An International Affair
Board a cruise ship, and you will see staff and crew from seemingly every country in the world – yet very few American crew. Most cruise ships are flagged in other countries (i.e., “foreign-flagged”) and do not need to satisfy U.S. labor laws. Many of the service employees are working 12-14 hours every day, seven days a week, under contracts of around five months – and most of their earnings are being sent to family back home. Yet for many of them, working on a cruise ship is a dream job, and a way to secure financial stability for their families that they would not be able to achieve if they remained home.
So why do all cruises operating out of the United States visit foreign countries? A requirement for foreign-flagged passenger vessels is that they cannot operate a cruise itinerary from the U.S. without at least one foreign port of call (thanks to the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886). Also, in the case where a cruise starts in one U.S. port and ends in another (e.g., a repositioning cruise between seasons, or a Panama Canal transit), at least one foreign port must be outside of North America.
Some cruise lines simply obey the letter of the law – one example is a cruise from Los Angeles or San Diego that visits Hawaii, and makes a 4-hour “technical stop” in Ensenada, Mexico. But others take the opportunity to call on unique ports to satisfy the requirement. Before Norwegian Cruise Line launched their NCL America division, they operated an itinerary in Hawaii that would include a stop 1,000 miles away at Fanning Island, a small atoll in the Republic of Kiribati. (NCL was also a great friend to the island, establishing a primary school for the island’s native children.)
About a decade ago, Norwegian Cruise Line decided to get into the inter-island Hawaii market. They now operate an American-flagged ship which is predominantly staffed with a U.S. crew. (Interestingly, due to Hawaiian gaming laws, the ship does not have a casino.)