Saga Rose Greenland Voyager August 2007

[Host Sharon]

A few favourites - if this works! No, I had been clicking on "img" in quick reply! The picture on the right, taken in Spitzbergen in 1978, shoes Vistafjord in Magdalena Fjord. The others are Cagliari in Sardinia and dawn in Port Said.

[Druke I]

The praise you have received for your photos is very well deserved.

 

You have the right touch.

[Kapricorn]

Ships cat - WOW! These are really beautiful photographs! What's your secret? Do you take your time looking through the camera before snapping pictures, or do you just hold up your camera and immediately click away?

 

Sunsets seem to be your forte. Last July, as Mercury departed from Ketchikan, there was a spectacular sunset despite the abundance of clouds. Here are two pictures which I took. This time I didn't bother to crop these pictures.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Wow, ships cat, what an eye for composition you have! I have provided two photos which parallel your own of the 1978 Magadalena Bay, Vistafjord photo. This was on my June 2005 visit to Far North onboard Saga Ruby and both photos were taken by a ship's photog in a tender. Due to the bear roaming the crags, we stayed on the ship!

 

But oh the irony that you and I have been on the "...fjords" to the same place and now can compare photos of a wild and rare place on this Blue Marble.

 

Well, phooey. The upload file failed. I give up!

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

Well, phooey. The upload file failed. I give up!

 

Ruby, did a message come on that the photograph is too large for uploading? If so, can you reduce the size of the photograph by maybe 25% and then it will be able to be uploaded.

 

Donald.

[Host Sharon]

Irony indeed..and magic in a way Ruby - I do hope you can get your photos to upload - I would love to see them.

 

Thanks everyone - glad you liked them. I can never resist a good sunset ...and have even been known to leave dinner early to capture one. I also like to be on deck early when coming into port so often manage to see the dawns too. I do mostly click away, but my "eye" for composition is natural. I tend go around with my eyes wide open as it were. I hope that doesn't sound too weird, but I can often spot things other people miss entirely. It's the same with colour, in that I can "carry" a colour in my head and match it without having the items with me.

 

Love the sunset at Ketchichan - is that Alaska? I have never been to the western seaboard of North America.

 

The photo below is the sunset, close to Greenland, that three of us left dinner before coffee to photograph. Not very good from a composition point of view, but the colours were just so beautiful. I dashed to my cabin, grabbed my camera, and locked myself out! I left my cabin key on the bed in my rush, didn't find out till about 1am and had to call the duty purser to get back in!!

[Saga Ruby]

Ruby, did a message come on that the photograph is too large for uploading? If so, can you reduce the size of the photograph by maybe 25% and then it will be able to be uploaded.

 

Donald.

 

I don't have the appropriate software. I'm not sure these photos are digital but, if you have the patience to work with them, more power to you.

 

Please send your email address to sagaruby at verizon dot net, I'll send you the photos, and we'll all live happily ever after.

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

Love the sunset at Ketchichan - is that Alaska? I have never been to the western seaboard of North America.

 

The photo below is the sunset, close to Greenland, that three of us left dinner before coffee to photograph. Not very good from a composition point of view, but the colours were just so beautiful. I dashed to my cabin, grabbed my camera, and locked myself out! I left my cabin key on the bed in my rush, didn't find out till about 1am and had to call the duty purser to get back in!!

 

Yes, Ketchikan is in Alaska. Maybe you can think about going there some time in the future.

 

That is a great photograph of the sunset close to Greenland! Beautiful colours, indeed. You managed to capture it at the right moment.

 

Donald.

[Kapricorn]

Here are Ruby's photographs. These are interesting!

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Here are Ruby's photographs. These are interesting! Donald.

 

Both ships cat and I have photos of the interior glacier which comprises one end of Magdalena Bay. With ships cat's photo, if you imagine a polar bear in the water getting out on to the glacier's base on the coastline, you have a complete picture of that Bay and the glacier.

 

Our bear got out of the water and strolled for 3 hours, working her way up into the crags and scaring thousands of birds into the air as the bear looked for nests with eggs, then she would body-surf in the snow down to the coastline.

 

As some of you may remember from my previous story, Saga Ruby was turning to follow the leads of the sea through ice in the Bay, I looked down and saw another bear in the water, right next to our ship, and he was purposely stroking his way to the shoreline. What a day!

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

That is so amazing Ruby. I have never seen a wild polar bear. How wonderful. Although then we wouldn't have got ashore like we did.

