Pictures from our 9/3/08 cruise on CCL Spirit Southbound

[Sumy]

I finally finished editing and uploading the last of them. This can give some of you interested in going to Alaska an idea of what you can see and how many great things there are to photograph in Alaska :)

 

Link to Gallery:

 

http://coldfyre.zenfolio.com/f842210103

[SOMBRERO6]

Hi Sumy...Your pictures look so much like ours! We must have done many of the same activities while on the Spirit. You did a great job posting them. It was fun meeting you and David. I hope you are feeling well!...Gail.

[Jugs]

Hi:

I loved your pictures. We were on Northbound Saphire Princess

on 9/6.

 

Which whale watching tour did you take? Your pictures are

really good. We saw some whales, but nothing like yours.

 

Bonnie

[Sumy]

Hi:

I loved your pictures. We were on Northbound Saphire Princess

on 9/6.

 

Which whale watching tour did you take? Your pictures are

really good. We saw some whales, but nothing like yours.

 

Bonnie

 

We did Captain Davey in Sitka, and Harv and Marv in Juneau.

 

Thanks for the compliments! :)

[LoisGriffin1]

Awww the puppies are so cute

 

Great pics

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful pictures.

[Jenbo57]

Great pictures!

 

Now I really can't wait to get back up there next June! :D

[vegs1]

Hi Sumy,

 

Those pictures are absolutely FANTASTIC! I was truly awestruck looking at them.

 

I have to ask...what type of camera did you use? Are you professional photographers? In the photos with whale tails...did you use any special feature to get them as they moved? We are only capable of doing 3 shots in a row and I've never used it. That's the first thing I need to do is learn how to use my camera.

 

We are on the Carnival Spirit next July so I'm interested in your day in Sitka in particular. We are also booked with Captain Davey for first thing in the morning and are wondering if we will have any trouble getting on the first tenders? How did you manage if your tour was early? Also, did you do the rest of the town on your own or through a tour. We would like to do the Raptor Centre also. Any other must sees while in Sitka?

 

Once again...thank you for a look into our future! I can't wait for next July.

[Sumy]

Hi Sumy,

 

Those pictures are absolutely FANTASTIC! I was truly awestruck looking at them.

 

Thank you thank you :)

 

I have to ask...what type of camera did you use? Are you professional photographers?

 

I have a Canon Rebel XTi SLR. Not professional by any means, just an amateur hobbyist.

 

In the photos with whale tails...did you use any special feature to get them as they moved? We are only capable of doing 3 shots in a row and I've never used it. That's the first thing I need to do is learn how to use my camera.

I rented a nice long zoom lens for the trip to use for the wildlife related excursions. I rented a Canon 100-400mm L lens and I used it on both whale watching excursions, I used it at the Raptor Center, for some of the glacier shots on sea day, and for the animal shots in Anchorage. If you click on the Photo/EXIF info tab when looking at a picture on Zenfolio it will give you details of what lens was used etc. Anything shot between 100 and 400mm was using that lens.

 

For the whale shots I made sure to use as fast a shutter speed as I could. I had to bump up to a higher ISO because the day was overcast. I had to use mostly ISO 800 which unfortunately brings up noise and graininess in the shots, but id rather have a sharp and somewhat noisy picture of a whale than a less noisy but blurry picture of a whale ;) I set the Autofocus mode to the tracking option where you focus ont he subject and the autofocus constantly keeps adjusting the focus to track the subject as it moves. You WILL get LOTS of bad out of focus shots. I had to delete more than half of my whale shots because they were out of focus. My camera can shoot about 8 shots in a row before the buffer gets full and it has to write them to the card.

We are on the Carnival Spirit next July so I'm interested in your day in Sitka in particular. We are also booked with Captain Davey for first thing in the morning and are wondering if we will have any trouble getting on the first tenders? How did you manage if your tour was early?

Make sure you wake up early so that you can have breakfast early and get down to the tender area as soon as you can. We took a little longer than we should have and ended up on tender group 7 (basically the 7th tender out). The tender port is NOT the same dock Capt Davey and all other small boats dock at. The dock you need to get to is Crescent Harbor. Its not very far though and since we were late we had to jog there and it took us about 5 minutes, maybe less.

 

Also, did you do the rest of the town on your own or through a tour. We would like to do the Raptor Centre also. Any other must sees while in Sitka?

 

Once again...thank you for a look into our future! I can't wait for next July.

 

We did the rest of the town on our own. Once we got back to Crescent Harbor, Capt Davey gave us great directions on how to get to the Raptor Center. Its a pretty good walk but easily doable. I think it was maybe a 2 mile walk? Its definitely worth the visit, its a great place ;) We walked back to town and made it to the downtown area. We looked at a few shops, some that have some nice russian dolls and other trinkets. We saw the old russian orthodox church and we had a delicious banana split at the pharmacy in town, it has an old fashioned soda fountain and they have sundae's and floats etc etc.

