Laptop or Smartphone

For using vacation?

If you don't need a laptop, don't bring it.

What are you looking to do?

I take my laptop because I need to do my timecard. Other than that, I don't use it for anything.

If I need directions, iPhone, looking up a place to eat, iPhone. If my work didn't need my secured method to do my time sheet, I would not bring it with me if I didn't have to.

Do you have to bring yours?

Neither. We find the best is a tablet, in our case a 9.7" iPad.

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I take a laptop to download the photos off my phone. That way I don't run out of space!

iPad on board, smart phone at port.

Really depends what you want to do.

Might also depend how long your cruise is.

Depends on the laptop.... I no longer bring my 18, 17, or 15 inch machines on trips.... just got a 13" ultrabook. Fits great in my underseat bag. iPad is too limiting on the sites I go browsing to.

Smartphone. If I want to down load photos from it, I've got a small USB device that plugs in and downloads the photos.

It is a 32 day cruise and I usually take many pictures,

We tried travelling with a tablet but didn't like it so we bought our mini laptop. We're probably old fashioned but we still use a camera not a phone to take our photos, and we like to transfer our pictures to the computer each night. It also gets us better internet access - we think. Slow, but good.

I use a smart phone for the Princess@sea connection on the intranet - and for the time.

We bring a small laptop for email, photo storage, and for reading with a Kindle app.

My husband brings his laptop, but only because he loves using photoshop for editing his photos. I take my iPad for using onboard, and we both have iPhones for using ashore.

On board, we use nothing.

We take a phone off the ship in case of emergencies, but we keep it turned off.

We also still use a camera-camera for photographs; I'm a photography teacher, and phones just don't take the same quality pictures.

As for downloading pix, buy a larger memory card -- really, you can get a 64G sd card for $20, and it'll hold thousands of pictures; unless you're taking duplicates and triplicates of everything, it's plenty. You can get up to 200G on a card, but those go for over $100. Again, I'm a photography teacher, and if you're taking thousands of pictures, here's the advice I'd give: Quit pushing the button so often -- instead, slow down. focus on what images you really want to convey, and take deliberate, planned photographs. 20 excellent photographs are better than 300 pushes of the button.

On board, we use nothing.

We take a phone off the ship in case of emergencies, but we keep it turned off.

We also still use a camera-camera for photographs; I'm a photography teacher, and phones just don't take the same quality pictures.

As for downloading pix, buy a larger memory card -- really, you can get a 64G sd card for $20, and it'll hold thousands of pictures; unless you're taking duplicates and triplicates of everything, it's plenty. You can get up to 200G on a card, but those go for over $100. Again, I'm a photography teacher, and if you're taking thousands of pictures, here's the advice I'd give: Quit pushing the button so often -- instead, slow down. focus on what images you really want to convey, and take deliberate, planned photographs. 20 excellent photographs are better than 300 pushes of the button.

What is your opinion on GroPro? We are far from expert photographers, wanted something durable, waterproof for ocean and pool etc and not bulky. ..thoughts? Ordered the gopro silver 4

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What is your opinion on GroPro? We are far from expert photographers, wanted something durable, waterproof for ocean and pool etc and not bulky. ..thoughts? Ordered the gopro silver 4

 

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Sorry, I don't have an opinion on that. I don't do rough-and-tumble or in-the-water photography. I'd suggest you read reviews online. Wish I had more.

You who do not backup really have faith in the absolute, infallible and total reliability of flash memory.

If I am going to be gone for a week or more my laptop goes with me. My phone always goes with me.

I find that if I spend too much time taking photos, I miss "being in the moment"! We take a few shots, and then just enjoy our vacation. If it's a good vacation, I don't need pictures to remember it!!

I bring a 13" netbook to download photos from my camera and iPhone. I also bring an iPad mini for my e-reader, music, and for occasional photos. Many say to put my music on my iPhone but I prefer to keep the space available for photos.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

It is a 32 day cruise and I usually take many pictures,

What do you take your "many pictures" with?

32-day cruise, take the laptop if its 15" or less. Your eyes and fingers will thank you for it.

I bring a laptop cause I can't bring my desk top...and my phone isn't "smart" enough.

I bring my laptop, Android tablet, Kindle, and Android smartphone. As well as my Nikon D3400 DSLR camera, spare SD cards, and a small video camera. (Why yes, I *am* a tech junkie, how could you tell?) DH brings his dumb phone, Nikon Coolpix camera (which he inherited from me when I bought the D3400), and he may bring his laptop as well.

Laptop for editing and storing pictures, writing up what I want to remember from the cruise, email, and possibly posting comments and photos on Facebook. I touch type and HATE small keyboards, especially virtual.

Android tablet: mostly for entertainment while travelling to and from. I doubt I'll use it onboard. I have movies loaded on it and will load some games before I leave.

Kindle: for reading onboard. My smartphone also has the Kindle app and it's my backup if anything happens to the Kindle.

Smartphone: texting, checking on our animals, probably for communicating with family members when we are in port but not together. Emergency camera if my D3400 isn't handy. Looking at what is available onboard using NCL's iConcierge app (which, to my surprise, is available for Android). Checking in for our flight home once I get data service back near Seattle. Storing photos from the D3400 using Nikon's SnapBridge app. Games if I get tired of looking at the amazing Alaska scenery. lol

I could cut down if I had to. But most of them don't take up much room and I would rather have them available.

For you all who has to have a laptop so your phone "doesn't run out of space"... Getting bigger/more memory cards and/or using DropBox or some other cloud storage would seem much more efficient to me.

IPhone 7 plus (and cloud storage) does it all, including stellar photography. However, for standard photos of popular location land/seascapes and vistas, just download gallery shots from the websites of Visitor Bureaus or Chambers of Commerce that maintain them.

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Its an interesting question which probably depends on your own situation. We use to take a 15" Laptop, iPad, and phone (not Smartphone). But we now have an iPhone with T-Mobile service that works just about everywhere in the world. So now, when we take long cruises/trips (which can be about 2 months in duration) we just take our iPhone and iPad. Either device is capable of getting our e-mails. The iPad is much better for dealing with lots of e-mails...because of its larger format. Our iPhone gives us data, e-mail, and text just about everywhere in the world. When we get within about 15-20 miles of the shore (we cruise to 6 Continents and many islands) our iPhone will usually connect to a land-based provider. We then use the iPhone as a Hotspot and can use both the phone and iPad....while still on the ship. Shipboard WiFi usually sucks and is so slow that its frustrating. Even on lines like Princess, where we usually get 1000 free wifi minutes...we prefer to use a shore-based cell provider which is usually much faster. With T-Mobile, our cell data works just about everywhere in the world...without having to pay any extra fees.

Hank