Royal Caribbean pulls ad for $398 White Island tour in wake of volcanic eruption

In the wake of the deadly volcanic eruption, which has killed five people and left dozens unaccounted for, an ad for the island has been pulled.

In the wake of the deadly volcanic eruption, which has killed five people and left dozens unaccounted for, Royal Caribbean has pulled an advertisement for its $398 tour to the deadly White Island.

Spruiking a way for passengers to get “close to the drama”, the seven-hour tour starts with a scenic boat ride through the Bay of Plenty to White Island for an “unforgettable” tour of “New Zealand’s most active volcano”.

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Arriving on-board inflatable crafts, the tour takes guests “from your boat directly into the crater complex”.

“You head straight into the action without much, if any, climbing at all,” the advertisement reads.

The guided tour allows guests to “get up close to roaring steam vents, bubbling pits of mud, volcanic hot streams” as well as an “amazing lake of steaming acid” all with the assistance of gas masks and breathing apparatus.

The Royal Caribbean ad for the White Island Volcano Experience.

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The tour, however, has been criticised by some experts and passengers on-board as “a disaster waiting to happen”.

“Having visited it twice, I have always felt that it was too dangerous to allow the daily tour groups that visit the uninhabited island volcano by boat and helicopter,” Raymond Cas, emeritus professor at Melbourne’s Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment told the Australian Science Media Centre.

One local took to Twitter, questioning why tourists were on the privately owned island in the first place.

“As a kiwi I am shocked that tours have been allowed to land on White Island,” the man said on the social media platform.

“I was taught in school that this is a historically deadly and active volcano that nobody should be setting foot on besides perhaps GNS scientists.”

RELATED: Witnesses’ describe horror of seeing eruption

One of the first photos of the eruption at White Island. Picture: Michael Schade

Lisa Lou, a guest on-board the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship who opted not to go on the tour to White Island, questioned whether guests were given enough warning about the dangers of visiting the volcano.

Ms Lou, from Queensland, said she was “angry at Royal Caribbean and the tour organiser” for “taking innocent tourists … on a tour into a volcano at the highest warning level before an eruption”.

“This is just crazy,” she wrote.

“I just want all these poor people to come back to the ship okay and I want whoever took money for this “Shore Excursion” they push on you from the moment you get on the ship to have some accountability for being so money hungry they let this happen.”

According to the NZ Herald, it is ultimately up to operators to decide whether to take visitors to White Island, with access controlled through permits.

The volcanic plume fills the air moments after the eruption.

White Island Tours, which run tours to the island, state on their website that operators are guided by varying alert levels, but “passengers should be aware that there is always a risk of eruptive activity regardless of the alert level”.

“White Island Tours follows a comprehensive safety plan which determines our activities on the island at the various levels,” the company said.

One of the five people killed during the eruption is believed to have been a guide from the tour company.

White Island Tours chairman Paul Quinn said the company was deeply saddened following the significant eruption.

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Some have questioned why tourists were allowed on the island in the first place.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed 24 Australians were visiting the island “as part of a cruise ship tour”. He said 13 had been hospitalised and the remaining 11 were still unaccounted for.

Many of the victims are tourists from Australia, the UK, China, Malaysia and the US.

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern noted the island had been a tourist site for decades but said issues needed to be raised following the eruption.

“It is a very unpredictable volcano, there will be questions that will be asked and do need to be answered by the appropriate authorities,” she said.

Michael Schade was one of the guests on the island who was able to get away shortly before the eruption. Picture: Michael Schade / AFP

Ms Ardern also thanked the helicopter pilots who risked their lives flying to the island to rescue stranded people.

She said they had made “an incredibly brave decision under extraordinary dangerous circumstances in an attempt to get people out”.

The captain of Ovation of the Seas, Henrik Loy, has spoken out following the horror, saying the incident was “unfathomable”.

“It has been an unfathomable sequence of events,” Mr Loy told News Corp Australia.

“Any guests that may have been injured are being cared for at local hospitals.

“We are doing everything possible to help them.”

A BOUT OVATION OF THE SEAS

Some of the tourists on New Zealand’s White Island during Monday’s volcano eruption were passengers on the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas.

The ship is still in port in Tauranga, a coastal city about 90km from White Island.

The cruise company’s website says the ship has gross registered tonnage of 168,000 and is 347 metres long.

Some passengers from Ovation of the Seas were on White Island when it erupted. Picture: Colin Hunter.

It has a theatre, 21 restaurants, several pools, a casino and high-end retail outlets, including Cartier, Michael Kors and Kate Spade.

Built in Germany, it took its first voyage in 2016. It has 16 decks, all but two of which are for passengers, and can accommodate as many as 4905 guests. It has a crew of about 1500.

Refinitiv Eikon data shows the Ovation of the Seas left Sydney on December 4 and stopped near Russell and Auckland, on New Zealand’s North Island, before arriving in Tauranga on December 8.

Royal Caribbean’s website advertises its New Zealand cruises as “epic adventures”, saying this particular cruise will take passengers “from jaw-dropping fjords to dramatic volcanoes and peaceful lakes”, and the cruise will pack “outdoor thrills for explorers of all stripes.”