Hezu

I think Sony RX10 IV is also worth a mention, certainly bigger than the pocket cameras like RX100 series, but still that superzoom with 24-600 mm equivalent lens is easier to wield than any ILC with long telephoto. And the zoom range covers also the wide angle. 20 Mpix type 1 sensor may not be the best for low light usage, but in daylight it should deliver good image quality.

I have to slightly disagree: although cameras in mobile phones have advanced a lot and generally produce good photos, there is one usage area where they are less optimal choice: telephoto. And although I have never been in Alaska, I have understood there is often photo opportunities that call for telephoto to take shots at more distant subjects (eg. wildlife). Aboard a ship it also not possible to use "foot-zoom" to get closer to the subject. Of course, I can also understand that not everyone is that enthusiastic photographers that it warrants to get fancy photogear and even if one has interest in photography, it is not absolutely necessary get the fanciest gear, but certainly it is a good idea to have something that offers more telephoto reach than mobile phones.

Although when coming back from Europe to USA and your itinerary includes a plane change in USA, that generally means that in the first point of entry into USA you must claim your checked luggage and recheck it after clearing the customs.

And at least in Finland, I think the banks do not offer currency conversion services for anyone these days and majority of bank branches do no longer handle any cash transactions even in the local currency (= euro) and if they do offer the service opening hours for the service can be very limited. I guess that is somewhat understandable as cash usage has been on decline and majority of payments are made with credit or debit cards. And the number of bank branches is also on decline as much of the banking services can be done online these days.

Actually, HSL tickets cover not just Suomenlinna ferry and trams, but also busses, local trains and metro. And regarding the last mentioned: this summer the metro line is split in two separate sections as the metro station at the central railway station is under renovation and thus the western part of the metro line ends at Kamppi and the eastern half terminates at University of Helsinki metro station and to travel between the two you must walk or take a tram. And strictly speaking Suomenlinna is not just one island, but group of islands, also worth a note: although it is historical site, it is still a part of Helsinki where some people live and thus while wandering around it is wise to not go on gated private areas (backyards, gardens etc.).

I searched on bahn.de for tomorrow's trains between Hamburg and Rostock and I found only a couple connections that required train changes. For more information about Deutschland ticket, see https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/regional/deutschland-ticket.

I'm not that familiar with Olympus/OM Systems gear and never been in Greenland, but at least the focal lengths of your lenses cover most needs. If you want to do any long exposure photography (for example auroras) you definately want to have a tripod, although I have to mention that tripods may not work for long exposures aboard a ship as there is always more or less shaking. Also I think your lenses may be a bit slow aperture wise, so for low light situations (and especially for nighttime photography) that could be a problem.

Yep, IB4361 is actually AA1365 and IB4861 is AA220. The only true Iberia flights from DFW are to Madrid, all the other destinations are codeshares on other OneWorld airlines.

The aurora season in the latitudes where Alaska lies is over since the nights do not get dark enough this time of the year.

I have no experience, but the available channels may depend also on where in the world the ship is sailing then.

Actually, in more northern latitudes like Alaska (and Finland, where I live), the short nights (or lack of night in the northern most areas where midnight sun season has already begun) make it quite hard to photograph northern lights this time of year. I did still managed to snap few decent aurora shots on Saturday-Sunday night, although Friday-Saturday night was a miss for me as my chosen location at Lake Saimaa was cloud covered (and strong cold northernly winds would have made it miserable to stand on a lake shore doing photography), although it is quite good location for astrophotography as there isn't much light pollution. Aurora photography is definately much easier other times of year when there is longer and darker nights.

At least in case of Europe, there is one positive thing: most EU countries plus few others form the Schengen area and thus you need only a single visa from any of the Schengen countries and with that visa you can visit whole Schengen area and not just the country from which you got the visa. Generally there isn't even any border controls between these Schengen countries.

There is small chances to see northern lights even slightly earlier and later than that, for example today I learned that last night there would have been chances to see auroras (and even as far south as Helsinki), although sadly I personally missed this opportunity. Granted, the best viewing opportunities are still within that timeframe as fewer daylight hours offer more possibilities to view auroras without staying up whole night.

