Two ancient federal laws continue to affect every cruise every day, but especially repositioning cruises. The first one is the Jones Law, which says that any vessel sailing between U. S. ports must be built in the United States and owned (at least 75 percent) by American citizens or corporations. The other law is the Passenger Vessel Services Act, which says foreign flagged vessels cannot transport passengers between U. S. ports. Even roundtrip cruises from any U. S. port are required to visit a "distant foreign port."
Obviously, because these laws are somewhat antiquated and arcane they are often interpreted on a case by case basis. Most cruise ships leaving San Diego must legally spend a day in Ensenada, Mexico before they return to San Diego. Even cruises to Hawaii must have to stop in Ensenada before they reach the U. S. island chain to satisfy this law.
Almost all cruises to Alaska either start in, or spend a day in Vancouver Canada. In the recent past the West Coast cruise I mentioned above would have not been allowed because it stops in sequential domestic ports; Catalina, San Francisco, Astoria (Oregon) and Seattle. A bill set forth by Sen. John McCain in 2000 made it possible for certain repositioning cruises to make exceptions.
It must be remembered, however, that one cannot join a ship in one U. S. Port and disembark in another U. S. Port without first visiting a distant foreign port. This has been known to cause passengers problems if, for example, the cruise sails from Miami and they need to disembark in Puerto Rico, a U. S. territory, for an emergency. They will be fined about $200 apiece by the Federal government.