Star Princess North to Alaska! Sept 10 2016

[morbihan]

Yes, I said The Hollies too.

 

If the music started up I could sing along and be word perfect.

 

Don't ask me what I did yesterday though😄

 

Look forward to catching up every day. Can't wait for the glacier.

[Bimmer09]

Hi

I am enjoying your trip. I am taking my first cruise in May and I can hardly wait. We are going to Alaska on the Emerald (from Seattle). I hope my pictures turn out half as nice as yours.

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

Evelyn

 

Evelyn, thanks for joining us here!

 

First cruise and Alaska is the same combination we made in August 2011.

 

You are likely to get hooked!

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[cruisehappy001]

Mark, thanks for the video link! I watched a Chinese tourist video also and am thinking I would want to be in that first row on the upper deck and have a Go Pro on my head-I did that on a catamaran sail in St Kitts but the speed of the boat and the wind made it impossible to keep the horizon straight. This video is in nice calm water. Carol is now gung-ho on the Aleutian Ballad idea.

 

Norris

 

 

Glad that you both enjoyed the video!

 

I really want to thank you for the Sled Dog video... we were going to do that one Late August of last year (or a similar one?) privately, but the only time they could fit us in was at 10AM, and the ship did not get there until 1PM!!! :confused: :mad: :rolleyes: We had a 2 for 1 coupon as well! The ships excursion was sold out, and would have been over our budget anyway. :(

 

Also in my previous post I meant to, but totally forgot to add a big thank you to you for another one of your marvelous and entertaining reviews!

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Mark

[Bimmer09]

What a marvelous review! I am enjoying the adventure as I read along with the rest, and you have increased the anticipation for our trip next August as we go a little nuts! We are taking the Coral north from Vancouver, a week in Denali/Anchorage and then the Star south back to Vancouver. After all, a week is never really enough time for Alaska, right? And since we have waited this long (celebrating a combination of our 35th anniversary and our special needs son's 21st birthday) we may as well do it up right! Loving your photos and video's, I will have to show them to my son, as he is my photographer wanna be. We live in Idaho, and photographing wildlife IN the wild instead of zoo's is one of his dreams. What better place than Alaska. Thank you for sharing such an in depth view!

 

Heidi, welcome and thanks for following along!

 

Yes you are going a little nuts with that amazing itinerary and I am jealous. I have reviewed both ships on CC.

 

If your son loves taking photos then he will be in his element. Tell him to stock up on big memory cards and extra batteries for those long excursions.

 

I have 90 pics from our train ride waiting in the wings....plus video. I'm nuts too.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Yes, I said The Hollies too.

 

If the music started up I could sing along and be word perfect.

 

Don't ask me what I did yesterday though😄

 

Look forward to catching up every day. Can't wait for the glacier.

 

Hi and thanks for reading every day.

 

I haven't worked on the glacier pics yet. I just did the train yesterday. I think there's a lot of ship pics to come in between. There's glacier video too.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Glad that you both enjoyed the video!

 

I really want to thank you for the Sled Dog video... we were going to do that one Late August of last year (or a similar one?) privately, but the only time they could fit us in was at 10AM, and the ship did not get there until 1PM!!! :confused: :mad: :rolleyes: We had a 2 for 1 coupon as well! The ships excursion was sold out, and would have been over our budget anyway. :(

 

Also in my previous post I meant to, but totally forgot to add a big thank you to you for another one of your marvelous and entertaining reviews!

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Mark

 

Mark, I'm glad you are enjoying the read and thanks for the compliments!

 

The Dog Sled adventure was really worthwhile and I'm glad I took the Go Pro along-photos wouldn't have been enough.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

We took the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad train for the return to Skagway after a bus trip out to Bennett Lake to go kayaking on our first cruise to Alaska on the Coral-photos and video in that review listed in my signature below.

 

This time would be different as we were doing the round trip, starting and ending at the dock entrance.

 

Carol was already off the ship at noon and when I left the dock there was no one holding up a tour sign with our tour number on it. There were crowds of people and a long line for a train. Many of the folks were NCL passengers, some from the faraway Pearl.

 

I texted Carol and found she had been told to wait in a little red shed nearby.

