Hoping to sail to Alaska this summer? The popular cruise destination may miss a second season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cruise industry, already struggling because ships have been idled for almost a year, was dealt another blow. Canada recently banned large ships from its waters until February 2022.
Canada is a necessarystop for most passenger vessels bound for Alaska. (Almost all large cruise ships are foreign-registered and are banned by maritime law from transporting passengers between ports in the U.S. That means they must stop at a Canadian port if they’re sailing from Seattle, for instance, to Alaska.) The no-sail order is “essential to continue to protect the most vulnerable among our communities,” according to a tweet by Canada’s minister of transport, Omar Alghabra.
The large cruise lines that dominate Alaskan waters during the May-September season haven’t yet canceled this summer’s sailings, but most have stopped selling space.
The U.S. cruise industry isn’t taking the no-sail order without a fight.
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