Motegi

Congrats on your new A6000. I have one and it’s been my go-to camera to take on cruises when I don’t want the bulk of my DSLRs. It takes great photos and the size is just right.

That being said... Alaska = zoom, Zoom, ZOOM. I don’t think my A6000 would have been enough to capture the wildlife that we encountered.

Almost all my wildlife photos were taken at the long end of a 150-500mm lens with my APS-C DLSR (1.6x crop factor = 800mm). Close up photos of the bears, bald eagles, and harbor seals that we saw would not have been possible without it. Of course, depending on the excursion, whales may be closer.

That being said, you could try to find an Olympus TCON-17 or B300 1.7x teleconverter which can screw onto the end of your Sony 55-210. With the A6000’s APS-C 1.5x crop plus the teleconverter it will bring your maximum zoom to just over 500mm.

The Olympus B300 is available preowned on Amazon for just $59 right now. Brand new Olympus TCON-17 are priced around $210 on Amazon. Either will work.

I wonder if they had shifted its home port to Japan if it would have opened up the Korean stops (closed because of Chinese Korean tensions) and still been able to draw the Chinese tourists aboard...

It seems like most if not all of the stops as of late were in Japan anyway.

With Port Valet they encourage you to disembark with the earliest group but you can actually go at any time. We had a nice made to order breakfast onboard in The Local before we disembarked.

Pam and I loved the Port Valet and had no issues getting a flat rate taxi to the airport immediately after we disembarked.

If you decide to take an airport bus be aware that they will wait until they are totally full before they leave.

The flat rate taxis don’t cost much more and they leave as soon as you close the door!

There was more than one cruise line rushing into the Chinese market. There probably is a "winner" of that market and it doesn't look like it's NCL!

Just a couple months ago NCL execs were announcing how well the Joy was doing in China. Things like highest occupancy in the fleet and sold out cruises for the first half of 2018.

Found this on a Facebook post. 16 day repositioning cruise leaving China April 10.. seems made up though.. [emoji848]

 

 

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Wouldn’t be surprised if there is going to be a significant amount of construction work taking place during this voyage.

Wow. I’m surprised by this announcement after they were touting how well it was doing in China and how it had the highest occupancy in the fleet.

I wonder if that was all just smoke and mirrors...

Something must’ve seriously gone downhill for them to move it out of the Chinese market so quickly. Especially considering that they will have to put an additional $50 mil into converting it for the North American market.

Or maybe Alaska is simply that much MORE profitable than China that they are willing to abandon their chinese future roadmap for now...

I take mostly snapshot photos with my iPhone X. And on vacations it’s our “selfie cam”, our quick panoramic landscape cam, or our video cam on a compact 3 axis gimbal.

For all other vacation photos I usually use my APS-C Sony mirrorless and two or three lenses in a cross body leather satchel style bag.

But for action sports or studio/macro photography I will use my Canon DSLRs.

Above all else, Alaska was not a typical cruise vacation in my opinion. It pretty much demanded that I take two DSLRs and multiple lenses ranging from 10mm to 600mm. I honestly wouldn’t have been happy with just a single Sony APS-C mirrorless for Alaska.

You’re going to have an amazing time in Alaska! We just got back a few weeks ago and it was breathtaking.

That being said I would go with the biggest zoom possible above ALL ELSE.

In my opinion the beauty of Alaska is in the landscape and the wildlife.

I got some great bald eagle and bear photos that would never have been possible without a 600mm telephoto zoom lens. Even on an excursion boat the bears and eagles are quite far away onshore and will get spooked and disappear if the boat approaches. I know others around me were struggling to capture the animals with shorter lenses. The whales and seals are closer but the zoom range is still a MUST because you never know when or if they pop up.

So if I had a choice among cameras I would sacrifice other features for maximum zoom.

On other non-Alaskan cruises I’d probably say just the opposite!

Just an FYI for others who might stumble upon this thread, Alaskan cruises are not like most other cruises in my opinion. The beauty of Alaska is in the landscape and the wildlife.

I would never take my 150-600 on any other cruises and only took my 70-200 once to Hawaii. But for Alaska I found the 150-600 absolutely necessary if capturing bears and eagles on the waters edge are something you would like to do. Even at the max zoom 600 on a crop sensor body the bears and eagles were quite tiny.

I think those using lenses shorter than 300 were struggling on the wildlife shots unless it was a whale or a seal that was closer to the excursion boat.

For most Caribbean cruises I think a DSLR with a single travel zoom lens or a smaller mirrorless setup would be perfect. I typically just take my Sony APS-C body and a couple of lenses in a smaller bag. Perhaps a bridge camera would be also be adequate.

I just got back a few weeks ago from the NCL Bliss Inaugural Alaskan Cruise and found my 150-600 to have been absolutely indispensable!!! I ended up taking 90% of my wildlife photos between 500-600mm and even used the lens for a few landscape photos as well. Even at 600mm I found many of the bears and eagles were so far off in the distance that I had to crop the images a great deal afterward in Lightroom just to fill the frame.

Originally when I was preparing I had the same concern as you about taking my 70-200 also but am happy that did not. Even with a 2x teleconvertor I think it would have been too short. Plus the extra weight would have been burdensome.

