Queen Elizabeth Position

[sfred]

QE is in Barcelona today 30 October for the final time in her 2023 Mediterranean season.  Upon departure this evening she begins the long journey to Australia for the summer season down here.

 

Best wishes to all those embarking.  @alibabacruisers, I hope you have a wonderful trip home to Melbourne.  If you are able, please share some photos along the way.

 

 

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you sfred for your bon voyage and the nice overhead shot of Port Vell where cruise ships dock. There was recent news talking of how Barcelona was reducing some docks in the Nord Barcelona area.   This reduction is not regarding Port Vell.

 

I will try to get some shots along the way. Here is one from the Palacruceros terminal of the front of QE thru the paned windows. I just am not tall enough to catch a better glimpse of her name or other better features.

Edited October 30, 2023 by alibabacruisers

[alibabacruisers]

Our first morning sunrise on our way to Heraklion, Crete.

 

Sorry, dont know why it turned upside down. 😞

[bluemarble]

23 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

Our first morning sunrise on our way to Heraklion, Crete.

 

Sorry, dont know why it turned upside down. 😞

 

I'll help. Here's your photo rotated to the correct orientation. The problem probably has to do with how you are holding your phone to take the picture. One orientation is considered right side up and the other is upside down. When you take a photo holding your phone upside down, orientation information is recorded in the image telling software to rotate it 180 degrees. Most software will honor that orientation setting in the image, but the process of uploading the image to Cruise Critic apparently ignores that information, resulting in an upside down image.

 

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, alibabacruisers said:

Our first morning sunrise on our way to Heraklion, Crete.

 

Sorry, dont know why it turned upside down. 😞

Perhaps it is preparing for being in the Southern Hemisphere?

[alibabacruisers]

Thanks John!  I will have to remember your tip!

[D&N]

I installed an app called "Photo Compressor" on Android. I think it's in the App Store as well.

I used it to batch reduce photo sizes to post here and other social media from QM2. With Starlink that might not be necessary, although my current camera sometimes takes jpg snaps up to 18MB!

It also offers crop and rotate functions in batch.

I think there are some ads in it but I didn't find that intrusive.

 

[sfred]

5 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Perhaps it is preparing for being in the Southern Hemisphere?

 

My thought exactly!  Sunrise when below the equator.

[bluemarble]

16 minutes ago, D&N said:

I installed an app called "Photo Compressor" on Android. I think it's in the App Store as well.

I used it to batch reduce photo sizes to post here and other social media from QM2. With Starlink that might not be necessary, although my current camera sometimes takes jpg snaps up to 18MB!

It also offers crop and rotate functions in batch.

I think there are some ads in it but I didn't find that intrusive.

 

Just a note about rotate functions in general to correct issues such as were encountered here. Tools to process images taken while holding the phone "upside down" will probably correct the orientation when brought into the tool. Then if you rotate them, you will end up with images which truly are "upside down". I've been tricked by that behavior in the past. Just save the images after you've done any other adjustments such as resizing or cropping and I think you'll find they will be in the correct "right side up" orientation to upload to Cruise Critic.

[alibabacruisers]

Day 3

 

Photo of moon setting and then sunrise. Any way to separate the pictures so it doesn't appear as one?

 

Sea day enroute to Crete tomorrow.

Edited November 1, 2023 by alibabacruisers

[bluemarble]

30 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

Day 3

 

Photo of moon setting and then sunrise. Any way to separate the pictures so it doesn't appear as one?

 

Sea day enroute to Crete tomorrow.

 

A couple of very fine photos there.

 

To separate the photos, use the enter key to insert a blank line between them. It probably works best to add several blank lines after the text of the message before inserting the pictures. Then move the cursor back up to where you want the first photo to appear and insert it there. Finally move the cursor back down after the blank lines you added and insert the second photo there. Hope that's a clear description of the process.

[sfred]

I so miss being on QE for sunrises!!  Thanks for the photos. 

