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In the spring of 2021, Congress let 51 named cruise ships “stop” in Canada by sending an email.
That’s not a joke. Canada had closed its waters to cruise ships during COVID-19, and the Seattle-to-Alaska season couldn’t run without a Canadian call. So the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act said a round trip between Washington and Alaska “shall be deemed to have made a stop in a port or place of Canada” if, during the voyage, the ship emailed the Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection a list of certain crew members.
Congress needed a special law to skip one foreign stop. That tells you how much the stop matters.
Why Do Cruise Ships Have to Stop in a Foreign Port?
Because of the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886. It bars a ship from carrying passengers between two U.S. ports unless it’s American-owned and qualified for U.S. coastal trade, and almost every big cruise ship is registered abroad. A foreign port call turns your trip into an international voyage the law allows. Round trips need at least one foreign stop, which can be a nearby one such as Victoria, Ensenada, Nassau or Cozumel. One-way trips between two U.S. ports need a “distant” one, outside North America, Central America, Bermuda and the West Indies.
The Rule, in the Government’s Own Words
The law itself, now 46 U.S.C. § 55103, is one sentence long. A vessel “may not transport passengers between ports or places in the United States… either directly or via a foreign port” unless it is “wholly owned by citizens of the United States” and holds a coastwise endorsement. The footnotes trace it to June 19, 1886.
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Send me the free kit →That “via a foreign port” phrase is why a quick stop abroad doesn’t fix everything. The details are in Customs and Border Protection’s regulation, 19 CFR 4.80a, which sorts foreign ports into two kinds:
- Nearby foreign port: “any foreign port in North America, Central America, the Bermuda Islands, or the West Indies (including the Bahama Islands, but not including the Leeward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles, i.e., Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao).”
- Distant foreign port: “any foreign port that is not a nearby port.”
Then come three tests. A trip only to U.S. ports breaks the law the moment you go ashore, even “temporarily.” A trip with only nearby foreign ports is fine if you get off where you got on, and a violation if you get off anywhere else. A trip that reaches a distant foreign port lets you disembark at any U.S. port. CBP’s ruling HQ 116629 adds the fourth case: a “voyage to nowhere” that goes out to sea and back, with nobody going ashore anywhere else, “is not considered coastwise trade.”
One line in the regulation surprises nearly everyone: “A port in the U.S. Virgin Islands shall be treated as a nearby foreign port.” For this rule, St. Thomas counts as a foreign stop.
Does Your Cruise Need a Foreign Port? The Itinerary Decoder
We applied the regulation’s tests to the cruises people actually book. This assumes a foreign-flagged ship, which describes nearly every big cruise ship sailing from the U.S.
| Your cruise | Foreign stop needed? | What does the job |
|---|---|---|
| Round trip from Miami, Galveston or New York to the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico or Bermuda | Yes, one nearby port | Nassau, Cozumel, Bermuda, even St. Thomas |
| Round trip from Seattle to Alaska | Yes | A call in Canada, usually Victoria |
| Hawaii round trip from Los Angeles, San Diego or Seattle | Yes | Ensenada or Victoria, often only briefly |
| Hawaii inter-island on Pride of America | No | Nothing. The ship is U.S.-flagged |
| One-way between two U.S. ports (say, Florida to California via the Panama Canal) | Yes, a distant one | A stop outside the “nearby” zone, such as Aruba or Curaçao. Panama and Mexico don’t count |
| One-way from Vancouver to Seward or Whittier, Alaska | No | You board in Canada, so the trip isn’t between two U.S. ports |
| Puerto Rico to another U.S. port | No | A statutory exception (46 U.S.C. § 55104) |
| “Cruise to nowhere,” out and back to the same port | No | Legal as long as nobody goes ashore anywhere else (HQ 116629) |
Why Would Anyone Write a Law Like This?
To keep foreign ships out of America’s domestic passenger trade. It’s cabotage, the same idea as the Jones Act for cargo. Wikipedia’s history of the act calls it “protectionist.” A 2021 Reason piece quotes CBP describing a “legal structure that guarantees a coastwise monopoly to American shipping.”
The catch is that big cruise ships are registered in places like the Bahamas, Panama and Malta, so they don’t qualify. The lines design their itineraries around a foreign port instead.
Pride of America is the famous exception. Wikipedia says it began as a subsidised U.S. shipbuilding project that collapsed in 2001. Norwegian finished the hull in Germany, and a government exemption let it fly the U.S. flag. Registered in Honolulu, with a mostly American crew, it sails a weekly Hawaii loop with no foreign port at all.
140 Years of One Rule: A Timeline
- June 19, 1886: The Passenger Vessel Services Act becomes law. Its penalty is written into the U.S. Code as $300 for “each passenger transported and landed” (46 U.S.C. § 55103).
- 2005: U.S.-flagged Pride of America enters service in Hawaii (Wikipedia).
- November 21, 2007: CBP proposes treating brief Ensenada calls on Hawaii cruises as evasion. A foreign stop would count only if it lasted 48 hours, exceeded half the time spent in U.S. ports, and let passengers ashore.
