Heidi13

Negative, the size of a cruise ship is irrelevant, as they will have a confirmed reservation and most likely have paid the guaranteed daylight transit fee. Panamax size ships can use any of the locks depending on operational requirements and Post-Panamax must use the new locks.

The size of a cruise ship is irrelevant to completing a scheduled Canal transit. It is not only post-Panamax size ships that can participate in the auction. Smaller Panamax size cargo ships can also participate in the auction to skip the queue. Cruise ships make reservations well in advance and will not be displaced by any ship (Panamax or Post-Panamax) that win the auction.

Negative, HAL will already have made a reservation for the transit and paid the additional fee to guarantee a daytime transit. Cruise ships know their schedule well in advance, making reservations, so have no requirement to participate in the auction. The auction is for cargo ships that arrive at the Canal without a reservation.

The auctions are for ships that do not have a reservation made in advance. This permits cargo ships to pay a substantial additional premium to skip the queue of ships waiting, that also don't have reservations. Cruise ships, both full and partial transits know their schedule in advance and make reservations about 2 years in advance. They pay a fee for the reservation and they pay an additional premium to guarantee a daytime transit.

The EF-S 18-200 was developed for the cropped sensors, so doesn't fit any of the DSLR full-frame cameras. However, with the EF adapter, it does fit the R-series, but the image is cropped. Personally, I would stay with Canon, as you can still use the original lens, but purchase with a RF kit lens. I use the R6 with an adapter and it is a significant upgrade from th 5D bodies.

If too light, taping cardboard or black garbage bags on the windows works. That's what we used when watchkeeping and we slept during the day.

I'll suggest the Diamond Princess back in 2008, when cruising Asia is a perfect example of a ship full of sick pax. Day after departing Okinawa, the Medical Centre had over 200 sick calls in an hour due to Noro. By the time the ship reached the disembarkation port, more than 40% of pax had reported to the Medical Centre with Noro. Those numbers didn't include the many infected that didn't report to the Medical Centre and then quarantine, so they remained taking tours and infecting others throughout the ship. Also doesn't include those with Cruz Crud, or other respiratory ailments. The numbers are factual, as our son was S/2/O and I also knew the Captain from my time of working for the company.

Negative, the bow area is an outer deck space for the crew, so never open to pax. That class of ship has a fwd deck on each of the 2 decks below the Bridge. Great location to watch entry into the locks.

On the Bridge of all ships I worked on, the binoculars were mostly 7x50 or 8x50, with a few 7x35's. A higher 10x magnification does work well, especially on cruise ships. Personally, I prefer the heavier x50 rather than the lighter x35, as they have better light gathering, so better at dawn/sunset. Another feature I have grown to like is "Permafocus", with the binocular's depth of field being from about 10-12' to infinity. No more fiddling with focus wheels. Used Bushnells on most ships, so in retirement, I use the Bushnell Permafocus 10x50. Excellent field of vision and reasonable image quality. Lots of other more expensive options are available that may have better image quality, but the Bushnells provide good value for the money. If money was no object, I would purchase Swarovski, which are totally high end, and virtually indestructible.

Sorry, but under no circumstances is it the responsibility of a pax to gather evidence for the cruise line. The Hotel Services manager was correct to request the pax submitting the complaint to immediately call the Purser's Office, upon observing a repeat offense. However, suggesting the pax take photos of the neighbour actively smoking is a request that is fraught with danger. Had the pax taking photos, as requested by a ship's manager, been assaulted or harmed, at any point on the cruise, the cruise line's liability would be considerable. The smoking pax clearly has a complete disregard for safety and following published guidelines, so his reaction to being photographed smoking has a good probability of resulting in potential danger to the pax submitting the complaint and taking the photo. What should of happened in this case, is the ship accepted the complaint, advising the pax to immediately call the Purser's Office if they see it again. A crew member would then be immediately dispatched. The Hotel Management should visit the offenders cabin, advising they have received a complaint regarding a person smoking on the balcony. They should then review the smoking protocols with said pax. Should the pax subsequently be observed by a crew member, the Master can take disciplinary action, including forceable disembarkation, which is in accordance with most Cruise Line Terms & Conditions. As a Master, provided the pax has already been warned and received a review of the guidelines, I would have no problem with forced disembarkation.

