# Looking for a cruise between Seattle and Southern California **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227 "2025-03-28T00:36:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/21 "2025-03-28T02:39:17Z")
What LSLGuy said then ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/22 "2025-03-28T02:48:10Z")
Looks like there aren’t. All the ones I can find go to Vancouver. I read somewhere (probably somewhere on SDMB) that foreign-flagged vessels (i .e., pretty much all of them) are not allowed to cruise between two US ports without a foreign stop. So, yeah, a passport-less cruise is probably not an option. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/23 "2025-03-28T02:55:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > With a small exception for Canada as long as nobody in DC has thrown a tantrum recently. > > And that’s not a bet I would be willing to take at this time. Can you blame me? Oh yes, I quite agree with you. I would not presume to go on a travel by any mode anywhere hoping that the traditional fairly relaxed ID rules between USA, Canada, and Mexico would actually be in effect on the day in question. We now live in a country ruled by Calvinball as played by hate-filled ADHD-afflicted toddlers. That is not a situation amenable to prior planning. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/24 "2025-03-28T03:19:33Z")
Didn’t you use to be able to travel by freighter? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/25 "2025-03-28T03:26:34Z")
Sorta. There were freighters that advertised passenger travel aboard. The experience was no-frills high solitude transport at sea. It was not a matter of being able to jump any freighter leaving _here_ going to _there_. I cannot say whether such services still exist. I do know the last time I heard of it I was in high school. I’m drawing social security now. So that was awhile ago. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/26 "2025-03-28T03:27:32Z")
Princess Cruises have a bunch along the California coast, but most seem to go to Vancouver instead of Seattle. The two that go to Seattle don’t go to LA. [https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/results/?resType=C](https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/results/?resType=C) It looks like Virgin Voyages has some similar cruises. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/27 "2025-03-28T03:33:54Z")
It looks like what I want isn’t available by freighter. [https://www.cargoshipvoyages.com/](https://www.cargoshipvoyages.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/28 "2025-03-28T03:38:37Z")
For a mere $95,000. > **[Charter yachts](https://www.boatbookings.com/yacht_search/super_search_results.php?boattype=&lengthgroup=&enquiry=1)** > > Boatbookings - worldwide leader in luxury yacht charter, crewed super yachts, boat rental and sailing or motor yacht vacations ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/29 "2025-03-28T03:42:55Z")
How much for a three hour tour? ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/30 "2025-03-28T03:59:59Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > With a small exception for Canada as long as nobody in DC has thrown a tantrum recently. > > And that’s not a bet I would be willing to take at this time. Can you blame me? Data point: my wife and I did a cruise about 2 1/2 years ago from Whittier, AK to Vancouver, BC. We most definitely needed passports. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/31 "2025-03-28T04:07:39Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > My understanding is that the availability of such cruises is limited due to the [Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886). With some exceptions, only US flagged, manufactured, and staffed vessels can transport passengers directly between US ports. And there are precious few of those. This is the problem, and this is why you aren’t likely to find what you are looking for. Every foreign-flagged ship (which includes virtually all of vessels operated by the major cruise lines) that travels between different U.S. ports stops at a foreign port midway to comply with this law. I’ve even run into this with U.S. territories, like when I sailed on a repositioning cruise from Galveston, Texas to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We stopped at the British Virgin Islands along the way. Similarly, cruises that travel between southern California and Hawaii invariably make a stop in Mexico. And cruises that go north from San Diego will never stop in Seattle unless they first stop at a port in Mexico or Canada along the way. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/32 "2025-03-28T04:17:48Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > Data point: my wife and I did a cruise about 2 1/2 years ago from Whittier, AK to Vancouver, BC. We most definitely needed passports. Right, the only exception I’m aware of are closed-loop cruises that start and end at the same U.S. port and only stop in Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. They will sometimes allow you to travel with an original birth certificate and government ID instead of a passport. But they always say a passport is strongly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/33 "2025-03-28T04:19:52Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > read somewhere (probably somewhere on SDMB) that foreign-flagged vessels (i .e., pretty much all of them) are not allowed to cruise between two US ports without a foreign stop. Exactly, as has been mentioned. Any ship that goes from SoCal to the Pacific Northwest _has to_ stop in either Victoria or Vancouver. So they’re not going to also stop in Seattle, just a stones throw away. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/34 "2025-03-28T12:57:32Z")
Thanks for the great cite. Damned shame. I wonder why rather suddenly this has become practically unavailable, as opposed to just sorta hard to find? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/35 "2025-03-28T23:37:43Z")
Let’s say you cruise from Seattle to some place in Alaska (as I did some years ago). You will stop in Victoria for reasons explained above. You do not have to get off the boat, so you won’t need a passport there\* but when you get to Juneau or when you get back to Seattle, you will need a passport to clear US immigration since you will be perceived as having left the US. \*It has been some years since you could travel between the US and Canada without a travel document. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/36 "2025-03-28T23:45:53Z")
Princess Cruise line has a 3-day cruise to Los Angeles but the closest is starts to Seattle is Vancouver (which is really close but you’d need a passport): > **[3-Day California Coast Getaway from LA](https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/california-coast-cruises/pacific-coast-getaways)** > > Choose from a three to six-day itinerary, or embark on a three-day cruise from Los Angeles and rediscover relaxation on a Pacific Coast getaway with Princess. I have read that Holland America and Celebrity Cruises can fit this itinerary but usually only for re-positioning cruises as they move north in April to do Alaska tours and then back south in September to winter in the Caribbean. You’d have to check with them. Norwegian Cruise line has one that will do it but it is part of a much longer cruise. I really do not know if they will let people embark and disembark in the middle of such a cruise or if everyone has to do the whole thing. [https://www.cruisecritic.com/find-a-cruise/itinerary/21-night-norwegian-joy-to-panama-canal-on-september-29-2025?section=itinerary&vendorId=88](https://www.cruisecritic.com/find-a-cruise/itinerary/21-night-norwegian-joy-to-panama-canal-on-september-29-2025?section=itinerary&vendorId=88) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/37 "2025-03-29T00:02:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Damned shame. I wonder why rather suddenly this has become practically unavailable, as opposed to just sorta hard to find? Cost. Based on that law, any ship that qualifies for US to US travel as is being asked for here has to hire mostly Americans to crew the ship, and that drives up the costs so much that essentially no one will pay to take such cruises. Why pay double or triple, if a stop in Vancouver saves you that much money? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/38 "2025-03-29T00:38:16Z")
That wasn’t the issue I was talking about at all. Sorry to be unclear. The OP & I were having a sidebar about “cruising” on freighters. Regardless of destination (setting aside purely intra-US itineraries), that used to be an available option all over the world, albeit a small fraction of the “love boat” cruises. @Czarcasm’s cite was to a travel agency site specializing in freighter passage. Which more or less had replaced their front page with “This product doesn’t exist any more for us to sell to you. Sorry Charlie.” I replied directly to his cite post asking / wondering why that product (international freighter cruising) evaporated fairly completely on rather short notice. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/39 "2025-03-29T01:13:26Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > as long as nobody in DC has thrown a tantrum recently. > > And that’s not a bet I would be willing to take at this time. Wise man. > **[Alaska senator threatens to stop cruise ships from coming to B.C.](https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/03/14/alaska-senator-threatens-cruise-ships-bc-stop-over/)** > > Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan wants to take legal action to prevent cruise ships from stopping at British Columbia ports, permanently. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227/40 "2025-03-29T01:21:05Z")
It’s not cheap but you’d get to meet the Harlem Globetrotters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-cruise-between-seattle-and-southern-california/1016227.md?page=3)