What special things have you seen from your balcony view :)

[BillOh]

.and occasionally we get to watch latecomers sprint to the ship before it leaves port.:eek:

 

That is a fun game yelling at those people. Even the ship employees get into that. I remember in Cozumel on Navigator we were supposed to be on board by 5pm. People were strolling in at a leisurely pace at 6pm. The crew members would see them coming and pretend to pickup and stow the gang plank. That gets them running every time.

 

 

Several people have mentioned lightning storms and they are probably fun to watch, but I wonder how many times ships get hit. That would be scary. I'm sure from an engineering standpoint precautions are probably built into the ship, but lightning can be unpredictable. Anyone see lightning hit a ship?

[Sequim88]

Well, not "special" but certainly thought provoking.... on our Trans-Atlantic crossing to Ireland a couple days out from Cobh the Captain announced that we were adding speed due to an onboard medical emergency. We arrived at 10pm about 10 hours early and an ambulance was waiting at the pier. Everyone on that side was on their balcony watching the drama as the gurney was loaded hoping for some sign the person was OK but when the ambulance left it was very slow and no emergency lights. Apparently they did not make it. Heart attack we heard later. :(

 

But...for really special for us so far nothing beats sitting on our balcony on our Alaska cruise in a tight passage with mirror calm water listening to mellow new age music and watching waterfalls, trees and eagles slide by. The Inside Passage really makes a balcony pay.

[gary2835]

Several years ago while sailing on the splendor of the seas out of Galveston we were lucky enough to be sitting on our balcony about 10PM on the last night. As we looked out into the darkness we observed another cruise ship headed in the other direction. It was the Carnival Conquest out of Galveston, and close behind her was the Rhapsody of the Seas. The two cruise ships so close together and all lit up with deck and balcony lights made a grand sight. I often wondered what it would have looked like if we had been on another ship looking at all three of these grand ships passing in the night.

[Some1]

A stowaway.

 

Awe, poor thing! :)

[Some1]

Just check out the Cruise Photos thread.

 

And I could stare at just the water for hours. If I wasn't on my balcony I would've missed this:

Wow, stunning.

[Onessa]

About six years ago we were on Radiance on our way back to Vancouver -- we had just finished up a RT AK cruise. During the night we moved from the Inside Passage to more open seas and a rather rough one at that. About 5:00am I was awoken as the ship lurched and everything in our cabinets shifted violently. I was NEARLY back asleep when a few minutes later it happened again. My family slept through both incidents but I was now fully awake, so I peeked out of the balcony window -- it was rough but not so bad to have explained the violent lurches.

 

I tried to go back to sleep but it was evident that we were proceding "full speed ahead" (which is really quiet fast on a Radiance class ship) so I wrapped a blanket around me and ventured out on the balconey -- windy but temp wasn't too bad (I live in Wisconsin :)). We were MOVING very fast!

 

Then we stopped dead -- I could see commotion on a deck below. The crew launched a zodiac and only when I could see which way they were heading, did I see just the very top of a boat -- no deck just the cabin area.

 

In a few minutes even the cabin was gone and the Zodiac was back. Later we found out in a special presentation in the auditorium that the crew was responding to an SOS.

 

A small three-person crewed boat that serviced fishing vessels called in to the Candian coast guard with an SOS. The first lurch was the Radiance responding -- then the coast guard discovered that the original coordinates for the distressed ship were wrong, so the second lurch was the correction (two 180 degree turns).

 

The bridge cam captured what I could bearly make out - a thrilling rescue at sea. The Radiance's first-mate lead a rescue crew. In the video you could see the boat's crew try to lauch an inflatable raft - it blew away. You could see the boats' crew clinging antenaes on the roof of the boat's bridge and rescue swimmers reaching them. The two crew members had had time to get into their survival suit but the captian had not. The zodiac brought the crew back to the Radiance where they were checked out in the infirmary, were outfitted in Radiance sweats from the gift shop and where crew members donated shoes for them to wear. The captain of the boat spoke - he was very choked up. The first-mate went through the whole story -- he was SO excited, this is what all of those training exercises that the crew repeat over and over again is all about -- to rescue three fellow sea men from a vessel that went DOWN. The crew was helo'ed off the ship mid afternoon.

 

That was the most exciting "at sea" day I had ever encountered.

[oceanal]

I saw a young man smoking a cigarette and a big joint! He was trying to hide the pot smell with the cig. I gave him a big wave when he spotted me and he invited me to join him!! I politely declined.:D

[easycruiser77]

Dolphins....Sun fishes......a bird flying next to the ship for a good 20 mins.....bubbles.....

[LoisGriffin1]

Seeing a shooting star was amazing. It was so bright I had never seen anything like it before.

