optimusprime82
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Smaller post this time since it’s a bit time consuming to upload so many in one forum post. I think this is the last of what I have edited from Barcelona. The next post will focus on a few shots from the ship and our first stop, Marseille.
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For this trip, I went with a really light weight photography kit of two point and shoot cameras from Ricoh. The Ricoh GRIII with a fixed focal length of 28mm (in 35mm equivalent focal length) and a GRIIIX with fixed focal length of 40mm (in 35mm equivalent focal length). One offers a relatively wide shooting angle, the other is bit tighter by comparison. Definitely not a cheap setup, each is $1,100 - $1,200 but they’re not much bigger than a cell phone offer fantastic image quality.
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We very much enjoyed our first VV cruise including our first visit to Barcelona, Marseille, Cannes, Palma De Mallorca, and Ibiza. While in Barcelona we took a local cooking class through Airbnb Experiences and visited Sagrada Família. If you’re interesting in me posting more photos let me know. I don’t want to spam the boards if no one is interested. Feel free to ask questions about our experience on board the Scarlet Lady and I’ll try to answer the best I can.
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2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
Well, some good and bad news. The good news is that NCL finally posted the 2026 schedule from Boston. The Breakaway, which we sailed on in 2016, will now be taking over the Bermuda sailings from Boston in April/May 2026. The bad news for us is that the she's sailing Sunday to Sunday, not the Friday to Friday schedule that the Jewel runs. With that said, I still think we can make this work for my specific plan. It will just involve a lot more moving parts on the day of departure since my graduation ceremony will occur the morning of the sailing about 90 minutes away from Boston. The traffic in and around Boston worries me but hopefully we can make it work. -
Arriving on 08/29/24 for our 09/01/24 VV sailing. I'll keep an eye on things but I'm not overly concerned with the protestors. I sympathize with their housing issues, which is why I'm glad we booked a hotel instead of a rental property. We don't plan on doing too many typical touristy things aside from visiting Sagrada Família. Otherwise, we want to walk, explore, and people watch - hopefully that means we won't stick out too much.
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2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
Well, we're already at the twenty-two month mark and there's nothing announced. I can't imagine that NCL will wait until they're just twelve months out to release the schedule since people do like to plan ahead when possible. Maybe NCL will release Boston's April/May 2026 schedule tomorrow, but that doesn't seem likely. -
2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
I'm leaning towards a fall announcement now too. Mostly because I don't think NCL can really wait much longer than that. It's just kind of surprising considering how well many cruise companies are doing with advance bookings, that NCL would wait until about eighteen months out to announce the spring sailings from Boston. -
2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
My parents, my wife's parents, my two aunts and their husbands. We'll also invite my wife's brother and his wife but they will likely decline the invite which will be relief to most of us. My parents are excited, they cruise three or four times a year already. I just wanted to get us on their "calendar" now because their vacation schedules fills up pretty far in advance. One aunt and her husband travel with my parents occasionally and would like to travel with us again (the last time we vacationed with them was in 2007). My other aunt and her husband would like to travel as a family more but so far that hasn't worked out. My in-laws haven't travelled much and the last cruise they took was for our wedding on the Adventure of the Seas sailing from PR. They've flirted with cruising with us since, but have backed out each time. We think they'd enjoy themselves and having people they know in their own age group will likely ease their anxiety. There's no pressure for anyone to go if they don't want to. Since our wedding cruise in 2007, all but one of our grandparents have passed and family gatherings have slowed down. If in the end, it's just my wife and I cruising from Boston that will be fine too. Just thought I'd try to use one event as a catalyst to get some family together in an unconventional way. -
2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
Still nothing on NCL's schedule yet. There's one Bermuda cruise in April 2026 from New York but that's it. I'd like to start planning since we've got a decent sized group from several different states with varying cruising experience. I'm going to start really getting worried if there's no word by the end of summer (2024). -
2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that 2026 will continue that trend! -
