jimgri

They did too when I was there and stopped in the city centre.

On 8/14/2022 at 5:24 PM, Kajojato said:

Hi.   Im looking at a cruise for Feb 2023......as a solo passenger......sadly most offers for us are not the best cabins in /or a reasonable price..Has anyone been on deck 1 of the Borelias..........thats whats available.    Im a little weary of engine noise or drone.... being so far into the hull........ would appreciate any views from previous cruisers  on this ship.......its an 18day cruise to cape verde, so want to be able to sleep without operational noise

 

 

My wife and I sailed on the sister ship, Amsterdam (whilst still with HAL) and were allocated Cabin 1805. It was the worst we've ever had on any cruise ship – noisy, lots of movement, waste water constantly rising through the drain on the bathroom floor, and if my memory serves me right portholes rather than picture windows at the very front of the ship. Never again!

I've been to Hvar but not Rijeka or Zadar. Hvar is delightful and a great place to meander. Here are a few photos to get you in the mood...

My wife and I have stayed in an equivalent cabin on Oriana, which was Aurora's sister ship. The good news is that it was great for accessing the rear decks and buffet one floor above. The bad news is that smokers tended to congregate near the exit. Also, some passengers repeatedly let exit the door slam. Those complaints aside, we were happy with the location and thought the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

My wife and I have sailed on both lines. Generally speaking, I think HAL is superior to P&O as a cruise line. Food is much better (although this is always a matter of personal taste) but service is about the same. Some of the older ships, eg Amsterdam, are a bit shabby with somewhat gaudy decor. Koningsdam is one of the nicest ships we have sailed on and more like Celebrity style-wise. I assume Nieuw Statendam will be very similar.

I haven't been on all the cruise lines that you have listed, but of those I have sailed I would rank P&O well below Princess, HAL and Celebrity. Of course, this is my subjective opinion and many others will disagree! That said, I have enjoyed my P&O cruises, particularly on the mid-size ships.

As everyone else has said, the temperature onboard should be no different from other times of the year or locations, BUT we did the same cruise on Oriana last February/March and the heating broke down on the ship in a number of public areas and cabin zones. For 36 hours we needed 3 duvets on our bed – ours was one of the affected cabins – and we wore outdoor clothes in some public areas.

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

They used to say the camera never lies but now with PC programmes it can make a very average picture into something good and give a totally false impression of what the camera really saw when taking the picture. That I am afraid is the downside of digital photography.

Whilst I agree with you to some extent, conventional photos have always been enhanced, corrected and manipulated in a traditional darkroom. The digital darkroom, i.e. post-processing, is no different really. Not even a computer programme can turn a poorly composed photo into a well composed photo.

15 minutes ago, Croooser said:

 

Great pics. The colors are vibrant and then some. Is that from post processing or more a function of the camera/lens?

Thanks for the kind feedback, Croooser. I did post-process the photos using Adobe Lightroom but the vibrancy is also a feature of one of the film emulation modes that Fujifilm offers on its camera, ie Velvia – "perfect for landscapes and other situations where you want to pull a lot of saturation out of your colors".

Another alternative to Schwerin Castle and Lubeck/Wismar is Rostock, just 20 minutes or so away by train (S Bahn) from Warnemünde. It's a pretty little town with a lot of history and makes a nice contrast to Warnemünde. Dead easy to do and a return ticket costs about 5 euros if memory serves me right. My wife and I did a similar cruise on HAL two years ago and had a fabulous time. Pics on Flickr if anyone is interested. The photos of Rostock and Warnemünde are close to the beginning of the album, after Copenhagen.

1 hour ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

As much as I'd like to get nice pictures of the lights, I'm not going to invest in a different camera. I'll get what I get with my Canon 'point and shoot'.

Understood, particularly if the Lights decide not to cooperate, but it's worth checking to see if your Canon "point and shoot" offers manual override or a long shutter mode.

Excellent advice from Peregrina651! For the Northern Lights I would also recommend a wide angle lens to capture as much of the night sky as possible and a camera that allows you control over shutter speed/exposure time. The good news is that many automatic cameras offer a manual mode. For what it's worth I used to use a digital SLR but I've now switched to rangefinder-style mirrorless cameras as they are much lighter and more compact: a Fujifilm X-E2 with interchangeable lenses and a Fujifilm X100F with a fixed lens. However, you don't need to spend a lot of money to take a good photo.

Hi Keith

For the most part I wore what my wife would call sensible shoes with a rugged sole. When out and about, I wore waterproof walking boots but many other people wore snow boots. As for socks, I layered up – thin pair of socks underneath thicker woollen socks. My feet did get cold, however, so perhaps I would have been better with thermal socks. I can't speak about excursions as my wife and I did our own thing most of the time. Have you tried asking Viking whether any of their excursions include winter clothing?

Jim

4 hours ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

 

Can you maybe give some specific suggestions as to the types of layered clothing you took along that worked well?  -27 C is really getting down there. We had nothing even close to that in Antarctica. 

