TheOldBear

I see that Platinum level for World Club membership comes with 7 voyages.

What, exactly is a "voyage" here?

Example: if I travel NYC - Southampton - NYC on one booking, does that count as one or two voyages?

If I book the two legs separately, presumably they are certainly 2 voyages?

One booking = one ‘voyage’, including ones where segments may be booked separately. I think there are special rules for World Cruise segments.

HI,

We are spending a few days in Paris prior to our sailing from Le Havre.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a car company or a way to get from Paris to Le Havre.

I believe the train is just too complicated with luggage and kids in tow.

Thanks in advance!

Cinda

You may want to ask [or search for] this again on the France forum - by Cruise Critic geography, France is not in 'Western Europe' its in 'Mediterranean'

Here's a recent thread on the subject: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2600535

As you can see from the link, this is a subject that comes up frequently - often followed by a prolonged discussion thread with very little useful information past the first page.

How about - if a US Citizen can take the cruise without a passport [closed loop exception] then 99.44% of the time your passport will remain in the safe for the entire cruise.

I just bought a Lumix FZ300, now im in the market for stablizers and there’s too many of them out there. The ones that appeals to me the most are :

 

- Cam caddie Scorpion jr.

- Steadicam

- Gorillapod

 

and the 3 axis gimbal (as a last resort).

Speaking of which, do you know any that costs less than $500? If not, can i make do with any day of those three mentioned above???

 

thanks...

I know that some specialized video cameras [e.g. Panasonic GH5s] omit in camera stabilization features to allow for use with gimbals, steady cam or other external fixtures - but just what do you expect to achieve with an external / accessory stabilizer + a 'bridge' camera?

Have you explored the limits [and limitations] of the in camera stabilization features?

On our last cruise (15 nights) I had six bottles and one magnum in my carryon - well padded with socks and underwear. We paid corkage on the bottles and shared them at dinners

For still image capture, the Sony A9 is an interesting development - it has a burst shooting mode that captures up to 241 full resolution 24MP 'raw' fames at 20 frames per second - without viewfinder blackout.

This is not downsampled from full still camera resolution [24MP] to 4k video resolution [about 8MPl] - video is a separate mode on the A9.

The slightly older Olympus EM1.2 has a 'Pro Capture' mode that captures at 60 frames per second [buffer holds 99 20MP raw frames] - fixed focus for 60 fps, moving targets slows to 18 fps to allow for auto focus. Again, this is without viewfinder blackout.

Im leaning towards the Lumix, howeveri just wanna layout the advantages of the TG 5 (spec wise w/c i had no idea with in realtime)

 

 

Max ISO - 12.800 vs 6.400

Continous shoot - 20.0fps vs 12.0fps

Max Aperture wide - 2.00 vs 2.80

Focus bracketing - Yes vs No

Focus stacking - Yes vs No

UHS card support - Yes vs None

 

 

Will i be missing anything?

Max effective focal length 100mm (TG) vs 600mm (FZ)

Tele f stop - TG f5.9, FZ 2.8

The TG has built in GPS, wifi, and a later generation processor.

Both are good travel camera options, but as with everything there are compromises and tradeoffs.

The Olympus ‘tough’ camera is likely similar in performance to your point and shoot. The main difference is the tough part - it will keep working after a dunking.

The FZ is physically a larger camera, with proportionally a much larger lens. The lens is much brighter and all has a long zoom range (moderate wide angle to extreme telephoto). (There are also a variety of programmable and manual override features on the FZ, as well as a decent viewfinder)

If you are not planning on getting dunked (kayaking or white water rafting) I would recommend the FZ300. I have an older, larger model (FZ50) in my camera bag, along with an interchangeable lens camera. The FZ is the one I take for the unexpected.

One simple option to consider is simply bring multiple SD cards - then flip the 'write disable' switch on the side of the 'exposed' sd cards when you take it out of the camera.

I do not know if this is true 100% of the time, but our eastbound crossing had an onboard UK Customs agent. He did all the paperwork examination during the crossing [about 5 minutes worth for us] so the ship arrived 'cleared'.

It would be nice if US Customs worked the same way on the Westbound leg.

