fuzzel

Question about which cam to get is quite a personal choice. For me, I am just a 'fun photographer that likes good tech'. Thus my choice was different from somebody who has a limited budget or somebody who want super-pro pix or wants to play with a lot of settings etc etc. It thus all depends.

I first suggest this excellent read:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/not-about-your-camera.htm

and everything else in his HowTo section.

As my trusty D60 mostly died (shutter wheel gets stuck unfortunately thus need to wiggle it a bit for it to take a few photos again) I had to research and fetch a new one.

Basically you got effectively three options with Nikon, indeed not even bothering with anything else, flash systems are better on Nikon and I like Nikon, thus the three models:

- D5500 - light (667gr inc lens/battery) AF-focus points (39)

- D7200 - heavier (1256gr inc lens/battery) - dual SD, more focus points (51)

- D750 / D810 - Full Frame (FX) thus requires new lenses if you come from DX

I am ignoring the D5300 as it is has a battery sucking GPS builtin that you want to turn off all the time. Price wise the D5500 will be ~300 USD/etc cheaper than the D7200. The D750's come in at 1500 USD about. Depending if you go body-only or go for a kit, which depends in turn if you have lenses already that you can use.

D750/D810's are heavy, and so is the D7200. Thus weight for those and the fact that I take vacation pictures, go hiking a lot with it is the biggest negative point there is.

Thus lets ignore the FX editions and chose between D7200 or D5500, reading a stupid feature comparison, which ignores that things like NFC are useless:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/cameras/nikon/d5500/vs/nikon/d7200/

This will give you a 'features on the box comparison', not super useful, but as you can see the cameras are basically the same internally, lest focus points and weight and SD cards.

Now read somebody who has been using a LOT of Nikon cameras:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7200.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d5500.htm

Read these two fully if you want to make a good decision. Read just "recommendations" if you want to get the gist of it.

and then _the_ camera review site's opinions:

http://dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d5500

http://dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d7200

Make up your mind from there.

The weight is the most important factor for me, especially as the D7200 and D5000 are mostly the same tech points, except for autofocus points (thus if you are going to shoot lots of sports the D7200 might be worth it).

I went for the D5500 due to weight, but I found that:

- It is super fast (compared to a D60 ;)

- The swivel is useful for the rare selfie

- Swivel is great for taking 'low to the ground pictures'

- Touch screen makes it have a high WAF (Wife-Approval-Factor)

- Operation is fast due to the touch screen

- It is just a great amazing camera and it is lighter than my D60 :)

Oh and yes, point and click works amazing and the picture quality is amazing too.

(same quality as the D7200 mind you, which is 300 gr heavier.

Do get a (couple of) SDXC cards, the ones rated for 90+mb/s as that means you can snap faster and more, just in case you might see a dolphin jump somewhere.

As for GPS..... I got myself a Bad Elf Pro+ (http://bad-elf.com/pages/be-gps-2300-detail) attached to a Foolography Dx0000 (http://www.foolography.com/products/unleashed-dx000/).

The Bad Elf can log GPS points for ~32 hours with bluetooth enabled, which then talks to the Foolography and as that goes into the Nikon you get GPS coords in the picture. Note that the Bad Elf Pro+ is both GPS + GLONASS and thus has a perfect location (2m accurate) around the world. When you come home (back to the boat is home right :) you thus have a GPS route of where you went that day AND you have GPS coords already in your pictures.

Note again the D3200 does indeed come with a much cheaper edition as it is built-in, but that will require you to swap batteries all the time next to the fact that gps lock will require you to wait quite a long time, gps locks don't work in buildings, nor does it support the accuracy of the Bad Elf (~2m) nor do you get any track information of where you went, let alone that it works in a plane upto 60.000 feet ;)

Thus a summary of my current gear:

- Nikon D5500 + 18-55mm + 55-200mm + extra battery

- Bad Elf Pro+ (http://bad-elf.com/pages/be-gps-2300-detail)

- Foolography Dx0000 (http://www.foolography.com/products/unleashed-dx000/)

- Joby Gorillapod (http://joby.com/gorillapod/slrzoom)

and then for in the water for both snorkling and diving:

- GoPro Hero 3 Black

- GoPole Reach (https://shop.gopole.com/products/reach)

Next to other things, yep, a full bag, but I do get to take all those memories home ;)

The closest thing I can think of is what HAL does. You earn additional points for every $300 spent on board and for booking specialty restaurants. Otherwise, I've never heard of purchasing points on any cruise line.

