starfish216

Hope you feel better soon.

As someone who lives in NYC, I generally agree with this. Early December would most likely be better, BUT...

 

Definitely get trip insurance!

 

It is not unheard of for us to have snow and ice even in early December. I will not make travel plans out of here pretty much any time from mid-November through at least the end of March without all-inclusive trip insurance. (I typically don't travel without it anyway, but ESPECIALLY in winter in this area.)

Good idea to go with all inclusive travel insurance. Purchasing travel insurance when we book vacation is always a given for us, so I don't think to remind people to do it.

OP the weather is typically 20-40 degrees fahrenheit, January is usually colder than December and the Atlantic Ocean can sometimes be rough going down the East Coast of the US.

Temperature isn't the only concern…..snow and freezing rain can close airports thus delaying many flights…this just happened last week. Guest arriving to/from Cape Liberty on the Quantum were met with delays at local airports. Also if you have a connecting flight somewhere in the US take into account the weather conditions that time of year where the connection is.

Just recently the QOS missed San Juan because of rough seas going. I thought someone on CC posted a picture of her with snow on the decks.

So my advice to you if you really want to sail on the Anthem fly in a couple of days early and aim for the beginning of December….less chance of snow and temps are usually in the 40's.

Hope all works out.

Port side has the best view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline when leaving Cape Liberty.

The couple of times I have sailed out of Cape Liberty we did not get close to the Statue of Liberty…but were able to see her in a distance.

If you happen to be spending time in the NJ/NY area the best view would be to take the Staten Island Ferry roundtrip from lower Manhattan (NYC) to Staten Island. It's about 25-30 minutes each way. The ferry is FREE.

https://kathytravelswithfriendsandfamily.shutterfly.com/pictures/2531

Very nice book, I enjoyed looking through it.

There is a separate monorail from the ticket and transportation center to Epcot. The ride is usually about 10 minutes. This does not include waiting for the monorail.

I plan on visiting Epcot when we sail on the Quantum in March 13th. Epcot is hosting the Flower and Garden Show from March 4th to May 17th, 2015. We visited WDW a couple of years ago in April and saw the show. Spring is now my favorite time to visit. I like looking at the topiaries as we make the long walk around World Showcase.

Thanks for the heads up about purchasing tickets in advance….I may do that…I didn't realize I can Fastpass attractions before arrival.

We sailed the end of July into the beginning of August. It was our first cruise to Alaska. We went Northbound out of Vancouver.

Before we booked Alaska I did research on time of year to visit and tried to balance best time for viewing wildlife, weather and being able to get close to Hubbard Glacier (meaning that the ice floes have departed making it safe for the ship to enter)

Weather and wildlife sightings are always hit or miss. So my comments are to just my observation from our July 25th cruise.

We always book a balcony when we cruise in the Caribbean (10 times) so we were really excited when be were able to book 3 Aft Balconies on deck 8 for our Alaska Cruise. We all paid a premium for these balconies and the time of year.

The Alaska cruise was the only cruise we didn't make use of the balcony…..it poured for five days straight and it was constantly foggy. We weren't able to see the beautiful views or the tops of mountains until we left the coast and went inland to Canada when we were in Skagway (day 6). We couldn't use our balcony since the railing and loungers were always soaked. Water would be dripping down from the balcony above us. That being said we were always out and about on the ship. We ended up actually preferring moving around the ship, there are many public places with good views both inside and outside. Once we were up, we were out of the cabin. There is a nice covered outside area behind the Windjammer that offers some protection from the rain yet it is outside. It offered the same view we had from our aft balcony.

We did have a gorgeous day when viewing Hubbard Glacier (day 7). We preferred being out and about moving around the ship sharing the excitement with other guest. I took pictures of them and they took pictures of my DH and I. We were able to see and photograph Glacier Calving since we were outside at that time….the others in our group decided to stay on their balconies and missed it.