 

At least the Saga ships can sail through the ice. The hulls of modern ships wouldn't make it. This was Vistafjord edging up through the arctic ice barrier well north of Spitzbergen

[Saga Ruby]

At least the Saga ships can sail through the ice. The hulls of modern ships wouldn't make it. This was Vistafjord edging up through the arctic ice barrier well north of Spitzbergen

 

There is a great member of CCritic - Globaliser in the UK - who was on Sea Princess on the same day at the same hour as Saga Ruby in Magdalena Bay. His ship was too large to enter the bay so he never saw the polar bears. I have talked to him on these boards and he said passengers on his ship were aggravated because they could see us offloading into tenders and he thought we had been able to go ashore.

 

I assured him that no passenger left the ship, what he was seeing was the ship's tenders taking the photographers closer into the shoreline. And Sea Princess passengers never knew there were polar bears a few hundred yards from them.

 

Captain David told us that, in the six years of sailing to Magdalena Bay, he had never seen polar bears. In all my years of travels, the memory of this one day is my blue riband.

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

I bet they were miffed. The big advantage of being on a smaller ship!! I can imagine that memory would be one of the best. I have to say that, even after 30 years, my time spent in Spitzbergen has to be one of my best memories too, even though I didn't get to see a polar bear!! Oh, now I itching to get back up north!!

[crazy4cruisn]

Hello Ships Cat and Saga Rose,

I have enjoyed reading your posts on the Europe destinations site. I was searching for information on Nanortalik and Torshavn, but found your discussions really interesting and informative. I am wanting to go on Princendam to the Black Sea area and your itinerary sounds like what I want. Please do post when you return. I would appreciate any information on the ports. Do you usually take ship tours or do you try to book private tours? We will be on the Maasdam July 22 - Aug 9 from Rotterdam to Boston. I have found several guides in the ports and am looking forward to the cruise.

Thanks in advance for any help on the Black Sea area or Nanortalik, Torshavn, St Pierre, and St John's.

[Host Sharon]

Hi Crazy4cruisn

It will be my first time in the Black Sea and as I will be on my own, I will mostly be taking ship's tours. I will have to in Sochi anyway, since I am not prepared for the hassle of getting my own visa. I will certainly post on my return. Which St John's are you going to. I have ben to St John, Newfoundland. That was lovely. I travelled up to the Marconi station on Signal Hill, and then out to Spear Point Lighthouse. There were glorious views. Only problem was that QE2 couldn't turn in St Johns Harbour and we had to be dropped off at Conception Bay South. Mind you, that was great. A folk group played for us on the quayside and as we left about 6pm, everyone came to see us off, both on the shore and in small boats. We caused a traffic jam!

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sharonp40/CruiseOnQE2ToNewEnglandAndCanada2006

[Saga Ruby]

Thanks in advance for any help on the Black Sea area or Nanortalik, Torshavn, St Pierre, and St John's.

 

Torshaven was one of our stops on my Saga Rose Greenland tour last August. I made an executive decision not to get off the ship and was looking forward to my Orkneys adventure. From my singular point of view, I made the right choice.

 

Saga Cruises' tours in Torshaven were five offerings: a city tour, a country tour of a traditional Faroes village with peat-roof houses, island tour with Viking ruins, flightseeing, and Vestmanna Seacliffs which was of interest to the birdwatchers and involved a boat tour through a natural earth tunnel.

 

So I cannot speak personally to the tours but I did make a point of talking to various passengers returning from their tours. No one took the flightseeing tour, and I was told that the Vestmanna cliffs were nice. If one were to want to get off the ship and see the Faroes, there will be many choices. I am personally satisfied, however, that I didn't miss something important to me. It is rare that I pass on visiting a new port, but it was my mood and I was glad to spend the entire afternoon sitting in the bright sun and chatting on the verandah with Peter Boyd-Smith.

 

One note - we saw a lot of fish farming on that cruise, including the Faroes and many "farms" offshore from several of our ports. You can easily identify the farms because there is a geometric arrangment of metal poles sticking up out the water, an aquatic corral enclosing the fish. To this lil ole Texas gal, that was quite exciting.

 

Over and over again, I am so glad I sail only on small ships. We have the flexibility to explore interesting sights and places that the large ships can only view from a balcony seat. It offends my sensibilities to have a behemoth blotting out the sun of a small island port. My idea is to visit an island, not dominate it.

 

Ruby

[crazy4cruisn]

Hi Ruby and Ship's Cat,

Thanks for the additional info. We are going to St John's, Newfoundland. I read that there is a

British Island Tour Bus there that does the things you mention. I have been trying to find information on Torshvn and Nanortalik but it is like hunting needles in a haystack, so I appreciated your info. I read on one post from 2004 that there was a free city bus that locals would guide you around the area. I don't know if that is still happening or not. All the other ports have been easy. I agree with you that the smaller ships are better for getting closer to what you want to see. We used to sail with Renaissance before it "went under." I am hoping to sail with Oceania sometime. We do go with HAL frequently and I have read so much about Princendam that I hope to cruise it or Ocenia to the Black Sea. I will really enjoy hearing about your cruise there. Will you be posting on the CC boards as you go or just when you return. I can't remember when you were going.

Nancy

[Saga Ruby]

Speaking for myself, I will be in the Black Sea next June on Prinsendam, so ships cat will be our resident expert when she returns from the Black Sea this October. We will, of course, demand the usual drop-dead photos of her trip. And I do have that photo assignment for her outside of Istanbul.

 

As far as private tours in Torshaven and the Orkneys, a personal comment - I had contacted the sole tour operator in the Orkneys, asking about a private guide. The nice lady wrote back quickly and said that the ship's tours take up all their available guides, buses, and minivans so she would not be able to accommodate me.

 

On the bus in the Orkneys, our guide was discoursing on the history of the islands when he suddenly turned and pointed off a winding country road, saying that that house down by the sea was where he farmed the other 11.9 months of the year when he wasn't a guide. My impression from this experience was that having ship excursions in a tiny town can be similar to the shock of having Vikings or Norsemen appear suddenly at your door.

 

For my Bergen, Norway visit, I looked into private guides, but the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour was a much better choice and I'm glad I took it. One has to allow for the locals' ability to handle a sudden, large influx of groups invading their area for a single day and, most of the time, I have been happy to do a ship's shorex in such circumstances rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

I travel on 1 Sept for the Black Sea for 25 nights on board Artemis. As P&O charge an arm and a leg for internet services, I usually post on the P&O Cruise Connections site (which is free) and someone usually kindly tenders it across to Crowsnestonline.net - another cruise site I am a member of. Otherwise I will post a full report (dv) here on my return.

 

I am intrigued by your assignment Ruby....but note it is unlikely I will go far ashore on my own and am very tempted by the shore excursion of a trip to a hammam! We do have all day and overnight in Istanbul so we travel the Bosphorus in daylight. I'm beginning to get excited now - only 11 weeks to go I think.

 

As for Torshavn, I don't get there till next August so Ruby is the resident expert there, and in Greenland I got to visit Nuuk (Gothab), so again, afraid I can't help with Nanortallik.

[Saga Ruby]

For years, I never locked my cabin door on Royal Viking. And that was before my inside cabins had interior safes. It never even crossed my mind. Then, in the mid-80s, I was enjoying a marvy cruise, bouncing in and out of my cabin all day long. In the evenings, after dinner, the entertainment, and turn-down service, I kept getting locked out of my cabin, so I would walk down the corridor to the Purser’s Desk, borrow a key, open my door, then take the key back. Altho’ I asked my cabin attendant to leave it unlocked, she usually "forgot."

 

After a few days of this routine, I asked my cabin stewardess why she was locking my door, then paused and said, "Do you think it is better for me to lock my door?" The solemn nod of the Norwegian's head told me everything I needed to know.

 

So when did you start locking your cabin door?

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

So when did you start locking your cabin door?

 

My mother and I were given cabin door keys on American Export's Atlantic in 1963, so we used it (I still have it!). When we sailed transatlantic on Empress of Canada in 1964 we were not provided with cabin door keys, so it was always unlocked, though we both were a trifle uneasy about it. Incres Line's Victoria had cabin door keys when I cruised on her in 1972.

 

Ruby, were you not at all concerned about unauthorized entries into your cabin during the 1980s?

 

Donald.

[Conte Di Savoia]

On the Italian Line we always locked the doors, even in the early 1960's, however, the steward requested that the key be left in the key box in the hall near the cabins he serviced, that way he could readily see through the glass door who was "in cabina"...or not. The key box was unattended. Naturally, we all complied despite the obvious illogic of the request.

[Host Sharon]

I have locked my cabin door since I started cruising on my own - usually turning the inside deadlock as soon as I was in my cabin - mainly to stop the steward inadvertently barging in when I might be resting or showering etc. Aside from QE2 and Caronia, I think all of my cabins have been self-locking when I left them, so I am usually careful to make sure I have the key card...except that time on Artemis last July at 1am!! oops! That time I was told to wait by my cabin for the night purser and had to provide proof it WAS my cabin by showing my cruise card before I was let in.

[Druke I]

I think the last ship I was on that did not have self-locking cabin doors was either the Constitution (sunk in 12-97), or Oriana (scrapped in 06?).

[franu]

Having been born and raised in New York City, we always locked our doors. Apartment doors, house doors, car doors or any door, anywhere.

Therefore I locked my cabin door from my first cruise to Bermuda and Nassau on Furness-Bermuda Lines "Ocean Monarch" in 1964.

 

When I moved to Toronto in 1972, I was quite shocked to see people go away for the day or weekend without locking the door but this too has changed drastically.

Fran