Cairns is being hit by a giant cyclone with 3 feet of rains and winds over 100 mph. Stay safe K&S

Yes thinking about Frank and Wendy he emailed me this morning. Bracing for the storm.

This is going to be bad. I cannot see how Townsville, and maybe even Cairns, can be ready to host ships in just three weeks. I wonder about damage to reef and to facilities permanently on reef.

Hope Frank and Wendy and everyone else survive safely.

Marc, CALM DOWN, dammit, we can hope not. I'm watching as well, can we wait and see? I so hope it will not be bad for Frank and Wendy. I live on a coast that often gets battered by storms, too. Ngaire has no more info than is given her by Regent. You are posting in middle or afrermath of the storm? May be bad, may not. When you live there you sit and wait.

Olivia, I'm watching live radar, live webcam, and live message board from Herald Sun; you are right, I need to stop.

Oh, no, please, I did not mean to "disable you", my friend. SO, keep us in the loop just like I never said a thing! Been through this too many times, but I'm on a bay, not an ocean when it comes to whether the house is in danger!

I agree with Olivia that there is certainly no reason to panic when we're three weeks away from being in the area. I did just read an interesting post on CC from someone in Australia who was having document problems associated with the cruise. That person wrote:

"Potentially very important news: The TA spoke to a senior Regent person who intimated that a change of itinerary is absolutely being considered as the massive cyclone that's bearing down on north Queensland will almost certainly mean that Cairns and Townsville won't be practical or safe to visit in the aftermath as local services and infrastructed are likely to be severely disrupted. And of course there is also the safety of the ship to consider in such wild weather."

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Eugene

The earthquake in New Zealand got everyone upset too but as all those on Dingo know it did not affect us at all.

There will undoubtably be a lot of damage with a storm this strong but until this is over no one knows whether or not it will cause a change of plans on Regents part. That last sentence from the quote above "there is also the safety of the ship to consider in such wild weather". The wild weather will be over by then so I do not understand that statement at all?

I agree with Ngaire about the last sentence, and maybe I shouldn't have posted the quote. However, I also think that there is a reasonable probability that a couple of our port stops will be affected, given the severity of this storm. We'll just have to wait and see.

Perhaps you have to be from Down Under to fully appreciate comments that I have seen asking people not to panic if their roof flies off.

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Eugene

It was predicted we'd be hit by the "Monster Storm" today - one to two feet of blowing snow and icy rain.

Some areas may have gotten that - we had four inches of snow.

Several years ago they predicted another devastating storm - the entire city of Rochester shut down! I had to be at work and looked out my office window - no vehicles or people to be seen - it was like a ghost town.

NOT ONE flake fell that day.


Weather prediction is getting better - but it's still not an exact science.

Happy Groundhog Day to all!

"Perhaps you have to be from Down Under to fully appreciate comments that I have seen asking people not to panic if their roof flies off."

I saw that on the SMH website too. The Aussies are tough people! I'm hoping for the best for them.

I just hope everyone is safe. As for the itinerary on KANGAROO, if we end up with a couple extra sea days, c'st la vie. There's a lot worse places we could be than on the ship, right????

Exact same way we feel Peggy - I love sea days on Regent but I do feel for people getting the brunt of this cyclone. Very sad situation but guess we won't know until tomorrow how bad??

It looks like Cairns is in fine shape; I haven't heard about Townsville. Actually, just saw a couple of posts from folks in Townsville that situation was good (of course, just crack of dawn there).

With respect to cruise, I would love a stop in Port Moresby.