On MSC they also have that system:

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/us_en/MSC-Voyagers-Club/How-To-Collect-Points.aspx

on NCL the best 'trick' to earning points is to book suites and doing it 9 months in advance, triple point score that way and it then goes very quick.

Julie is still on the Breakaway eas evidenced by this twitter post:

"Hello from Norwegian Breakaway! #ShipCrewfieSunday"

Depending on the cabin (read: suites) there is a lavazza in room that is not half bad.

Otherwise go to the atrium as the coffee bar should help you out also with lavazza.

But yes, it will not be like at home especially for people with high coffee requirements...

> The Unlimited Cruise Plan is ideally what I would choose because my work reimburses me for the cost because they have separation anxiety

Seems you need to teach your boss(es) about this little "the person who knows everything got hit by a bus" story...

When I mark that I am out on vacation, I just don't use the Internet. Try it, it is a revelation :)

Yep, the amount of mail etc when you come back is a ***** and you will "miss out" on so much, realize that it is the Internet and that it is not that important. If it is really important people will send an SMS or a call on your cellphone.

> Is the package truly unlimited for data in the sense that I can use multiple

> devices for data use, laptop, smartphone and likely use my cabin information

> when signing in with the multiple devices?

"Unlimited" does not exist. Every ISP in the world will throttle you or disconnect you above certain xfer amounts. Don't expect to do more than a few gigs before you run out.

> How were the data speeds?

Data speeds will depend on the phase of the moon. It is satellite based and there are a bunch of other people on the boat.

Latency is the biggest annoyance, cause, satellite.

> What times seem to have the most congestion or slowness?

Depends on your definition to "slow" ;)

> The next questions are for the really, really technical people out there.

Like, the really technical folks?

> Unrelated to the data access, does anyone know of an Android app or root method of blocking the cell SID of the onboard cell service so that my smartphone does not register/associate to the ship's cell mobile network?

You are aware that every single cell phone that has ever existed has had a 'automatic' and a 'manual' mode? Using the latter solves that.

On IOS and Android you can also just disable cell service (aka "Airplane mode").

> Additionally, does T-Mobile WiFi calling work through the ship's data

> like any other app that require a data internet connection or does the

> ship block it to make more revenue?

Depends on how T-Mobile does their"WiFi" calling. As you are behind a NAT, raw SIP won't pass. Likely you will run into latency issues to make any good use of it though.

As an example, Youtube stutters a bit on the lower resolutions, if you are so needy to see cat pictures while going through the beautiful Caribbean....

> Do they block VPN tunnels?

You'll have to assume that HTTP/HTTPS works, and that is it.

Remember that Cruiseships are Hotels, with the big difference that they float on water in the middle of nowhere and thus do not have a nifty fiber, or heck not even DSL, but satelite. Hence, what works in Hotels, typically works on the boat.

> Do they block SSH connections?

Not when I tried. But unless you are still used to 28k8, you'll not have fun with the latency (400ms is quite common). Also, it felt a lot like SSH had much lower priority than HTTP, QoS is definitely in effect.

My recommendations if you really do not like to enjoy the boat itself let alone the destinations:

- checkout your git repositories on your laptop

- make sure you have all project related docs locally available

- cache cat pictures on your laptop

- ...

And yes, I do travel with laptop, but that is primarily so that I can use the storage for backing up & sorting out pictures taken on the trip ;)

Yeah for more slides!

I don't care what they label them though, as long as one fit into it I'll take it :)

Who should I request a iron & ironing board from, the steward or the butler?

