sparky-elpaso

Amazing. Dick Francis books contain the phrase now and then, "he's jumping out of his skin," which this guy nearly is. Studying the people and stable and the floating horse, I find my mind wants a context for enjoying the situation a little more fully. Not that the picture itself suffers at all as it is; but for myself continuing to process this curious topic, that's the direction my my thought is beginning to move. Maybe it's that my curiosity is genuinely aroused and wonders about the story surrounding this remarkable scene?

 

And still processing an earlier post --the tiny mushroom-- I wonder, in making a sequence or short assembled video, if some of the context-furnishing images or in my case clips would find their interest value ramped up, even though those same pics/clips otherwise would seem mundane, by nearness to your scene here? Magic transferring to unremarkable siblings. Hmm.

That's one of a series of shots using the "burst" mode on my camera. That horse apparently just wasn't in the mood to behave right then. Even when they got him settled down a bit and the jockey was onboard he was still prancing sideways and stuff. I think he finally settled down once they got out on the track for the ride down to the gate.

I think I know what you mean. Every once in a while you get a shot that wasn't necessarily planned - you happen to be in the right place at the right time and have your camera ready. We had gone to our local race track so I could get some practice at action shots. Didn't expect this to happen over near the stables.

I'm an avid photographer and being out on deck at sunrise or sunset is incredible. You just can't see that type of view from land.

We went on the "Ultimate Ship Tour" on the Ruby Princess so we were able to see behind the scenes areas of the ship. Being able to see the bridge and have the Captain show us what goes on was really interesting. And the laundry was amazing - you don't really think about what it takes to get those clean sheets and towels to your cabin every day.

Now that DH and I are retired time isn't a problem - it's that darn money issue. :)

So we're working on our bucket list and since the cruises are longer we can't go as often. Our last cruise was the British Isles for a total of 28 days with a couple of days before in London and after in New York. Our upcoming one in Sept/Oct of next year is a b2b for 30 days with a couple of days before in Athens.

If we had the money I would love to do one of the around the world cruises.

I've never seen a backpack checked for food items as one debarks for a shore excursion.....have you?

Yes - at every port in Australia and NZ (which is especially strict) there was a cute little Beagle checking everyones bags.

Royal Caribbean also has the domed cars for a fantastic view. I think what really made our land portion on RCI great were our guide and bus driver - both were incredible.

Krazy Kruizers, my experience is that the children of our children's generation by and large don't print the photos. I have to say that we print far less. Of course we take far more in todays' environment.

 

Even for ourselves, what I have found that we do is make a photo book from some of our trips via sites such as Shutterfly in lieu of printing off photo upon photo and we print very selected photos.

 

Just saying.......

 

Keith

I love designing photo books of each of our trips. Gives me a chance to be a bit creative.

I've scanned a lot of my old printed photos (still more to do) and also photos I inherited from my Grandmother - amazing how good the quality was back in the 20's to 40's. I even have a couple of studio photos of great-grandparents from around 1900. So I eventually will make a "family tree" photo book for our sons.

First of all - welcome aboard.

First question - did you book your cruise through a travel agent? If you did all requests would have to be made by your TA.

Your signature lists Manchester - I'm assuming that's the Manchester in Great Britain. Rules for booking are sometimes different for you folks "across the pond" than for the U.S. because of the different laws regarding travel stuff.

And sometimes deals like the one you mentioned can be for "new bookings" only so if you already have a reservation you're out of luck. I've run into that scenario myself.

Anyway, don't let that spoil your fun. Enjoy your cruise. I'll bet it won't be your last.

Sounds like what we did. There was lots of seating and updates on waiting times, etc. were given frequently. I don't remember how long we had to wait but everything moved along quite quickly and once we were checked in it was just "follow the crowd" for boarding the ship.

It was our first Princess cruise and I was favorably impressed.

Being "vertically challenged" (I'm 5' 3"), people with i-pads, etc. are extremely aggravating. Especially if they decide to move between me and the subject - and I got there first. I try to get to an event or whatever early so I can move to the front.

I've found there there seems to be a definite difference between "people who like to take photos" and "photographers". Photographers tend to have real cameras and I think are more aware of what's going on around them. I try to watch the people around me so I don't walk through someones shot and appreciate it when others do the same.

