sfred

Thanks - wow, we're now at 21 "seen" ports for Alaska, accounting for 38% of all US locations, and more than three times as many as the next highest state, which is Florida at only 6.

Is this Haines, Alaska? I think some ships diverted there because of the rockslide at Skagway, and perhaps QE did also.

Ah, I think you are correct @bluemarble. In google maps, I found a photo (actually a 6-second video) of the Fossdalsfoss, on the westerm shore of the fjord, that is a match. My earlier searches of all the unseen cruise-bys were just in google images. The images for Eyjafjordur didn't have this view, at least not in the first several pages of images displayed before I gave up and moved on to the next location. You are up early this morning your time (or I hope it hasn't been an all-nighter?).

I've gone through all the cruise-by locations on the unseen list, but unfortunaely cannot find a match. Or perhaps my tired eyes missed somewhere.

An extract to Excel and a side-by side comparison quickly identified my missing port - Zanzibar, Tanzania. I didn't even have to go through the entire list before getting to "Z". I looked at the bottom to verify that I had one less row than your list, and immediately saw the missing Zanzibar. My port count now is also 581.

This was definitely challenging me also. There's lots of good clues in @ExArkie's photo, but the resolution wasn't enough for me to ID the ferry, the stern flag of the fire/tugboat spraying the blue water, or any of the harbourside buildings. With @bluemarble's solution, I can see now that there's definitely a match to the Seikan ferry, which runs from Hakodate to Aomori. But when I went to add Hakodate to my list of "seen" ports it was already there. Doing a search back through Where in the World, we saw Hakodate and the ferry in @ExArkie's post 3633 on 26 July 2021.

I think this might be the webcam? https://webcam-vlaardingen.nl/pages/cameras/oost.php

I think @Colin_Cameronmay be right. There are several matches to Rotterdam. The rounded roof building at the left does look like the Mammoet Schiedam. The webcam might be at or nearby to the Grand Café Nautique. This location is about the correct distance from the Mammoet, and looking east there are cargo ships at the piers at the left, and a matching red cargo crane. The various streetview images also show the buildings on the horizon in the webcam photo. If this is correct, a question remains of why the Cunard ship (I still can't tell whether QV or QE) is therefore departing at sunrise. Perhaps an overnight stay, or a delay? Also if correct, my congratulations to @Colin_Cameron!! That is an amazing recognotion of a webcam photo with very few clues.

I think this will be a challenge! I'm not even sure how to start. I can't make out whether the ship is QE or QV, whether the sun is a rise or set, the colours of the cranes or tugs, any sign wording, or building shapes other than the outlines on the horison. Perhaps inspiration will strike later today to detect some other clues.

Thanks very much @Palmeat. Appreciate your thoughts on the voyage. I didn't know that you could apply the Diamond free Verandah lunch benefit to a discounted dinner. Do you know if that was unique to your voyage, or a general change in benefits? Also, did your Diamond benefit renew at some port in your voyage to get the two Verandah dinners, and did that apply for your $135 internet benefit also ($135 * 2 segments)?

And have a Marks&Spencer! 🙂 I've changed Corfu to Former Empire.

Thanks @bluemarble for your reply. I just saw @exlondoner. 's post as my day is starting this morning. As indicated, the intention was to see what proportion of "seen" Cunard ports and cruise-bys are in countries that were part of the former British empire. I concur with @exlondoner's suggestion to include the wording "former" in the pie chart, and have done so. The text analytics model uses a Wikipedia list of former "Empire" countries, and consists of the following. If I've missed any, or included any that I shouldn't, please let me know.: UK, Ireland, Gibralter, Minorca, Malta, Cyprus, Canada, Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, Anguilla, St Kitts, Jamaica, Montserrat, Grenada, Antigua, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, British Guiana, Belize, Pitcairn Island, Falkland Islands, Tristan de Cunha, St Helena, Ascension Island, Israel, Jordan,, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Aden, Sudan, Gambia, Sierre Leone, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Dijoubti, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, British Overseas Territories, Samoa For the US, in the first versions of the the model I included all of the US. I knew this was wrong, and eventually got around to adding a US State field to the model. The count of US ports in the Former Empire includes WA, OR, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH and ME. It excludes AK, HI, CA, TX, LA, AL, and FL because these states joined the US from origins other than the Empire. However, examining the model to confirm the details for this post, I discovered that the formula linkage to the list of US states had broken when I brought the model out of archive when we restarted this thread. The model was incorrectly counting all of the US again. I've fixed that bug, added the "Former" wording to the chart, and updated the list of ports to include @babs135 photo of Kingston Jamaica as port 579 (and a "Former Empire" port). A corrected pie chart is below.

