Caribbean on Regal Princess, December 2015

In December 2015 we did two back-to-back Caribbean cruises from Fort Lauderdale on Regal Princess over Christmas and New Year.

Here are a few photos that will hopefully give you a flavour of the area and what we got up to.

Miami

Before the cruise commenced we had a day in Miami so headed to South Beach on the bus from the airport which is quick, cheap and painless.

Unfortunately it was incredibly windy to the extent that the beach was pretty much a sandstorm so we couldn't spend much time on it.



Chloe and Alice used to be glued to Miami Ink on the TV when teenagers so had to take a look at the studio where it was filmed.

Day 2 Nassau, Bahamas

It was (relatively) cold and windy for our our departure from Fort Lauderdale on December 20th but thankfully the weather was much better for our arrival at Nassau early in the morning.



See that tower in the picture above? This is the view from Fort Fincastle next to it.



We shared the port with three other cruise ships including the largest of the all Allure of the Seas. That's the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island behind it.



This was taken when sailing out of the harbour.

Day 4 St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Disney Fantasy was also in port.



Cruise ships dock at Charlotte Amilie, the capital of St. Thomas



Looks like there's plenty of money about...



Chloe and I went snorkelling here.



Then to this beach. That's our catamaran, Castaway Cay.



Luckily we didn't need to follow the directions on this sign.



There's a cable car right outside the port gates that takes you to the top of the hil.. We were there at sunset. That's our ship in the foreground.

Day 5 St Maarten

Next stop, the half-Dutch, half-French island of St. Maarten/Saint Martin. The post is a short ferry trip away from the capital St. Philipsburg, seen to the right of this picture.



The most famous 'tourist attraction' on the island is the airport, or rather the beach under the flightpath. Unfortunately we were there in the morning as we were booked on a tour in the afternoon so missed all the long-haul flight arrivals. This was the largest plane we saw land.



The port, and island, is incredibly busy: there are probably some 15,000 people on these four boats combined, and I think there's room for a couple more.

Day 8 Fort Lauderdale

To accommodate Americans who generally only do 7 day cruises, we headed back to Fort Lauderdale mid-cruise. The waterfront properties, belonging to the rich and famous, cost a fortune.



Here's a great view of Fort Lauderdale beach.

Day 9 Princess Cays, Bahamas

Our first tender port: where the lifeboats are used to tender people ashore.



Princess Cays is the cruise line's private beach resort on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera.



Just to prove we've been there...



Chloe, Maria and Alice taking a dip in the warm Atlantic waters.

Day 11 Grand Cayman

In Grand Cayman I took a cycling tour to Hell and a turtle farm. Hell doesn't look so bad, does it...



The village gets its name from these hellish looking limestone formations



You can get hands on at the turtle farm, which raises the endangered Green Sea Turtle.

Day 12 Island Of Roatan, Honduras

Next stop, the purpose-built cruise ship port next to this beach on Roatan. We had a great day there, in a private cabana right on the water's edge.



This is the view from the side of the ship.

Day 13 Mahahual, Costa Maya, Mexico

Mahahual is in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing for 50 miles except for mangrove swamp. We too a tour to Mayan ruins at Chacchoben. Traces of the original red paint are protected under the canopy on the side of this pyramid.



Arguably the spider monkeys that live in the trees there were more entertaining.

Day 15 Fort Lauderdale

On our last day, before heading back to Miami airpoty we stopped at the Everglades Holiday Park which, as you can see below, is home of the 'Gator Boys' who appear in a Animal Planet TV show.
First, we watched a spot of 'Alligator wrestling'...





before taking a ride in an airboat





We didn't see many alligators in the wild but this one swam right past the boat.



Our last stop was Flamingo Gardens, a small botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary.



Clearly the residents are getting plenty of shellfish to eat.



This cormorant was sunning himself in the aviary while another prunes in the background.



After that it was off to the airport for something to eat at Chilis, then a 7 hour flight back to the damp and cold...

Canada, August 2014

Here are ten photos taken in Toronto and Niagara Falls, August 2014 during our round trip of Lake Ontario.

Toronto

A view of the Toronto waterfront, taken from the tourist boat trip to Toronto islands.

In the middle of all the skyscraping condos is the old roundhouse, part of which is now a brewery, I believe. The other part is the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre which looked really out of place among the shiny steel and glass surroundings.

Here's a view at dusk from the CN Tower. We had a meal in the rotating restaurant there which was incredibly expensive and, to be honest, not that good. The view, however, was spectacular.

It was very difficult to take photos because the lights inside were reflecting off the windows. Pressing the lens right up against the glass didn't help much because they still reflected off the outer pane of double glazing. This one was taken near a pillar which minimised reflections.

Niagara Falls

Here's the view from our hotel window. Yes, it did cost a fortune. Parking, breakfast and Internet were extra...

That's the USA across the water. The American falls are to the left, the Horseshoe falls on the right. The bridge between Canada and the USA can be seen on the left.

You can get really close...

