Do you bring your GPS on a cruise ?

[AlainBob]

If you don't bring your GPS with you, you are missing very interresting things !

 

On our cruise around the Caribbean last March, I had my GPS (Magellan Meridian Gold) with me. I also bring 4 rechargeable NiMH batteries and a 512 Meg SD card with the map of Fort Lauderdale (since we arrived the day before sailing). I have a canvas carrying case that I securely attached to the railling of our balcony with Duck Tape. The GPS didn't have too much difficulty to "see" the satellites, even from our covered balcony. That way, I was able to keep the GPS On 24 hours a day ! And to be able to record the maximum waypoints possible, I saved the track data 2 to 3 times a day. I gave each file a name that makes it easy to remember when it was saved: I gave it a 6 number name: the first 2 numbers represents the date and the last 4 represents the hour. Ex: 201530 means the 20th of the month at 3:30 pm.

 

When I got back home, I was able to export each file as an Excel file from the GPS to my Pc. I then opened each Excel files and merge them into one big file with thousands of waypoints. I then removed many waypoints as the ship goes in a straight line. I only kept those that I need.

 

Take a look at this link. This is Sony's Imagestation web site and I have placed there 8 maps representing our last cruise. You will see the actual track of the cruise and the tours we have made on each port of call. To see the images, you will have to register on Imagestation but don't worry, it's free and they don't send junk mail after...

 

Of course, when we were at sea, I was able to recognize the islands we were passing by... Sometimes, when the island is too small, the GPS only tell that it is "The Bahamas" (or any other name) without knowing the real name of the island...

 

I was also able to tell the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) since I previously input the coordinates of the island we were visiting... And I knew the speed the ship was going. Actually, the maximum speed I recorded was 21 knots.

 

I also did some Geocaching. I found a travel bug in Dominica (Trafalgar falls) and I intend to place it somewhere around here.

 

As you can see, bringing a GPS on a cruise can be fun ! "Don't leave home without it !"

 

Anyone else use a GPS on their cruise ?

 

Alain R.

[calikak]

We want to bring ours on our British Isles cruise but it doesn't have enough memory to hold the whole of the British Isles...I am trying to figure out a way for us to put the maps onto something we can take with us other than my laptop, because I don't want to lug my laptop around.

[Dreamer333]

wow, sounds very "technical" but really cool!

 

I am not sharing this info with my DH because I know he'll be insisting we buy a GPS for our next cruise!! ;)

[SeaScout]

Cool! Its nice to see a fellow geocacher here. I brought my Garmin ETrex Vista on our last cruise and had a ball tracking our progress. I never did get to hit any Geocaches while on the islands. My GF informed me a few weeks ago that there was a Geocache located at Cinnamon Bay on St. Johns. As we sat on the beach there we were very close to the hidden cache and didn't even know it. I even had my Vista with me. Had I know the cache existed I would have certainly been able to log another find.

 

Here is a link for those That might be interested in the Cinnamon Bay geocache.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=0bdaf0fe-3df0-4f77-a0df-59526f58b97a

[JustSomeGuy]

I am also planning to bring my Pocket PC GPS along just so I can tell at any moment where I am in the middle of the ocean and how fast the boat is going :-). I also like to use my GPS on flights just to have something fun to look at. You need to have a window seat for it to work on a flight.

[RvrCrzr]

I travel with my Garmin Legend GPS. It's nice to go out on the balcony, and be able to tell where you are, speed, and see what you are passing by. I also use it at the ports so I don't get lost. (not to mention in taxis. They always ask you if it's your first visit there. You tell them yes, and they take the LOOOONG way to your destination!)

 

I'm thinking about upgrading to the Garmin Legend C (color model) Anyone using it?

 

I also like to turn it on the in aircraft on the way to the port. Each airline has a different policy on it so check with yours before doing this. I also told the flight attendant, so they wouldn't think it was some sort of bomb or something. It's cool to see your altitude and speed. You can see all the lakes and cities below, and tell what they are. Way cool!