For things you don't need urgently, just ask the first person you see out of the steward/butler/concierge set. For other things, just ask the butler or concierge if the butler is unavailable (concierge desk is typically manned the whole day).

You could also call the Pre-concierge desk to put one in your room already though. Do note that they typically claim they are in limited supply etc...

When I mentioned to Jonathan on the Breakaway that we'd like to have breakfast on our balcony, he instructed us to leave the tag on the door handle before 4AM. He actually did bring the food and set the table out there. Seems like if you order from room service from a suite you butler brings it.

Do note that you can write as good as *anything* you want on that card. It is not limited to just the normal menu; if you want something special that you have seen anywhere on the boat, write it up and it should be there ;)

Butler is the way to go indeed.

And if he is not 'able' to do it or whatever excuse, complain loudly to both the concierge (effectively his boss) and even the HD (his boss's boss) if needed. Though likely little change will happen, thus ignoring it is another way.

Note that there are awesome butlers out there though, we just hit a sore grape twice in a row on different boats, sucks and that happens unfortunately.

Thus a shout out to Jeffrey, who is an awesome butler, we miss you! :)

The only way to know if something is worth it is to compare it to others.

Hence, why one needs to take multiple trips with another one to be able to fairly compare.

IMHO, a lot depends on the crew and how they do things on how pleasant a vacation is. Even in the same cruise line things are different per ship and per crew. Even then same ship with a different crew can change things around completely, not even including the itinerary.

Hope you all enjoy your other cruise lines! Leaves more room for us on the Escape to enjoy our vacation!

With a world population of several billion, a boat can never be big enough, hence why all the cruise lines are building bigger boats ;)

Also note, we are just going to test out MSC, already got more NCL cruises (on the smaller ships though) booked...

This is the same kind of 'legal' document that you have to sign for every thing you do out there, if it is downloading an app, using a playstation game, etc, they all basically state that you can't sue them at all, and as you want the service, you'll just have to say 'yes' and suck it up.

Best thing is to not read them at all, scroll to the end and click on it.

You are not a lawyer, and can't do anything about it any way.

Also note that in many countries (eg most of Europe) shrink wrap and single-click licenses are considered invalid anyway, especially when they are shown after a sale has already been made.

These kind of 'legal' documents are just not worth time fuzzing about.

The real law prevails when something goes wrong, and as stated above, it is legal resources then that actually count in the end, not the piece of paper/screen with many many odd words that are not enforceable.

We got 4 NCL cruises under our belt, 2 of those had the same crappy useless butler (we did either not see him at all for several days, or he would walk in without even bothering to knock or ring the doorbell or would not be 'able' to provide with very simple things we requested).

As those problems did not get addressed, at all, even though speaking directly to the Hotel Director and the Concierge and there are all kinds of other minor issues which all add up, we where like, lets try MSC and see if they do better (or not... you never know)

MSC leaves from Genoa/Venice on the Med/Greek trips, hence, we can just drive over there (500km but still quite doable and about the same time as using an airplane and no hassle with silly security practices or heavy suitcases etc). {yep, indeed Venice is also a starting port for the great NCL Jade, thus maybe not a complete plus point there}

Hence, after 4 NCL trips, we now got 2 MSC trips planned, with after that another 3 with NCL though, as well, we like to see the destinations on that itinerary.

See here for a sample of all the menus:

http://www.beyondships2.com/norwegian-breakaway-menus.html

(these might have slightly changed since then).

We did not go to Ocean Blue for two reasons:

- mostly fish food (which I do not eat, hence the major reason)

and another, slightly very important one:

- Smoke

from what I could see it is directly attached to the atrium with no doors (like Le Bistro, though you can sit outside there). As I have a major issue with smoke, I would not be surprised that, like La Cucina, there is a lot of smoke hanging there too.

I am actually _extremely_ surprised that there is that much Smoke hanging around the whole ship. One can even smell it coming up the staircases, both forward and aft and thus smell it on the 14th floor. This while when we had to walk through the casino to get to the Atrium for instance, I rarely saw many people actually do any smoking.