2026 Schedule from Boston?
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in Norwegian Cruise Line
That's what I think they're doing this year and definitely what they're doing in 2025. I'm hoping NCL keeps that plan for 2026. A Fri-Fri itinerary would be perfect for my plan since my school does their graduation ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday. I figure we fly into Boston on Tuesday or Wednesday, enjoy the city, depart for Bermuda, return to Boston, drive to the school the following Friday or Saturday for the ceremony, then fly home. It looks like HAL does some summer Canadian sailings but not NCL. I'm keeping an eye of them too. I'd like to try HAL, just haven't had the opportunity. We're Carnival stock owners so it would be nice to use the stock benefit. I'll keep an eye on Princess, thanks. I hadn't noticed them sailing from Boston but since I have specific dates in mind that might have impacted their visibility in my search results. -
How far in advance does NCL post their schedule for cruises departing from Boston? I'm an adult learner and it looks like I'll finally be graduating from relatively well know university that's approximately an hour away from Boston in May 2026. My wife and I are planning to take cruise right before or right after the graduation ceremony and I'm anxious to get planning. We're planning on inviting family members to cruise/celebrate with us and I'd like to give them lots of time to prepare. My parents are very experienced cruisers having completed more than forty sailings on a multitude of brands, while my in-laws have only sailed once. The rest of the people we'll be inviting will fall somewhere in between. Having looked at the 2024 and 2025 schedule, I think NCL will be the only brand sailing from Boston in May. HAL and Celebrity also sail from Boston but not in late April or early May. I think most of my family would prefer sailing to Canada but I think Bermuda will be more likely based on past/current schedules. I'm hoping NCL, and any other brands, will post more of their 2026 schedule soon. And for some visual flare, here's a couple shots from our stop in Boston last fall while sailing on the MSC Meraviglia.
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Thank you. I try to remain respectful when photographing anyone that appears housing challenged. With that said, it’s also a part of life that I don’t think we should pretend isn’t happening around us, especially when we’re visiting places that are often beautiful on the surface near the tourist hotspots. Over the years I’ve taken a few other similar shots that I’ve tried to frame in a similar way. Below are examples from Martinique and Chicago.
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Thank you. Good hear certainly helps but a lot of what I showed here was shot with a very good, fixed focal length (28mm) point and shoot camera (Ricoh GRIII). I've only been "seriously" shooting since 2016. You can learn a lot on YouTube. My best advice, learn some of the basic rules of photography so you can break them and find things to photograph that interest you, not where all the tourists go. With that said, there's nothing wrong with touristy photo spots but it's hard to make something standout when you're fighting for time and positioning. Good luck in the future don't be afraid to experiment.
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It was at the donkey sanctuary in Aruba, I don't recall if it was near a beach. We usually have our cab stop at a grocery so we can cut carrots, they love those too.
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Photos from our sailing onboard the Emerald Princess from 02/23/24 through 03/06/24 leaving from Fort Lauderdale with stops in Basseterre, St. Kitts, Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Castries, St. Lucia, Kingstown, St. Vincent, Scarborough, Tobago, St. George's, Grenada, Willemstad, Curacao, and Oranjestad, Aruba.
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Night two dinner photos.
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Not that there’s too much interest but I’ll keep posting for the few that are interesting. Below are a few of dinner menus and photos of what we had. I think the MSC food is a lot better than many people’s photos make it out to be. I think we forgot to take photos of dessert on night one.
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Photos from exploring Newport, ME. We walked around, had lunch with my parents who were also visiting Newport when we docked, and then took a lobster boat tour.
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I didn't actually. At the time I didn't know what kind of bug it was. Then, throughout the trip, we saw people stomping bugs constantly. I don't think during our last trip to NYC in 2019, they city was grappling with them. We just assumed the bug stomping was par for the course, sort of like seeing someone using the street as their bathroom - just something we see at least once every trip to New York lol. Thank you!
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Overpayment Issue - Looking for Contact Suggestions
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in MSC Cruises
The dispute was cancelled in August, the same day we became aware of it. MSC has acknowledged that the dispute has been cancelled, they keep saying they’ll refund the money, they just haven’t done it. I appreciate the perspective, I don’t have any other experience quite like this. -
Overpayment Issue - Looking for Contact Suggestions
optimusprime82 replied to optimusprime82's topic in MSC Cruises
The clock just struck midnight, it’s been three months since my last post about this topic. This may come as a shock but we’re still waiting for the $500 to be returned/refunded. Two “billing cycles” was in early October and we’ve now doubled that time frame. It’s really frustrating and is one of the reasons we didn’t book with MSC while on board. We love the onboard experience but the customer service from shore has been less than helpful. Any suggestions? Would contacting the Better Business Bureau grease the gears a bit? -
Some pre-cruise photos and one post-cruise photo from New York City. Some assorted subway shots, exploring the flower district near our hotel, graffiti in Soho, and the Statue of Liberty when we returned to Brooklyn.
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Thanks! That’s very cool. We just stumbled across it, possibly on our way to Cheers lol. I’ll partake in some fruit, but nothing like what I saw on this cruise.
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I meant to provide a lot more photos from the voyage. Between coming home sick, and having to immediately jump back into work and school, I haven’t been able to share much more about what we saw off the ship. Hopefully this display in the right orientation. From Boston.