 

Saw lots of whales too.

[Jaxsonbrownie]

Flying fish in the morning while eating breakfast.Women shaving their legs. Once we saw dolphins coming back from Cozumel.People stumbling and weaving their way back to the ship at the last minute :D And a few times we have been watching the crew, to see what they are watching.....

[twoputt.plusone]

The most spectacular sight I've seen was Hurricane Wilma coming across central Florida as Captain Johnny raced the Mariner up the coast back to Port Canaveral. We made it in safe and sound and did what had to be the fastest turn-around of passengers ever. My husband and I were on the last plane out of Melbourne where on the right we could see the Mariner heading back out to sea in the sunshine at full speed and the black swirling clouds from Wilma bearing down on Cocoa Beach on the left. Eerily beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

[CruisinManiac]

twoputt.plusone - I was out in the sea during that hurricane. We had two "extra" cruise days because we were not able to get back into either the port of Miami or Port Everglades.

 

I saw a spewing volcano going from Rome to Croatia. ;)

 

[a-tx-brit]

At night, look up.The stars are amazing!

[BecciBoo]

Speaking specifically of St Thomas , i got up early one morning as we were just coming into the port area (about 20 miles out) I was able to see lots of houses on the sides of the hills and boats in the water, it was nice and quiet watching the island wake up

 

Hi Bill, you mean like this:

 

Seriously, getting a little off topic. Back to wildlife...we were not on our balcony, but we caught the cutest finch hitching on the crew's nest. LOL Birds are often stowaways onboard, they get trapped and go out to sea. Here are two of them.

Rhapsody

Liberty-he couldn't figure out how to fly up so I caught him and freed him. It was on the preinaugural and we weren't very far from shore.

 

 

But if Eliger won't mind me reposting this one from the cruise photos thread, I just thought this was astounding:

 

He looked like some kind of falcon.

[RSWBADGER]

Mexico Cruise 2004, the sky was on fire.

[BecciBoo]

Wow Becci..that photo is gorgeous!!

 

It was a moonset when we were just getting back to Galveston in February. If I hadn't walked out just then, at around 5:45 A.M., I wouldv'e missed the color, a few minutes later it went below the horizon, just as the sun was coming up behind us.

[BecciBoo]

Mexico Cruise 2004, the sky was on fire.

You need to visit the photo thread I mentioned. That is stunning!

[Gon2hwe]

Lava flowing from a volcano at night.

[keggy]

Tons and tons of Jelly fish floating in the water as we were leaving Port Canveral on a Disney Cruise last year. I do have pics, just need to locate them.

 

Also, my in-laws "followed" a rainbow on a transatlantic cruise to the point that it "ended" on their balcony. They have some very neat pictures from that.

 

In 2 weeks we sail in Alaska. Hoping for some great viewing from our balcony!

[lady_cruiser]

The first time that our cruise ship was sailing around Cuba my sister and I were on our balcony trying to see is we could see any part of Cuba. She had night binoculars and I had regular ones. It was pitch black dark out, and the waves were so high that we were getting sprayed on our ninth deck balcony. All of a sudden my sister could see tiny little lights from a small "boat" bobbing up and down in the water. If it wasn't for the night binoculars we never would have seen it. It looked like someone was in serious trouble the way the lights would come up and then completely disappear under the waves. So while she kept watch I went into the hall way to see if I could find someone to help us. I saw our cabin attendant and ask her to come see and then asked her if she knew who could we contact so we could get help for someone who might be in trouble. She laughed told us that it happens all the time and that we "were" sailing around Cuba. I often wonder if whoever it was, was able to found the safe haven they were looking for.

[cyscopup]

Lets see so many things on so many cruise, the absolute best were two Orcas almost right next to the Infinity of the Seas during one of our Alaska cruises (they stayed with us for about 15 minutes or so). The next best things were crocodiles along the shore while transiting the Panama Canal.

[retiredonthesea]

Bears, Eagles, otters, flying fish, dolphins, whales, floating ice chunks, glaciers calving, sunsets, sunrises and beautiful crystal clear water!! Just to name a few of the wondeful things from a balcony of a cruise ship!

[Pitbull1130]

Need a hump :D:):D:) for that. The ultimate double entendre.

 

 

I'm hoping for great views on the Liberty with 8638 the middle hump....

[andawayigo]

Lighting. The powerful bolts going straight in the water. Also dolphins, many times.

[shipshape sam]

Our side/section of the ship got "mooned" by a returning passenger coming back from an afternoon at Margarittaville Ocho Rios. Also got flashed with boobs from the same group. Our cabin was near the gangway.

 

 

Weatherwise, we had snow this past February on our South America/Antarctica cruise one morning.

 

 

 

Wildlife wise, this is one of my favorites