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.

On 5/16/2024 at 2:41 AM, simplelife said:

Fancy photogear is not needed, since phones do such a good job with pictures now, Bring a power pack to stay charged.

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.

11 hours ago, em-sk said:

United, Delta, American and their foreign partners (like TAP Air Portugal) have much more complex computer systems, and associated airport infrastructure to transfer passengers and bags between partners.  For example if you book the TAP offering, when you check in in Florida for your flight, United will issue you boarding pass for both the United and TAP leg.  United will also check you bags all the way to Rome.   When you come back from Rome, TAP will issue your TAP and United boarding pass as well as tag your bags all the way through.  If something happens and you miss your connection, the two airlines will take responsibility for getting you to your final destination. 

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.

On 6/29/2024 at 1:40 AM, Hlitner said:

Not always!  Many banks, especially in northern Europe, will not exchange currency for non-customers.

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. 

On 6/18/2024 at 8:48 PM, dronnygirl said:

Helsinki - there is a port shuttle at 10 euros return. It drops you near the market square. We walked round the corner to the ferry to Soumonlinna island, there are 2 ferries and the public transport one is HSL. The ferry runs every 15 minutes and takes 15 minutes to get there. It's 3 euros for a single or 9 euros for a day ticket which also covers the trams. The island is a fortress and is free to enter, there is a tourist info and toilets and they give you a map. You can walk across the island but we walked round by the sea.

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.).

3 hours ago, mackfam said:

Just checked the website and it seems most of the regional trains require multiple changes unless I’m missing something.  Where do I find info about the Deutschland Ticket deal? 

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.

2 hours ago, AusMum said:

I am taking an OM-5 to Iceland and Greenland in September.  I like that it is more water/rain resistant than some other cameras.

 

I currently have the following lenses

  9 - 18

14 - 150

75 - 300

 

I want to take pics of scenery in Iceland (possibly some wildlife), and HOPEFULLY the Northern Lights. Greenland is where I really hope to see polar bears etc I will be on an expedition ship for 16 nights and going up the east coast of Greenland.

 

Do I have the right equipment?  thinking I need to invest in a tripod as well.

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.

2 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Aren't those the codeshare flight numbers, not Iberia metal?

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.

23 hours ago, gottagoacruzn said:

Hey guys, have a digital camera, was wondering, next week will be in Alaska, an have heard the northern lights may appear on a clear night, would I be able to take pictures of them? Inquiring minds would like to know!!! Thanks.

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

On 5/14/2024 at 2:02 AM, AroundWithMAPTravels said:

We will be on Fridgtjof Nansen during the Paris Olympics…. Just curious if there may be programming onboard in cabin to watch (Sky sports, perhaps? Other?)

not sure what is available normally, and if in the past, if special arrangements were made for special events…

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

On 5/13/2024 at 4:34 AM, mahdnc said:

I can only imagine how awesome the view must have been from Alaska!

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.

On 5/11/2024 at 8:48 AM, sirinath said:

My main concern is visa for locations like EU, US, Canada, Japan, Austria, NZ, Singapore, Korea, etc. Also other the counties in grey.

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.

2 hours ago, hallasm said:

Northern lights are seen from September to March (early April)

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.

1 hour ago, Travelbird22 said:

I just want to see the Northern Lights- is it possible on a Norwegian cruise? I’ve been in summer, and the Fjords are breathtaking, but now I just want to see the Northern Lights. And is a window cabin sufficient? If balconies are sold out?

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/

12 hours ago, hallasm said:

Yes, that information was previously available in the Flåm port of call list, as was the case in 2023 - however, I cannot find that information in the port of call list for 2024.
 

some Cruise Lines will include the information in The Cruise docs

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.

4 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

 (our day in Bergen was what the port staff described as one of the worst weather days they'd ever seen, so we really couldn't get much of an appreciation of it so I can't really help with Olden vs Bergen.  Everyone else really seems to love Bergen though) 

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.

22 hours ago, Finotzi said:

Sorry to tell you that the Sibelius park is closed for the whole year 2024. It is being under renovation. So you can see the monument from a few hundert meters away, but you won't be able to enter the park. This information is reliable, I'm an authorized tourist guide in Helsinki (sorry, this is not the place to advertise, it's not allowed!), but I ran into this by accident and I hate to disappoint our guests, so I thought it is a good idea to inform you. I REALLY wonder how it can be that the tour ends at Sibelius park... bad idea. Whoever is responsible for that...

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.

On 4/1/2024 at 2:23 PM, John Bull said:

In the UK and most European countries all prescribed medicines and common over-the-counter ones are sold in blister packs, so there's no problem with labelling (and being in strips of 7 or 14 forgetting whether you've taken today's pill/s isn't a problem for those of us who are forgetful 🙄).

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.

1 hour ago, kaisatsu said:

Even in winter, reindeer sledding is not nearly as common as dogsledding. Reindeer are farmed for meat and hides more than for transportation. In the far northern plateaus, it’s not uncommon to see reindeer herds out grazing, as this is the area where it is most common, and the traditional Sami lifestyle is most prevalent. I’ve seen them en route to the Nordkapp (North Cape) landmark on an excursion from the Honningsvåg port.

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).

4 minutes ago, pierces said:

I recently upgraded my phone to a Pixel 8 Pro, mostly for the camera. I have a well-stocked camera bag, but the quality of the images from the latest generation of high-end phones has become way more than "acceptable" for travel photography. Upgrading to the latest iPhone would provide you with a simple and effective way to get great photos from your trip. The only big gap in depending on a phone for an Alaska trip is the lack of a long zoom for wildlife. The longer zooms on the latest phones are better than before, but still no equal to what is possible with a interchangeable lens camera. Other than that, for scenery, walkabout photos and pictures of the ship, you will not be disappointed.

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.

On 2/20/2024 at 3:55 PM, pmjnh said:

We will be in Helsinki from 6 AM to 5 PM. have you rented a car in Helsinki? If so, how far from the cruise port are the car rental companies? We are thinking about renting a car and going out to the countryside.

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.

5 hours ago, reeinaz said:

funny that this was years before my 1st cruise and I caught a Viking ship.

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.