Same on Dk 4, in 4000 we heard the anchor ops start at 04:00 as we prepared for the Suez transit.

We were in 4058. Since all Viking cabins are balconies, they have no cabins on Dk 3 midships. Inboard of the lifeboats is the Atrium.

If you read the original post the question is a small cabin on a premium/luxury ship, or a premium cabin (suite) on Cunard. With Cunard, the more expensive cabins are generally larger.

I was aware of 3rd party adapters, but from what I read some time ago that while the adapter can attach the lens to a Nikon body, there is no guarantee that all lens functions will work.

I recently upgraded to mirrorless, opting for the R6 over the M6. However, if I recall correctly from my research, the M6 does accept the EF and EF-s lenses, with an adaptor. The R6 also accepts the EF lenses with an adapter. The downside of the M6 is that it doesn't accept any of the newer RF lenses being developed for the "R" series. With the M6 you can still use your existing Canon lenses, but changing to Nikon will require an additional investment in lenses. I'll suggest EF lenses, both new and used will be available for a number of years.

Without further details it is impossible to make a reasonable guess; however, you will often find they look good on the camera's small screen, but not so good when blown up larger. What are the issues, focus, depth of field, resolution, colours, etc.

We were directly above the boats on Dk 4 and no obstructions.

The bandwidth required when streaming content on a TV is entirely dependent on the broadcast resolution of the source content. When I stream 4K live football matches, that requires way more bandwidth than Zoom.

Any vibration in aft cabins is unlikely to be from the engines, as they are installed with vibration dampeners and are further fwd. Aft vibration is usually cavitation or aft thruster operation. In addition to the potential for noise and vibration in aft cabins, you also have more movement, with the movement increasing the further the distance from the ship's CoG.

Unfortunately, that is a myth. The size of a ship has very little to do with her sea-keeping abilities, the design and scantlings have significantly more impact. The ocean liners I worked on - SS Oriana & SS Canberra are much smaller than any of today's large ships and both those ships could handle seas way better than probably every current cruise ship except QM2. Even the original Island/Pacific/Sun Princess, which were even smaller, handled sea better than most modern ships.

Affirmative, it was filled in and included in the Centerm Container terminal expansion project.

How is the traffic these days into Edinburgh, especially early morning. I concur the bus is more convenient to the tender dock, but for all my trips into Edinburgh, unless heading to Tynecastle or Easter Road, I always opted for the train, rather than driving the car.

South Queensferry isn't too challenging, as it is a fairly short walk up hill from the tender dock to the train station. They have numerous direct trains into Edinburgh taking about 20 - 30 mins. Trains arrive at Edinburgh Waverly. Make sure you take the exit for Market Street and across the street is a set of stairs and alleyway up to High Street, which is the Royal Mile.

The only true way to determine what is best for you is to research the options. Unfortunately, there is no quick answer, since "Best" is highly subjective and is entirely based on your needs and expectations. However, I will ask, "Why would you want a large cabin on a cruise ship". Are you planning to spend most of the time in your cabin? Personally, I consider the cabin as little more than the bedroom, and the pax spaces as the living areas. I survived 4-months with 3 people in about 70 sq feet with a single porthole, so find basic inside or balcony cabins quite spacious. Had a complimentary 1,300 sq feet suite for the final 3-weeks of our last World Cruise and it was wasted space. More room, but not any more comfortable than our original 270 sq foot cabin.

I'll accept an electric kettle is an additional risk, but I consider it in the same category of risk as electric hair dryers. From a risk analysis perspective, every electrical device is a potential risk. I'll suggest lithium batteries have more frequency of causing fires than electric kettles, but they aren't banned. The risk of using electric kettles is mitigated by providing models with automatic shut-offs. I doubt if you can purchase a kettle these days without an auto-shut off. Yes, the auto shut-off could potentially fail, but having used a kettle multiple times daily for about 60 years, I have never experienced a failure. Another difference between a microwave and kettle is that some products heated in a microwave can actually ignite. A kettle heats water, creating steam, which is actually an effective fire extinguishing medium. This is why the Hi-Fog type fire extinguishing systems are so effective, very small water droplets transform to steam at a ratio of about 1:1,700, with the huge volume of steam extinguishing the fire by cooling.