We will be on a cruise that stops in Le Havre on October 11th. We are hoping to arrange a private tour with some other passengers to the British beaches. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Have you posted this on your Roll Call? (one of the uses of Roll Call postings). Search for Overlord on this forum and you will get many threads and recommendations [and even a few do it yourself tour suggestions]

You will have more options / flexibility on a small group [sedan or van] tour than a bus tour - but despite that, we chose the ship's tour last year [American sector] and have no regrets. We're planning on the Juno & Sword beach tour next September.

Compare the per seat prices and you may find it comparably priced - for example, comparing the Overlord bus tour to Cunard's bus tour, the price difference was likely less than the value of the included lunch.

The ship's tour permitted 'first off, last back' timing, and the ship will wait for their own stragglers [one of the Paris tour buses had mechanical problems, and delayed departure by about an hour]. This is important when the next port is back in New York.

Believe it or not, once we HAD to take our passports off the ship to be able to get back on the ship. This was announced many times before and right after we made it to their pier. Of all places, this was KEY WEST! I think this was because we were at the Navy Pier. They used golf carts to get us back to the ship but before the cart moved, our passports were checked.

This is the only time in more than 100+ cruises we've taken our passports off the ship. Thieves get BIG bucks for stolen US passports. Ours always stay in our safe.

Well, I've only been on three cruises - and needed to carry my passport on a shore excursion once, so it is not too uncommon an occurrence [depending on the cruise's ports of call]

On the NY to Southampton leg of a round trip, the passport came out of the safe & got stamped somewhere mid Atlantic. When QM2 arrived in Southampton, it was already 'cleared' so passports stayed in the safe [ship's ID card was all that was needed for passengers continuing on the round trip]

The next day was in Le Havre. Here the ship was not 'cleared' and all passengers taking excursions needed to have their passport stamped, both departing and returning [slow line at the terminal, only one official examining & stamping passports]. No one on shore needed to see any passports, but without secure storage you needed to keep it with you.

Apparently other European cruise itineraries have the ship 'cleared' before/at their first 'Schnegen zone' port, then for subsequent ports on the same cruise no passports are required.

One thing about camera shopping in a 'big box' store - the sales clerks do not know when they are lying.

Older cameras [like my FZ-50] would have a problem with large capacity sd cards, as the larger cards use a sightly different file system.

Modern cameras can use much larger cards without issues. [i have several 4 gig cards for the old cameras, and 32 gig cards for the newer cameras]

Most cameras provide a counter of number of pictures that will fit onto the card at the current resolution - that should be thousands of 'large / fine' jpeg photos on a 16 gig card.

I would say either 16 or 32 gig as the standard size - and don't forget getting additional batteries for the camera too.

The cards a fairly cheap, so you may want to consider a strategy of one card per [shore excursion] day, unless you also bring a device [laptop, iPad] that lets you copy/backup the photos before returning home. Always use the camera to format the card back to blank after extracting the photos [the camera will most reliably write to a card that it has formatted].

Typically the prices for the spa 'general admission' [pool & the thermal suite] are set so that a three day pass is less expensive than two day passes. We each bought 6 day passes, and they were valid for both legs of the round trip.

This past September, eastbound time changes were at noon [clocks advanced from 1200 to 1300] along with the daily announcement.

Westbound, the time changes were sometime at night. We did notice that several clocks, including one on the Promenade, were never showing the correct time.

Can not answer the wrist watch question as, like most passengers, I did not wear one on the ship.

Has anyone done the Windsor tour on the day in Southampton? We're thinking of doing either that or Winchester? We want the chance to explore something during our 8 hours in England! :-) Would love thoughts/suggestions.

My only complaint on the Winchester tour was that it was too short - the tour bus got us back to the ship in time for lunch.

Our next cruise features two Southampton turn around days - one of them will include a longer excursion (and the other one likely to be a DIY excursion day)

My wife and I are planning a Trans Atlantic (TA) cruise for 2019. Last year we did a TA on he QM2 in early May and were fortunate to have had very mild weather that allowed us to enjoy the promenade deck and the stern hot tubs all but one day. For this next TA cruise we were thinking of pushing the date back to June, July or even August to have even better odds of having mild weather. Of course we know that the later we push it back the greater the chance that we run into a tropical storm or even a hurricane. We also realize that weather on the North Atlantic can be a crap-shoot. Does anyone have any suggestions on this timing issue?

