Alaska Volcano

[OrpingtonT]

With Regent's Alaska season fast approaching, I suppose this is the last thing to hear about...

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Mount Redoubt is acting up with greater intensity.

It's rumbling and grumbling and producing a substantial ash and steam plume.

On Sunday, scientists said there was a marked increase of seismicity at the volcano about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.

[cruiseej]

Over on the Cruise Critic Alaska port of call board, we've been following this with interest since Redoubt first became active and blew back in late March. There are several threads there with good information; I believe this is the most comprehensive and current of them:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=953307

 

-- Eric

[OrpingtonT]

Over on the Cruise Critic Alaska port of call board, we've been following this with interest since Redoubt first became active and blew back in late March. There are several threads there with good information; I believe this is the most comprehensive and current of them:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=953307

 

-- Eric

Oh. thanks. Not going to Alaska myself, I hadn't seen that thread but when I read that snippet about the volcano, I thought of all the Mariner cruisers later this month and through the season.

[DavidJ]

Wow, we leave in two weeks. Our cruise is sold out. A month ago, I was following that story and then it seemed quiet and not a threat to our cruise. Then the Swine Flu. Now the flu does not seem to be as much a concern and now the volcano is back in the news? Oh well, it may be quite an adventure in Alaska! Pierce

[dixiechick]

We are on the same cruise and watching Redoubt. I figure, if she blows and flights get cancelled, Regent will have a problem with nearly the entire passenger list.

[linda_22003]

We'll be there on May 20! We might be sooty, but we'll be there!

[cruiseej]

A month ago, I was following that story and then it seemed quiet and not a threat to our cruise. Then the Swine Flu. Now the flu does not seem to be as much a concern and now the volcano is back in the news? Oh well, it may be quite an adventure in Alaska!

 

And to add to the things to worry about -- although probably not for most Regent passengers -- there was a landslide outside Whittier last month which has closed the road and limited train travel from Portage to Whitter. We're planning to go to Whittier twice in the week after we disembark from the Mariner in Seward, so I've been keeping a close watch on that situation as well! (They just blew up a large, unstable slab of rock on Tuesday, and now the race is on to clear the road of debris before the first cruise ship passengers start arriving later this month.)

 

With Redoubt, if it follows the pattern of the past two months, it seems to be building up to an eruption soon, and then it seems to quiet down for awhile. So for those headed for Seward in two weeks, I'd hope for an eruption in the next week, so your trip is likely to fall into the calmer-post eruption period. (The only issue for with the eruptions for travelers is that the ash that gets blown into the atmosphere can be deadly to jet engines, and so they divert flights and shut the airport if the upper level winds blow the ash towards Anchorage.) the next Mariner cruise is Vancouver-to-Vancouver, so it won't be affected; we're on the subsequent June 3 cruise, but we end in Anchorage rather than starting there, so the worst that can happen to us is we'll be delayed getting home. And hopefully by the June 10 cruise out of Seward, Redoubt will have quieted down.

 

Aren't we supposed to be relaxing; who needs all this pre-trip drama?! ;)

 

-- Eric