Does the "Passenger Service Act" put a kink in the repositioning idea?

[CRSNDSNY]

According to dcl.com
Passenger Service Act
The United States Passenger Services Act requires Disney Cruise Line to embark and disembark its Guests at the same U.S. port.

I just read this on dcl.com's Terms & Conditions section. Does this mean that they would be unable to have a repositioning cruise (East Coast to West Coast) for DL's celebration?

 

[TiffJ]

I think this means that where passengers start their cruise & get on the boat is where they must end their cruise & get off the boat.

 

[ScrapHappyMama]

I think there is an exception in the Act specifically regarding repositioning cruises.

Linda

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

I'm not sure of the specific wording of the statute, but I doubt very much that it would preclude a repositioning cruise. Other lines offer these trans-canal cruises every year when they move their ships to Alaska for the summer, and then again on the way back to the Caribbean. I've never taken one of these, but I think that some lines actually disembark their passengers in Ensenada, Mexico, and then bus them to San Diego, in order to comply with the Act.

I did a quick search to see what other lines do with repositioning cruises. It looks like RCCL uses San Juan as a destination port when cruising east through the canal. They also have a cruise which departs Ft. Lauderdale and arrives in San Diego (which may mean Ensenada, but I'm not sure about that) and vice-versa. HAL offers FLL to SD, as well as to San Francisco, and a Tampa to Seattle cruise.

 

[WDWLVR]

I think there is definately a disclaimer for the repositioning of ships since lines do it all the time.