One thing I like to do is check out the ports in Google Earth. It gives a much better idea of what the area is like than a map. You may find that you don't need an actual excursion at some ports because there are thing to see / do right near where the ship docks.

I figured I wasn't the only one. :D It's usually things like forgetting something important - passports, meds, etc. or not getting up in time to make our flight to the port.

My grandmother used to tell me about always dreaming about missing a train, boat, plane, etc. Really funny considering she was probably the most prompt and on-time person on the planet.

Aren't there two tours? One that crosses into Canada and on that doesn't?

 

Might want to ask on the Alaska board.

I think you're right. The shorter one is up and back on the train and the longer one that goes into Canada is up by train and then return by bus.

We took the train both ways - absolutely incredible scenery.

We used British Airport Transfers - I had found out about the company on the Great Britain board here. Both from Heathrow to our downtown London hotel and then again from our hotel to Southampton. Great service and for us worth the higher cost than train or bus.

There's something really cool about having that uniformed guy waiting for you at the airport with your name on a sign. We felt very important. :)

Thank you all for your comments. You have given me a lot of information to discuss with a travel agent. Alaska would probably be the way to go. The only difficulty will be getting them from the Midwest to Seattle. The train they would need to take is the Empire Builder which is having schedule problems right now due to the freight traffic from the oil fields in ND.

The schedule problems for the train would probably mean going to Seattle several days ahead to make sure they get there on time. It's always best to go at least a day ahead even if you're flying to allow for any possible delays.

Take small sizes of OTC meds - aspirin, cold remedies, something for an upset tummy, etc. You may not need them but if you do buying them in the ship store is expensive - and what they stock may not be the brand you're used to. The one thing we didn't bring on our first cruise was something for a sore throat - so of course we came down with a cold and sore throat. The ship store had one kind / one flavor - a small bag for about $6. :eek:

Another thing I like to do is check out the ports in Google Earth. It's usually easy to see where the ship might dock - there may even be a ship there in the view. That way you can see if there are things to do right there at the port area or if it's an industrial type port where you'll probably have to go on an excursion of some kind.

Most ports have a website of some kind - just do a search. Generally lots of good info there.

And welcome to the wonderful world of cruising. I'm betting the first one won't be your last. :D

I keep telling my sons they need to invent a Star Trek type transporter so we could get to our cruise ports more easily. But so far, no dice. :)

Australia was the most interesting - the idea of losing (or gaining) a whole day was definitely interesting. Our last cruise was to Great Britain but we only had one long flight since we did a B2B with a transatlantic with stops in Norway, Iceland, etc. ending up in NY.

Walked outside to get in the car yesterday and found someone had been drawing lines in the sky.

If you go on the website for the cruise line you're sailing on' date=' you'll find all sorts of info. There's slight differences as to rates, whether you have to prepay or not, the actual name of the charge on your folio, but for the most part: this is the system that the mass market lines use. If you feel you're not getting good service from your waitstaff or cabin steward, first talk to the passenger services/pursers desk and try to get the matter resolved. Don't use that as an excuse to stiff the staff.

Absolutely. If they don't know about a problem they can't fix it. So far the service we've had on ships has been over the top. We always tip extra - especially to our cabin steward.

Those look like chocolate covered strawberries from Costco that we had!

Ours were from Albertson's supermarket. Really good. And who would think you could get great brownies from a pizza place - Papa John's.

Great shots of the Osprey - especially the ones where you can see their talons.

Well right now it is -3 with a wind chill of -28.

Spent a winter in North Dakota - so I know what that's like. Not fun. I've been watching the Weather channel - don't envy those broadcasters doing the on the scene reports.

While we live in Texas now (I won't tell you what our forecast is for today) we're originally from Michigan (my parents retired to northern Michigan and one winter got 35 inches of snow in a couple of days) and spent one winter in North Dakota with average -35 daytime temps and DH was working in the oil fields with -80 wind chill at times. So I know what that kind of weather is like. Stay inside and stay warm, everyone.

I'm a cheap date for Valentines Day. Delivery pizza and brownies and strawberries from the supermarket.

Yikes. Stay inside and stay warm. :)

Salad cream is nectar of the gods but probably another British acquired taste - mayo is tasteless in comparison 😄

 

 

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I'm learning lots of things on this post - wish I'd known about some of them before we went on our GB cruise last year.

Had to look up salad cream and it looks like Heinz makes it - guess I'll check at World Market for that too.