Hockeyman55

On 7/22/2022 at 11:49 PM, Traveling Mike said:

These pictures are from Symphony of the Seas Cabin 10139.  That is the last cabin on the 10th floor.  I watched the show multiple times during the week.  The high wire walkers started right next to my room.  

We were in the room right next to this room on Harmony and had a pretty good view of the show as well, was trying to get the last room but someone beat us to it. In April we are sailing on Wonder and have the last room directly across from your room and pretty excited about it    Not only to you get the show but you get some great ocean/port views as well

9 hours ago, IzzyB said:

The price is for 8 people. 

On a side note, are the the same Hockeyman that was on a universal forum?

The one and only   

I'm still on there occasionally but most to post my them park photos. Been awhile, how have you been?

So are these priced per person or per cabana? We currently are going in April 2023 with a group of people and one group booked a floating cabana for $1,900 but was curious if that was just for the two in his room or for 8 people?

This is how we dressed up for the first formal night on Harmony last May. The second formal night we ditched and at at Jamies Italian 

 So some of you might have followed along from my previous post from our cruise on Harmony this past May, well . . . . . we went and did it again. We just recently booked 2 room for 6 of us on Symphony of the Seas for May 2020 and couldn't be more excited after the fun we had on our last cruise.  We are officially hooked on cruises and our kids are constantly asking us if it time for the next cruise and then get sad when we tell them not yet. 

 There will be six of us all together with myself, my wife, our 3 girls who at the time of sailing will be 9,8 and 6, our youngest will be turning 7 on the last day of the cruise, and then my brother. We loved our balcony rooms in the boardwalk section last year and went with those again, drink packages and John Rockets meals where a nice perk as well.

This trip will be headed out to the east side of the Caribbean with stops in Labadee, Puerto Rico, St Thomas and Coco Cay 

442 days to go, lol. 

So tomorrow we get to book our next cruise for May 2020. Will start a new thread for that, super excited. Stay tuned. . . .

On 6/6/2018 at 10:30 PM, twangster said:

This blog is getting to be an expensive place to hangout. 

Since I'm going to Alaska in a few weeks I've picked up a Sony A7 III to see how it compares to my Nikon D750.  I blame @Hockeyman55 for this unexpected expense

The low light level performance of the Sony looks amazing and I like to do low light photography.  Nikon is threatening to release a mirrorless system next year but they have the legacy baggage of a million Nikkor lenses that Nikon enthusiast keep in their closet.  The reality is a mirrorless system calls for a new approach to a lens mount.  No doubt in my mind Nikon's first attempt will be super expensive with the impossible challenge they face of appeasing a vested user base with a million lenses. 

Since a switch to mirrorless will likely call for new lenses to do it properly, my investment in Nikkor lenses becomes somewhat a moot point.  Enter eBay. 

Between an Alaska cruise in June and a Cuba cruise late July I'll have some cruise photo ops to help me decide which one ends up on eBay.  Unfortunately that means slugging both around until then.

I am a bad influence for sure  Enjoy the new gear, look forward to seeing your pictures.

36 minutes ago, twangster said:

Welcome to Gold!

Why thank you 

2 minutes ago, Matt said:

You will be automatically enrolled after you complete your first sailing with Royal Caribbean (applies to US Residents). Membership benefits begin after you have completed at least one Royal Caribbean International cruise. 

Basically you create your RC account, link your past cruises and dunzo.

Just went and signed on and there it was. Woohoo I have 7 points, lol 

Here's a question, do you automatically get enrolled in C&A after your first cruise or do we have to sign up somewhere?

Hello All,  does anyone know when they typically release dates for summer 2020? We are looking at booking Symphony of the Seas for around that time and see its only available up until April 202 as of now. 

19 minutes ago, Ogalthorpe Haywood said:

Yes but keep in mind that $44 only gets you 6-7 hours max. You could get at least 12 hours in those other water parks.

Yes very true but one big benefit is the savings we would get on food. It costs the 5 of us $50-$60 on for lunch easily at the waterparks, possibly even more if we are at Disney or Universal. And then add on additional $10-$20 for parking depending where you are headed. So i can justify spending the $44 and feel like we got our moneys worth. 

I for one am excited for this expansion but im also a huge waterpark fan and am planning our next cruise to make sure this is one of our stops . I was actually pretty surprised the all day pass wis only $44, when you compare to most other waterparks that charge $50-$60 its not that bad.

On 6/4/2018 at 9:27 AM, Matt said:

Lovely photos!

I need to consider doing more post-processing on my photos, but when I'm on a cruise....

LOL 

I get excited taking the photos and look forward to seeing the results so on a typical night we were back in our room 9-10pm ish and would work on a few then for an hour or so. Then wake up and do it all over again. Think I averaged 5 hours of sleep each night 

On 6/4/2018 at 9:18 AM, Floski said:

Man.....that picture of all your girls on the bench is definitely mantle-worthy!  

 

 

Much appreciated, thank you 

On 6/4/2018 at 1:52 AM, twangster said:

Great photos.

How much post do you do on your photos?  Is the noise level of the night shots straight out of the camera or have you tweaked noise levels?

Thank you 

I don't typically don't do to much besides toggle some adjustments in Lightroom, white balance, lower highlights, raise shadows, adjust clarity, increase sharpness and usually add a little noise reduction. If im working on an HDR photo I will merge in LR and then some minor adjustments. I used to go through a phase where i would do some work in LR and then throw it into Nik Color Efex for some pro contrast and detail enhancements but found that added more noise than what I wanted. 

The night photos I shot using a tripod to be able to get the longer exposure that I wanted and then ran through LR with nothing much crazy done to them. Im not one for using a hundred different layer masks, I don't have the time or patience for that 

On 6/3/2018 at 9:10 PM, Sweety said:

More beautiful pictures.

Thank you 

Some more pictures from our adventure last week.  I am really looking forward to booking our next  cruise, more than likely will be 2020

I had the chicken cacciatore at Jamies on Harmony last week and was pretty similar to chicken parm, so if they wont make it then this might be the closest alternative 

4 hours ago, Matt said:

The casino and pool deck photos really came out nice!

Thank you Matt, was up at 5am to make sure I got some photos without the crowds 

Couple more photos to post from last week

1 hour ago, ellcee said:

I'm on Harmony in a few weeks...would you know if there are any less crowded decks for laying on a chair? Even if there is no pool?

It seemed like deck 16 always was less crowded

10 hours ago, twangster said:

@Hockeyman55's photos are better and it's not the camera body.  He is a great photographer.

Why thank you. 

Question for everyone. How long after your cruise until you don't have your sea legs anymore? I still feel like in on the boat 

On 5/25/2018 at 12:00 PM, Jason.H. said:

Thank you for your flicker link. Amazing photos! Everyone on here should check them out. The theme park pictures should be purchases by the parks to use on there websites and brochures. 

Much appreciated, thank you

I've had some of the parks use some of them on thier social media but that has been about it. 

On 5/24/2018 at 10:07 PM, Floski said:

I'm just amazed at your photography, man.

 

The shot above of the Abyss - is that the moon just above it?   

Much appreciated, thank you. That was part of the slide, that little dangling thing is part of that fish that attracts other fish in the darkness, if you have seen Finding Nemo that fish makes an appearance and tries to get Marlin and Dori