Lolospringmann

Can’t wait to follow along. So excited for your adventure! 

The desired effect worked and full relaxation mode kicked in.

Quick update.  
Uber to port had me there just before 10am.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures of terminal G, I’ll post those soon.  
Boarding started at 10:45am.  First on board.  I ran into the Pinnacle doing a B4B who was with me on my B2B.  Julie our Hotel Director saw me and came over to chat greeting me by name.  There will be 12 pinnacles on this sailing.  It’s also the last cruise of her current contract.  Jorge the Guest Services Manager saw me and welcomed me back.  
Right now I’m sitting at the Schooner Bar where Wayan and Roland recognized me and welcomed me back.   
Just like that I feel like I’m home.   

Howdy Y’all. I joined this board less than a month ago and in 10 days I will be on Liberty of The Seas. I’ve been reading all the live-blogs and I decided today that I am going to live blog my cruise---or at least try.
So a little background on this cruise, it started out in late as a Father Son (me) cruise. At the time we were trying to decide between another western Caribbean (this would be my 4th of those) or to Cuba. After much deliberation we decided that we cared more about the ship than the destinations, so we booked the Western Caribbean (and boy did we get lucky with that decision…no more Cuba now)  in an interior stateroom. Early July rolls around and we start watching some videos of our room, my Dad who has only cruised junior suites or higher was a little alarmed with the size and upgraded us to a Junior Suite. Then we get to mid July- my Mom asks to join the cruise. So we start to price it out and decide that we need to get an additional cabin. Well when looking at the cost for who to solo cruise vs. adding a 4th person was so small that we decided to add my girlfriend. So we add her and my Mom to a Balcony. Great everything is set in stone 1 month prior to the cruise. WRONG. We had one more big change. July 10th my father decides he wants a Grand Suite with my Mom. He calls to upgrade and they don’t have availability, so we get on the wait list. On the 15th we get a grand suite 1 bedroom. That brings us to today.
Where we stand now.
When: August 11, 2019 + 1 day before
Where: Cozumel, Falmouth, George Town, a day at the Houston Space Center the day before
Rooms:
Junior Suite-with me (Kyle) and my girlfriend (Natalie)-we are still keeping our fingers crossed for a cancellation to upgrade to a grand suite or for the same to happen with our RoyalUp bid Grand Suite (1 bedroom)-with my Mom (Brenda) and Dad (Ross) Extras:
The Key Deluxe Drink Package Unlimited Dining Package All Access Tour Galley Brunch Excursions:
Atlantis Submarine Tour-Cozumel
Trolley Roger-Grand Cayman
About Us
Me (Kyle) - I’m  21, and a Diamond status for the first time this cruise The Girlfriend (Natalie)- 22, first time cruiser, never been out of the country, got lucky with C&A and they matched her to Diamond Mom (Brenda) – Suite Lover, Diamond Dad (Ross)-  Suite Lover, Diamond I am really excited for this vacation and can’t wait to share it with y’all. I’m very interested to see for myself how the Key works out for us and compare it to the suite perks and Diamond perks. Most of y’all have much more experience with cruising and live blogging but, if y’all have anything you would like me to look at/investigate/ ask I would be happy to! 
Thanks for reading.

I've been getting a number of questions about how I shot the Milky Way photos.
I shot this using a full frame Sony A7III with a Sony 12-24mm lens.   A crop sensor body that most people shoot wouldn't be able to get this wide.  The A7III also has really good low light performance, night and day from my last full frame body, a Nikon D750.
Also keep in mind I have a pretty good investment in gear.  Body and lens for this shot are ~ $3,700.  Not trying to brag but let's keep expectations real.  A <$1k kit can shoot the Milky Way and produce some nice results but maybe not achieve the same results.
Camera settings shown at the top, Lightroom adjustments below that.

Using Adobe Lightroom I added a lot of clarity and adjusted other light levels and white balance.  This is why I shoot in RAW.  There is a lot of data captured in a RAW file that can be manipulated using software such as Lightroom.  Shooting in JPEG would lose all this extra data and you would never be able to achieve these results.  This is how JPEG produces a lower file size, it throws away all the extra sensor data it doesn't need for a JPEG picture.  A RAW file is much bigger because it contains all the raw sensor data that was captured.
Original picture as it was captured on the left, final picture on the right after adjustments in Lightroom.

