Re-tired

11 hours ago, luvseaside said:

You do have to pay. All machines have a Medallion swipe button to pay to play.  Different prices depending on game (btwn $2-6). 

Whoops.  I'm seeing a hit on the shipboard credits with me and Mr. Z on this one...

I used Blurb through Lightroom for a book on our UK cruise.  I used photos from all six of the people in our group and it became a 70 page coffee table book.  Blurb did an excellent job on the printing and binding.  It was a bit pricey but when you sign up with them the discount coupons start rolling in.  I printed a couple of small test books first to see how my images would appear.  That resulted in me learning how to calibrate my monitor.  The whole process was a good learning experience and the recipients were thrilled.  

tom

Thanks for a good time...

3 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

 

streaming is tough. Internet has been MOSTLY good enough to do it, not as fast as Starlink on Carnival Pride or Mardi Gras, but faster than older Carnival ships. My issue has been that YouTubeTV, where I do most of my streaming, has been completely blocked the whole cruise because I’m in another country. That’s never happened before on any cruise for me. 

I used a VPN on the Regal last month in the UK and was able to stream YouTubeTV by setting the location to my home market...

Afternoon at Edinburgh Castle.

A GoPro is perfect for the time lapse going through the canal.  Depending upon which model you get it is not too big a deal to use an external battery.  Some ships have small decks toward the bow, below the bridge, which are great for a forward looking video. 

One thing to keep in mind is the effect of condensation on/in the lens when you go from an air conditioned stateroom to the hot and humid exterior.  A lens with big pieces of glass with fog over as soon as you step outdoors. 

I'm on a bit of a roll here.

But wait!  There's more...

Spent the week in Monterey for the Rolex Reunion.  Incredible cars in an amazing environment with beautiful noise.

Barrel chairs! 

I was a bit late for the sunset, how about a moonset?

On 1/16/2023 at 8:29 AM, Victress2007 said:

Thank you!  After reading this post I went back and checked out photos from my 2018 British Isles cruise.  I took the vast majority of them with my 6300 with the 15-135 lens.  I took a few more with a wide angle.  My favorite stop was Glasgow, we took a private photo tour and it was fantastic. 

 

Tom took us all over the city and they have great street art, churches, museums, buildings, etc and he took us to all of it.  

 

 

So I think you'll do great with that lens.

 

Vic

 

 

 

 

Can you give a bit more information about the photo tour.   I would be interested and the only one I can find is a ship's tour.

Thanks

Well, with all of this positive reinforcement I'll try another.  This was taken further west, just below the Jet Propulsion Lab.

Well, might as well get this week started...   

In our SoCal area snow is fairly unusual.  With the series of cold storms we have had there is a lot of snow.  It typically melts on our local mountains by noon, it has now been here for over a week.  This is Mt. Wilson, about 5,700' high, and where most of the radio and TV broadcast antennas for the LA Basin are located.   

On 3/17/2022 at 7:03 PM, highloyo said:

I just got the Majestic on March 12. The cruise was to Mexico. The internet was awful. It was unbearably slow. In addition you would constantly get disconnected and have to log in. 

That is an understatement.  At times it was slower than dialup, .08mbs at times.  On the Grand in November it was lightning fast the entire trip.

From Monday night departing San Francisco.

Worked fine for me on the Grand off of Baja.

Don’t know about sweet red wine but the Tito’s was just perfect on the Grand in November 

We were on the Nov 5 and Nov 10 Grand cruises with the low passenger count.  Other than nearly having the ship to ourselves we were most surprised at the attitude of the crew.  To a person they were happy.  They told us they were thrilled to be back to work and have jobs again. The Grand was just one big happy ship for our 15 days.   

Southbound heading to Puerto Vallarta.

Northbound from Ensenada to San Francisco on the Grand Princess.

Dave,

we get back on the 21st.  I have two home test kits left.  Maybe coffee at patticakes…

11 hours ago, PasadenaDave said:

LA Cruiser which CVA?  We are in Pasadena and do this cruise on the 27th so I am just beginning to search for a test on Thanksgiving!

Dave,

We went to the CVS at Sierra Madre and San Pasqual for tests yesterday.  I got my results today my wife is still waiting.  As a fallback we had ordered the monitored at home tests.  She did that tonight and we are good to go tomorrow morning.  Kind of a belt and suspenders approach, but it worked.  

We got appointments for the rapid test at the CVS in Pasadena,  Sierra Madre/San Pasqual.

A beautiful day for flying...