Cunard Webcams (Revised Locations)

[bluemarble]

As a result of the recent changes to Cunard's web site, the bridge webcam images have moved. Here are the webcam images from their revised locations.

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Mary 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Victoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Elizabeth . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Here are links to the pages on the Cunard web site where each individual webcam image can be found via a "VIEW WEBCAM" link which provides additional information including the ship's location.

 

QM2: http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-mary-2/

QV: http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-victoria/

QE: http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-elizabeth/

[bluemarble]

After viewing the relocated webcam images on the Cunard web site for a while now (as posted above), I have noticed that they are not being updated as frequently as before. It seems the webcam images in their new locations are updated no more than once every five minutes at best.

 

The Cunard webcam images are also being maintained in their previous locations and those images are generally being updated once per minute even though the Cunard website no longer links directly to them from the "Our Ships" pages. For reference and comparison, here are the more frequently updated Cunard webcam images from their other locations on curnard.com (with captions added as above).

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Mary 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Victoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Queen Elizabeth . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[OKCruiseMan]

I built a page which still uses the old site pics here. I bet after time the go away, and only the new ones will work, but we will see.

 

[bluemarble]

I built a page which still uses the old site pics here. I bet after time the go away, and only the new ones will work, but we will see.

 

 

Thanks, Larry for your excellent contribution to assist with the viewing of the Cunard webcam images. I share your concern that the older image locations may be phased out eventually. For now we will continue to enjoy them since they seem to be more reliable and more up-to-date than the newer image locations.

 

It's a shame that the ship names, and more importantly the timestamps, have been removed from the webcam images. That does make it a bit difficult at times to determine how old the images are that we are seeing now.

 

Regards,

John.

[glojo]

There appears to be an issue with your camera link.

 

If I look at your link it shows the Queen Victoria in a period of darkness but the very instant I log onto the Cunard site and use their link I get a completely different picture.

 

By the time you read this message I expect the ship to have moved and be in a different position but will the lag or difference still be there?

 

[bluemarble]

Glojo,

 

I suspect what you are seeing is an issue with stale images being retrieved from your web browser's cache. Always do a page "refresh" in your browser whenever you bring up this thread to be sure your are actually seeing the latest webcam images.

 

The links to the webcam images on the first post of this thread are the same as the links to the webcam images found on the Cunard website. For example, here is the URL of the Queen Victoria webcam image as found in both the first post of this thread and on the Cunard website.

 

http://www.cunard.com/webimage/ext/OnBoardNowLarge/www.cunard.com/webcams/qv1.jpg

 

Just to convince myself that things are working as intended, here are captures of the Queen Victoria webcam images I just took a few minutes ago from both this thread and from the Cunard website.

 

Here is the Queen Victoria webcam image I captured from the first post of this thread.

 

 

Here is the Queen Victoria webcam image I captured from the Cunard website.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

John.

[glojo]

Hi John

I totally accept the Cunard site works perfectly but when I click this link, I get a completely different image to that shown by Cunard.

 

I have refreshed our Critic page and as you can see the time is correct for Panama

 

[CarambaCarol]

May I ask if the Queen Victoria has gone thru the Panama Canal already? I am totally new at this. Thanks!

[bluemarble]

Hi again, glojo.

 

OK, I see now that your question is about the link I posted that takes you to the page on the Cunard website where you can view the webcam image there. The link I have provided takes you directly to the "Our Ships" page for the Queen Victoria on the Cunard website. I believe you will find this is the same URL for where you end up if you start from the Cunard website home page and follow the "Our Ships" link for the Queen Victoria.

 

http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-victoria/

 

What you see when you follow this link and then select "View Webcam" is up to your browser. I believe you are still dealing with an issue with stale images being retrieved from your web browser's cache. Have you tried doing a page "refresh" in your browser once you have followed this link to the "Our Ships" page on the Cunard website? I think you will find that will help.

 

Regards,

John.

[bluemarble]

May I ask if the Queen Victoria has gone thru the Panama Canal already? I am totally new at this. Thanks!

 

As I post this reply, the Queen Victoria is about half way through her transit of the Panama Canal.

 

Regards,

John.

[glojo]

I think we have a problem with language.

