A Tale of two Princesses

[scubacruiserx2]

I have been looking for a good picture of the aft cabins on the CB so I could get a good look at the balcony for C752, our home for our Panama Canal cruise. That picture showing your cabin did the trick! We have been debating an upgrade to a mini suite for the extra space in the room, but we really love our aft balconies. Even though we had somewhat of an aft view from our Boardwalk balcony on Oasis, it just wasn't quite the same to us. I guess making that decision is a nice problem to have. :D

 

Here's an enlargement with the red arrow being C-752 . It's opposite is the blue arrow which we can see better .

 

 

Because it's a corner with a more open view , that may be a difficult choice to make . ;)

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you for the chocolates. I will enjoy them.

As for counting the ships. The two funnels on HAL did not throw me off. And at first I did not see the one funnel on Carnival but I did see the whole front end of the ship. And I knew that the only the Regal and the Royal have short front ends like that so it must have been another ship and not the front end of the Caribbean Princess. But after counting I finally did see the unique funnel of the Carnival ship. I actually was on the Carnival Freedom doing a 16 day transatlantic a few years back. Have a great day. Looking forward to more pictures.

 

Fortunately they didn't melt , like Mic's did !

 

 

 

BTW, choccies are in the mail, they may not arrive as it is another 30+ day here and they are likely a puddle by now.:p

[scubacruiserx2]

We did book a cruise on the Eclipse to Antarctica for January 20 , 2019 . But when we tried to add a time clock we exceeded the maximum number of characters allotted us . :eek:

 

One of our favorite singers , Al Stewart , does a song called Antarctica and we hope that we can convince him to perform it tonight when we see him in concert !

 

 

 

He performs it here with an intro by Del Shannon :

 

[scubacruiserx2]

With the late arrival of a tour from the mainland , we knew that our time here was short .

 

 

 

 

Time to head up top for a couple of parting shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to bend a cruise ship with the click of a mouse

 

 

 

 

The BIG pictures

 

 

 

And after setting the mainsail ,we were off .

 

 

 

 

There's a hole in our soul where the CB used to be !

 

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

Good bye , Freedom

 

 

 

 

and Nieuw Amsterdam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A donut to go

 

 

 

 

Brilliance

 

 

 

 

in the West !

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

We did book a cruise on the Eclipse to Antarctica for January 20 , 2019 .

 

 

Wow, you will love Antarctica and doing it on the Eclipse may be even better than on the Infinity, as I prefer the S class ships.:D

[easyboy]

I cropped the photo to help anybody with older eyes ( like Pat and I ) see the lineup .

 

Thank you for your concern;)

[scubacruiserx2]

Thank you for your concern;)

 

You're welcome . I forget that I have an advantage when editing the original photo and it doesn't always transition well to others viewing platforms .

[scubacruiserx2]

Wow, you will love Antarctica and doing it on the Eclipse may be even better than on the Infinity, as I prefer the S class ships.:D

 

We have an aft cabin on the Eclipse with our favorite view - the wake . :) :D

 

 

[MicCanberra]

It will be awesome.

I can give you some tidbits of advice but I am sure you know all about it already.

• Dress in layers, as it is still very cold when out on deck for an hour or two.
  
• Beanies, jacket and gloves required, I had some gloves that still allowed some dexterity for the fingers so I could operate the camera.
  
• Bring extra batteries so you can always have one charging as the cold really drains the batteries quickly.
  
• If out on your balcony have the announcements audible (maybe through the TV or the tannoi) so you can hear the naturalist tell you what side things will be on.
  

There are probably some extra queries but these are a start.

[scubacruiserx2]

It will be awesome.

I can give you some tidbits of advice but I am sure you know all about it already.

• Dress in layers, as it is still very cold when out on deck for an hour or two.
  
• Beanies, jacket and gloves required, I had some gloves that still allowed some dexterity for the fingers so I could operate the camera.
  
• Bring extra batteries so you can always have one charging as the cold really drains the batteries quickly.
  
• If out on your balcony have the announcements audible (maybe through the TV or the tannoi) so you can hear the naturalist tell you what side things will be on.
  

There are probably some extra queries but these are a start.

 

 

Thank you Mic for the good advice as we are currently in the Antarctica cruise season and some of the readers may be headed to South America . :cool:

 

At last night's Al Stewart concert he didn't perform his song Antarctica , but they did perform a number of our favorite songs including this one

Palace of Versailles .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGd1vopB3t0

 

 

Al loves to play and is very entertaining with quotes and stories and he shared a couple before playing Midas Shadow here :

 

[MicCanberra]

Glad you enjoyed the concert. year of the Rooster now.

The infinity would be doing the rounds at the moment, although Antarctica is still cold, SA is in summer so it is not so much cold except down by Ushuaia and the bottom of Chile where it is chilly.:D

[perfect match]

Wow! Antarctica on the Eclipse in an aft cabin! Great choice! I will most certainly be living vicariously through that review! :D

 

Thanks for the zoomed in picture of the aft cabins on the CB. I know we will love the balcony we have now. I'm just longing for the extra space a mini suite would provide. We have discovered that the extra space does matter when one of us is a morning person (Barry) and the other is a night owl (me) even though cruise ship schedules force me to be a bit less a night owl than I would normally be. :eek:

 

As for your parrotfish video, I've seen some really huge ones in Cozumel on Yucab reef and Torrementos reef. I'd say those parrotfish produce an abundance of sand! :D

[perfect match]

Here's one of the parrotfish mentioned in my previous post, along with a dive buddy for size comparison

[scubacruiserx2]

Glad you enjoyed the concert. year of the Rooster now.

