Live From the Summit, 8/7 to 8/31, from an Aqua passenger viewpoint

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 4 - Aug 22 - Sea day

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

OK, more good forecasting news for this evening. 
  

 
https://auroraforecast.com/

 

[TraderSam]

I’m so jealous.😆

 

I hope you see the Aurora Borealis and manage to get some photos to share with us all.🤞🏻

[lexmiller]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Up in the Oceanview Buffet, the guests are serving themselves everywhere we have seen except at the dessert station. You point and they put it on a plate. But everywhere else appears to be self serve. However, I haven’t gone to the grill at the back where they serve hamburgers, pizza and other stuff like that. But my guess is, you ask and then they will put it on a plate when it’s ready.

 

One thing nice about being on deck 11 in the aft, we just bring our lunch back up one floor to the cabin and if it’s nice outside, we’ll eat on the balcony. Afterwards, we simply take our plates back down to the cleaning station. 😁

Great news that as long as nothing changes before August 31 when we board, that we will be able to serve ourselves in the buffet.  Thank you!  And, we also love the sunset verandas - we were in fact just on the Millennium in June in an Aqua Sunset Veranda, deck 11, cabin 1130, in Alaska - the convenient location to the buffet is such a perk!  The views are obviously the draw, but the location is great.  And you crack me up, you are like us - we bring food to our room like you and just don't feel right leaving the plates for our cabin steward - we take our plates back down as well!  (I can't get over how some people leave their dirty plates IN THE HALL - but, we won't get into that here!).  
Thank you for your posts and amazing photos - like you, we love the theater, love the entertainment, and generally sit in the first row - so definitely appreciate your posts!

[Ken the cruiser]

After another tasty dinner in Blu, we headed over to the Rendezvous Lounge to watch Whisper Challenge. Then we headed over to wait for the theater doors to open so we could get our favorite seats. 
 

I just have to say WHAT A SHOW!! The guest singer entertainer tonight was Lou Gazzara, and what a fabulous show!! Hopefully, Celebrity will bring him back time and again because he brought the house down!! 

 

 

But I also have to say CD Rich Gleason just keeps getting funnier and funnier every evening and is moving quickly up the list of our favorite CDs. 😁
 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, more good forecasting news for this evening. 
  

 
https://auroraforecast.com/

 

Just to keep the positive vibes going for the northern lights to appear this evening, our skies are looking pretty good at 10 pm. Right now they’re still guestimating between Midnight and 1 am. 🤞🤞

 

 

 
And again at 10:40 pm looking towards a pretty clear southwesterly direction. 
 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[wrk2cruise]

Just remember that when everyone is in their PJ's on the upper deck looking up at the sky to not all be on the same side of the ship so you don't capsize😁

[Ken the cruiser]

It just started, but only lasted for about 5-10 minutes. Hopefully they’ll come back. 
  

  

 

 

[Oville]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

It just started, but only lasted for about 5-10 minutes. Hopefully they’ll come back. 
  

  

 

 

So happy for you.  Thanks Katie

[Ken the cruiser]

Here are a couple more shots! 😁

 

 

 

[Oville]

15 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Here are a couple more shots! 😁

 

 

 

Fabulous.

[phabric]

Were you able to see from your cabin balcony or from an upper deck?

[jotjot]

Great pictures, feels like I'm there.

[Norwaylady]

So happy for your evening/night🤩 🤩 

[DUTRAVEL]

Fantastic photos!

[TraderSam]

Love the photos! Thank you so much for sharing them.

 

What was it like to experience the lights? 😜

[Ken the cruiser]

This morning around 7 am there was a medical evacuation. Hopefully the person is alright. 
  

[Esprit]

View from Summit’s bridge.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, TraderSam said:

Love the photos! Thank you so much for sharing them.

 

What was it like to experience the lights? 😜

I have to say is was exhilarating and it only lasted for about an hour and it was over! Thin strips of green light would fainting start to appear in the sky and then start to get more dense, and then disappear about 3-5 minutes later. Then another would start the same process, but with a different design.
 

But the interesting point was that if you take a picture with your camera, even if you really can’t see it all that clearly, your camera, in my case the iPhone, will pick up more of the light!
 

But my SIL got some really “deep color” shots with her version 8 iPhone, which I now must learn how she did it in my never ending trek on this cruise for learning new things! When I find out the secret, I’ll let you know. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, Esprit said:

View from Summit’s bridge.

I definitely have to learn how to control my iPhone 8 shutter speed to get deep colored shots like that because they sure didn’t look like that when we were just looking at them!  😂

[Ken the cruiser]

21 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

This morning around 7 am there was a medical evacuation. Hopefully the person is alright. 
  

Just found out the ship made a small detour to meet the helicopter. But Rich came over the loud speaker and said the evacuation was successful and the person will now be able to get the needed care, thanked everyone for their patience, and we should still get to Greenland on time.

  

Edited August 22, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

But my SIL got some really “deep color” shots with her version 8 iPhone, which I now must learn how she did it in my never ending trek on this cruise for learning new things! When I find out the secret, I’ll let you know. 😁

I found out why my DIL can control the shutter “speed” where I can’t seem to with my iPhone SE, but has the look and feel of an iPhone 8. She has an iPhone 11.

 

But what she did was sit in a dark spot on the balcony when taking a picture of the northern lights, and her camera said “hold still” at the top of her screen, and then she tapped the button to take the picture. That option is not available on my iPhone SE. 

[Esprit]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I definitely have to learn how to control my iPhone 8 shutter speed to get deep colored shots like that because they sure didn’t look like that when we were just looking at them!  😂

Ken, perhaps you could ask Emily (activities manager) what she did to get that picture too!

[Ken the cruiser]

Just now, Esprit said:

Ken, perhaps you could ask Emily (activities manager) what she did to get that picture too!

I was thinking, based on the helipad in the photo, it was taken using the bridge cam, which I’m sure has some unique characteristics which allows it to take pictures like that.

[Norwaylady]

Ken, since you have a iPhone SE you either need to get e new one:) or you need to download an app for photo. The app will allow you to adjust the shutter speed. NightCap and Slow Shutter Cam app works well on SE for aurora borealis. 

If your going to get a new phone, the iPhone 12/13 mini has a good camera and the phone is still small,