Cruise ship registry and flags, what is flag-state (control & responsibilities), flags of convenience - all of these are the subject of the following survey. We offer you a list of smaller and really big cruise ships sailing under foreign flags and some info about cruise ship registration by cruise line company (current operator for chartered ships). What is "Flag State" (definition) "Flag State" is the ship's registration country under whose laws it is registered/licensed. Just like any marine vessel, a passenger ship operates under its flag state laws (also used if the ship is involved in an admiralty case). Flag states have the authority and responsibility for a ship, exercising control over the ships. They inspect the ships regularly, certify equipment and crew, issue safety and pollution related documents, etc. Each of all flag states has its own ship register where all ships sailing under its flag need to be registered. Some countries even have more than one ship register. The cruise ship's flag state controls the vessel and its crew - an absolute authority. Ships have to comply with all the flag state's maritime rules and regulations, which are, of course in accordance with the international maritime rules and regulations by the IMO (International Maritime Organisation). The flag state has the absolute authority over the ship, for not complying with the norms the flag state can impose penalties on the ship and crew. Flag states are required to carry out regular inspections, to ensure safe and secure shipping of passengers and goods, to send detailed inspection reports to the IMO. The IMO has 167 Governments as members. For cruise ships registered in USA - the USCG (US Coast Guard), search and rescue operations. "The Officer in Charge Marine Inspections" - for the inspection of all US flagged cruise ships (and other marine vessels) relating to construction/equipment/manning, casualties/accidents and for investigations of cases of misconduct/negligence/incompetence of officers and crew. For cruise ships registered in the UK - the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) is the flag state control executive agency responsible for the implementation of the GB's and the International maritime law and policies. It operates through the UK's HMCG (Her Majesty's Coastguard) - safety control, coastal water monitoring and testing, issues licenses to officers/crew, monitoring of the UK's AIS network (real-
My understanding is that the US has some of the strictest cruise ship regulations in the world; by registering the ships in other countries, they're able to work with looser restrictions and provide their services for a lower price. The downside is that any voyage outside of the registered country must be an international trip; this is why a lot of itineraries have an awkward stop in Canada or Mexico. It is my understanding that this is a widely accepted practice in the cruising industry, and Disney seems to have among the best service in the industry As for whether Disney should subject themselves to the US regulations, I'm not really sure. I've never heard of any problems with onboard safety or working conditions (a friend of mine worked on a DCL ship about 15 years ago), so I don't know what true value it would add to their business. The only thing would be US-only itineraries, but they've managed to get around it in the past for short trips based in NYC I think that Disney should provide safe conditions for passengers and employees, and pay fair wages. By all accounts, they seem to do that, regardless of where they're registered, so I don't see the need to register in the US just for the sake of registering in the US; Disney has plenty of other enterprises in other countries, so it's not like DCL is an outlier within TWDC
Somethings we just don't have enough knowledge about to demand it be a certain way. Just because it says American on the license does not make it better. Let's clean up our own house first. It's a working system, that is beneficial to all that use the service. If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.
If your head quarters is in the U.S., customers board your ship in the U.S., and if you have an emergency you call the U.S. shouldn't your boat sail under a U.S. flag ?
I guess that means that if you live in the US and you make your living in the US and you vote in a US election, you had better have driven to the polls in an American car. I just bought a car that was manufactured in the US. The transmission came from Japan and the engine came from Mexico. You're making a simplification out of a complex situation.
This in no way has anything to do with politics. I have just always noticed a foreign flag on Disney ships and in my mind it's odd that a ship that mostly ports in the U.S. and depends on the resources of the U.S., fly's the flag of another country. am I wrong ?
You're not necessarily wrong, but, you're not necessarily right either. It's like this let's say that there is a super mega-mart in the town next to yours and you have a good, but, less likely to have the variety you need, type market a few doors from you. The things you need are in that other store. Is it wrong to go there to get what you need or should you settle for whatever the closer one can give you? Is it wrong or right? When it comes to commercial shipping, other nations have more of what shipping organizations need so they go there to get the license. It's what enables them to give us the services that we demand at the prices we demand. We live in a global economy it isn't just us on this planet and if it were we would be going down the tubes very quickly. It always reminds me of the line from the movie, "A few good men with this paraphrase, " We want the truth, but, most of the time we cannot handle the truth."
The strictness of U.S. regulations vs. other countries regulations isn't as much of an issue as it used to be - IIRC, about 15 years ago the International Maritime Organization (IMO) mandated the same safety standards for any countries registering ships; to sail out of U.S. ports, ships are required to meet U.S. Coast Guard safety regulations and are subject to Coast Guard inspections. The labor side of it's a different story, though - U.S. flagged ships are not only required to pay their crews based on U.S. labor laws, and there are requirements that a certain amount of the crew must be American. NCL's ship (I think it's only one now) on the Hawaii interisland cruises is U.S. flagged, but otherwise all the major players continue to rely on flags of convenience to avoid having to deal with U.S. labor laws. The whole idea behind the U.S. regulations was to save the jobs of American merchant marine sailors, but it's pretty much been a failure. Nobody wants to be the person to admit this and repeal the regulations, so they continue on. It's not just the U.S. that's lost out, though - Cunard made the decision a couple of years ago to re-flag their ships from British registry to Bermudan registry because they were going to have to comply with a new set of EU labor regulations
A few years back I was in a serious relationship with a girl working on a cruise ship based in Caribbean. She worked the on board tuxedo rent shop and the stories she shared were as good as any Disneyland CM debauchery stories. Oh and yes, wages were a bit low for her.