Fun detail is also that there is a Humidor next to Maltings, but the smoke at Maltings bar was already heavy enough to make me walk on... (don't even want to know how much crap there is hanging in that 'closed' room... not my problem, hence walk along ;) )

What is also surprising about this whole Smoke issue is that most locations in New York are smoke-free, or better said: smoking is banned. As Breakaway is a "New York ship" one would expect that kind of thing to also happen there.

At minimum I hope they will at one point install much better air-refresher/ventilation or at least some kind of sliding door/air-lock that can keep most of this crappy air out of the rest of the boat. But I am well aware that that is wishful thinking unfortunately.

Good that the ship is huge and one can walk quite quickly through these areas, which indeed also means the shops and everything else around the casino/atrium as it is all connected and thus smokey..... less revenue there from me at least.

Hello fellow cruisers. I'm looking into some cruises way into late 2016 and every single mini suite is taken on each sailing I look up and the same exact handicapped cabin is left. Is this a glitch or something?

Forget about the mini-suites, try a real one for a change. You will never go back.

As others mentioned, there are not a lot of 'mini-suites', which are effectively just "deluxe balconies".

And if you do get a aft mini-suite, check your left/right for that large aft balcony where there is likely a party with 15+ people on it.

Or maybe they don't have the time or the money to travel to see the rest of the world and even if that is the case who cares?

Oh, I don't care, definitely the problem for the non-owner of the passport, not mine :)

Time they have: they are sitting on a boat for a while which ports in various _foreign_ countries....

Money they have: 135/10=13.50, that is one reasonable drink a day on that ship they are going with, which, as they cannot get off, they will need to get...

Americans are in a very funny situation with regards to passports and travel: most of them don't ever even exit their own state. And that is quite logical when you realize that some US states are the size of several European countries combined and can have summery (beach) and wintery (mountains with snow) things going on in the same state. Note also that a EU Country typically is comparible with a US State. On top of that one can travel without a passport with some other kind of ID and as the US is extremely vast it has everything to offer (except maybe for some of the "old stuff" that Europe for instance has). Thus for most Americans, unless they have a need/want to go outside of the US they will never need a passport.

The fun thing though is, a cruise boat does not operate _inside_ the US. It operates in International Waters. Typical cruises, ignoring CruiseToNowheres, go to foreign ports all the time.

Hence obviously, if you are taking a cruise, you are wanting to see something of the rest of the world (unless you want to be stuck in the Casino, but one can go to Vegas+AtlanticCity for that, why bother with cruising then...) and thus you likely want to disembark somewhere. As you want to see something, you likely will get interested in seeing more of the port than you get to see on your cruise, thus that passport can only become handy...

Why does it bother you so much what choice someone makes that you need to label them, especially when that choice has no impact on you?

When that person cannot properly identify him/herself at returning back to the ship that might delay every of the other ~4000-ish cruisers... Thus that CAN have an impact on us.

Well we can see your useless responses are only to get your post count up...answer the question asked or dont post...take your trolling elsewhere...

 

6&8

Ignore is bliss: responding to trollers will indeed just get their posting count up.

Unfortunately CC has very old forum software that does not have the "red" or "green" dot system yet where people can hate or like a post, that typically takes care of that kind of posters.

That said.... I like the idea of putting a flag on the balcony to make it easier to identify which one it is when in port. Then again, especially on the aft, one can easily count which room/balcony is yours anyway, thus that is not a huge bonus.

But I also agree with others posting that it is likely a firehazard, you will have to remove it typically for cleaning (unless you think a big firehose of cleaning water does not blow it away) and other such things.

Hence, while those pics with the flag flying looks cool, I don't think it is the right spot to have one.

Definitely ask an official of the ship if they are allowed. Though you'll likely quickly be told by a room steward if there are big issues with it. (Seeing that some people fly them kind of shows it might not be a too big issue).

The aft rooms are horrible. Nobody should ever book them, just keep them available for us... :rolleyes:

Not having a passport kind of means that you do not have any interest in traveling the rest of the world.... which well, means you are missing out on a lot of good things.