I usually post these graphs when we reach a nice round number of "seen" ports/cruise-by's, but we recently sped past 575, and 600 seems a ways off. So here are the outputs from the analytics dataset I keep on the ports list. If anyone has any questions or requests for additional graphs, let me know.

Thanks @D&N. Bass Rock, Scotland UK. I'm afraid I don't know the ship. This is port/cruise-by number 578.

This is a guess... The one time Mrs sfred and I departed Hamburg on QM2 was way back in June 2015 (on the 175th anniversary westbound crossing). From memory it was dark by the time we passed Cuxhaven. So if the newer Cuxhaven webcam photo shows QM2 in the daylight, that implies she left Hamburg either late the night before and passed Cuxhaven in the morning of the following day, or departed Hamburg much earlier in the day in order to pass Cuxhaven before dark. From the position of the light in the webcam photo, I'll guess she departed Hamburg late at night. A recent time QM2 departed late at night was the Blue Festival on 20 August. If she passed Cuxhaven the following morning, that would be 21 August. (I might have these dates wrong - my CruiseCritic feed shows dates and times for Australia, which can be different from local dates in Germany).

Very nice webcam photo of QM2, @bluemarble. The webcam is on the Steubenhöft pier in Cuxhaven, Germany. downriver from Hamburg on the Elbe. The wording you blanked out is elb-link.de (or at least it was in the August 2019 google streetview). Parts of the original wording are still visible under the new placard, which I assume was Scandinavian Seaways. A search for "Scandinavian Seaways ferry pier" got me the start I needed to find this webcam.

Unless there are any alternative rulings, I'll count port/cruise-by number 577 as Kongsfjorden, Norway.

Thanks @babs135 for the Port Douglas photo. I've been wanting to go there for some time. Hopefully one day. Although still in Queensland, it is a 1,764km drive north from Brisbane, so not smething one can do in a day trip. Glad to hear you had a pleasant stay.

😄 !! Cunard does relax the bush walking dress code when in Australia.

Good catch, thanks @bluemarble. I've moved Fuerteventura from unseen to seen. Your count is a little off though - we are at 576 ports. Probably just a typo in your post. As an aside, QE is scheduled to be in Port Douglas later this year, on 21 November (Australia time). I had put a note in my diary to look for a bridgecam photo on that day, thinking that that was going to be the first time since the restart that a Cunard ship would be at an "unseen" port. Thankfully QV in Norway enabled an earlier renewal of this thread. Port Douglas was one of the few remaining Australia ports on the unseen list. I've never been there, despite wanting to go for some time. QE might have been a good opportunity, except that Mrs sfred and I are on QM2 on its Norway trip in November (and very eagerly looking forward to be back aboard, I must say.)

Thanks @D&N. Google maps is indecisive on whether to call the island Ile de Porquerolles or Îles d'Hyères. As I zoom in or out, the name of the island changes from one to the other. Whatever the name, the surrounding area looks like a wonderful place for bush walking. The views from the Pic de l'Ours, both in your photo and in google, are stunning. I definitely think this qualifies as port number 574 on our "seen" list, particularly as it's an original photo. Thanks for the excellent challenge!

Ah yes, got it now. Thanks! I did manage to get fairly close. As I've used my guess for the day, I'll wait for tomorrow. Others are most welcome in the meantime to use these hints to ID the port.

Looking back at @Solent Richard's original contribution of Le Lavandou in May 2021, apparently the town has a ferris wheel which isn't shown in @D&N's current photo. So my guess is likely wrong.

Le Lavandou, France, to the east of Marseille? There's some offshore islands (Ile du Levant) that have some similar shapes, and hills to the north where your photo may have been taken, althugh I cannot find an exact match to the village. Enough similarities to be worth a guess, though?

Hi @bluemarble. Can I get a "ruling on the field" for whether the two recent cruise-bys qualify as "seen" ports? Just wanting to update my dataset for the analytics model. Vågsøy, Norway (port 572) Bac Mor / Bac Beag island, Scotland UK (port 573) Thanks!