What do you mean by merchant vessels?
I’m wondering if flights remain cancelled for a long time, if, say, the eruption just keeps going or gets worse, will anyone receive refunds? I would assume a lot of airlines will be losing so much money they couldn’t do that.
Merchant vessels will take on board a limited number of passengers. I’ve known of people who wanted to travel by ship, point to point, but weren’t interested in cruise lines.
Check out the following at post #42
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2494820/posts
Good luck and Godspeed!