 

A staffer eventually came over to guide us and we went along a narrow path (no line!) to enter the last carriage on the train. Last carriage was exactly what we needed and I was thrilled and surprised to get it as it meant unlimited views out the back on a platform with benches for sitting.

 

Within the past year they have introduced two luxury cars to their fleet of trains and at $300 each we were splurging but we had leather armchairs that swiveled and an open bar and snacks to help us through the 4 hour journey. Our bartender and guide was Nick who knew when to speak and when to let the scenery speak for itself.

 

We were last onto the train and (yippee!) I had the chair closest to the rear door so I could pop in and out to take photos and video.

 

There was a bathroom at the end of our carriage.

 

We are ready for the off

 

 

We have to stay off the rear platform until we leave the city (town) limits.

 

 

 

Going around bends I could hold on with one hand to steady myself

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

That's the front of our train way over there as we take a bend over a fast flowing river.

 

 

I had to adjust my shutter speed to 1/800th of a second to avoid blur on the moving train

 

 

 

 

[deliver42]

Beautiful pics, Norris. Hope you and Carol are having a ball. Enjoy the train ride.

 

Mel

[Sadebud]

Hi Tracy, I'm glad you are enjoying the read and the photos/video. I love the Go Pro as a small tool that can go anywhere and get footage I would be reluctant to use the Sony camera for. I bought it to get Segway shots when we were in Puerto Rico on the Silhouette and am so glad I did. It leaves my hands free and can get wet. I use it when we visit the glaciers soon.

 

Hi again,

 

Real quick, I will be using a GoPro for my visit to Volunteer Point to see the Penguins in the Faukland Islands in January when we are on the Crown around Cape Horn. I will do my best to upload here, but not sure if I am tech savvy enough!

 

Tracy

PS--I forgot how to edit my signature on CC to change from the listed Hawaii on the Grand to South America aboard the Crown. Tech Savvy, remember?

[Onelung]

Oh, not familiar with that one.

 

I had the Hollies 1965 single in mind.

 

Norris

 

My first thought was The Hollies too - love that song!:D

[WDWDVC]

Between a trip to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival and three days without internet thanks to Matthew, I got woefully behind. Thanks for taking the time to share your grand adventure with us!!

[kimcht]

Loving your review as always but wondering if I can ask an off topic question? Can you tell me how you get your pics embedded in your review? I cant find anything on cruise critic that will tell me how to include pics in the reviews that I can understand and you obviously are a professional at it. Thanks so much!

[RBAlbany]

Another slightly off topic. The Sports Court. Do you have a picture? I am also trying to figure out the size, and if they ever have 4v4 or 5v5 soccer games in the court? I am prepping for our cruise next year through your pictures.

[Bimmer09]

Another slightly off topic. The Sports Court. Do you have a picture? I am also trying to figure out the size, and if they ever have 4v4 or 5v5 soccer games in the court? I am prepping for our cruise next year through your pictures.

 

I didn't take photos of the sports court on the Star but probably have one from another ship...usually it's just a basketball shooting area with one net. I've never seen anyone but a lone basket shooter in there and for soccer it would be ridiculously small. With 8 people and a soccer ball the ball wouldn't have far to travel to reach the next player. At a guess I'd put the area at around 300 sq ft.

 

Anyone else with a guess or experience of using the court?

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Between a trip to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival and three days without internet thanks to Matthew, I got woefully behind. Thanks for taking the time to share your grand adventure with us!!

 

 

It's always my pleasure to share with you.

 

Any notable chefs at the food and wine fest?

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Beautiful pics, Norris. Hope you and Carol are having a ball. Enjoy the train ride.Mel

 

Thanks Mel-we did enjoy the ride very much thanks to the Luxury car.

 

We are back in Chicago now for 3 weeks already and our next trip is a driving one up to Traverse City and our beloved Mission peninsula in Northern Michigan Oct 24 through 27. Staying in an amazing winery called Chateau Chantal and have bookings in a couple of our favorite foodie restaurants.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Hi Tracy, I'm glad you are enjoying the read and the photos/video. I love the Go Pro as a small tool that can go anywhere and get footage I would be reluctant to use the Sony camera for. I bought it to get Segway shots when we were in Puerto Rico on the Silhouette and am so glad I did. It leaves my hands free and can get wet. I use it when we visit the glaciers soon.