We did have a mix of nice weather and some drizzle on the land portion of our tour from Seward and went to Denali.

As for wildlife from the cruise portion… we saw whales, seals, eagles, otters and deer. We saw no bears on our bear search in Icy Strait. We saw very few salmon.

On the land portion on the Denali Wilderness Tundra Tour (10 hours) we saw sheep, moose, fox and some bears in the far distance.

I am now waiting and hoping for last minute good deals this summer for Alaska. All the planning for the perfect time of year didn't matter when mother nature does what it wants. So this time I will not be so fussy where my cabin is or what time of year and just go when I can get a good deal. Since there is such a huge price difference between and inside and a balcony I would even consider trying an inside for this cruise. We really spent very little time in our cabin or balcony as we preferred moving around the ship looking for wildlife.

We are sailing March 13th, we haven't been able to book any shows yet either.

I figure sometime after final payment (mid December) we will be able to do so.

Cell Phone Waiting Area?

That's what it looks like! That's where I pulled over to take the photo. I had to keep walking backwards in order to get the whole ship. lol

Sailed out of Cape Liberty twice……they didn't take E-ZPass when we were there in May 2014. We would have used E-ZPass if we could.

Parking fee gets collected upon arrival at the lot. Just remember to leave the parking pass on your car's dashboard.

Will be sailing out of there again in a few months, if anything changes I will update.

Took a ride over to Bayonne yesterday to see the Quantum of the Seas docked in Cape Liberty.

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/1932672_10152863528970148_1484542592572323586_o.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Took a ride over to Bayonne to see QOS docked at Cape Liberty on Friday afternoon.

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/1932672_10152863528970148_1484542592572323586_o.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

When I take this cruise, I have booked a 2:45pm flight at Newark airport(the ship arrives at 7:00am). Do you guys think that is enought time to get off teh ship and to the airport?

The airport is about 20 minutes away.

In the morning you will be traveling to the airport the opposite way of the traffic heading to NYC.

A couple of years ago DH won $4500 on a Progressive Video Poker machine on EOS within an hour of the casino opening. No taxes were taken out. After gambling all week the net winnings for this cruise was $3600.

He had to go back to his cabin and get photo idea, a form was filled out requesting his SS# and we were given a copy of the form.

We did claim the winnings on our tax return but since we cruised a couple more times the same year and lost the net effect was zero gains. We just request a win/lose statement from each of the cruises we took.

It was funny….he won in May and for awhile we were collecting lottery tickets to help offset the winnings….in the end we didn't need them since we sailed on other cruises in September and December. Also, since we file jointly my losses were able to offset his winnings.

The correct thing to do is report all winnings to the IRS.

Wishing it wasn't so dark out……She is schedule to sail past the Statue of Liberty at about 5:30 AM

https://twitter.com/PTZtv/status/531688067137282049/photo/1

I collect only Pandora beads…….having been to various Caribbean ports many times I haven't found any port specific beads. Although some stores will sell a Pandora bead with the name of the port etched on it.

I prefer to collect a bead that reminds me of the port…. for example a Turtle for Grand Cayman (since we went to the Turtle farm), Frog for Puerto Rico (PR's official mascot it the Coqui Frog), the Bear charm for Alaska (we saw bears) and for Italy I have the Pandora Colosseum and Gondola charms (since we visited the Colosseum and rode in a Gondola)……as you can see the list goes on.

For all those sailing out of NY or NJ Pandora has The Statue of Liberty Charm.

Disney now makes some charms for Pandora. In March I will be sailing on the Quantum of the Seas and will get a Disney charm if we decide go to Disney for the day while in Port Canaveral.

I have put in a request for 'refer a friend' twice.

The first time was in May when my aunt was sailing with us on the Explorer. I booked her reservation about a month prior to sailing and filled out the online request. After three weeks of pending I called RCI the week before we left and they approved the $25 credit. It was on our sign and sail account when we boarded.

