twangster

In some cases but I still take a picture of the paper one on my phone and use it.

Empress is going there next year (St Georges and Hamilton).

They are up now on the website. Definitely some nicer and different ports of call on some itineraries.

She's coming to Montreal, will execute a couple cruises from there, Quebec City too. While not at your backdoor, at least they are sailing from the right country :)

PlanIt Pro It's paid app, but for night sky photography it's pretty great.

A7III Full frame with ultra wide angle lens are the best for astrophotography. If weather holds I may try again depending on ship heading. I'll think about giving the RX100 a shot.

As I sat on a public forward facing deck looking out into the night sky while sipping a scotch I could make out passing wisps of clouds above us. Over time I realized one "cloud" wasn't moving and was constant. That's when it dawned on me it might be the milky way. I have an app that shows the position of the milky way and other celestial objects. Sure enough, the app confirmed it was the milky way. Empress has forward public decks that are ideal for this since the bow is always dark at night so the bridge can see better. That will be more of a challenge on Harmony. Sometimes small ships are better

With our fabulous dinner over around 10pm I was too full to retire so I changed into shorts and went for a walk outside on deck 6. Venturing forward we were sailing into some sea mist from the warm waters yet cooling air and there were some clouds in the sky but I also glimpsed what I thought was something I've photographed before in the night sky. So I went back to grab my camera and mini tripod. I've often sailed into the sunset but tonight we were sailing into the milky way. Capturing the milky way requires long exposures but on a moving ship in the ocean it took some playing around to find some settings that worked. With the 10 to 15 second exposures I was using I managed to catch some lighting in a distant storm on the horizon. The bow is dark at night so the bridge crew can keep watch. The long exposures captured enough light to make the bow look like it's illuminated but it isn't, that's just low levels of ambient light The sea mist, clouds and moving ship didn't make for the best astrophotography conditions but I'm pleased with the results. More lightning: On land the stars would be more precise and clear, that's the problem with shooting from a moving platform, but I'll take the results.

I've only seen it once before, Liberty I think last year.

I stopped drinking rum a while ago until I tried Kraken. Kraken isn't like many other rums and now it's the only rum I'll drink. I haven't given Goslings a chance yet so I can't provide a fair comparison.

Earlier I mentioned an invitation to the Hotel Director's Table for dinner. With only two Pinnacles on board I managed to make the cut. We met the Hotel Director Julie and Guest Services Manager Jorge where we enjoyed a beverage in the lounge by the Schooner Bar. Shortly after we were led to the Captain's Table in the main dining room. Our menu for tonight: The meal was excellent and the conversation with fellow guests, Julie and Jorge was wonderful and engaging. So much so that I forgot to take any more pictures. Julie and Jorge have a lot of experience and time with Royal Caribbean and it was very interesting to hear their stories from over the years. Jorge is the voice over the PA for many announcements such as "The ship has been cleared by local authorities and you are welcome to go ashore on deck....". I also caught an announcement back on the day 1 of the 2nd leg that at the time made me go "hmmm". Jorge will address the crew over the PA before general boarding starts but since I was a consecutive cruiser I caught the announcement. Since Julie is from the UK Jorge specifically called out the number of UK guests coming on board and made another humorous related comment. Tonight Jorge explained he does these little off the wall comments to make sure the crew is paying attention and engaged. It's a long running thing he does every week and the crew will pay attention each week to what little quirky thing he'll throw in this time. It's all in good fun and a great way to keep the crew happy and engaged. Julie is the third female Hotel Director in the fleet and she has done an amazing job here on Empress. Sitting next to her at dinner I asked about her rise to Hotel Director and being in this role as a female. She is very proud of her accomplishment and clearly has earned it. It's great to see Royal Caribbean advancing more women into senior positions. After an incredible dessert we were presented with a memento of the occasion. Julie and Jorge are both nearing the end of the current contracts with just two more sailings to go, but they'll be coming back. The future of Empress was discussed and there will be an announcement very soon with some new and different itineraries for Empress. She isn't going anywhere just yet and they are taking advantage of her small size to return to some more interesting destinations that larger ships can't visit. Out of respect I won't say more but I'll be keeping an eye out for them very soon and I know I'll be booking more cruises on Empress. Wow! What an amazing evening! Loyalty does have it's rewards.

Stray observation... I noted one of my Crown and Anchor wines had a corkage sticker applied to it. This would be to indicate that this bottle would not have the corkage fee applied should I bring it to the dining room. The same wine from last cruise did not have this sticker. Crown and Anchor Top Tier Event in Boleros at 5pm. The Empress orchestra played while we waited for the event to begin followed by some dancing by the championship Ballroom couple Annamaria and Alessio. The Captain spoke and among other things informed us there were 501 Crown and Anchor members on this sailing. The management team was presented and each did a brief introduction. Crown and Anchor breakdown: 330 Gold, 76 Platinum, 23 Emerald, 53 Diamond, 17 Diamond Plus, 2 Pinnacle. With a total guest count of 1,799 this sailing that means there are 1,298 new to Royal cruisers on board. Finally one of the main theater cast sang while members of the orchestra played. Returning from the last cruise was the comedian and hypnotist John Moyer in the main theater. More guests briefly lost their belly buttons. Tonight was formal night and the Captain's address took place in the Centrum.

