[daphneokeefe]

Big fan of cruises, but only on ships with 200 or fewer passengers (Wind Star, Viking River Cruises and their ilk).

I think it's kinda sad that we don't have many cruises along our wonderful American rivers and coasts. You have to go to Mexico or the Caribbean or Hawaii or Alaska. My understanding is that they are cost-prohibitive because of a federal law requiring that any ship making a second stop in another US port is required to pay basically union pay scale to all workers.

[alkonaut]

It’s sad if paying union wages makes some service “cost-prohibitive”. Every cruise I ever took was 100% union (in Europe).

[Arnt]

GP is probably talking about the Jones Act, which was intended to affect transport of goods. If it applies to cruise ships that's surely an unintended effect. Only ships owned and crewed 100% by Americans could (and can) go from one American port to another, IIRC.