 

Forget going to the Cunard Site

 

Forget about where the Queen Victoria is as we speak..

 

That image I posted is a DIRECT copy of the link that is supplied at the top of this page.

 

daylight at Panama was about 6am

 

You can clearly see the local time on the left of the page which shows the Queen Victoria in total darkness.

 

If my page had not refreshed then the time would relate to the picture, but the page is up todate as it showed the EXACT local time in Panama which was a beautiful sunny morning. 9:43am was sunshine.....The image showed the ship was in darkness.

 

I have regularly looked at the Cunard site hence the clear daylight image I posted alongside the night time shot of the Queen Victoria.

 

If you just click the link supplied at the top of the web cam link, does it correspond with the Cunard site ?

 

Mine shows a time of 11:43am but the ship is still in darkness even though I have refreshed the page,switched my computer off etc etc.

 

IF I GO TO THE CUNARD SITE I GET THE CORRECT IMAGE

 

Although it does not relate to the live footage at the canal!! I think it was about 30 minutes difference.

[NomDePlume]

She's getting into the Miraflores Locks right now: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

 

[bluemarble]

Hi again, glojo.

 

I have to admit I am more than a bit puzzled by what is going on here. I am willing to continue investigating this issue with you to help get to the bottom of it if you are. I have included some follow-up comments and questions below. I apologize in advance if some of these comments and questions appear to be rather daft, but often the answer to an issue like this lies in questions which on the surface appear to have obvious answers.

 

I think we have a problem with language.

 

Perhaps, but I think we also have a genuine difference in behavior between our two systems. I hope we are able to get to the bottom of this difference eventually.

 

Forget going to the Cunard Site

 

I don't think we can forget about going to the Cunard site because the "QV:" link in question which appears at the top of this page goes directly to the "Queen Victoria" page on the Cunard website. I think this may be where some of our misunderstandings originate. Whether one follows the “QV:” link at the top of this page or one navigates to the “Queen Victoria” page some other way, one should end up at exactly the same place on the Cunard web site. And one would think that page should behave the same way regardless of how one gets there. But your reports indicate that is not the case for you. Hence we have a mystery to be solved.

 

Forget about where the Queen Victoria is as we speak..

 

Gladly. Sorry for that distraction. I only mentioned the Queen Victoria's current location in my previous reply because CarambaCarol asked about it.

 

That image I posted is a DIRECT copy of the link that is supplied at the top of this page.

 

Please bear with me, but I have to ask just to make sure ... that image is a direct copy of the link that is supplied at the top of this page, followed by the additional step of clicking on the "View Webcam" link, right?

 

daylight at Panama was about 6am

 

You can clearly see the local time on the left of the page which shows the Queen Victoria in total darkness.

 

If my page had not refreshed then the time would relate to the picture, but the page is up todate as it showed the EXACT local time in Panama which was a beautiful sunny morning. 9:43am was sunshine.....The image showed the ship was in darkness.

 

This differs from my experience and this may help to get to crux of this issue. Whenever I go to one of the Cunard webcam pages, regardless of how I got there, I see the correct current time (for the ship's current position), but the webcam image I see next to it is usually a stale image which is unchanged from the last time I visited that webcam page.

 

This is because the time is being generated and updated in real time by the web page code, but the webcam image is an ordinary "jpeg" file which my browser retrieves from its cache. I normally have to "refresh" the page and then click "View Webcam" again to see an up-to-date webcam image. That's why I thought doing a page refresh would be the solution for you as well.

 

The time displayed on a Cunard webcam page should be correct but the corresponding webcam image may be hopelessly out of date depending on where the browser went to retrieve that webcam image. That's what I meant when I stated in my earlier reply that what you see is up to your browser.

 

I have regularly looked at the Cunard site hence the clear daylight image I posted alongside the night time shot of the Queen Victoria.

 

If you just click the link supplied at the top of the web cam link, does it correspond with the Cunard site ?

 

Yes, if I click the "QV:" link listed at the top of this page and then click "View Webcam", I see exactly the same thing as I do when I start at the Cunard website's home page, click "Our Ships", click "Queen Victoria", then click "View Webcam". In either case, I usually need to refresh the page to get the latest webcam image. And after doing a refresh, I do see the updated webcam image. This is what has me puzzled because you are reporting different behavior.

