andreasfcb

3 hours ago, RobInMN said:

It's not so much that they are closing to cruise ships, it's that they are imposing emission rules on the UNESCO fjords. Not sure if this is UNESCO or Norwegian parliament driven). Cruise ships that meet these standards are fine. I do not know if LNG qualifies or not, but until RC develops a new ship class (Project Discovery?) that potentially meets the new standards, they are out.

I think LNG is enough and power to the grid when docking.

Do we know if they added that capability in dry dock to Jewel or if it was already there before? The captain announced in Alesund that we were connected to the power grid and shut down our engines for the whole day. I didn't know that Royal was capable of that and it sounded special at that time.

Thank you all for this amazing journey. I will post some additional pictures in the roll call once I have edited them.

Meanwhile I was wondering... Every morning on this cruise I had a weird ache around my sholder or my torso. Did the mattresses get harder (maybe during dry dock) or am I getting old? I used to sleep like a baby in Royal's beds.

44 minutes ago, twangster said:

Next time I'll book direct with assigned seating and avoid the Royal sardine can experience. 

Don't bother, we individually booked a train at a time where no excursion was supposed to join, and the train was still completely full. It was not a very comfortable journey and we could not open our window (it was stuck). I decided not to take any pictures (except waterfall) and just make the best of the ride.

For me, Flam and Geiranger are the two top destinations to sail to with Royal Caribbean. The weather today was very nice as well.

Be careful about the ticks and mosquitos in the woods. I got stung by a mosquito in Tromsø and my arm had a swelling of more than 5 inches / 12 centimeters. Never happened to me before, ouch.

That passage from Honningsvag was seriously amazing. 
 

We saw a large count of porpoises and even Orcas. The latter is rather rare in that area, they usually prefer to stay around the Tromsø fjords more South.

6 hours ago, RFerrington said:

There is definitely an acquired skill with the paper laundry bag.  The trick is to gently shove (I realize that’s an oxymoron) some smaller items (think, socks) into the corners of the bag before you gently shove the bigger stuff in.  Rolling the clothes is helpful.  Don’t worry about trying to “close” the bag.  Just leave it open at the top.  The room attendants throw the paper bag inside of a larger plastic bag (my experience, anyway) so it gets secured in the end.  
 

Trust me, I have hopelessly ripped plenty of them over the years.  I now filch extra bags from off the attendants’ carts (a huge no-no….I am aware) whenever the opportunity presents itself.

 

I am a master of the paper laundry bag…😂😜. 21 items is my current record.

Rookie numbers. I fit 7 socks, 7 shorts, 7 shirts and a pullover in it. Wasn’t even completely full. 😬

1 hour ago, Hoopster95 said:

Nice, the Seven Sisters! I hope to be able to see them when we leave.

At the moment a visit to Mt. Dalsnibba would be disappointing:

But I checked the webcam at 1 AM and it was ABSOLUTELY epic! It was sunny and above the clouds and you could see all the other mountain tops peaking out. If we are lucky it will clear up again.

Timing is everything

42 minutes ago, twangster said:

I know right?!?!

 

Only getting 111 Mbps this morning in a fog bank.  
 

Sorry, I was doing a series of speedtests. 😄

3 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

Ok…. Let’s talk Windjammer….

 

On my plate right now are taster sized Chicken Parm & gnocchi w/spinach & garlic (yes, you can actually taste the garlic).. both of these could easily be served in Giovanni’s. I also have lemongrass rice, lamb Kofta w/excellent tzatziki, tomato & mozza salad, and a spicy beef dish that is actually spicy!

Last night they actually had the real Royal cheesecake and the Red Velvet cake (equal to Chops). 
 

All of the above super good!!! 
I have been critical of RC food for years, but I have to applaud Jewel so far. I think this also adds to my theory that foods sourced in Europe sailings are far superior than the lower quality product sourced in North America. 

 

I was kinda surprised yesterday evening that they freshly made donuts.

Tonight is French night, I expect them to make fresh Crepes. We will definitely check it out (even though we have the second seating).

That sunset was really inspiring. Great finish after a surprisingly nice day. We didn't get any rain.

That oil platform (or whatever it was) seemed on fire.

Birds flying into a better world.

1 minute ago, twangster said:

…and yet older ships now blow newer ship out of the water, at least as internet goes.  
 

