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Day 7 of Carnival Miracle’s seven-day Alaska cruise from Seattle says Victoria, 8:00 PM to 11:59 PM. That’s four hours in a Canadian city, mostly after dark, the night before you fly home.
Nobody plans a holiday around a four-hour evening in Victoria. The cruise line has to put it there anyway. And if you sail from Vancouver instead, a different law, Canada’s, makes the ship do the same thing in reverse.
Why Do Cruise Ships Have to Stop in Canada?
Because almost every big cruise ship is registered abroad, and America’s Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 bars a foreign ship from carrying passengers between two U.S. ports. A round trip from Seattle to Alaska needs at least one foreign call to count as an international voyage, and on that coastline the only foreign country is Canada. As Victoria’s port authority puts it, “For the Alaska cruise itinerary, calling at a port in British Columbia is the only option.”
The law, now 46 U.S.C. § 55103, says a non-American ship “may not transport passengers between ports or places in the United States… either directly or via a foreign port.” Customs and Border Protection’s rule, 19 CFR 4.80a, sets out how a foreign call fixes that. A trip that calls at a “nearby” foreign port is legal as long as you get off where you got on. Canada counts as nearby. We walked through the whole U.S. rule, with its penalties and exceptions, in our guide to why cruise ships stop in foreign ports. This guide is about the Canada end of it.
Canada Has the Same Rule, Pointed the Other Way
Here’s the part most cruise guides skip. Canada protects its own coastal shipping, too. Its Coasting Trade Act (current to September 30, 2026, when we read it) reserves “coasting trade” for Canadian ships unless a foreign one gets a licence. For ocean ports such as Vancouver, coasting trade includes carrying passengers from a place in Canada:
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Coasting Trade Act, S.C. 1992, c. 31, section 2, “coasting trade,” paragraph (d)
Read part (i) next to the American law and they mirror each other. A foreign ship on a round trip from Vancouver needs a call outside Canada, and Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway are outside Canada. So Seattle’s ships must call in Canada, and Vancouver’s must call in Alaska. Each country’s law sends the ship to the other.
Part (ii) is stricter than the U.S. rule. America lets a one-way cruise between two of its ports go ahead if it reaches a “distant” foreign port, somewhere outside North America and the Caribbean. Canada has no such escape: a one-way trip between two Canadian ports is coasting trade “either directly or by way of a place outside Canada.” Immigration Canada’s 2010 operational bulletin gives the example of a cruise from Halifax that stops in Boston and ends in Montreal. That needs a licence. The same cruise returning to Halifax doesn’t.
Which Law Decides Your Cruise?
We applied both laws to the cruises people actually book that touch Canada. This assumes a foreign-flagged ship, which describes nearly every big cruise ship on these routes.
| Your cruise | Which law bites | What the itinerary needs |
|---|---|---|
| Round trip from Seattle to Alaska | U.S. (19 CFR 4.80a) | One foreign call, so a B.C. port, usually Victoria |
| Round trip from Vancouver to Alaska | Canada (Coasting Trade Act) | A call outside Canada. The Alaska ports do the job |
| One-way, Vancouver to Seward or Whittier | Neither | Nothing extra. It starts in one country and ends in the other |
| Round trip from New York or Boston to New England and Canada | U.S. | One foreign call, such as Halifax |
| One-way, Boston to Quebec City or Montreal | Neither | Nothing extra. You end the trip in a different country |
| One-way between two Canadian ports, even via a U.S. port (say, Halifax to Montreal via Boston) | Canada | A coasting trade licence. A U.S. stop doesn’t fix it |
It also explains why Victoria’s harbour authority calls Vancouver “a home port where cruise passengers join and leave the vessel,” and Victoria “a port of call that ships visit before returning to their home port, which is usually Seattle.”
What Happens When Canada Says No?
We found out in 2021. Canada had closed its waters to cruise ships in March 2020 and extended the ban to February 28, 2022 (gCaptain, Anchorage Daily News). With no Canadian port open, Seattle’s Alaska season couldn’t legally run.
Congress solved it with the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act, signed on May 24, 2021. It let a Washington-to-Alaska round trip be “deemed to have made a stop in a port or place of Canada” if the ship emailed certain crew details to the Canada Border Services Agency and to CBP. It was temporary. On July 15, 2021, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the Canadian ban would end on November 1, 2021, and Canada would “welcome cruise ships… back in Canadian waters for the 2022 season” (Cruise Industry News, Anchorage Daily News).
Then came the attempts to make the bypass permanent. In September 2021, Senator Lisa Murkowski proposed a permanent exemption for Alaska cruises (The Points Guy, CBC). In March 2025, during the trade war, B.C. passed a law allowing tolls on U.S. trucks driving between Washington and Alaska. Senator Dan Sullivan answered that he would seek a waiver of the foreign-port rule. “Canada, you don’t want to mess with Alaska,” he said on Alaska radio station 650 KENI (Daily Hive, BIV via Powell River Peak).