It is possible to see northern lights while cruising on Norwegian coast, but there are few caveats: - First and foremost you need dark and clear skies to see auroras and thus summer months are out of question and even other times of year cloud cover can prevent seeing anything - The phenomenon does not occur every night, although further north you go more common it gets - With naked eyes, auroras, especially faint ones, may look less spectacular than in photos I have no experience on observing auroras during a cruise, but I would guess windows and to some degree balconies may not be the best places to observe as especially faint northern lights appear only in northern horizon and your cabin may be facing wrong direction then. Thus I would assume that better options for observing auroras would be on outdoor decks or even better on a dedicated port excursion as then it would be easier to go hunting for auroras (or good conditions to observe them) further away from the coast.

FYI, Photo & Camera Discussions forum has had few reasonably recent discussions on binoculars: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2990415-please-help-pick-a-set-of-binoculars/ https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2972302-best-binoculars-for-cruises/

Flåm port cruise ship arrivals list for 2024-2025 indeed does not seem to include the information whether ships dock or anchor, but I presume that the list could at least help to determine if there is more than one cruise in port and I presume that tendering is only needed when there is more than one ship in port on same day.

Although Bergen is fairly well known for quite wet climate, so rain (and even heavy rain) there is not that unusual thing. The average annual precipitation is 2495 mm.

According to City of Helsinki announcement of this renovation access to the Sibelius Monument should reopen in May this year and whole park renovation project is expected to be finished in autumn.

I don't know about UK, but at least in Finland there are some prescription (and over-the-counter) medicine that is sold in bottles rather than in blister packs. But at least repacking medicines into those yellow/orange bottles is not something that is done in this part of the world, pretty much all medicines come in packages from the manufacturer, the main exception being nowadays quite rare practice where the pharmacy produces the medicine in their premises.

Also worth a mention, that majority of time reindeer herders allow most of their flocks to roam around quite freely and only few times in a year the herds are rounded up to sort out which animal belongs to whom and which ones should be slaughtered etc.

I guess it is worth a mention that most narrow-body airliners in Europe (used on nearly all intra-Europe routes) have seats configured so that the entire plane has only single* type of seats and if there is business class available, front rows have been designated for business "cabin" and the rest for economy and the only difference in seating is that the middle seats in business class are usually not used (assuming there is three seats on each side of aisle). Of course, in business class you should get better free meal and beverage service even if the hard product is similar to the economy class. *) ok, in practice, bulkhead and emergency exit row seats may be slightly different from the rest of seats.

Although a camera and telephoto lens can sometimes work in similar fashion as binoculars (and capture pictures!), I think binoculars do still offer some advantages. And there is times, when you may prefer to just look rather than snapping photos, think for example some wildlife in distance: sure you could take photos, but perhaps nothing exciting if the animal is just a small dot in vast landscape (or seascape). But it might be still enjoyable to observe the animal from distant with binoculars, identify it and see if it is coming closer. Also since modern cameras tend to use EVFs with live view that shows an image similar what will be captured, that might be somewhat misleading (eg. show dark silhoutes), whereas binoculars (or good old optical viewfinders on [D]SLRs) show image more akin to what your naked eyes see. Also with binoculars you can look with both eyes while camera viewfinders cater only for one eye. And if the camera and lens combo is an ILC and the lens is a big heavy telephoto, it is easier to wield binoculars (assuming we are not talking about some big, heavy high-magnification binoculars).

And of course, if one wants more telephoto reach than what mobile phone cameras offer, there is also option to get one of the superzoom compacts instead of ILC + (big) telephoto lens. There haven't been much development in this segment in recent years, but for example Sony RX10 IV is still quite good all-around camera for someone who doesn't want to haul around heavier camera kit.

I have no personal experience with car rental companies in Helsinki, but there is quite a few options (search "car rental Helsinki" on your favourite web search engine and you should learn more). None is exactly next to the cruise port (assuming your ship docks at Hernesaari), but even in central Helsinki there is few alternatives, although worth a note that driving in central Helsinki may be at times bit complicated as there is some one direction streets, streets being shared by trams and cars etc. And summer is the peak season for road/street works, so that can mean that you have to take a detour to get your destination or at least prepare for that the traffic goes at snails' pace. Also some sort of countryside you could find even within the city limits of Helsinki reachable by public transport: Viikki is the closest to the city centre, then in northern parts there is Haltiala and in the east there is Östersundom.

Note that is a Viking Line cruiseferry (I would say M/S Viking Cinderella based on the livery since most ships in Viking Line fleet have livery with more red) rather than Viking cruise ship. Despite the similarity of names, Viking Line and Viking (Cruises) are not related.