spraynet

FYI......Please don't ever feel bad about adding anything to one of my threads, I think doing so only improves the experience for others.  I don't consider it hijacking at all........I consider it "Add-jacking".  The best of both worlds! 

BTW....really cool print there, and very reasonable indeed. I'll have to look them up when I'm there. 

Thanks! 

Sorry I've been absent from my own thread for a while, my bride has some health issues that we're dealing with at the moment.

Thank you all so very much for the wonderful and genuine recommendations, simply awesome!!!  I've noted each one on my computer rolodex..😂 "shows my age", and will be picking the ones we like best to visit. Also, never ever worry about adding stuff unrelated to my question into any thread of mine, I actually welcome that type of input. The more folks can learn from a thread the better I feel it is. 

Thanks again everyone!

Doing the 7 day Princess cruise from this Sept,  Seattle to Vancouver with stops in Juneau / Skagway-

 Haines / Ketchikan / Victoria BC / Vancouver -two days.  Looking to find the "Real local" spots folks eat at. Have zero interest in touristy places. Have a must visit bar, or eatery, please post up so all may learn. Thank you!

I now have another camera to look at before I take the plunge. The Nikon Cool pics 900, or something close to that.

It has an 83X zoom that is unbelievable!!!  A person sent me a picture he took of the Moon and you can easily see many of the craters!!!

He said that the stabilization was also top notch!    I'm starting to get really confused, but in a good way! 

Thanks everyone for all the awesome feedback.  I certainly do have some thinking and research to do! 

I was determined to buy a point & shoot camera which would fit in my pocket, have a great zoom lense, have a great burst mode for taking whale photo's all while doing this with one lense. Then....I learned about the Panasonic DMC FZ1000 II, and while it seems to fit all of my wants, its NOT a pocket sized camera.  BUT, it does accomplish all that I want it too, with the exception of being small.  

OK, that was really impressive!  I think I've found my camera.

Now....If I remember correctly, there are at least two different models of the FZ1000   I forget the exact titles but one has another letter in front, one has another letter in between, etc. 

Which exact model would you recommend for a camera "Idiot".  Yes.....I'm going to order it soon so that I can play with it and actually read the manual.  I really want to be fairly familiar with it when we get to Alaska.

Thank you all so very much! Your all nice folks!

Thats very good news, because many folks are telling me that the point & shoot cameras take so long to focus and take the shot that I will have zero chance of getting a whale breach or tail coming up out of the water. 

BTW....great shots there!  Were you using a tripod?

Renting something.....what a great idea!  I will definitely be looking into that, thank you!

I've pretty much decided that the DSLR is out, and one of the smaller point & shoot, or Bridge cameras is what I'm really leaning towards.  Yes I am absolutely going to be practicing for many months before we go. The MAIN reason for even bringing a camera is my bride wants pictures and videos of whales. 

Now with that in mind, someone on another forum I belong to said that the point & shoot are not good for getting whale shots due to shutter lag which the DSLR's do not have. But I was thinking of doing some videos and hopefully getting some whale tails hitting the surface thus being able to grab a still from that video and turn it into a picture she wants?  

Bridge cameras huh!   Looks like I have more research ahead of me tonight!  Thanks everyone.

Going to Alaska this Sept and don't have a decent camera yet. I'm really struggling between either buying a nice DSLR outfit with a few lenses and carrying case which would net me some nice shots but will be a pain in the rear to lug around. Or, getting a small compact camera which would be so much easier to tote around but I don't know about the picture quality!

I'm just really torn between convenience and picture quality.  I would like to develop several into say 8.5 x 11 for framing, but not sure if I need a real DSLR for that?

Any help appreciated. 

Pittsburgh & Crew, Thank you very much! 

We also have a 7 hour tour planed for Vancouver, but ours is more like an adventure tour. Whale watching, float plane, etc. I'm now re-thinking that due to your recommendation. Since while in Alaska we will have our chance at doing both item's I've mentioned, I think a city tour might be better now that you've mentioned that, thank you!

Crew.....Trying to decide whether or now to take in the town of Ketchikan, which by your post sounds very interesting and something that may suit us more.

Thank you both very much!

Awesome, thank you both very much!  I'm eying a tour in Ketchikan that will take up all of the port time while there, so we will not get to see the area at all!  Is ketchikan a really nice "true" Alaskan town with lots of Alaskan owned shops and cool stores to check out, or is it a tourist trap built by the cruise lines themselves like several others I've read about? 

Thank you so very much for your guidance and insight.  I'll do exactly what you've mentioned, my bride would like that very much!  If you could I would really like to hear your recommendations for excursions as well. Just need to know what folks thought of some of the one's they liked and those they thought did not meet their expectations.

Hello everyone, fairly new to this site, only posted a few times. My bride and I have cruised before but it's been well over 20 years so we're a tad rusty!  We're cruising from Seattle to several ports of call in Alaska on the Ruby Princess with Princess cruise Lines this Sept 14th till the 21st. 

Ports of call are:  

Juneau:                          Arrive 11:00    Depart 22:00

Skagway:                       Arrive 07:00    Depart 20:15

Glacier Nat Park:          Arrive 06:45    Depart 15:00

Ketchikan:                     Arrive 07:00    Depart 13:15...Also our 32nd Wedding Anniversary.  Anything special folks have done please post up!

Victoria B.C.:                 Arrive 19:00   Depart 23:59

Vancouver B.C:             Arrive 07:30 and depart ship.  We do have 2 entire days in Vancouver before our flight home.

We are first time explorers to the great state of Alaska and are really looking forward to this trip. My bride has been suffering from cancer going on 3 years now and this will be a trip of a lifetime for us after she gets her Pet-Scan that states she's free of cancer this May.

We're looking for all the advice we can get from great restaurants on the ship, to the better excursions at each port of call. We're ready to spend a good amount on the excursions, but don't know if we should do all of them with the cruise ship?  If we don't book early, are we going to be left out?  Which are the nicer ones, including all the up-grades we should take.  Anything you can help us out with would be greatly appreciated.