Harmony of the Seas Review 10/6/18 - Long and lots of Photos!

[JeffLazoCP]

The whole family!

[chee7]

• Great review and photos.  Sailing on HOTS in April 2019.  This is the last sailing before heading to Port Canaveral.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Enjoyed reading your review, great pictures.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great review and pictures. Labadee drone pictures are amazing, thanks for taking those and sharing them.

[myk249]

Agree with all the above, great review and fantastic photos.  The drone pics are an awesome "icing on the cake"  that will rarely, if ever, be taken again. You clearly have some talent. Thanks for posting them all.  

 

I'm curious what kind of gear you shoot with? 

 

 

[BillOh]

10 hours ago, JeffLazoCP said:

The whole family!

LIke me, this is the only way you into cruise pics!   What kind of drone if you don't mind me asking?  I'm been considering one for my big birthday coming up.  I wasn't aware Royal changed a policy about them being on board, but I haven't been following that topic either.   Oh, nice to see Royal has a new photo backdrop, I've never seen a chalk rendition used as a backdrop.

 

[mattb31]

Did you fly your drone at all in St. Maarten or San Juan? 

 

I'm heading out on this itinerary in a month and really want to get some footage from there. AFAIK Old San Juan is a fly zone and St. Maarten has no restrictions on drone flight, just curious..

[JeffLazoCP]

3 hours ago, BillOh said:

LIke me, this is the only way you into cruise pics!   What kind of drone if you don't mind me asking?  I'm been considering one for my big birthday coming up.  I wasn't aware Royal changed a policy about them being on board, but I haven't been following that topic either.   Oh, nice to see Royal has a new photo backdrop, I've never seen a chalk rendition used as a backdrop.

 

 

Bill,

 

I am using the DJI Spark.  They have a number of drone options, the spark being the smallest of the bunch.  For longer run time and more sensors there is the DJI Mavic Air, it is slightly larger than the spark and very similar image/video quality.  I believe it adds 4k and raw still image capture.  They also just release the Mavic Pro 2 and the Mavic 2 Zoom.  The Pro has a 1" Hasselblad camera sensor for top image quality and the Zoom adds an optical zoom with a small image sensor.  

 

They are all very simple to fly, eventually I will pick up a Mavic Pro 2, it is quite a bit larger than the Spark, but I am always looking for better image quality with any camera system!

[JeffLazoCP]

3 hours ago, mattb31 said:

Did you fly your drone at all in St. Maarten or San Juan? 

 

I'm heading out on this itinerary in a month and really want to get some footage from there. AFAIK Old San Juan is a fly zone and St. Maarten has no restrictions on drone flight, just curious..

 

Matt,

 

Old San Juan is too close to the airport so not really a good place to fly.  I did fly a bit in St. Maarten, however the weather wasn't the best and it was pretty gusty.  At the far end of the beach closest to the ship, you are just outside the 5mile range from the airport.  The couple flights I did make were under 100ft.

[JeffLazoCP]

4 hours ago, myk249 said:

Agree with all the above, great review and fantastic photos.  The drone pics are an awesome "icing on the cake"  that will rarely, if ever, be taken again. You clearly have some talent. Thanks for posting them all.  

 

I'm curious what kind of gear you shoot with? 

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

Here is what I brought on this trip:

 

Sony A7III

Sony 16-35 f4

Tamron 28-75 f2.8

Sony 70-200 f4

DJI Spark Drone

[mattb31]

1 hour ago, JeffLazoCP said:

 

Matt,

 

Old San Juan is too close to the airport so not really a good place to fly.  I did fly a bit in St. Maarten, however the weather wasn't the best and it was pretty gusty.  At the far end of the beach closest to the ship, you are just outside the 5mile range from the airport.  The couple flights I did make were under 100ft.

Ahhh, didn't even realize SIG was there until I checked out Google Maps. Looks like it's all Class D and you can only fly up to 100 on the very western edge of the island. Oh well, I'll have to stick to flying at St. Maarten!!

[jandj1224]

Thanks for taking the time to post.  Love the pictures especially the beach ones!

[BillOh]

1 hour ago, JeffLazoCP said:

 

Matt,

 

Old San Juan is too close to the airport so not really a good place to fly.  I did fly a bit in St. Maarten, however the weather wasn't the best and it was pretty gusty.  At the far end of the beach closest to the ship, you are just outside the 5mile range from the airport.  The couple flights I did make were under 100ft.

 

 

Last year we stayed at the Sheraton in OSJ and it has a rooftop pool I was up taking pictures from the rooftop the morning of our cruise and a guy brought his drone up, sent it for a tour around OSJ and it returned. I kept searching youtube hoping he uploaded that video.   

[mattb31]

24 minutes ago, BillOh said:

 

 

Last year we stayed at the Sheraton in OSJ and it has a rooftop pool I was up taking pictures from the rooftop the morning of our cruise and a guy brought his drone up, sent it for a tour around OSJ and it returned. I kept searching youtube hoping he uploaded that video.   

Guys like him who give drone owners a bad name. Just looking on google maps that Sheraton is less than a half mile from the runway at SIG. 100% illegal, he could've gotten a hefty fine.

[JeffLazoCP]

7 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

Guys like him who give drone owners a bad name. Just looking on google maps that Sheraton is less than a half mile from the runway at SIG. 100% illegal, he could've gotten a hefty fine.

 

 

Completely agree!  I am very cautious when I fly.  This person most likely also flew despite warning from the app/controller (depending on brand/model).  It’s a bummer that people think they are above the rules, especially when it comes to safety.

[BillOh]

15 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

Guys like him who give drone owners a bad name. Just looking on google maps that Sheraton is less than a half mile from the runway at SIG. 100% illegal, he could've gotten a hefty fine.

When you mentioned that, I forgot about that airport, I was mainly thinking of SJU

[JaniceB]

Lovely photo review.  Your pictures are awesome.

[myk249]

6 hours ago, JeffLazoCP said:

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

Here is what I brought on this trip:

 

Sony A7III

Sony 16-35 f4

Tamron 28-75 f2.8

Sony 70-200 f4

DJI Spark Drone

Thanks.  That's a very nice, well rounded travel kit.

 

 

[Cincy2]

Loving this review.  On the same route harmony in February.  Picking following doesn't work for me so commenting, hoping to get email notifications.