Day 9 - Sea Day Another beautiful sunrise but enough sun pictures. Flat seas. I bought Voom this morning saving $40 from day 1. Voom has been sporadic today. Pretty good at first Then it completely went out for a few minutes. Then it came back but slower. It's like we switched to a different satellite or something. Our position this morning. All day Voom has been hit and miss. Normal at times, then gone. Basic texting has worked okay and at times I was able to sneak a phone call in here and there then at times those failed miserably. Can't wait until we reach land tomorrow for some super fast Mexican internet. If this keeps up I'll be tethering my laptop to my phone while in port.

Nope, just my "I shouldn't have had that last drink last night" shaky hands. Set exposure to at least 1/60 second and let camera take ISO where ever then clean up the noise in Lightroom. My cameras have image stabilization so that helps in low light.

You do realize you don't have to eat everything on the plate right?

The guests on this cruise have been pretty quick to find the late night Windjammer spread. At 10:30pm when it opened there was a line not unlike a lunch time crowd. With the doors open the line stretches from the food past the hand washing stations and into the elevator lobby. It's pretty busy in here. Hopefully Royal can see the demand here on Empress and expand beyond the basic Burgers and Hot Dogs offered on some ships. The more complete Windjammer selections here on Empress have been pretty popular. The late night pool parties continue on this cruise.

Stepping out from the Centrum onto deck 6 outside I discovered a sunset. I've been pretty fortunate with sunsets and sunrises on these two cruises. The Celebrity Equinox sailing away into the sunset. A Celebrity silhouette of Equinox. Cheers! Did I mention Empress offers great views of the sea? The bartenders rotate bars every two weeks. Nicholae took great care of me at the Schooner Bar last week, now he's posted to the pool bar. Chill mode enabled.

Another great show in the theater tonight. The Royal Caribbean production Bailamos featuring the Empress singers and dancers plus live music from the Empress Orchestra. Rock the Room game show in the Centrum.

Key West Departure Guests were better at getting back on board on time this time. Ten minutes after all aboard time we pushed away from the pier with no names being paged. The Equinox was the first to leave followed by Empress. The rock climbing wall was open. A lot of parasailing on the other side of Sunset Key. Another view of Majesty. The distinctive Viking Crown Lounge. With Equinox clear of the channel it was our turn to follow the narrow path to the sea. Latin night in the Windjammer. Not a bad place to enjoy a happy hour drink.

When you have the drink package the bartenders or server will get $0.80 to $0.90 for every swipe of your card. That's less tip than I'd give a bartender on land for a drink so I often give them a $1. When it comes to water once I've established a tipping pattern offering a tip for a bottle of water is optional. It's not like a cocktail where they have to make it, they just grab a bottle and hand it to you. Ultimately it's up to you.

In my belly! Not that I've noticed.

Not really, no. I guess there are so many other sounds you don't really hear the gym. Plus I think by 4pm when the VCL bar opens most people aren't working out.

Kenneth my cabin attendant dropped of some mail this morning. Apparently I'm invited to the Hotel Director's Table for formal night on day 3. When I packed for this cruise I brought my scuba gear which took a lot of space (and weight). As a compromise I packed mostly casual type clothes planning on using the WindJammer a lot. This wasn't a great cruise to leave anything dressy at home so off I went into Key West to find something that will allow me to "Dress to Impress". Hint - Key West is a laid back, not so dressy town. It's wasn't easy finding something. Lots of t-shirt shops, not so many dress shirts and dinner jackets to be had. Had a slice of Key Lime Pie while I was off. Yum. Some pictures of Majesty while I was off. Also I thought more about the new now old beverage cup. Looking from the inside out I couldn't see an RFID chip. However looking from the outside into the bottom when backlit I can see a rectangular antenna near the center and a dark mass to the right of it that I believe to be the chip. Not sure why the cup thing became such a focus but now I can move on and get on with my cruise.

The ship arriving after us grew larger and I started to see an outline of a Viking Crown Lounge. The unmistakable outline of a Sovereign class ship. Majesty of the Seas. Looks like RCCL is going to own the port today. Majesty is distinctly larger than Empress but also displaced from Cuba.

Finally the sun started to breach the horizon. We had been following another ship into port and I was thinking it might slip into the prime Mallory Square location leaving us possibly at the Naval pier but it appears the first ship in got the Naval pier. On the bridge wing display you can see just how narrow the shipping channel into Key West actually is. The sun ventured behind a cloud briefly. It's the Celebrity Equinox! With another ship arriving behind us that meant we had a good chance at Mallory Square again. Indeed Mallory Square for a second trip in a row.