Most of my non wildlife outdoor excursion photos were taken with a Tamron 18-270. Like the 18-400 it’s a decent lens when there is enough light and when stopped down to f/8 or so. Not ideal for use indoors and in lower light situations as you really need to crank up the ISO to compensate.

Other lenses that I used were a 10-20mm for wide landscapes and some interior shots and a Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 came in handy when onboard and indoors.

If you’re taking the 150-600 already along with the 18-400 I’d leave the 70-200 at home and instead take a wider lens with a fixed aperture for your indoor shots. Such as an 18-35 or a 24-70.

Bring LOTS of memory cards and shoot everything JPEG + RAW. Try to backup the cards during the trip if possible. Take extra batteries and don’t forget a rain cover and lens cleaning cloth.

Just got off the NCL Bliss Alaskan Maiden Voyage Cruise.

I took two DSLR bodies along with:

Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 - I used this for 90% of my wildlife

photos. Whales, bears, bald eagles, and seals were all shot between 500-600mm. Even so many of them didn’t fill the frame and I had to crop in afterward in Lightroom. There’s no way I would’ve captured them with a shorter lens. I even used the lens for a few landscape shots.

Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 - This is an all purpose walkabout lens. I used this for the bulk of my shots when outdoors on excursions. It was one of two lenses that I took with me for my Northstar Trekking Helimush dogsled excursion on Norris glacier.

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 - I used this for many of my indoor photo while onboard the ship.

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 - I also used this for some interior shots as well as wide angle landscapes. It was the other lens I had for my dogsled excursion.

In addition I had a rain cover, speedlight, tripod that converted into a monopod, variable ND filters, and circular polarizers. Also dual and single QuickRapid straps. Just in case, I also brought a basic camera cleaning kit.

Most critical was that I brought MANY SD cards. It seemed like overkill but I found that I was filling them up quickly shooting everything with JPEG + RAW. I didn’t erase any of the cards during the cruise and backed them up nightly onto my laptop and external drive.

I also had a 360 camera that I used for onboard video footage a few times.

What I didn’t need to bring: I had a GoPro Hero 5 and a DJI Mavic Air drone that I never used. Every port in Alaska has frequent seaplane and helicopter traffic so drones are prohibited. However, I had a smartphone 3 axis gimbal that I never got around to using as well.

What would I do differently? Perhaps I could’ve left the 18-35 at home. At the time it was the newest lens in my collection so I felt compelled to bring it. In its place I could’ve brought an 8mm fisheye for some creative shots.

In my opinion the 150-600 was indispensable for the photos that I wanted. Perhaps even a 1.4x teleconvertor would have been handy to have in addition.

So at a bare minimum for Alaska I would recommend an extra long telephoto zoom like a 150-600 for the wildlife. Then a shorter zoom lens like the 18-135, 18-270, 18-300, or 18-400 could fill for the rest.

If you feel confident, there are a variety of do-it-yourself wet sensor cleaning kits available. Typically they include single use lint free swabs and a bottle of cleaning solution. You can check B&H or Adorama for these.

The newest “kid on the block” is the gel stick cleaning system. Apparently this is what some of the manufacturers use when you send your cameras back for sensor cleaning. I’ve not used them yet myself but have watched the tutorial videos (and actually will be receiving two for my birthday tomorrow). The brand name is Eyelead and they run $40-$50 each. The gel stick can be used many times provided that you clean them between uses using the included materials.

What I like about the gel system is that it doesn’t have the risk of dragging an abrasive spec of dirt across the sensor like the traditional wet swabs would. With the gel stick you just set it down onto the sensor and then gently lift the dust off.

My only concern would be how adherent the gel is onto the sensor surface and if it would afffect any of the IBIS camera systems.

I have a question for anyone here who may have had a similar experience:

During a recent cruise I took a high resolution scenic landscape photo of the cruise ship that I posted onto my social media photography account.

I was approached by the cruise line asking to use the photo in their advertising. The terms of agreement that they provided show that if I allow this I would be releasing all use rights to the photo in perpetuity.

Should I ask for some sort of compensation (cruise voucher, OBC, etc) in exchange for perhaps providing the RAW image file?

Does anyone have experience with this type of thing?

Thanks for posting! Love the photos!

We had a great time too and look forward to sailing on the Bliss again in the future!

Do you need to request the port valet papers or are they in your stateroom? We would like to use this on our Pearl cruise in 2 weeks. I’m reading so many different posts. Thanks for your help:)

The form is delivered to your stateroom along with the FreeStyle Daily. Or you can ask at Guest Services after you board.

Motegi

How was your embarkation process???

 

 

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Embarkation was among the fastest we’ve ever experienced. We arrived at our designated time, around 10:30. We left our luggage with the porters and were directed toward the check in line. The line was very short. Actually the way they had it roped off took longer to wind back and forth between the ropes than the time it took to actually process the passengers. It was like a maze... They were actively adding more turns even while we were walking through it! LOL!!!

The security x ray attendant and I had a great conversation about our watch collections and I think he might just look into going on the Invicta Full Ship Charter with us in February 2019 on the Carnival Victory!