The one on the left is closer to what you see with the human eye.  Between the two brightest stars you can sort of see a cloud like area with the human eye that is the center or heart of the Milky Way.
Keep in mind I've been shooting the Milky Way for several years now so I've got some previous experience on land with a firm tripod.  On land you have more control and can take longer exposures, up to around 25 seconds for this focal length.  That allows you to lower ISO or make other adjustments for better results.  I wanted to keep the exposure shorter because of the ship's movement.
I use an app called PlanIt Pro.  It has an AR feature where you can hold up your phone, adjust the time or date and it will show you where the Milky Way will be at that moment in the future.
After we left Belize heading North to Cozumel I used this app to see when and where the Milky Way would be on Night 11.

This tells me the MWC (Milky Way Center) will be visible between 8:43pm and 3:07am.  At 12:16am the MWC will be as shown for the location we are at this moment in time.  On land that works well, on a moving ship you don't always know where your position will be in six hours or the heading of the ship hours later so there is some guess work and extrapolation involved, but at least you know what direction to find it. 
With a full moon the results would have suffered a lot.  I don't try to shoot the night sky on land most of the moon phase, it works best without moon light.  New moon was perfectly timed for me, that's just luck.   For Costa Maya it was July 31st. 
The MWC in the Northern Hemisphere is visible at night in summer months only, you can't shoot the Milky Way in the winter up here but you can down under.
There is also a lot of luck involved.  Based on the cloud cover after leaving Belize pictured above the Milky Way would not be visible.  I got pretty lucky two nights in a row with the ship heading South towards the Milky Way, on the right phase of the moon, without major cloud cover.  Costa Maya and Belize are close so the ship was only moving at ~8 knots.  
I don't always bring my A7 with me, that's why I have the RX100VI - for travel.  I threw the A7 in my backpack at the last minute.
I was in the right place at the right time with cloud cover that was in my favor on a slow moving ship with the right gear.  It's pretty rare to get all that working in your favor on a cruise, on a ship with a public area that is dark.  I may never get another opportunity like this. 

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 found some time to stitch together a series of video clips that I took in between taking still photos of our morning in Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier.  11m52s
 
 

Such a gorgeous series of blogs.  Thanks so much for sharing.  It seems like an Alaskan cruise can be an extremely self-reflective and very emotional type of trip.  Perhaps it is the beauty, solitude, peace and tranquility that the location provides.  Quite unlike a Caribbean trip, as it seems more impactful; both introspectively and spiritually?  For some reason, I felt like shedding a tear when I viewed your last few days and closing shots.  Thank you for the "trip" you gave us. It was like watching art! I greatly appreciate your camera work and minimalist narratives.  You are a very talented travel writer in your own right.

The cruise ship terminal at the pier in Sitka has shops for those last minute typical souvenirs.

It's an active boatyard for servicing the smaller fishing boats and it's been quite busy with a number of boats being lifted out of the water and maintenance performed on the hulls.  

Back in my cabin I looked down to see this guy walking around with some king crabs.  

Basking in sunlight I thought it might be an opportunity for some photos given how overcast much of the day had been so I headed up.

Bumper cars were going with a small line as bumper car lines go.

No line for the North Star so why not?




Soon after our sail away commenced and we started to see the landscape we missed in the morning due to the heavy cloud cover earlier.

Pictures don't do it justice.  It's simply breath taking views everywhere you look.



Some flowrider action.

Plus some instruction going on in the iFly.

It was Diamond happy hour so I happened across the North Star bar.

The North Star bar has been a favorite place to get a drink and soak up the views.  

Looking back towards downtown Sitka on the lower left.






Our position as we turned into the Pacific to head North towards Hubbard Glacier.

I really enjoyed this call at Sitka.  The presence of the largest ship to ever visit was the talk of the town.  Extra buses were brought in and anyone who had a commercial driver's license was engaged to keep guests moving.  Our bus driver on the return shuttle to the ship lives in Juneau for the summer but was flown over to work in Sitka for the day to make sure the shuttle lines between the ship and town were never too long.  After we leave he'll fly back to Juneau where some of us will see him driving a bus there.