 

Well if 10k people perform regular speedtests like you, they need to install 1000 Starlink antennas. Probably not very practical. 😂

1 minute ago, island lady said:

 

Ships internet before Elon came along....cave man days.  😉 

Obviously Starlink helps a lot, but I have to say that the newer ships had amazing internet even before Starlink was installed.

I cruised on Harmony of the Seas in 2016 and I was able to make video calls without any issues. But on older ships I was barely able to load a simple website.

14 hours ago, twangster said:

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.  

 

 

I thought you were on Jewel, not Spectrum. 😉

Cobh is such a picturesque place. We always walk up the hill along the colorful houses towards the cathedral.

2 hours ago, twangster said:

10:16 pm deck 11.  Proof of pizza. 

 

 

Somehow the table looks like the plate and the slices look like a tiny piece on a big plate. 😄

5 hours ago, Jimbo said:

You would love the ice bergs in Green land then, they are huge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning!

I am not sure if I wanted to cruise along them so close though. 😆

14 hours ago, twangster said:

 

So far it's not been very bad.  There are some people who are sensitive to motion and sea sickness that are being impacted.  There are many who are not.  The venues around the ship are busy.  As near as I can tell the performers are still playing live music everywhere.  The casino was busy but more smoke free than normal so maybe this rough water is a good thing.  🙂 

 

The theater performance has been cancelled tonight.  

 

Personally it hasn't bothered me in any way but I tend not be influenced by ship motion.  A young lady in the lounge tonight said with some dramamine she is fine.  

 

Here approaching 11:00pm it has let up a little as I suspected it would .

 

Understand this weather has nothing to do with your potential weather.  Any sea any where can get rough weather including the Caribbean.

 

This is Icelandic weather.  In totality it has been very good for me.  

Glad to hear, I suppose the captain was able to maneuver around the worst part.

Of course the open sea can be rough anywhere, but on smaller seas in Europe (like the Mediterranean), you never get more than 5 m or 16 ft of waves, even in absolutely horrible weather conditions. We cruised around 10 times in the Mediterranean and our top was 3 m or 10 ft, which is still nothing.

The North Sea around Iceland is one of the ‘worst‘ locations to cruise besides South America (Drake passage). In winter they commonly have waves of about 11 m or 35 ft, but in summer in usually tops out at around 7 m or 25 ft. June or July is usually the calmest. So yeah, you could have been hit worse.

Last year, Jewel encountered quite heavy waves (7 m or 22 ft) in the May Iceland cruise, but on our cruise in June it was mostly like a flat lake (look at the photo attached, between North of Scotland and Iceland). That was unbelievable!

2 hours ago, twangster said:

We drive through town and past some apartments on the edge of town.

 

 

In Iceland, our driver tater tells us, this is considered a forest (they have very few trees here).

 

 

This is Tater, our driver.

 

 

 

 

This is what a mountain looks like in Iceland.

 

 

 

I see a ship.

 

 

Amazing view.

 

 

It was windy, very windy!

 

 

Great views but that wind!

 

 

Time to seek shelter.

 

 

Ah, there's the Greenland – ehrm, Iceland – I was talking about.

The change of scenery is epic. We didn't dare to go to the glacier, it was too far for us (12 hour drive, dang). At least we have a great reason to go back! I really love the glacier icebergs!

Just now, Jimbo said:

We went to Greenland this past September on Jewel of the Seas ,round-trip from Bayonne,NJ.

Yep, they went back once from the US after doing the transatlantic. Must be incredible! We wanted to visit Greenland with Royal since 2018, but never found a good date (that worked for us).

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

Jewel is not going to Greenland next,I believe their next stop is toward Ireland,heading back to Amsterdam eventually.

Why do you mention it (I didn't). Unfortunately, Royal only visits Greenland for the transatlatic crossing, usually once a year. They should visit these unicorn places much more in my opinion (same for Iceland, Nordkapp or Svalbard). 2025 is awful for Royal fans, I hope they bring back Iceland, Norway and Baltics cruises in 2026...

I'm really curious about your crossing from Iceland to GB tomorrow @twangster. The wave forecast (5m / 16ft +) makes me a little nervous, but of course nothing Jewel hasn't seen before.