The Blue Lagoon is now open again

The Blue Lagoon was opened today with reduced opening hours and the owners of the Northern Light Inn expect to open the hotel next week.

The chief of the South Iceland Police has authorized operators in Svartsengi to reopen their doors. The Blue Lagoon is planning to open all operational units of the lagoon from tomorrow, except for the restaurant Moss. The restaurant is still due to open in the coming days.

“We plan to open at 10 am for day-time visitors,” Helga Árnadóttir, Director of Sales, Operations and Services at the Blue Lagoon, told mbl.is yesterday.

Changing circumstances

The Blue Lagoon closed on November 9, then opened in mid-December but closed again a few days later when the eruption started on December 18. They reopened on January 6 but closed again when the eruption started on the night of January 14.

“We are adapting to changing circumstances,” says Árnadóttir. “We do this in a very good partnership with the authorities and we follow exactly what they say.”

“You’re telling me news”

“I expect us to open up, I don’t believe in anything else,” Fridrik Einarsson, CEO of Northern Lights told us.

When a reporter talked to Einarsson, he had not heard that the hotel was going to reopen its doors: “You’re telling me news.”

Still, he expects the hotel to open on Thursday.

Takes time to open a hotel

North-South Light Inn closed when a volcanic eruption began at Grindavík on the night of January 14. The hotel had just opened – after more than two months of closure since November 9.

“We were able to keep open for two or three days,” says Einarsson, who points out that the evacuation was still successful that fateful night. A few accommodations had to be cancelled following the eruption.

“It’s expected to be a little bit of a “yo-yo” in the coming months. We can open up and then we need to close, then we can open up again. And if we’re going to have operations, we’re just going to need to do it that way,” he  adds.

“It takes time to open a hotel.”