Voyager - ship computers + camera question

[mikemel49]

Hi - Our first RSSC cruise, Voyager Oct 25 Athens-Monte Carlo (anyone else?). Much excitement!

 

A computer question please: can I take my camera USB cable to connect to ship computers and thereby upload pics onto FaceBook (for eg)? Or insert the camera's memory card into ship computers and upload that way?

 

If so, then I don't have to travel with numerous memory cards, worry about them getting lost or stolen, and photos are all safely on-line right away. We don't like to travel with a laptop if we don't have to.

 

(I thought I had posted this yesterday, but can't seem to find it...maybe it didn't up-load... apologies if repeated tho...)

thanks Melanie

[donaldsc]

Although I am not sure, I doubt it. I would imagine that you can not load anything into the computers on the ship. Can you imagine the potential for virus problems if you could.

 

DON

[ChatKat in Ca.]

The internet on board is just too slow to do that. You can take your cards to the photo shop on board they will burn a CD for you or you can bring CD's and burn them. You will go batty trying to upload. And the cost will be a factor as well.

 

I usually travel with enough camera memory to last for the trip and I bring a laptop as well.

[mikemel49]

Of course, hadn't considered the virus aspect.

 

And knowing they will burn CDs for us is good, thanks.

 

I usually have enough memory, but you never know - like to cover all my bases (just in case!).

Anything I don't have to carry (eg: laptop) is added bonus!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

A related question. I've decided to take a laptop on my PG trip this December. Presumably I have to register first or something before I can just use my Wifi on the ship? (I'm Silver so it's free for me.)

[dfb]

Melanie, the main issue with your plan is just plain lack of bandwidth. You would not be able to transfer many photos to an online storage. It is just too slow. As I recall on Mariner earlier this year, there was a USB port on the keyboard that passengers could use. But, only the mouse, monitor and keyboard of any computers were accessible to passengers. You could not touch the machine, so no drives were accessible to you. The Photo Shop will transfer photos from memory cards to discs for about $15 per disc. At that price, you may just want to shop for extra memory cards on sale and transfer your photos to wherever you want to keep them longterm after you get back home.

Wendy, your TA has a page on her website with the complete Internet login/pricing instructions.

Debbie

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks Debbie, sounds easy--I did create an account last time I was on Voyager, but not wireless. But this all sounds very straightforward.

[larry1365]

Wendy --

 

You use the same Internet account in both your suite and in the Internet Café. Very easy.

 

It is not difficult to upload photos wirelessly from your suite to sites such as Picasa Web...particularly since you said you aren't paying for Internet connection. I did it throughout my 2007 World Cruise.

 

Larry

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks Larry, I hadn't though of that aspect, since I plenty of disk space, but perhaps I'll try!

[MtnDriver]

A related question. I've decided to take a laptop on my PG trip this December. Presumably I have to register first or something before I can just use my Wifi on the ship? (I'm Silver so it's free for me.)

 

I am also Silver and brought my laptop along in July. You do need to sign up for a plan (just like you were paying for using a ship's computer), but it never appears on your bill. I renewed this three or four times, so the silver really paid off.

 

Wifi works great in the public areas and most of the stateroms. I usually took the laptop up to the poolside bar so I could enjoy the scenery (and a beverage) while on the internet.

 

Previous posts about the limited bandwidth are correct, don't expect the speed you get on your cable modem or even DSL. And, because this is a satellite link, there is a lag between packets (like the sat phones the TV people use!).

 

I think I would copy pictures to my laptop and maybe burn backup CDs/DVDs if that is an option. I took three 4gb cards for my cameras and filled two, but I was shooting in uncompressed format on a 12megapixel camera. You could never upload this much data on the sat uplink.

 

Hope this helps!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks, yes it does help alot. I was really hoping just for enough speed to read email and perhaps surf a little, so it sounds fine. I'll make use of my hard disk to store pictures when my cards fill up, not too worried about that, especially since this is my 4th trip there,and not sure how many more pictures I need to take, except in the Marquesas, where I have not been, and on board ship to document people and events. I wonder what kind of connectivity we'll get up in the Marquesas?

[larry1365]

Wendy --

 

If you aren't burning back-up disks, I would recommend backing up photos on a USB thumb drive (you never know when your computer hard drive will fail). I know this from experience on my home computer two years ago. I now have an external hard drive hear that backs up daily.

 

On our 2007 World Cruise I backed up all my photos onto both the laptop and CDs before erasing the camera card. On our 2009 World Cruise, I'll probably use one of those small portable hard drives as backup.

 

Larry

[TheWaywardTraveler]

Although I am not sure, I doubt it. I would imagine that you can not load anything into the computers on the ship. Can you imagine the potential for virus problems if you could.

 

DON

 

On the Voyager, and recently the Mariner, I uploaded my pictures to a ship's computer, then burned my own cd and put them on a thumbdrive. It took forever to upload them to Picasa, so at least I had them in two other places. The computer guy on Mariner (sorry - didn't get his name) was helping many others burn picture cds, so they must not mind. All usb ports and the cd-drive were available for passenger use at club.com

[TheWaywardTraveler]

sorry - double post

[MtnDriver]

Thanks, yes it does help alot. I was really hoping just for enough speed to read email and perhaps surf a little, so it sounds fine. I'll make use of my hard disk to store pictures when my cards fill up, not too worried about that, especially since this is my 4th trip there,and not sure how many more pictures I need to take, except in the Marquesas, where I have not been, and on board ship to document people and events. I wonder what kind of connectivity we'll get up in the Marquesas?

 

We did the Marquesas for the first time this year too! Internet is about the same everywhere (assuming fair weather and no hardware issues).

[JMARINER]

..... It took forever to upload them to Picasa, so at least I had them in two other places.

 

What is not discussed in the thread is the size of file being uploaded. The problem is that for most print sizes, 3x5 and 4x6 a 2 megapixel jpg size is fine. But with the newer 8-10 MP many do not know to lower the resolution. Unless one knows that they are going to print 5x7 or 8x10 or above setting the resolution higher is a waste of the card space and camera speed. If the photo is only going to be posted or hosted online then the resolution can be reduced even further to 1 MP or even VGA and thus the upload speed will be greatly improved.

 

J

Here is link to print sizes and Megapixels:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-photos/printing/print-size.php

 

or more detailed for larger prints:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/charts/resolutionChartPopup.html

[Jymi-B]

The computers have card readers and CD drives so you can copy from the card to a CD - bring your own CDs because they don't sell them onboard.

[TheWaywardTraveler]

What is not discussed in the thread is the size of file being uploaded. The problem is that for most print sizes, 3x5 and 4x6 a 2 megapixel jpg size is fine. But with the newer 8-10 MP many do not know to lower the resolution. Unless one knows that they are going to print 5x7 or 8x10 or above setting the resolution higher is a waste of the card space and camera speed. If the photo is only going to be posted or hosted online then the resolution can be reduced even further to 1 MP or even VGA and thus the upload speed will be greatly improved.

 

J

Here is link to print sizes and Megapixels:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-photos/printing/print-size.php

 

or more detailed for larger prints:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/charts/resolutionChartPopup.html

Thanks for all the info!! I do use a higher resolution, because, my pics usually do triple duty; Photoshow online, some 4x6 prints, and then many get printed out in 5x7, with a few 8x10 - I even had a panorama of the Funchal harbor taken from our balcony printed out at 12x36 for DH's office - it looks great (I might do the same with a set of Sitka harbor photos I took).