Cruise ships normally destined for sunny Mexico are diverting to Santa Catalina Island to avoid possible exposure to the Swine Influenza Virus at Mexican ports like Ensenada and Puerto Vallarta. Cruise ship traffic to the island is normally three to five ships a week, depending on the season.
Through May, the island now expects 25 cruise ship calls, possibly more. With one ship in the harbor, it is our personal experience that the foot traffic in town and the island’s attractions become quite busy. Now, according to the Catalina Island Company, there are likely to be several more instances of two ships in the harbor at the same time.
Image: a 2005 photo of Avalon Bay taken from Island Express Helicopter.
Our anniversary is in September and, as usual, we’re booked in to the Hotel Metropole. We hope that the rush is over by then.
Our ISP lost an entire block of servers this afternoon. We were off for a little over an hour. Seems to be fine now. 