Neither the 2021 bill nor the 2025 waiver idea took effect, as far as we could find. As of today, § 55103 and 19 CFR 4.80a still read as they did. Ships kept coming. Victoria’s harbour authority counted 310 calls and 989,950 passengers in 2025. For 2026 it scheduled a record 335 calls with a projected 1,008,109 passengers, also reported by Cruise Industry News. On October 13, CTV reported the season had passed one million passengers “for the first time.” Daily Hive had called 2019 a one-million “record” for the port, so the two sources round that milestone differently.
One more wrinkle: the law only requires the ship to call. The cruise line, not the law, decides whether that’s a full day or a late evening. Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam opened Victoria’s 2026 season with a 10 AM to 10 PM call. Carnival Miracle’s Seattle loop gets four hours at night.
What the Canada Stop Means for You
- Check the hours before you plan anything. A Seattle cruise’s Victoria call can be an evening, not a day. If seeing Victoria matters to you, compare call times across sailings, or book a Vancouver departure and visit the city on your own.
- Pack proof of citizenship that works in Canada. For U.S. citizens, the Canada Border Services Agency recommends a valid passport but also accepts documents showing your name, date of birth and citizenship, such as a birth certificate with photo ID. Our passport guide covers why a passport is still the safer choice.
- Don’t treat the Canada stop as the one to miss. On a Seattle round trip, it’s the only thing standing between you and a CBP fine, currently $996 per passenger, if you leave the cruise early at a U.S. port. Our foreign-port guide explains how that fine lands on your bill.
- Booking one-way? Start or finish in Canada. Vancouver to Seward or Whittier is the classic one-way Alaska cruise because no law forces an extra stop.
Quick Answers
Can I go ashore in Canada with a DUI?
Maybe not. Immigration Canada says an impaired-driving conviction, including drug impairment, can make you inadmissible for “serious criminality,” even if it happened outside Canada. If at least five years have passed since your sentence ended, you can apply for rehabilitation. Otherwise you can apply for a temporary resident permit, which the government says it doesn’t guarantee. Sort this out well before you sail.
Do I have to get off the ship in Victoria?
No. In our reading, the U.S. rule tests the ship’s voyage to a nearby foreign port, and nothing in it requires you to go ashore. Staying aboard for the evening is fine.
Do Hawaii cruises from Seattle stop in Canada too?
Usually, for the same reason. Carnival Spirit’s 15-night Hawaii round trip from Seattle this fall saved Victoria for the last evening. When repairs cost it that call, it lost its only foreign port, as we reported.
Cruise Chaos earns nothing from cruise lines, travel agents or booking links. Every fact here links to where we read it, and we read both countries’ laws directly on November 2, 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 the Bahamas.
Keep Reading
- The 1886 Law That Decides Your Itinerary: Why Do Cruise Ships Have to Stop in a Foreign Port?
- What to Pack for a Cruise to Alaska in August
- Do You Need a Visa for a Cruise? Even Staying Aboard Won’t Always Save You
Sources
- 46 U.S.C. § 55103: Transportation of passengers (Cornell LII, read November 2, 2026)
- 19 CFR 4.80a: Coastwise transportation of passengers (Cornell LII, read November 2, 2026)
- Coasting Trade Act, S.C. 1992, c. 31 (Justice Laws Website, current to September 30, 2026)
- IRCC Operational Bulletin 214 (June 23, 2010)
- Public Law 117-14: Alaska Tourism Restoration Act (May 24, 2021)
- Greater Victoria Harbour Authority: Background on Bill 7 and the Passenger Vessel Services Act
- Greater Victoria Harbour Authority: Victoria’s 2025 cruise season closes strongly on Saturday (October 17, 2025)
- Greater Victoria Harbour Authority: First Cruise Ship of 2026 Arrives in Victoria on Friday, April 10 (April 8, 2026)
- Cruise Industry News: Victoria Set to Welcome First Cruise Ship of 2026 Season (April 2026)
- CTV News: Victoria cruise season hits 1 million passengers for the first time (October 13, 2026)
- Carnival: 7-Day Alaska Inside Passage & Glacier Cruise from Seattle (read November 2, 2026)
- gCaptain: Alaska Senators Propose Passenger Vessel Services Act Waiver (March 8, 2021)
- Anchorage Daily News: Canada to reopen to cruise ships earlier than planned (July 15, 2021)
- Cruise Industry News: Canada Will Lift Cruise Ship Ban For 2022 Season (July 2021)
- The Points Guy: Cruise ships could permanently skip Canada on Alaska voyages under new bill (September 17, 2021)
- CBC News: B.C. cruise industry sounds alarm over proposed U.S. laws allowing ships to skip Canadian ports (September 16, 2021)
- Daily Hive: Alaska official eyes direct cruise ship routes, skipping B.C. stops due to trade war (March 14, 2025)
- Powell River Peak (BIV): B.C. ports monitoring Alaska senator’s cruise-ship bypass threat (March 14, 2025)
- Canada Border Services Agency: Travel documents (read November 2, 2026)
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Impaired driving and inadmissibility (modified July 23, 2026)