 

Good luck on your trip, you will absolutely LOVE Alaska!

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask :)

[vegs1]

Hi Sumy,

 

Thank you so much for all of the information regarding your camera and the sights in Sitka. My 11 year old daughter will particularly appreciate the banana split info at the pharmacy in town! ;)

 

I don't know anything about photography other than to turn it on and point and shoot. Maybe I'll look into getting a better camera and taking a few courses. I'd love to have even a few pictures of as good a quality as yours.

 

Thanks again.

[Sumy]

Vegs, you're very welcome! And thanks again:)

 

I warn you though about the camera stuff. If you get into it and end up liking it, make sure to get a second job LoL ;)

[Assateague Island Princes]

STUNNING!! Now I'm homesick for Alaska:( !

[Sumy]

STUNNING!! Now I'm homesick for Alaska:( !

 

 

And now i'm jealous that you lived there at one point. Its such a beautiful place!

[SEPyle]

Thanks so much for posting your pics! They are fantastic and I know what a labor of love it is to get them organized and posted! You did a great job!

 

You had some great weather and especially so in Seattle! Did you stay overnight? Our cruise on the Volendam ended in Vancouver; rented a car and drove to Seattle. We only had time to explore Pikes Place and was blown away by all the sights. We'll just have to go back!

 

Thanks again!

[Sumy]

Thanks so much for posting your pics! They are fantastic and I know what a labor of love it is to get them organized and posted! You did a great job!

 

You had some great weather and especially so in Seattle! Did you stay overnight? Our cruise on the Volendam ended in Vancouver; rented a car and drove to Seattle. We only had time to explore Pikes Place and was blown away by all the sights. We'll just have to go back!

 

Thanks again!

 

Thank you!

 

Our cruise ended in Vancouver and we took a carnival transfer to Seattle Airport. We got to Seattle probably at maybe 10 or 10:30 AM. We took a Grey Line shuttle bus back to downtown called, "The Airporter". Once in downtown we grabbed the double decker tour bus in front of the Sheraton that is also run by Grey Line. I wish we had more time in Seattle as well, but we got to see a lot of stuff while we were there!

[Muumuu]

I just think those pictures are wonderful. Am planning Aug 2010.

Also I am a native Miamian and never cruised until we moved away.

Could you list all your excursions and were they with Carnival or private.

[Sumy]

All private

 

Sitka - Capt. Davey - http://www.puffinsandwhales.com/

 

Juneau - Harv and Marv - http://www.harvandmarvs.com/

Temsco Helicopters - http://www.temscoair.com/

 

Skagway - Chilkoot Charters - http://www.chilkootcharters.com/

 

Ketchikan - Alaska Seaplane Tours - http://www.alaskaseaplanetours.com/

[Hogladyrider]

Thank you!

 

Our cruise ended in Vancouver and we took a carnival transfer to Seattle Airport. We got to Seattle probably at maybe 10 or 10:30 AM. We took a Grey Line shuttle bus back to downtown called, "The Airporter". Once in downtown we grabbed the double decker tour bus in front of the Sheraton that is also run by Grey Line. I wish we had more time in Seattle as well, but we got to see a lot of stuff while we were there!

 

May I inquire what you did with your luggage once you arrived in Seattle?

 

We are sailing May 09 and taking the Carnival transfer to Seattle from Vancouver and we have a red eye out that evening and would love to tour Seattle without our luggage!

 

As a fellow Floridian cruising to Alaska how did you pack for Alaska, layers?

 

Thanks.

Susan

 

PS-awesome pics

[Sumy]

May I inquire what you did with your luggage once you arrived in Seattle?

 

We are sailing May 09 and taking the Carnival transfer to Seattle from Vancouver and we have a red eye out that evening and would love to tour Seattle without our luggage!

 

As a fellow Floridian cruising to Alaska how did you pack for Alaska, layers?

 

Thanks.

Susan

 

PS-awesome pics

 

We arrived at SEATAC and just went up to the curbside luggage check in booth for Alaska Air. Checked in our bags with no problem and then headed to the grey line bus counter and bought our tickets to downtown ;)

 

To be honest it was nowhere near as cold as we thought it would be, and thankfully nowhere near as rainy either. We just lucked out big time in the lack of rain department ;) What I wore most of the time when on shore was a windbreaker water proof Tommy Hilfiger jacket and the wife wore hers a lot too. A light sweater underneath it and I was good to go.

[Sumy]

Thanks gameshow!