Volcano excursions cancelled

[Jay Bee]

We had booked a Celebrity excursion in February that included a visit to Sulfur Springs, but it has been altered to go instead to Toraille Waterfall. I checked the shore excursions list (where before there were several different trips available) and it seems all of them have been cancelled. Does anyone know why? If there is a problem with something like access to the area, I guess private tours would be unavailable as well. I haven't checked.

[reedprincess]

16 minutes ago, Jay Bee said:

We had booked a Celebrity excursion in February that included a visit to Sulfur Springs, but it has been altered to go instead to Toraille Waterfall. I checked the shore excursions list (where before there were several different trips available) and it seems all of them have been cancelled. Does anyone know why? If there is a problem with something like access to the area, I guess private tours would be unavailable as well. I haven't checked.

There's no issues with access or anything to the Sulpher Springs volcano and mud baths. In fact, they've been expanded and enhanced over the last year, so even more access than a year ago! 

Can't imagine why they would have cancelled all their tours. Independent tours are definitely all still going, and will be in February. 

[anaslile]

I'm no St. Lucia expert--but I am familiar with news lately.  Have you heard of the White Island eruption which killed a few Ovation of the Seas passengers?  After this Royal Caribbean, of which Celebrity is part of, cancelled any activity even remotely related to anything volcanic.  It sounds like that probably happened with that excursion. 

[aquidneck1]

Probably related to the incident in New Zealand.  Could be a Royal Caribbean decision that affects all of their cruises.  No volcanoes.   

[Jay Bee]

On 12/17/2019 at 2:03 PM, reedprincess said:

There's no issues with access or anything to the Sulpher Springs volcano and mud baths. In fact, they've been expanded and enhanced over the last year, so even more access than a year ago! 

Can't imagine why they would have cancelled all their tours. Independent tours are definitely all still going, and will be in February. 

Thanks for the info.

[Jay Bee]

1 hour ago, anaslile said:

I'm no St. Lucia expert--but I am familiar with news lately.  Have you heard of the White Island eruption which killed a few Ovation of the Seas passengers?  After this Royal Caribbean, of which Celebrity is part of, cancelled any activity even remotely related to anything volcanic.  It sounds like that probably happened with that excursion. 

Good point.

[Jay Bee]

1 hour ago, aquidneck1 said:

Probably related to the incident in New Zealand.  Could be a Royal Caribbean decision that affects all of their cruises.  No volcanoes.   

Thanks. Seems like a good possibility. Not sure it's appropriate to compare the two volcanoes but I can understand the corporate concern. 

[reedprincess]

On 12/19/2019 at 1:56 PM, anaslile said:

I'm no St. Lucia expert--but I am familiar with news lately.  Have you heard of the White Island eruption which killed a few Ovation of the Seas passengers?  After this Royal Caribbean, of which Celebrity is part of, cancelled any activity even remotely related to anything volcanic.  It sounds like that probably happened with that excursion. 

Yeah - I can appreciate that -  except Toraille waterfall is literally less than 10 minutes from the volcano, and partially formed from the last eruption close to 250 years ago.... As are most all sights in Soufriere...and the island itself is not more than an hour's drive from the volcano..

So, if the decision was to not visit volcanoes, they'd have to write off multiple island destinations, not just specific volcano visits.  

It would be (probably is) incredibly knee jerk to write off any and all volcanoes.. that's multiple countries off the Itineraries... 

And yes, I fully appreciate the severity and gravity of the New Zealand explosion. I have friends who work aboard that ship..  it's devastating....

[Aplmac]

We passed thru the volcano a few years ago.

 

It's an atypical 'volcano' -just a denuded area with boiling springs

and steam vents -and measuring instrumentation.

 

Nevertheless, it is truly volcanic,

empowered by hot magma down there -and probably not too far away!

It's definitely worth a look if you're the geologically-interested type.