A floatplane taxis near docked cruise ships as it prepares to take off on July 6, 2023, in the Gastineau Channel, along the downtown waterfront in Juneau, Alaska. in which she described a cruise that she took in August when she was required to pay a fine incurred due to her misunderstanding of a rule governing U.S. maritime travel.
Most everyone in Southeast Alaska is familiar with the PVSA. It played a critical role in the economic downturn in Alaska during the pandemic, as it requires foreign-built ships to originate, terminate or transit a foreign port in order to carry U.S. domestic cruise passengers. Pemberton evidently didn’t realize the PVSA applied to her, but cruise lines typically include verbiage in their cruise purchase contracts related to unauthorized disembarkation including reimbursement of any related fines incurred. Few passengers bother to read the fine print in their contract, but it’s somewhat ironic that Pemberton acknowledged that, as a journalist who reported extensively on cruise industry impacts in Juneau as well as the PVSA, she should have been aware of the rules.
What Ms. Pemberton failed to mention is that the PVSA, originally passed by Congress to protect the shipbuilding and marine industries, has accomplished just the opposite. There are no longer any shipyards in the United States capable of building a cruise ship the size of the one on which she traveled. These ships are built overseas by necessity, travel globally, and are staffed necessarily by international crew members.