 

Mine shows a time of 11:43am but the ship is still in darkness even though I have refreshed the page,switched my computer off etc etc.

 

IF I GO TO THE CUNARD SITE I GET THE CORRECT IMAGE

 

As you can tell from my previous responses, this is different from what I am seeing on my system. Again, please bear with me as I ask some more "dumb" questions.

 

1) When you use the "QV:" link at the top of this page, what URL appears in your browser's address bar? I would expect it to be one of the following:

 

"http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-victoria/"

"http://www.cunard.co.uk/cruise-ships/queen-victoria/"

 

Since you are located in the UK, I have my bets placed on the ".co.uk" URL.

 

2) When you go to the Cunard site and navigate to the Queen Victoria webcam page, what URL appears in your browser's address bar? It should be the same URL as the answer to question 1). If not we have an important clue as to the cause of this issue.

 

3) When you use the "QV:" link at the top of this page, please right click on the webcam image and select "Properties". What is displayed for the “Address (URL)”? I would expect it to be one of the following:

 

"http://www.cunard.com/webimage/ext/OnBoardNowLarge/www.cunard.com/webcams/qv1.jpg"

"http://www.cunard.co.uk/webimage/ext/OnBoardNowLarge/www.cunard.com/webcams/qv1.jpg"

 

Again, since you are located in the UK, I have my bets placed on the ".co.uk" address.

 

4) When you go to the Cunard site and navigate to the Queen Victoria webcam page, please right click on the webcam image and select "Properties". What is displayed for the Address (URL)? It should be the same address as the answer to question 3). Again, if it is not the same, then we have an important clue as to the cause of this issue.

 

5) What type of device are you using to access the Internet? What operating system? Which browser? This may or may not be relevant, but again I am asking just to get a better overall picture. For comparison, I am using a PC, Windows XP (yeah, I know I need to upgrade), and Internet Explorer 8.

 

Although it does not relate to the live footage at the canal!! I think it was about 30 minutes difference.

 

Yes, this is one of the problems with the webcam images as currently maintained on the Cunard website. They are not updated nearly as often as they used to be. Please see post #2 above for Cunard webcam images that are updated more frequently (usually once a minute) than those that are accessible directly from the Cunard webcam pages. The images in post #2 are the images that used to be displayed on the Cunard webcam pages before the recent redesign of the site. Thankfully they are still being maintained, at least for the time being.

 

Thanks in advance for any additional details you would like to provide.

 

Regards,

John.

 

P.S. Wouldn’t you know, as luck would have it, the Queen Victoria webcam page has stopped functioning. If it is still down when you see this reply, glojo, feel free to switch to the Queen Elizabeth or Queen Mary 2 webcams to further this investigation.

 

P.P.S. If anyone else would like to add to the discussion concerning this issue, by all means your comments are certainly welcome.

[glojo]

Hi Bluemarble,

MANY THANKS for your patience, understanding and tolerance. I am just having my breakfast and thought it only right and proper to acknowledge this post.

 

I intend printing everything you have documented as it ALL makes very good sense and then I will go through it step by step.

 

The image of the time and the ship is a crop of what I see when I open the link on the Cruise Critic thread. It is not two parts joined as one but rather a captured image that I have simply cropped.

 

I must go as my wifes is 'suggesting' my porridge is getting cold.

 

My thoughts on this is your post will have nailed the issue and it will probably be user or user system error ;):o:o

[glojo]

Here we go...

 

I first of all went to the Cunard 'co.uk' site and logged into the Queen Victoria page and got this image

 

 

I then logged onto your Web Camera thread and clicked onto the Queen Victoria link, then clicked the refresh icon and for good measure pressed 'F5' and got this image and both url's appear to be the same ie the 'co.uk' site?

 

 

I am wondering if I can somehow try to refresh the web camera as to me it is stuck in the proverbial rut.

 

BUT....

 

The bottom line to me is that if you are clicking on the link on this thread and it works for you, I would suggest the issue is at my end and there is nothing you can do. I am not the smartest kid on the block and strangely enough I am prone to making mistakes and perish the thought.... Being wrong.

