Wall to wall ships

[MsMinx]

Hi Neil,

 

Do you know whether any of the other cruise ships (other than the ones on the P&O site) have webcams? I'd be really keen to see where the Star cruises go. Also keen to know if the BIG ones have webcams - QE2 etc.

 

I did a bit of a search but couldn't see much.

[MsMinx]

Ignore that - I just tried searching "Cunard webcam" and found this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/webcams/cruiseships.shtml#ships :D

 

Maybe you can add them to your site too??

Don't feel obliged to, just a suggestion.

I've saved it to my faves though - my "Cruise" favourites folder is getting very, very long now LOL!

[i_love_cruising]

Hi Neil,

 

Do you know whether any of the other cruise ships (other than the ones on the P&O site) have webcams? I'd be really keen to see where the Star cruises go. Also keen to know if the BIG ones have webcams - QE2 etc.

 

I did a bit of a search but couldn't see much.

 

Hi Jo,

 

Have you tried this website http://www.kroooz-cams.com/. You can even view port webcams, and if there happen to be ships in port at the time, it's even better!!

 

Sarah

[MsMinx]

Hi Jo,

 

Have you tried this website http://www.kroooz-cams.com/. You can even view port webcams, and if there happen to be ships in port at the time, it's even better!!

 

Sarah

 

I haven't really looked at it, but i've browsed (if that makes sense). I might pop in there now and have a feret around while i'm on lunch :D

 

My problem is (well, one of them) we can't get broadband at home and i'm stuck on D...I...A...L...U...P and the pages take forever to download so I give up :(

[Neilius]

Ignore that - I just tried searching "Cunard webcam" and found this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/webcams/cruiseships.shtml#ships :D

 

Maybe you can add them to your site too??

Don't feel obliged to, just a suggestion.

I've saved it to my faves though - my "Cruise" favourites folder is getting very, very long now LOL!

Jo - I'll definately add other lines as I get time :)

[Neilius]

OK - I've rejigged the whole layout. If anyone is interested, please have a look at http://webcams.neilennis.com

 

Under each ship, it tells you where it's been, and where it's going next.

 

If that info isn't available, it tells you what cruise it's on.

 

If that's not available, it tells you what cruise it's going to do next.

 

I've moved the summary of this message board to the lower left, so it's not as distracting.

 

If most people like this new format, I'll do it for the other cruise lines too.

[Carlz]

it's seriously great. CC should make a link for it so everyone can see.

[MsMinx]

It's looking fantastic Neil!!

One thing though - I couldn't spot the Pacific STAR. Is it just me???

[Neilius]

It's looking fantastic Neil!!

One thing though - I couldn't spot the Pacific STAR. Is it just me???

Jo

 

With the sidebar showing, it's in row 5, column 3. If you hide the sidebar by clicking on the ">>" button, it's in row 4, column 3.

 

Did you try clicking on the port names? It pulls up a google map showing where it is. Only problem is that "Willis Island, Coral Sea" doesn't work :) Google maps is too USA-centric I think. I'll see if I can find a solution for it!

[MsMinx]

Aha it WAS me! I couldn't see the side bar. I keep my screen as minimal as I can get it while i'm at work so as not to get spotted lurking on CC all day :p Will have another good look while i'm on lunch and don't have to hide ;)

[cheznandy]

Thanks so much for the website Neil!

 

I have it in my favourites, it's so great to see them all at the same time, I watched the Star leave Brisbane today, a couple of Princess ships glide through the inside passage in Alaska and the sunset!! Just wonderful, next best thing to being there:D

 

Chez

xx

[arxcards]

:eek: Surprised at the number of topless bathers in view of the Oriana cruisecam.

Cheers

Geoff

[Neilius]

I've done up a web page of all the P & O cruise cams in one spot. So you can see them all at once to get a quick indication if any of them are in an interesting spot.

 

The webpage auto updates every 30 seconds.

 

If you're interested it's at http://webcams.NeilEnnis.com

 

Please let me know what you think and how I could improve it.

 

Regards

 

Neil

 

I've updated the web site:

 

1. It now gets hourly data from the US Meteorological Office (NOAA) which includes ship locations, weather, wind etc. Hal from Sailwx.com kindly helped me. This is amazingly cool because it means I can show locations and info about any cruise ship, not just the P&O or Princess ones. So I can eventually expand the site to include lots of cruise lines, and even cruising yachts, research ships, etc.

 

2. There's a "G" (Google icon) below each ship. If you click on it, you'll get a Google Map showing the location of the ship as at the last time it reported in. Some ships don't report in very often so the info is sometimes out of date.

 

3. There's an "i" (Sailwx) icon below each ship. If you hold your mouse over it, it tells you information about the ship. Latitude, Longitude, Temperature, Wind speed and direction, and it has some links on it which go back to the Sailwx.com site to show tracking info for each ship.

 

I've had a lot of fun doing this, but I need some feedback as to whether or not it enhances the site. It's not much use having it if it clogs it up. Please try it out and let me know what you think.

 

Now it's time to come up for air and re-introduce myself to the people who live in this house with me :)

 

Regards

 

Neil

[Brushtail]

Excellent stuff, Neil. I have already looked at your site this morning, but will now explore further with the new toys. :)

[icemaiden2310]

Very cool! Thanks so much for all the time and energy u have put in to it

Icy

[kaseyoz]

it certainly is looking great and a must have for all cruisers.

we are very lucky to have such a generous capable person in our midst.