The infinity would be doing the rounds at the moment, although Antarctica is still cold, SA is in summer so it is not so much cold except down by Ushuaia and the bottom of Chile where it is chilly.:D

 

Thank you Mic . We do prefer seeing the original performers like Al instead of the tribute bands when possible . And we were further thrilled that both Al and Dave liked and linked the videos on FB . :) :D

 

 

SA is always an interesting cruise with it's blend of beauty , fire and ice . We love the ship and location but we do wish that it included Chile with it's glaciers and volcanos !

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Ushuaia has some great day trips to the National Park - Tierra Del Fuego https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_del_Fuego_National_Park with great scenery or I can recommend a trip to Martillo Island with the penguin colonies and the private museum on the ranch https://www.argentina4u.com/en/walk-with-penguins-on-martillo-island.html

note this link is just a guide as to what may be seen and there are several companies (I am not 100% sure if this is who we used).:D

[scubacruiserx2]

Ushuaia has some great day trips to the National Park - Tierra Del Fuego https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierra_del_Fuego_National_Park with great scenery or I can recommend a trip to Martillo Island with the penguin colonies and the private museum on the ranch https://www.argentina4u.com/en/walk-with-penguins-on-martillo-island.html

note this link is just a guide as to what may be seen and there are several companies (I am not 100% sure if this is who we used).:D

 

 

Thanks for the links Mic ! We've also looked the HAL trip . It's a week longer , goes to Chile and spends more time in Antarctica .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

When we last left our tale , we were high tailing it from Cozumel .

 

 

 

 

With a rescue boat following us out toward the sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had decided earlier to have dinner in the MDR , our second time this trip , when we saw the menu .

 

 

 

At about 4 PM the phone rang and we were asked if we wanted to go to the Chef's Table . We had made reservations on day 1 and were told that a couple of groups had already booked it . But at this point , I already had my eyes on Escargot , Lobster and Shrimp , so we passed . Diving with some of these critters has that effect on us .

 

 

 

 

We were so hungry in fact , that I almost didn't care that the escargot was wrapped in a puff pastry . Or that the lobster was the frozen , imported cold water kind instead of the fresh , local variety that we love to catch , and cook ourselves ! It's funny what hunger will do to a man .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Here's one of the parrotfish mentioned in my previous post, along with a dive buddy for size comparison

 

That'a a BIG parrotfish ! And the dive buddy looks like my co worker aka the parrotfish . :) :D

[scubacruiserx2]

Wow! Antarctica on the Eclipse in an aft cabin! Great choice! I will most certainly be living vicariously through that review! :D

 

Thanks for the zoomed in picture of the aft cabins on the CB. I know we will love the balcony we have now. I'm just longing for the extra space a mini suite would provide. We have discovered that the extra space does matter when one of us is a morning person (Barry) and the other is a night owl (me) even though cruise ship schedules force me to be a bit less a night owl than I would normally be. :eek:

 

As for your parrotfish video, I've seen some really huge ones in Cozumel on Yucab reef and Torrementos reef. I'd say those parrotfish produce an abundance of sand! :D

 

 

We don't usually book that far out for a cruise but does give us a great cabin choice .

 

Many times cabin choice comes down to three factors . Location (including view) , price and room space . And while we love our aft views , cabin size and a private room were elevated when we took Tyler along for 2 weeks in Europe .

 

When we booked an aft suite for Tyler's next cruise this summer on the Equinox , we found out that we are sharing a common room with TY on the couch . And not long after we made our final payment on our upcoming cruise , Celebrity lowered the price on the SV cabin next to us by $1500 . When we asked to re book they wouldn't allow us or give us a substantial OBC . Keeping in mind we have 4 cruises booked with them , they did finally give us $200 OBC . Their action caused us to reconsider and change the suite on the Equinox to a SV . Same cruise , and the same view with a smaller room and bathroom , but we saved $3500 . ;)

 

 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

A few of the critters that you may see while under the sea in Cozumel .

 

 

 

 

 

Spotted Scorpionfish

 

 

 

Red Lizardfish

 

 

 

A seahorse

 

 

 

Queen Angel

 

 

 

French Angel

 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by scubacruiserx2

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the links Mic ! We've also looked the HAL trip . It's a week longer , goes to Chile and spends more time in Antarctica .

 

 

 

I have seen this also and while I haven't tried HAL before I would like to see Chile and it's fiords.:D

[MicCanberra]

I would have passed on the chef's table for that menu as well.

 

The pics are fantastic, the strobe was working well.

[perfect match]

 

That'a a BIG parrotfish ! And the dive buddy looks like my co worker aka the parrotfish . :) :D

 

Was your co worker aka the parrotfish on our Oasis cruise this past November?

 

That parrotfish and several of his similarly sized friends were on Yucab reef in Cozumel. Since you mentioned that you dove there, I'm surprised you didn't see them. They seemed to enjoy checking out the divers. I also saw parrotfish that size on Tormentos reef when I was in Cozumel on the CB in 2014. At that point I thought they looked like parrotfish, but I wasn't sure parrotfish could grow that big! :eek: I was really hoping I would see huge parrotfish again this last trip to Cozumel, and I was beyond excited when I did! I was very glad I had decided to push the limits on depth with my Olympus, as last time on Tormentos I was without camera.

 

As I have followed along on your tour of the CB, I am realizing how much of the ship I never got to see during the 5 days we spent on board. I am so glad that when we sail her next year I will have a lot more time to explore, and my repaired knees are much more fit for exploring. You have given me some great ideas!

[scubacruiserx2]

I would have passed on the chef's table for that menu as well.

 

The pics are fantastic, the strobe was working well.

 

Thank you Mic , good lighting really helps , especially underwater . I was watching the Regal come in this morning at PE and the Royal is also there ! 90% chance of rain during the day with clearing and a cold front coming later ! :cool: