 and beyond. If you want to sail on a short getaway from a port near home, you only have six more months to do so.

It's silly, but no sillier than defining what "is" is. That's our government at work. To us, it's a departure from reality.

Image Courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line