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 thus operate independent of U.S. labor laws. Many of the service employees are working long hours every day, seven days a week, under contracts of around four months – and most of them are sending their earnings 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). And 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.
In 2005 Norwegian Cruise Line decided to dedicate a ship exclusively within Hawaii operating the only large American-flagged cruise ship – Pride of America – which is predominantly staffed with a U.S. crew. (And due to Hawaiian gaming laws, the ship does not have a casino.)