[seetosea]

We also bring our GPS with us. Not only do we see where we are going, but we do a little geocaching along the way. We found a cache in St. Maarten, just off the ship a few years back. Last December, we did a Hawaiian cruise and picked up a cache at each island we stopped at. The great thing about caching is that you go to places you might never have known about. We plan on taking it with us to Tahiti in June.

[Travelgrrl]

I noticed on my last couple cruises (on RCI), the captain gave GPS coordinates when he made announcements.

[calikak]

I'm thinking about upgrading to the Garmin Legend C (color model) Anyone using it?

 

That's the one I got for DH! We use it on road trips all the time, but haven't been on a cruise since we got it. It burns through batteries like you wouldn't believe, and I wish it had more memory so we could download more maps, but otherwise it's great.

[Colo Cruiser]

My son brought his with us on the Grand and we sat on the balcony and watched the speed, it was neat, also on the plane coming down to Ft Lauderdale with a tail wind 600 +.

[AlainBob]

... It burns through batteries like you wouldn't believe...

That's why I brought 4 NiMH rechargeable batteries ! 2 in the GPS, 2 in the charger. I changed them every 8 to 10 hours or so and I had no problems at all. I think they paid by themselves...

 

I noticed on my last couple cruises (on RCI), the captain gave GPS coordinates when he made announcements.

On our last cruise on the Dawn Princess, same thing happenned. I also asked the captain if it would be possible to pass on the coords 13 Deg 00.000 N, 60 Deg 00.000 W as it is a confluence point (see "The Degrees Confluence Project") and this point is near Barbados... He answered that it would not be possible but that we should pass at about 7 nautical miles from the point... In fact, we passed at 6.02 nautical miles...

 

Here is a link for those That might be interested in the Cinnamon Bay geocache.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cach...df-59526f58b97a

Well, here's the link for the cache at the Trafalgar falls in Dominica:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c9b5b305-4be2-4145-90b2-b2bae18c585d

 

Have fun with your GPS !

 

Alain R.

[Bob & Barb]

Alain -- I always bring my Magellan Meridian Color, too. On my last coast to coast flight, people sitting in my area began asking "What moutain is that? or what river is that - or what city, etc.? It's fun on the cruises, too, and I'm looking forward to really putting it to use on my upcoming cruise to the Western Europen Capitals in June -- but I haven't tried geocaching as yet. Must read up on that.

 

As to Calikak's question -- get a couple of memory cards and download the maps to them from your computer. To change the maps just swap cards in your GPS.

 

Bob

[AlainBob]

As to Calikak's question -- get a couple of memory cards and download the maps to them from your computer. To change the maps just swap cards in your GPS.

 

Bob

As I understand, they have a Garmin Legend and I think this GPS do not have a memory card slot like we have in our Magellan... That's one of the many reasons I choose Magellan...

 

Alain R.

[rxmurphy]

Good to know there are so many on board in case the captain's GPS breaks! :D

[calikak]

Yeah, I am not all that tech savvy so I didn't know we'd need so much memory to hold all the maps. That will be the last time I surprise DH with some technological device I know nothing about. :) We also do the rechargable batteries in everything (digital camera, CD player, etc.). There is no reason to buy 15 million batteries when we can just recharge them.

[AlainBob]

Good to know there are so many on board in case the captain's GPS breaks! :D

Yeah, you're right !

 

When we boarded the plane going to Fort Lauderdale, I asked the flight attendant if I could use my GPS during the flight. She said: "No problems... And please tell me if we're going offroad ! I'll then tell the captain !" ... with a big smile on her face ! :D

[ericosmith]

Used my GPS last week on the CB and it was great. I downloaded a free natical navigation program called Sea Clear and also about 10 digitized nautical charts. Had a Caribe deck balcony so left the GPS (meridian gold) sit out on the balcony table the entire trip. Ran a cable in through the slider to the laptop running the chart software. This software automatically loads the chart with the most detail for the current position and provides a track on the moving chart as well as all the standard info. The charts were great and provided a lot of insight about why they select the routes they do.