[Wonky]

Queen Elizabeth is in Crete.

[alibabacruisers]

Sunrise near Crete #1 and then a few minutes or so later.

 

I am trying to strategically use the CWC Diamond internet allotment so will be trying to post pictures every few days.

 

I wish they would go back to the minute allotments rather than these 24 hour blocks.  The spped has been ok for us as we do the minimal and no streaming.  I have noticed the internet boxes in the staterooms hallways and may try to do reconnaisance? to list where these boxes are on each deck if I have the time.

 

If anyone has questions let me know and I will try to answer.  I will also try to do a final trip report later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by alibabacruisers

[bluemarble]

52 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

Sunrise near Crete #1 and then a few minutes or so later.

 

I am trying to strategically use the CWC Diamond internet allotment so will be trying to post pictures every few days.

 

I wish they would go back to the minute allotments rather than these 24 hour blocks.  The spped has been ok for us as we do the minimal and no streaming.  I have noticed the internet boxes in the staterooms hallways and may try to do reconnaisance? to list where these boxes are on each deck if I have the time.

 

If anyone has questions let me know and I will try to answer.  I will also try to do a final trip report later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good shots! Looks like my suggestion to rotate your phone did the trick to get these photos right side up when unloaded to Cruise Critic. Is that correct?

[alibabacruisers]

Yes John, your tip worked perfectly!  Thanks again!

[sfred]

7 hours ago, alibabacruisers said:

I wish they would go back to the minute allotments rather than these 24 hour blocks.  The speed has been ok for us as we do the minimal and no streaming.  I have noticed the internet boxes in the staterooms hallways and may try to do reconnaissance? to list where these boxes are on each deck if I have the time.

 

Thanks for the recent photos, @alibabacruisers. 

 

Making the free internet allotment last for a long voyage is much more challenging with the 24-hour block structure.  The technique of doing midday-to-midday purchases, so that you have the afternoon of one day and the morning of the next, helps somewhat.  As does sharing logins so that two people's allotments can be used consecutively rather than simultaneously.  But the challenge remains.  I really wish Cunard would introduce a 2 or 4 hour pricing option for say $5.  That would greatly help to extend the diamond credit for the duration of a longer voyage. 

 

I used a portion of my early morning walks on our recent QE trip to record the locations of QE's hallway access points.  See post #24 and #26 of the "QM2 Guide to Wi-Fi Access Point Locations for Passenger Cabins" sticky thread.

 

Thanks again for your reports on your journey!!

[alibabacruisers]

Sfred, thanks for directing me to the QE internet access points and great job.

 

We are outside Port Said at the moment and the sunrise is very pretty again today. 

 

 

 

 

According to cruisemapper, there are two cruise ships near us.  The first I saw was Celebrity Edge and the second was Silver Spirit.  I am adding a picture of the Edge as it seemed impressive and a different look.

 

 

 

[Wonky]

QE is in the Suez Canal.

[alibabacruisers]

Here are a few pics from QE in the beginning of the Suez Canal.

 

Sorry, forgot to enter spaces between pics.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by alibabacruisers

[Wonky]

Some northbound traffic now visible as we approach the Great Bitter Lake. (No bitter visible apart from aboard)

[Host Hattie]

She's bright !

[Wonky]

[D&N]

On 11/4/2023 at 3:15 PM, Host Hattie said:

She's bright !

Is this not Barbie's year?

[SailingCableBeach]

The beautiful QE has dulled her lights at night as we sail out of the Red Sea.

However the night before last the ship was lit up like a Christmas tree whilst sailing through the most incredible lightening storm sometime after 3am. The lightening was continuous and very close and the ship seemed to list towards starboard. I have never experienced anything like it!  I thought it was rocket fire at first on waking although thankfully I’ve also never experienced anything like that either. Next morning the deck staff were sweeping up the sand after the storm. Wow it was amazing.

Now we continue to sail serenely toward our next port in Oman.