Next we just walked right up to the check in desk with no line and received our cruise cards. We were handed “Group 1” boarding cards and so we simply walked over and boarded. ZERO wait!

There were some other passengers who were sitting in benches around the check in area. I’m not sure why. Perhaps they were waiting for family?

The one thing I found a little unusual is that the NCL photographers were not taking embarkation pictures anywhere. For every other cruise I’ve been on there is a photo with the ships image on a backdrop that all passengers take before heading up the gangway. This was not offered for our sailing on the Bliss. It was only much later during the cruise that one of the onboard photo areas was setup with a ship image backdrop. Perhaps they forgot? Was it for speed and efficiency? Or is this a new change in procedure?

But having the staff clean is not the same as a guest moving your things and taking your seat.

Oops. I thought when you brought in the buffet analogy you were referring to the food on the table...

We had snow crab legs at the buffet on Skagway Day (Wednesday).

I know that they had them before that as well as we had talked to people on our excursion who had missed having them the first time they were offered and had complained to the staff and received a complimentary specialty dining pass as compensation.

thx!

needed to know what the daily buffet themes were so i can schedule my sdp meals.

 

there was no prime rib theme at buffet or the Local on day 1 (embarkation day)?

Yes there was Prime Rib at the buffet on day 1. We even got it for lunch there too!

When you got off of the ship in Seattle, were there taxis lined up waiting?

Yes. At least a dozen of them. It was super easy to get one.

Just be sure to ask for a “flat rate” taxi. That will ensure that your fare is $40. This is regulated by the city.

Don’t get a towncar though as our cab driver warned us during the drive that their rates are not capped, only the taxis.

Like I said the Taxi is $40 flat rate no matter if you are solo or have a group of four.

For a single rider the $20/person shuttle bus would be the better choice.

Once you get to two or more the taxi is the better deal.

Thanks for the review. I’d love to hear more about Cuba. Any photos?

Pam and I are hoping to take the Sky to Cuba in the next 12 months.

The Sky happens to be one of our favorite ships. We’ve been on her many times.

We just got off of the NCLs newest, the Bliss, and I can’t say that the cabins are much bigger on there. The glass enclosed showers are certainly nicer on the Bliss though. Although the best shower arrangement was our obstructed ocean view cabin on the NCL Star that had a full sized shower with glass doors a large vanity and a glass door enclosed commode on the other side of the vanity.

As for the boarding process I have found that NCL has been consistently faster than Carnival out of Miami.

With Carnival no matter how early we show up, after going through security, we get herded into a holding area on the second floor where we wait in an crowded space while group numbers are called.

With the Sky the only line up is to get to the check in desk. After that you are straight onboard. No group numbers to wait for. The check in line works pretty quickly from our experience having gone through it so many times. In the general line 15-20 minutes tops from parking to boarding. Even faster though the Latitudes Rewards line. But we always try to get there early. I would say that the 45 minute wait you had on your boarding day was the exception rather than the norm.

Also as far as dining is concerned the two main dining rooms on the Sky that are included in your cruise fare. No extra charges in those dining areas unless you order certain specialty wines or something like lobster.

Anyway, I do look forward to hearing more about Cuba and perhaps seeing some photos!

If you were eating dinner (or lunch, or breakfast) at the buffet and you stood up (for a nanosecond) to get seconds, a drink, dessert, etc and someone walked over to your table, removed all of your stuff, and sat themselves down in your seat, I'm wondering if your feelings on the matter might change.

This happens sometimes. I’ve had the wait staff bussing tables come and clear it while I was just getting up to refill my coffee.

Fortunately it’s a buffet. I’ll just go and replace what was there with a fresh plate.

Pretty sad. they added 4 holes.

That’s all they could do given the size of the GoKart track adjacent to it. Most people aren’t that concerned whether they play 9 holes or just play the 4 twice. It’s just for fun. It’s mini golf!

I don’t worry so much about the cabin stewards. I tip them daily and they are happy. The only thing I worry about is when they are cleaning the room often times the door is propped open. Sometimes the steward steps away and it would be easy for a fellow guest to pop in and grab something that is easily visible from the hallway. So I hide my laptops or any valuables from view. My laptop is not small enough to fit inside the safe.

I can't get past the image of guests camping out all day sleeping in this area like a bunch of homeless people. It is a lounge, not the pool or spa. It cheapens the area. No one talks about sleeping or holding couches in the Atrium with belongings (would not work), or Shakers, Maltings or any other lounge. Why is this any different other than it has a better view. Looks like a great area to sit for a little, talk with friends, get a drink, then move on to everything else the ship offers. Not listen to someone snoring loudly.

Exactly. Yet I saw many people sleeping there every time I went.

The chaise style loungers are made to stretch out and relax. There are many of them for this reason.

The problem comes in when people do this on the sofas. The sofas are meant to be occupied by two or three people. Plus they are arranged in clusters with side chairs and coffee tables like you you’d have in a living room setup.

When one person is sleeping across a sofa it makes it awkward to go and sit in the other chairs in the cluster because you’d basically be sitting beside them staring at them. This is a problem.