 

It was nice to be able to lay in bed and see exactly where the ship was when getting ready to enter port. Shoot, you could watch the thing slide up to the dock for that matter.

[ssantow]

I have been bringing my GPS on cruises for many years. Even back when they were quite big and bulky items. I have since moved into the Garmin etrex Vista. It seems to have plenty of memory and I have never had to load any additional software on it. On our 14 day Eastern & Western Caribbean cruise last year It told me how close we were to each port and gave quite detailed maps of the islands.

I used the find function to locate our next port of call and tracked our progress all the way. It was interesting standing out on deck trying to identify that land mass off to the port side. People would come up and ask where we were and I could tell them. And to the captians credit he did not gel lost once during the whole cruise

[John L.]

Great comments by you guys. I have a GPS III by Garmin (only has main highways and large visual references) which I take time to time to see where we are located and speed of ship. It is very compact and uses 4 AA rechargeables. I didn't know you could pick up the signal in commercial planes so I will try it next time. We just came back from Vegas last week and I would have loved to know what cities we were flying over. I generally can't get enough satellites from my balcony on the ships and usually go up on the open deck to use it. I also have a Magellan Roadmate 700 for my car but it needs the cigarette lighter for power. It has 5 gigs of memory and has all the streets for entire N. America. No cd's necessary. It costs me $1,200 so I'm afraid to take it for use in rental cars on vacation.

 

John L.

[palolake]

We took our Garmin 60C (love it) with us on our last cruise. I was shocked at the slow speed of the ship. It was pretty cool to be able to see where we were and what islands we passed by.

We took a travel bug with us this last cruise. I wanted to leave it in St. Maarten or Antigua but was unable to because of the weather and problems with the ship. I ended up leaving it in a cache in St. Thomas right at the dock. Wouldn't you know it... someone from my state picked it up and took it right back home!!!!!!

By the way, where is the cache in St. Maarten by the ships? I didn't see one close.

[dna1990]

I took a new Legend eTrex myself last month on Jewel. We had a deck 9 balcony, where the floor of deck 10's balcony is a nice thick slate of steel. I could keep 3 sats on track if I hand held the unit out a ways, with my elbows on the railing. But I could never keep a signal any other position. On the chair back, down low, flush to the glass panels, etc.

 

While using one for short periods up on deck is fun, I was most interested in recording the actual track, esp for those slow s-turns at night where you only need to travel a few hundred miles.

 

Any tricks to setting up a good signal source? I haven't gone and looked yet, but if my unit supports an external antenna, would that help?

[AlainBob]

dna1990, if you take a look at the link in my first post on this thread, you'll see how I managed to install my GPS and have a good view of the satellites.

 

If I had not received any good signals, I tought I could ask a deck attendant (or even the captain !) if it would be possible to attach my nylon carry case to some of the railling on the top deck in a place where nobody could steel it... :rolleyes: ...and I'm pretty sure that there would not be any problems...

 

Alain R.

[snorkly]

Bringing a GPS unit on the cruise sounds like something I'd be interested in. But, is there much more information on the GPS unit, than on the TV channel that displays your current location and speed, etc? Also, if I were to purchase a GPS unit, which model would you all recommend? Thanks! :D

[cruise182]

I need one!!! which one would you recommend>

[RvrCrzr]

I like the adaptability of the GARMIN LEGEND.

 

I can download detailed maps for the locations I'm going, use it in my vehicle, use it on my bike, use it hiking, use it on a cruise ship, carry it on the islands, see if the cab driver is taking me the long way to my destination... :)

 

I am thinking of upgrading to the GARMIN LEGEND C (color screen). I also like the looks of the GARMIN QUEST, but not sure about the greater cost.