At night the falls are illuminated from the Canadian side with Xenon lights. This is the American falls.

The American falls by day. The 'Hornblower' boat operates from the Canadian side and sails into the Horseshoe falls.

This is the view from the American side looking over to Canada. We were staying in the curved hotel second from left.

A view looking across the American falls towards a viewing platform.

The 'Maid of the Mist' operates from the American side, despite the flag...

Niagara Falls is a fantastic place. I bet it would have been even better 200 years ago before it was commercialised.

On balance, the Canadian side offers better views and facilities than the American side although it's good to see it from both perspectives.

It's a fantastic place!

11 Photos From Norway...

... and one from Southampton.

On most cruises I go on I take hundreds of photos, many of the same thing, at different angles and exposures and never get round to sorting out the wheat from the chaff. So, I've started this blog to encourage me to do so and showcase my favourites.

This first post contains twelve taken on our cruise on Independence of the Seas from Southampton, 17-25 May 2014, to Skjolden, Flam, Olden, Alesund and Stavanger.

Day 1: Southampton

Spending the afternoon before departure on the top deck of a cruise ship in Southampton often provides opportunities to photograph other ships coming and going. Here, the CMA CGM Columbia is being maneuvered round tight corners to the container port in the River Test.

It was a sunny but murky afternoon, so the photo needed some levels tweaking to restore the colours of the ship its containers.

Day 3 Skjolden

Our first stop was at Skjolden, which is right at the very end of the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in the world, which stretches some 130 miles inland from the North Sea.

After spending all day traversing the fjord we arrived at Skjolden at 4pm. We did a tour to nearby Urnes which is home to the oldest stave church in Norway, whose timbers have been dated to the 12 century.

Photographing it proved challenging due to the number of people there who were milling about outside. Luckily just before our coach left, those that arrived on a later coach went inside leaving the churchyard and path clear.

Day 4 Flam

Bright sunshine and blue skies greeted us at Flam, also in Sognefjord. I walked round the edge of the water at about 8am to take this photo. The sun was low and incredibly bright which necessitated -2 exposure compensation to prevent blowing the highlights, which is easily done when photographing white ships on dark backgrounds.

The deep blue/green waters of the fjord are almost like a mirror.

The highlight of Flam, indeed the whole cruise, was a trip on the 20Km Flam railway which climbs 850m from Flam to Myrdal, which was above the snow line, in about a hour.

On the return journey I alighted half-way down, at Blomheller, then walked the 13Km back to Flam, while Maria remained on the train.

The walk provided many opportunities to photograph the train. This one was the best. It's a shame, isn't it, that the train isn't painted a colour that would provide more contrast between it and the scenery...

A selection of photos from Norway wouldn't be complete with one of a waterfall... This one was taken on the walk down the Flam valley. The noise made as the water crashes onto the rocks was incredible.

The stave church at Flam, at the bottom of the valley. Stave churches are now unique to Norway, apparently.

Sailing hundreds of miles down fjords provides many opportunities for photographs but most that I took all look the same -- water, mountain, sky -- and suffer from low contrast due to the mist that seems to hang about all day, even in sunny conditions.

This one, however, taken shortly after leaving Flam, summarises them all: the distinctive colour of the water, lush forests on the lower slopes and snow-capped mountains in the background. Note the road cut into the side of the mountain.

Just before we went to bed at 11:30 pm I went out onto the balcony and was greeted with this scene. The sun had just disappeared behind an island just off the right hand side of the photo.

Other than tweaking the levels, there's no post-processing.

Day 5 Olden

Olden is at the end of another fjord, the Nordfjorden. The main attraction is the nearby Briksdalsbreen glacier to which I took the coach trip to. It was an hour's up-hill walk from where the coach dropped us to this point. It was not cold but there was an incredibly strong wind in the valley presumably caused by the temperature change.

The black specks on the rocks bottom left are people, which gives some idea of the size of it.

Typical of most places cruises dock at in fjords, Olden was tiny, with a population of 500. However it had the fastest mobile data rate I've ever experienced through my phone: over 8Mbps.

When you see cruise ships at Southampton they tower over everything around them, but here the vastness of the Norwegian landscape makes it look tiny.

Day 6 Alesund

The day started bright enough but it wasn't long before the clouds descended and rain ensued. That didn't stop me taking the 400-odd steps to the viewpoint at the top of the Aksla hill that overlooks the town, though...

Day 7 Stavanger

A much nicer place than might have been expected given its size and connections with the oil industry. Here, our ship is berthed in front of Old Stavanger, a delightful area of the city.

Here's a view from the top of the ship of Stavanger harbour. The small boats take tourists to nearby Lysefjord, a trip we did earlier in the day, when it was a bit overcast, to see the Pulpit rock, waterfalls and goats.

That's your lot... I hope that's given you a taste for Norway. It's a fantastic place and one I hope to to back to one day with more time to explore. May is a good time to go, when the peaks are still snow-capped and the waterfalls more numerous.