- August 2008: The White House budget office sends the proposal back, saying it “presents no market failure or compelling public need” (Cruise Industry News, FreightWaves). The short Ensenada stop survives.
- April 5, 2019: An inflation adjustment takes the penalty from $778 to $798 per passenger (CBP bulletin).
- May 24, 2021: The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act becomes law, after the House passed it unanimously on May 20. Each voyage had to begin by February 28, 2022, and the waiver ended on March 31, 2022 at the latest, or sooner if Canada reopened.
- January 2, 2025: The latest adjustment takes it from $971 to $996 per passenger (Federal Register). That’s still the figure in 19 CFR 4.80(b)(2) today.
Where It Hits Your Wallet
CBP assesses the penalty per passenger landed, and your ticket contract passes it on to you. Royal Caribbean’s guest terms say that on a round trip from a U.S. port “the Guest must complete the entire voyage,” and that the guest “agrees to pay any such fine or penalty imposed because Guest failed to complete the entire voyage.”
It happens. In July 2024 a Tulsa family on Norwegian Encore was stranded after a shore excursion in Alaska and made their own way home. They told KJRH they were charged a $971 fine per person, the penalty in force that year. Because the excursion was Norwegian’s own, the line told ABC News it would refund “the fee imposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as a result of the guests not visiting a foreign port prior to returning to the U.S.” More in our guide to being left behind.
The law also explains why a cancelled foreign port is a bigger deal than a cancelled U.S. one. When Carnival Spirit lost Victoria this month, it lost the only foreign call on a Hawaii cruise.
What This Means When You Book
- Don’t plan to leave early at a U.S. port. Getting off in Juneau or Key West to fly home early can trigger the $996 penalty, which your contract makes your bill. Ask the line first.
- Treat the foreign stop as the one you can’t miss. Missing a U.S. port of call costs you a day ashore. Missing the only foreign port, then flying home, is how families end up with the fine.
- Reading a one-way itinerary? If it starts and ends in the U.S., look for the distant port, such as Aruba, Curaçao or somewhere in South America or Europe. That stop is what makes the trip legal.
Quick Answers
Who pays the $996 fine, me or the cruise line?
CBP assesses it per passenger landed, and cruise contracts pass it on to the guest. Royal Caribbean’s terms say the guest agrees to pay it and to reimburse the line if the line pays.
Can I join a cruise partway, after the distant port?
Not without risk. The rule’s safe harbour applies only if “the passenger has proceeded with the vessel to a distant foreign port.” Board in a U.S. port after that stop and get off at another U.S. port, and you haven’t.
Why do some Alaska cruises start in Vancouver?
Starting in Canada makes a one-way trip to Seward or Whittier international from the outset. A one-way cruise from Seattle to Alaska would need a distant foreign port, and every port along the way is in North America.
Cruise Chaos earns nothing from cruise lines, travel agents or booking links. Every fact here links to where we read it, and we read the law and the regulation directly on October 28, 2026. This is a plain-English guide, not legal advice. If something has changed, tell us and we’ll correct it.
Coming up on Cruise Chaos: what to pack for a cruise to Alaska in September, the last month of the season.
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Keep Reading
- Do You Need a Passport for a Cruise? Every Itinerary Checked
- Carnival Spirit’s Hawaii Cruise Lost Its Only Foreign Port
- What Happens When a Cruise Ship Skips a Port? Here’s What You’re Owed
Sources
- 46 U.S.C. § 55103: Transportation of passengers (Cornell LII)
- 46 U.S.C. § 55104: Transportation of passengers between Puerto Rico and other ports in the United States (Cornell LII)
- eCFR: 19 CFR 4.80a, Coastwise transportation of passengers (read October 28, 2026)
- eCFR: 19 CFR 4.80(b)(2), coastwise passenger penalty (read October 28, 2026)
- Federal Register: DHS Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation (January 2, 2025)
- CBP CSMS# 19-000283: Passenger Vessel Services Act Penalties (2019)
- CBP Headquarters ruling HQ 116629 (2006)
- Federal Register: CBP, Hawaiian Coastwise Cruises, proposed interpretive rule (November 21, 2007)
- Cruise Industry News: U.S. Government Turns Down “Devastating” Rule Changes (August 21, 2008)
- FreightWaves: OMB criticizes CBP-sought cabotage rules (August 17, 2008)
- Public Law 117-14: Alaska Tourism Restoration Act (May 24, 2021)
- Alaska’s News Source: US House passes bill allowing large cruise ships to bypass Canada into Alaska (May 20, 2021)
- Reason: A 135-Year-Old Maritime Law Is Stopping Cruise Ships From Returning to Alaska (Scott Shackford, May 25, 2021)
- Royal Caribbean: Guest Terms (read October 28, 2026)
- KJRH: Nightmare trip: Tulsa family stranded in Alaska during cruise excursion (July 2024)
- ABC News: Norwegian to reimburse family’s costs after they were stranded on Alaska excursion (July 19, 2024)
- Wikipedia: Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886
- Wikipedia: Pride of America