 

What baffles me is that if the image is captured from my cache then why does it work when I log into the Cunard site as that was the location I used to watch this ship as she went through the canal. Why isn't the last canal shot being shown?

[bluemarble]

... What baffles me is that if the image is captured from my cache then why does it work when I log into the Cunard site as that was the location I used to watch this ship as she went through the canal. Why isn't the last canal shot being shown?

 

Yes, that's what has me baffled too. I'm not convinced we are dealing with a browser caching issue anymore, but here are a few more things to investigate just to make sure.

 

Are you seeing similar issues when you select the links to the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 webcam pages found in post #1 of this thread?

 

What do you see for the Queen Victoria webcam image displayed in the top center of post #1? Is it that same "stuck" nighttime image you see when you follow the "QV:" link or is it the up-to-date image that you see when you navigate to the Queen Victoria webcam page?

 

What happens when you follow the "QV:" link in post #1 and then press Ctrl-F5 to force a hard reset of the webcam page rather than pressing just F5 by itself which does a soft reset? Does that make any difference?

 

Try manually clearing your browser cache. If you are using Internet Explorer, that is accomplished by selecting "Tools", "Internet Options", "General", "Delete" (in the "Browsing history" section), checking the box that says "Temporary Internet files", and then clicking "Delete". Does that make any difference?

 

Regards,

John.

[glojo]

The mystery deepens but disappears!!

 

I have just logged onto this page to try what you suggested but the Queen Victoria camera is now updating itself?? :eek::eek:

 

A complete an utter mystery.

 

If it had been my cache then I would have at least expected a 'soft refresh'

 

I had never heard of your suggested hard refresh and was looking forward to trying that just to see if it would resolve this issue.

 

In answer to your other question.

 

The other two web camera links have always worked perfectly. It was just the Queen Victoria one and only the link at the top of this page??

 

Life is way too short to worry about minor issues and as far as I am concerned I am going to blame myself as that way we can close this mystery but truth be told.... I am baffled :o

 

Baffled but impressed by the lengths you have gone to in the hope we could solve this mystery but I guess there is someone, somewhere having a laugh at me and perhaps are now planning the next 'gotcha'

 

Thank you very much for the assistance

 

John

[bluemarble]

That's great news, glojo.

 

It's a bit of an unsatisfying resolution not being able to pinpoint the precise cause of your issue. But I'm glad to hear that the link to the Queen Victoria webcam is working for you now.

 

It was my pleasure trying to work through this mystery with you. Best wishes for all your webcam viewing in the future.

 

Regards,

John.

[glojo]

That's great news, glojo.

 

It's a bit of an unsatisfying resolution not being able to pinpoint the precise cause of your issue. But I'm glad to hear that the link to the Queen Victoria webcam is working for you now.

 

It was my pleasure trying to work through this mystery with you. Best wishes for all your webcam viewing in the future.

 

Regards,

John.

If it is any consolation this issue is back :eek:

 

I appreciate all your efforts and now simply use the Cunard site and access the web cameras from that site (the same location as your link takes me)

 

This issue appeals to my sense of humour and clearly I have annoyed someone in a previous life and they are now taking out their revenge. :)

[bluemarble]

As many of you have no doubt already noticed, the Cunard bridge webcam images are no longer displaying in post #1 of this thread. That's because Cunard have moved the locations where the images are stored within the Cunard website once again. They now have "http://image.cunard.com" URL's in place of their previous "http://www.cunard.com" URL's.

 

That's fine. Cunard are certainly free to move their bridge webcam images wherever they see fit. However, I am now getting this error when I try to retrieve the bridge webcam image for the QE at it's new "http://image.cunard.com" location.

Proxy Error

 

The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.

The proxy server could not handle the request GET /webimage/ext/OnBoardNowLarge/www.cunard.com/webcams/qel.jpg.

 

Reason:

Error reading from remote server

Later today I plan on creating a new "Cunard Webcams" thread to replace this one which will return to using the more reliable bridge webcam images as shown in post #2 above. I will request that new thread be made a sticky to replace this one.

 

Regards,

John.