 

thanks again for the time and trouble

[MsMinx]

Neil, you're flaming brilliant at this stuff :D Well done :D:D

 

One teeny little thing I noticed - and again it could just be me - I couldn't spot the "G" and the "I" under Pacific STAR.

 

I see she's just about to dock in Noumea though and the weather looks gorgeous :D

[Neilius]

Neil, you're flaming brilliant at this stuff Well done

 

One teeny little thing I noticed - and again it could just be me - I couldn't spot the "G" and the "I" under Pacific STAR.

 

I see she's just about to dock in Noumea though and the weather looks gorgeous

 

Jo

 

I'm watching her dock as well :)

 

The "G" and "i" links come from NOAA / VOS. I.e. the ship voluntarily reports weather at its location every 3 to 6 hours, which then gets the ships latitude and longitude into the NOAA / VOS database.

 

Some ships are "recruited" by governments to report this info (e.g. PAcific Sun is recruited by Australia).

 

Pacific Star is not recruited. Therefore it doesn't HAVE to report the info. It only reports the info when someone onboard feels like it :)

 

My guess is that only happens when there's some noteworthy weather happening.

 

So most of the time I wouldn't expect to see info for Pacific Star.

 

It's a pity. Other cruise lines (like Costa) report continual lat/long/spead/heading info - updated every minute. I might add Costa next - especially since that's where Pacific Star is headed next year :)

 

Regards

 

Neil

[Neilius]

Jo

So most of the time I wouldn't expect to see info for Pacific Star.

 

Haha! Proved wrong again! Data from the Pacific Star is starting to come thru. The most recent info is from about 4am today (1800UTC) but it's better than nothing.

[arxcards]

I am curious about the accuracy of the satellite reporting, or how it is interpreted by google maps. I assume a margin of error, but I hope my Navman can get me closer than this!

Pacific Sun seems to have missed Circular Quay this morning :D

 

 

Geoff

[Neilius]

I am curious about the accuracy of the satellite reporting, or how it is interpreted by google maps. I assume a margin of error, but I hope my Navman can get me closer than this!

Pacific Sun seems to have missed Circular Quay this morning :D

 

 

Geoff

Gee that's a large margin for error.

 

It all comes down to the accuracy of the observation reported by the ship. NOAA / VOS has a black list - a computer program checks the data for inaccuracies and flags any ships that continually report incorrect locations.

 

You'd think plonking a cruise ship in the middle of the eastern suburbs would be a bit obvious, wouldn't you? :)

[arxcards]

Gee that's a large margin for error.

 

It all comes down to the accuracy of the observation reported by the ship. NOAA / VOS has a black list - a computer program checks the data for inaccuracies and flags any ships that continually report incorrect locations.

 

You'd think plonking a cruise ship in the middle of the eastern suburbs would be a bit obvious, wouldn't you? :)

 

Neil,

I just checked Google Maps and found that they round up the co-ordinates, which would be inaccurate

 

-33° 53' 60.00", +151° 12' 0.00" translates to -33.9,151.2 on Google. I won't be using google for my Navman

 

Cheers

Geoff

[Neilius]

Neil,

I just checked Google Maps and found that they round up the co-ordinates, which would be inaccurate

 

-33° 53' 60.00", +151° 12' 0.00" translates to -33.9,151.2 on Google. I won't be using google for my Navman

 

Cheers

Geoff

Geoff

 

Here's the maths:

 

Latitude:

33° 53' 60.00 S

= 33 + (53 + 60/60)/60 S

= 33 + (53 + 1) / 60 S

= 33 + 54/ / 60 S

= 33.9 S

 

NOTE. You'd never say 33° 53' 60.00 S, because 53 minutes 60 seconds is actually 54 minutes :) (60 seconds to a minute).

 

Longitude:

151° 12' 0.00 E

= 151 + 12/60 E

= 151.2 E

 

I don't think there's a problem with rounding.

[arxcards]

Geoff

 

Here's the maths:

 

Latitude:

33° 53' 60.00 S

= 33 + (53 + 60/60)/60 S

= 33 + (53 + 1) / 60 S

= 33 + 54/ / 60 S

= 33.9 S

 

NOTE. You'd never say 33° 53' 60.00 S, because 53 minutes 60 seconds is actually 54 minutes :) (60 seconds to a minute).

 

Longitude:

151° 12' 0.00 E

= 151 + 12/60 E

= 151.2 E

 

I don't think there's a problem with rounding.

Well the rounding by not including seconds anyway.

My rough calculation is that a minute is a little over 9km (1" = approx 153 metres). If the tracking site only records the Latitude & longitude to the nearest minute, it will be out by up to 4.6km, which is pretty close to the error yesterday.

Very accurate for global view, but not for local view.

 

BTW, love the domain name.

 

Cheers

Geoff

[Neilius]

I noticed that the updates of the ships position on google maps was getting waaaaay out of date, so I tinkered with the data feed. It now seems to be getting updated much more regularly.

 

There's a maritiime securty issue. The international maritime organization doesn't want upto date co-ords of ships readily available for security reasons. So the data is delayed slightly. So bear that in mind if you're frustrated by the inaccuracy of some of the positional data.

 

And ships like Pacific Star are not recruited by the goverment to report, so they only update their data once or twice per week.

 

I think I've got the basic framework sorted out now, so I expect to be adding more cruise lines over the next few weeks.