On the coldest nights when viewing the Lights, I wore a thermal vest, then a polo neck jumper, then a good quality lightweight polar fleece, then a thicker polar fleece, and finally a heavy anorak-style coat. I also wore two pairs of gloves – a thin, cashmere pair and a heavier polar fleece pair on top. I took thermal long johns with me but didn't actually wear them – I wish I had! I also wore a polar fleece ski hat – essential for someone who is follically challenged! 😉  I'm no expert in dressing for the cold, but as the temperature dropped I simply added an extra layer of clothing until I could get no more on underneath my coat!

I must confess it was exceptionally cold on this cruise. Daytime temperatures in the far north were about -16°C but rapidly dropped after dark. The wind chill was the killer though. I should add we did the selfsame cruise two years before but the temperature in Alta was positively balmy at a little above 0°C. I think the weather was exceptionally "warm" as the ice sculptures in the town were melting. The photo below gives an idea of how people were dressed on the 2016 cruise.

My wife and I have done a very similar cruise on P&O, both in March 2016 and February/March of this year. It was *very* cold this year (about -27°C at times!) so layers are the order of the day. We did our own thing most of the time and didn't book the Northern Lights excursions as I took the view that if the atmospheric conditions were favourable, we would see them from the ship. Fortunately, I was right as you can see from the pics I took here on Flickr. The lights in the photos are brighter and more intense than we actually saw with the naked eye. These photos were taken with a very wide angle lens on a tripod for between 20-30 seconds and were processed using Adobe Lightroom. I would certainly recommend investing in a tripod if you want to take photos of the lights.

Speaking as a son of a butcher, the most common kinds of bacon in the UK (see image below) are probably back bacon and streaky bacon, smoked or unsmoked. In my opinion, the most tasty is back bacon because of the higher fat content. This is closest to what I have eaten in North America, although the latter tends to be served crispier than in the UK. Unfortunately (and this is just my point of view) more and more supermarkets are removing excess fat from bacon and sometimes even streaky bacon is sold looking "bald" and rather sorry for itself. By the way, gigot bacon is the least common cut and usually found in more upmarket (= expensive) butchers in the UK.

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On 10/19/2018 at 10:55 PM, FiftyOnePlus said:

Thanks for that.

I actually liked the photos of things like pipes and container ships more  lol  The ordinary stuff that look amazing in your photos.

 

At risk of sounding too pretentious, there's a lot of beauty in ordinary stuff! Thanks for the feedback.

On 10/18/2018 at 7:05 PM, FiftyOnePlus said:

What camera and set up do you use to take your photographs?  

They really are very nice indeed.

Hi FiftyOnePlus, Thanks for the kind feedback. I use a mirrorless Fujifilm camera, namely the X-E2. Most of the Northern Lights photos were taken with a very wide angle (12.0 mm) manual focus Samyang lens, wide open at f/2.0 and focused to infinity. ISO was set at 250 with exposures ranging from 20-30 seconds. Needless to say, a tripod was essential. All of the photos were processed afterwards using Adobe Lightroom to bring out the colours that the natural eye doesn't always see.

My wife and I were also on Oriana in March and saw the Lights on consecutive evenings from the ship in Alta (ditto 2016 too). I've always taken the view that if the Lights are strong, you'll see them from the ship so long as you can find a deck with the lights dimmed. The proof of the pudding can be found on my Flickr account here.

My wife and I were in 1815 (outside cabin) near the stern on Deck 1 a few years back. It was the worst cabin we've ever had on any ship. Noise wasn't a problem, but the cabin was shabby (formica peeling off the furniture, broken drawers and carpet that had seen many better days) and we had plumbing problems, i.e. smelly bilge water continually coming through the drain hole in the bathroom floor. I'm aware the ship was last refurbished 3-4 years ago so the problems we experienced may well have been resolved.

Your pictures are absolutely stunning - thank you so much for sharing. Could I ask what camera you use??

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I'm glad you liked the photos. I use a Fujifilm X-E2 which is a mirrorless camera. The lens was a very wide angle, ie 12mm, manual Samyang lens. In general terms, I would say that any camera that allows you to set long exposures manually (mine were between 20-30 seconds for the Northern Lights pics) will be OK so long as you also use a tripod.

Nice shots, jimgri. An f1 lens and the ability to shoot at ISO250 certainly helps! I had to make do with f4 and ISO800.

Thanks, Froxfield. Actually, it was f2 rather than f1 as the manual Samyang lens won't "talk" to my Fujifilm camera.

I was also on the 25th February 2018 sailing and took all my pictures of the Northern Lights from Deck 13 of Oriana. Ambient light was a problem but the ship was perfectly stable for exposures of between 20-30 seconds (using a tripod of course). I chose not to pay for P&O's very expensive tours to see the Northern Lights ... assuming they might be visible. I reckoned that if the Lights were strong, we would see them from the ship as we did both nights in Alta. I'm still processing my photos using Adobe Lightroom but have uploaded half a dozen to Flickr (click here) so you can see what's achievable from the ship. Light balance has been adjusted and contrast increased to make the Lights more visible.

Wonderful photos, Jim! Surprised more didn’t win awards.

 

 

Thanks, nanface, but I only submitted the one photo! ;)

Agree! If you've already been to Berlin, or otherwise just choose to stay in the area, both Warnemunde and Rostock (easy and close) both have lots to offer.

...and it's also easy (and inexpensive) to get a train from Warnemünde, via Rostock, to Wismar or Stralsund, both very pretty, historic, Hanseatic towns.