 

Hi again,

 

Real quick, I will be using a GoPro for my visit to Volunteer Point to see the Penguins in the Faukland Islands in January when we are on the Crown around Cape Horn. I will do my best to upload here, but not sure if I am tech savvy enough!

 

Tracy

PS--I forgot how to edit my signature on CC to change from the listed Hawaii on the Grand to South America aboard the Crown. Tech Savvy, remember?

 

Tracy-it's easy to fix your signature....click on your screen name.

On your profile page (the usual default) look for Customize Profile in red on the right of screen. Click. Look down the list of things you can do for Edit Signature (in red)click it and change what you want to change, then preview it to make sure it's what you want. And save.

 

The Go Pro instructions tell you how to download to a computer but I download mine to my own iMovie program that came with the Macbook Pro as all my video lives there.

 

I download all my instruction books to my computer as PDF files as it's easier to scroll down a screen than flip through tiny pages.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Loving your review as always but wondering if I can ask an off topic question? Can you tell me how you get your pics embedded in your review? I cant find anything on cruise critic that will tell me how to include pics in the reviews that I can understand and you obviously are a professional at it. Thanks so much!

 

I can tell you only if you are using Flickr as your host for your photos as that's what I use and I don't have to click on the little Mountain icon on the CC toolbar.

 

If you are using photobucket or such I can't help you.

 

Flickr makes it really easy for me as they have a share choice called Bulletin Board. I click on that and it gives me a URL, I hit command C and it's copied then I paste onto my post and get rid of 4 lines of URL speak and I have my big photo for you.

 

When I click on someone's photo and they have used Photobucket I sigh as it tells me nothing about the shot. Click on any of my photos and it will tell you what camera I used, what the lens was ( I use 3 different ones), what the aperture, ISO and shutter speed was...all of this is important to me as if I get a good shot I can remember how I got it by the settings and use those again.

I took a load of rubbish night shots before I got the hang of it. I took 1400 pics on the Star and maybe 10 I just trashed as they were overexposed beyond saving or too shaky (shutter too slow at night and no tripod) In the old days of film cameras ( I still have a Nikon SLR that is 30 years old) I would have had over 200 duds or more.

 

There's a great TEST FORUM listed on the boards page of CC where you can make your mistakes. That's where I learned after trial and error and before I used Flickr instead of Picasa.

 

If you take photos using the Auto setting on your camera (if a DSLR) then you NEED Lightroom to fix the pix. A camera on auto is just guessing and so often the shots come out overexposed-washed out color and the pics lack visual punch and clarity. Some shots you only get to take once.

 

Especially if you are shooting sunsets and sunrises you need to underexpose the pic either at the time you shoot or in Lightroom after you find it is not so vivid as you remember (tip-shoot at a high shutter speed). Most of the shots you have seen when I used auto needed me to dial down the light coming into the lens by lowering the exposure and then tweaking the contrast,clarity and lightening the resultant shadows to get the scene as I remembered it. Modern cameras are amazing tools but they need help often unless you are really good at the mental math to set the correct aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

 

If I can help further please let me know.

 

I am learning as I go....and learning is always fun.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

There's no blood on the tracks! Just a song title train reference. The train went ever upward from the valley floor on it's way to 3,000 feet above where we began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

No it's not a freight train by any means but that's a skiffle song I am fond of from the pre-Beatles days in the U.K, prior to October 1962....54 years ago when the Beatles became known in the U.K...wow.

 

 

In this next shot I can see the hazy image of the Norwegian Jewel when I zoom in on my computer. We are a long way away so don't strain your eyes.

 

 

 

The river is still snaking along down below

 

 

 

Rock of Ages

 

[Bimmer09]

 



 

 

 

Mists rolling in

 

 

[Bimmer09]

 

Work is going on up in the mountains to make another line of tracks that would allow trains to pass in opposite directions at some points. This way they could run more trains. A train going down could pull onto the extra tracks to allow an up train to pass safely.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

 

Up around the bend...

 

 

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

 

 

 

Is Beautiful a word?

 

 

The mist hangs lower