The second time was in July when my DS and DIL were sailing with us on the Radiance of the Seas, neither had cruised with RCI before. The request had been in place since March. I didn't think to call to confirm figuring RCI had months to confirm the first time sailing. When we got on board there was no $25 credit on our sign and sail account. Honestly, I couldn't be bothered to go down to Guest Services and have them try and figure it out. So I just let it go.

All my reservation are made through the 'big box store' since they charge the same as RCI and give me OBC based on my total cost.

I haven't been on that class of ship yet but I picked deck 8 for my upcoming cruise based on the feedback from people here. Seems like deck 8 is very popular based on it's close proximity to everything!

We loved our JS on deck 8. It's easy to grab a quick snack or drink from Park Cafe and bring it back to your cabin without having to navigate stairs or elevators.

BTW the cabins are in a separate corridor from Central Park so you don't hear or see the people in Central Park.

Eye wood knot dew it.

Fun knee…….lol

I have been trying for days to book shore excursions for myself and my group. I had booked them and they have been cancelled by RCCL, no explanation, just a glitch! Then I spend the time and get them in the cart and get a message, our website is on vacation, sorry please try again later. I really think this is unacceptable and they should get it together or shut it down until it working properly.

On our last cruise I had similar problems for days. I finally called RC to book excursions over the phone. I found out that there weren't enough spaces for the number of people (7) I was trying to book that is why I was having a difficult time. Maybe you are in the same situation for your group.

Give RC a call they can book excursions for you.

Dave, thanks for the info sounds simple enough.

Now all I have to do is wait for winter to arrive, have a clear night with no moon and I will give it a try.

Thanks

Premier Elements is probably the best bet for an inexpensive but full featured video editing program.

 

For short ones, you can save a multi-layered image in PS Elements as an animated GIF. (Bit of a pain.)

 

If you Google "time lapse software", there are quite a few freebies out there you may want to play with.

 

I got the controller for my A77 to do star trail images. THis site has a nifty single purpose package that does a great job.

 

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

 

This is a 130 exposure image made with the program:

 

Lots of fun to be had!

 

Dave

Dave, I like your photo. How is it done? I don't mind researching it but I don't know what it is called. I would love to play around with my camera. I saw the fast video's but I like the still photo. Thanks

Starfish, it is about a 4-second lag to write out the 10 images. But you can slow down the picture taking from 13 frames/sec to 4 frames/sec by turning on AF in the "burst" mode. Gives you a 2.5 second time range instead of a fraction of a second for the pics.

 

Great photos... for the price of this camera, it has some amazing features.

 

Steve

Steve, thanks for that info. It was the first time I used the camera for vacation.

Also the first time I tried something besides 'auto'. Still have a lot to learn.

In the past if I tried to take a moving shot all I got was a blur.

Great! I have always had Canons, my current little point and shoot is a Powershot SD 1400 IS. It's six years old and taken quite a beating. Even submerged in water twice due to my toddler. Still works, but its slow and I am ready for the next "level."

 

We've settled on the SX50 and I can't wait to order it :)

These were taken with the Canon SX50 …..I purchased for our Alaskan cruise in July. I don't think they came out too bad considering I am not a photographer, we were on a small boat bobbing up and down in the water and the whale was also moving. I did crop the photos and photo enhanced them to use in my digital photo scrapbook. I wanted all the whale photos to be similar in size and I like the blue color since it makes the whales pop more.

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2482.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2483.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2484.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2486.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2487.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2489.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7

The camera has a 'sports mode' it's the picture of a person running on the dial….it takes about 10 consecutive shots….but be warned it takes a couple of seconds to write the pictures to the memory card once the 10 shots are done before you can take another picture.

Here is what one of the above photos looked like before I cropped and enchanced the color. The color in the photo is exactly what the day looked like, it was foggy, cloudy and drizzling out….just all gray out.

http://s989.photobucket.com/user/dragonfly94-2010/media/IMG_2486-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5