High Speed Internet

[Wendy The Wanderer]

What method do you use to post photos on CC (or have you done that). Some great CC posters have helped me in the past but I'd like to learn to do it on my own. ...

 

Usually I just upload a picture from my phone to Facebook. That's simple. I've only uploaded a few to CC, and I agree it's complicated--it has to be from a publicly-accessible website, at least as far as I know. I've done it from Smugmug, where I store my photos, but can't remember the exact procedure.

 

As far as I know there's no way to upload directly to CC from either a phone or a PC.

[Gilly]

Since we began cruising with Regent in 2008, I have always posted "live" to my blog from Voyager or Mariner on an almost daily basis. My posts are usually photo-rich and contain a fair amount of text and I could count on one hand the number of times that I've not managed to upload the files - mostly because we've been in waters where internet is limited, like Japan, say.

 

I compose my posts offline on my laptop, using MS LiveWriter. I edit my photos in Picasa to a width of 1084px and resize to ensure they are no larger than around 200kB, insert them into my post, save to draft and upload when I'm ready. Since my blog posts are generally the details of the day's activity, I'm usually doing this after the show in the evening, when perhaps the internet isn't quite as busy as earlier in the day, but truly, I have seldom had any issue at all. My blog is currently hosted by Squarespace, but I previously used Blogger and found that to be equally accessible. Uploading usually takes around five mins or so, depending on how many photos or how chatty I am that day, but it has taken up to ten or fifteen mins in some places. Even so, it has always worked in "normal" circumstances, as those who read my blog will know.

 

Photos taken with smartphones and digital cameras are often enormous files in terms of kB/mB - mine are frequently of the 5mB order before I edit them, and that's with my camera set to around middling resolution. I think that's one of the main issues with uploading from the ship and finding a comfortable way of reducing photo file sizes might be a good place to begin, before trying to do anything onboard. I use Picasa to back up, store and catalogue my photographs when I'm away from home and the basic editing tools in the program are sufficient for me to watermark and resize images very easily indeed. But Picasa is no longer available, sadly, and has been replaced by Google Pictures. I don't know if that's an equally accessible program but feel sure there are many, free alternatives. Wendy, I also use SmugMug at home and am very happy with it, too ;-)

[Travelcat2]

Gilly, thanks so much for the information!

[UUNetBill]

I never really kept a blog, but I kept friends and family in the loop via Facebook. I, too, got in the habit of typing out my narrative and then cutting-and-pasting it into FB or whatever application I was using. It'll be nice to see if we actually have usable bandwidth this time. That said, though, I've notice the more we cruise, the less I post. More about enjoying the experience!

[vlinbin]

It has been several years since we cruised on Regent and are returning for an Alaskan cruise. If I recall correctly, when the Internet benefits were moved from Silver to Gold, those who had already attained the Silver status by a certain date continued to receive the Internet benefits. Is it safe to assume that we will get two log-ins as Silver since we had access to the Internet when it was limited to Gold and those who had previously qualified with their Silver status.

[Travelcat2]

It has been several years since we cruised on Regent and are returning for an Alaskan cruise. If I recall correctly, when the Internet benefits were moved from Silver to Gold, those who had already attained the Silver status by a certain date continued to receive the Internet benefits. Is it safe to assume that we will get two log-ins as Silver since we had access to the Internet when it was limited to Gold and those who had previously qualified with their Silver status.

 

Yes, there should be no problem having two log-ins.

[tallship]

When does the new laundry benefit for Gold go into effect? I do not see it listed as a SSS benefit but maybe I missed it

[flossie009]

When does the new laundry benefit for Gold go into effect? I do not see it listed as a SSS benefit but maybe I missed it

 

If I am reading the relevant notes on the SSS webpage correctly:

 

New Gold Benefit: Valet Laundry with one bag per suite of wash, dry and fold services per seven-night segment...............begins 20 July for Mariner and Explorer; 23 July for Voyager; 25 July for Navigator

 

If I am wrong I am sure someone will correct

[tallship]

Thank you