twangster

Within the Safari Lounge there is the Zanzibar Lounge. Here is its story:

I took some photos of various chairs after seeing reports of threadbare furniture before. I recall Radiance looking pretty worn last year. So while it may seem odd to go around taking pictures of chairs, there was a reason. In no particular order… These Vintages chair feel really low, like a grown up stuck at the kids table during holiday dinner. Hockey playoffs on board! In summary I haven’t yet found a chair that looks worn.

It should be clear by now I am a tech geek. I've used many different forms of internet on different cruise lines going back almost two decades now. From the old bucket of minutes when it took several minutes just to connect, check for new emails and disconnect as quickly as possible to avoid burning through slower than dial-up minutes costing hundreds of dollars to where we are today with Starlink is pretty amazing. Today I was watching a live stream of SpaceX launching more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral while in a fog bank in the middle of the English Channel on a moving ship using Starlink in crystal clear video. This is pretty phenomenal. Then uploading this 4K video of the experience in under 60 seconds. We've come so far... Starlink Launch from Jewel.mp4

1pm update. Middle of the English Channel. We’ve been approaching the E in the English Channel for hours now. They keep moving the goal posts.

Passport collection from 10am to 12 noon. Having left Ireland we get our passports back today.

Time change tonight at 2am.

Meet the Officers JW May 15 Meet The Officers.pdf

Day 14 cruise compass JW May 15 day 14 cruisecompass.pdf

When Olympic damaged a blade in 1912 they took one that was supposed to be on Titanic. Titanic wasn't finished yet and hadn't completed her sea trials at that point so borrowing one her propellor blades allowed Olympic to quickly return to service. That was well before the sinking of Titanic. So the claim is that they proactively swapped hulls before they knew of the impending tragedy in preparation for an insurance claim? Not buying it.

As far as the internet or Voom experience has been on board, Starlink is an important change that is largely responsible for the improved user experience but a Starlink upgrade alone won't always create the best outcome. The other important factor driving the user experience is the WiFi platform or technology in use. In order to fully utilize the Starlink upgrade to its maximum potential the WiFi platform has to be upgraded as well. It also has to be properly configured. The best WiFi hardware configured improperly would cause a terrible user experience. Fortunately Jewel has had her WiFi tech upgraded on board and it appears to be properly configured unlike what I discovered on another Radiance class ship a few years ago. This starts with allocating various access points to different non-competing frequencies. Jewel is using 20 MHz channels. 2.4 GHz band: 5GHz band: The use of 20MHz channel width isn't going to provide the most throughput theoretically possible however it is the proper method to configure a WiFi platform for this type of environment. Given the inherent bandwidth available through Starlink there would be no benefit to using 40MHz or 80MHz channel width like one might at home. More importantly given the number of access points in close proximity, higher channel widths would create more overlap and interference yielding lower performance. Since for the most part WiFi clients will be accessing Starlink as opposed to local network resources, it would make little sense using higher channel width. For example there are a number of high performance outdoor access points on deck 12. By configuring them as they have, those access points can coexist with reduced overlap and interference in an environment where they will at times have hundreds of devices connected such as during sail away or other pool deck events for the masses. On some ships they speed restrict WiFi for each user to around 10Mbps throughput. This remains to be a misguided attempt to share bandwidth. The problem with this approach is that it creates congestion in the WiFi spectrum by prolonging the amount of time a WiFi client is consuming spectrum. With each client taking longer to complete its data exchange the spectrum is busy longer. This appears to be the approach they are taking with the mega ships, Oasis and Icon class and it drive me crazy. Fortunately they are not (yet) implementing per user speed restrictions on the smaller ships, at least in my experience. In summary Jewel has nailed the WiFi upgrade and they are not speed restricting users beyond the use of 20MHz channel width which is the proper approach for this type of environment.

Day Fourteen - Sea Day Progress report: Conditions: Rain. Cruise compass hasn't been published online yet.

As an update, many bars have been replenished, Belvedere and Greygoose are back for example. Jameson is flowing once more. Guinness on the other hand remains unavailable. None on board.

It never came up. Olympic was on her way back from New York heading to England when Titanic hit the iceberg. It seems pretty far fetched to swap the passenger manifests and somehow silence the passengers who would have completed the trip successfully in this outlandish scenario. Titanic’s completion was delayed when Olympic had an incident in 1912 after entering service. Titanic was moved out of the Thompson dry dock mid fitment so Olympic could have a propellor blade replaced. Shipyard crew did the work. At the time, Titanic was not finished internally. They couldn’t have swapped name plates at that point, to have an unfinished ship assume Olympics sailings. After the Titanic sinking Olympic was retrofitted to improve her safety. It seems like all of this, including the crew and shipyard workers performing the work to retrofit Olympic, would be all but impossible to occur and keep silent through some secret swapping of the hulls. 123 passengers boarded Titanic in Cobh for example. 44 survived. To silence the survivors and have them be tricked into boarding a different ship seems crazy.

Balloon drop to celebrate our arrival to Cork, Ireland. For some reason they timed this after our departure from the port. 🤔 JW Balloon Drop.mp4

With that we dropped off our pilot and headed back to sea on our way to Belgium.

The weather had cleared in time for our departure. Our departure brought out the people of Cobh to see us off.

The train to Cork leaves from the pier area across from the ship. My original plan was to leave enough time for the train ride to Cork but instead I felt the onset of a nap coming over me.

At this point I decided I should take the High road.

Time for some lunch. ...and some accompaniments to my fish and chips.

The cathedral is dominant in the landscape of Cobh.

Ireland and Cobh has played a role in more than the Titanic tragedy. In May of 1915 the Lusitania was torpedoed just off the coast. Many of the survivors and dead were brought to shore here.

Self led walking tour of Cobh today. Not all the glasses were served empty.

More pics to come but first an itinerary change. The tender visit tomorrow to Waterford has been cancelled due to winds. Instead there will be a sea day tomorrow. Day 15 we will visit Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium.

Seems like there have been some ships here before. Different pub, another empty glass! Live authentic Irish pub music