 

Thanks

Harold

Last September the QM2 encountered force 11 winds. (Tbe behufort scale only goes to 12) The captain put the wind on bow, and closed all the deck 7 access to the promenade. There was still access aft to decks 6 & 8 (splash pool & terrace pool) A few hardy folks were in the hot tubs - others were enjoying a refreshing 80 knot breeze on the promenade (access from the stern)

My wife and I are going on a cruise in October and I have a question about Real ID driver's licenses. This may be a silly question.

 

Having renewed my license this February, I do have the new Real ID license. My wife doesn't as her current one isn't up for renewal yet. I believe the year that they start requiring you carry a Real ID license is this year. However being in Indiana we are one of the states that were granted an extension to 2020 as the year we'll be required to switch.

 

 

Our cruise sails out of Miami. I know that when you initially board the ship you use your passport as ID. But after that when the ship stops at various ports you only need a valid Driver's license to re-board. Unless I'm mistaken. If we get to say our first port is Half Moon Cay and go to re-board, we have a problem that her license isn't a Real ID version even if it is valid and active? Should we get my wife's license updated or should we play it safe and take our passports with us when we stop in ports?

Most of the time the government ID is used to permit you entry into an area where your ship ID can be scanned. You are only permitted back on the ship when you can be compared to your stored ID picture.

You will be informed what ID is required [just the ship ID; Ship's ID + Government issued ID; Ship's ID + Passport] - the only constant here is the Ship's ID.

For your cruise, if you brought a passport it will just stay in the safe until you need it at the end of the cruise.

Passports are only required for shore excursions when the country/region you are visiting requires them. My recent example was on a Transatlantic - UK Customs/Immigration needed to see the passport on the Eastbound crossing [between NY & Southampton] so the entire ship was considered 'cleared'. No passports were checked on UK ports [just the Ship's ID].

France needed to see the passport both leaving the ship and getting back onboard. [ship was not 'cleared']

Check for elements in the image located above, below, right and left of the bird. It's possible the autofocus simply missed the bird as the main focus target. At a distance this isn't uncommon. A fix might be to switch to center focus when trying to isolate a distant subject.

 

Dave

Also - is the bird moving? Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction only helps if the subject is not moving [much] when the shutter fires.

We booked last year's TA round trip based on dates available for the cruise [and almost needed to invoke trip insurance anyway].

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the eastbound leg had the English 'National Symphony' onboard - including two concert evenings, afternoon performances and a very well attended lecture with conductor Anthony Inglass

No cruises in the schedule this year - but our next one will be another TA round trip and the National Symphony will be on the eastbound leg.

Just a cautionary tale - last September QM2 waited about an hour for a Paris tour bus with mechanical problems. They would typically not wait for folks out 'on their own'.

This is important when the next port is New York.

Following up on my earlier post to provide another data point about Cunard shore excursions from Southampton. Our upcoming 21-day round trip voyage from New York on QM2 in June 2018 (including a voyage to Norway) will have two days in Southampton (17 June and 24 June). For both of those days, Cunard is offering the following Southampton shore excursions in our Voyage Personaliser.

 

Cathedral City of Winchester

Prehistoric Stonehenge

Royal Windsor Castle

Bombay Sapphire Distillery

Half day and full day private car/minivan tours of Southampton

Full day private car/minivan tours of London

 

When the excursions were first posted on Voyage Personaliser a couple weeks ago, there was also a listing for the "Southampton Titanic Trail" excursion, but that has since disappeared. The description for that excursion states "Your walking tour begins at Ocean Terminal". We are actually scheduled to be docking at the QEII terminal, so I wonder if that may have had something to do with that particular tour no longer being offered on our voyage.

 

Regards, John

We did the Winchester tour this past September - it seemed a bit short, only an hour or so in town post cathedral tour, then the bus back to the ship in time for lunch.

I'm planning on getting one of Olympus' travel zoom lenses - probably their 12-100 f4 [equivalent to 24-200 for full frame].

Can you please point me toward that board? I looked through the list of boards and did not see one for travel insurance, so I chose this as a natural place for these questions.

The travel insurance forum is at Cruise/Travel Insurance

If that got mangled the url is https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

Yes, that was one thing the refit got horribly wrong. The new drawer pulls gave no consideration to ease and comfort. Hopefully they'll get changed out at the next drydock.

Hopefully this is a change that may be performed while the ship is floating :)

Since my Swiss Army knife has a Phillips screwdriver blade, perhaps we will upgrade our stateroom to more comfortable / functional knobs.