No Ocean Lava Flow on Big Island - POA does not sail past the volcano in route to Kon

[Den Leader]

Hi All,

 

For anyone on an upcoming sailing on POA, be advised that there is currently no Lava Flow into the ocean. Therefore the POA takes a different track from HILO to KONA. No Lava Sail By. Following is a April 2014 question to and response from NCL regarding this.

 

. As our suite is on the port side, what is the best viewing site on the ship for the lava flow between Hilo and Kona.

I have been advised by the ship there is no visible lava flowing into the ocean at this time, actually this have been the case for a year, therefore they do not sail pas the volcano in route to Kona.

[sdmike]

Interesting. When we visited (land trip) we still found the activity in the park fascinating. I guess since it's about 30% longer trip to go around the south part of the island, without the "show" it doesn't make sense to burn the extra fuel

[VideoTech]

Just got off the POA last Saturday, and our cruise went "north-around" the Big Island from Hilo to Kona, because there was no activity from the volcano.

 

However, you'd never have know this from NCL. As far as I could tell, there was no announcement of this fact, not even in the Freestyle Daily for that day.

 

The only way I happened to find out was that I went down to look at the cruise route chart that's posted in the midships hallway on deck 5, and there at the bottom of the chart was a very small note pasted on the chart, which stated that when there was no activity visible from the volcano, the ship would take the northern route around the island.

 

Seems to me that the crew on the POA should make a better effort to let people know this...I wonder how many people sat out on their balconies that night, wondering if they'd see anything?

 

If you're planning on taking this cruise, here's a good website to check for volcanic activity:

http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm

 

Because I had visited that site before our cruise, I was aware that we would not see anything that night. However, I was not aware, until finding the little notice on the chart, that the ship took the shorter northern route under these conditions.