I always travel with two passports: one on me and one which stays on the boat^Wship.

Makes things so much easier than "but really, this is a birth certificate".

Most ports (especially US related) accept a photocopy of your passport btw.

Fortunately cruiselines seem to be exempt from most passport checks, except when going on land at the US....

Funnily Puerto Rico is considered USA, St.Thomas is considered USA, but there is no immigration in either of them. Also, even though these are considered USA, they are apparently exempt from the 'go from one US port, then required to foreign port' rule that is the sole reason of existence for the Pride of America which is allowed to do that.

In NYC on the way back there was immigration, but they just peeked 'oh you have a passport' and that was it.

But on our Miami return last year they did do full immigration with long queues _on the ship_. Strange policies. I wonder how many folks skip immigration one place or another these ways. But lets, keep these things quiet, enough waiting already when going to the US...

The show in the dining room is more like a small sample. It is not the actual show.

They did the Manhattan-version of the show at 21:00 on the last sea day (at least on the 12 day last week), very different show and very awesome to see performed in the Manhattan room, exactly what that dancefloor is for.

Do also go see the regular show though, pretty good act.

Just got off the Breakaway and it was John D'Souza, he was wonderful!!!!

Good to hear that he survived his first weekend and is doing a great job at it ;)

Anoop was there till the 30th and vacationing for 4 months (do remind they do cycles of up to 8 thus not really vacation IMHO).

John d'Souza is now on the Breakway (and the week before for training/instructions alongside Anoop, thus the 12 day that we sailed), very friendly chap, won't mind to have him as a concierge on one of our cruises.

Then again, we had great experiences with Carlos (on the Jade), Anoop (Epic + Breakway) and Leah (Sun). The concierges always add that extra spark to the trip, thus we love to have them.

Anyone have advise on a good waterproof camera (not disposable) that takes video as well?

The only thing you'll ever need for this: GoPro + GoPole Reach.

Any GoPro will do, just depends on budget. I got a GoPro3 Black and it is awesome.

The new 4s come in basically two flavors: silver (which has a screen on the back) and the black (which has a few higher resolutions but no screen).

A GoPro 3 will make you smile already though.

I mention the GoPole Reach as that is great for snorkling: you extend the stick and can film yourself, but you can also stick the stick closer to the fishies without scaring them too much and thus get a better closeup there. I've used the pole also for skiing, scuba and last week paragliding. The strap makes sure you do not quickly lose your precious gopro.

Only thing to watch out for: battery on gopros run out in a while (don't have a estimate, but typically an hour will work at minimum), hence, make sure you got a few spare batteries with you for swapping them out.

Of course, youtube will give you excellent reviews on the above combo, google for them.

I did one in Cozumel. Easy in and easy out. I did not feel at all "trapped".

The easy in and out what was I was wondering about, great to hear that that is indeed the case that will allow a lot more people to enjoy what is below the sea.

The only thing that I thought was crazy was how LOUD it was in that bubble! It was awesome though. I would do it again.

Well, most people claim one does not hear much under water while scuba diving either, but if you scream hard enough the sounds carries quite far ;)

And tomorrow, off to NYC and then the Caribbean ;)

hmmm, only 4 days away before the cruise I called the pre-cruise-concierge line and asked them about a bar setup. Unlike the previous lady I got this lady was a bit less friendly sounding, dunno, probably had a few nasty customers or so. It took a bit of spelling of both Amaretto and Disaronno and hinting it is below the liquor item before she found it on the list (it can't be that long...) I am also a bit surprised that she never heard of the stuff, heck most people know that DA is not even the real Ameretto recipe hence why one officially should just call it Disaronno and not Ameretto, but I digress...

Nevertheless, Disaronno Amaretto (1L bottle) is carried on the Breakaway, but even though she apparently made a note about the bar setup in the reservation one apparently cannot order it before going to the boat, hence we'll have to kick the onboard concierge for this.

Now to transfer some Rose's Lime into plastic bottles and off we go ;)