I'm back! See where I've been...

zackiedawg

zackiedawg

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Staff member
Well I feel like I've been away from the forums here forever! ; I had a busy week leading up to this recent vacation, getting cleared at work and making a big enough hole to leave for 12 days, then I had the actual vacation, and the week since has been all about getting caught up at work and getting through all my photos. ; Anyone miss me? ; ;)

I took a lovely 10-day cruise to the Southern Caribbean onboard the Emerald Princess ship...calling at Princess Cay, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Bonaire, and Aruba. ; We were supposed to be calling at Dominica instead of St. Kitts, and were supposed to be going in the exact opposite order through those islands, but Hurricane Thomas caused us to rearrange the schedule a bit! ; The cruise was wonderful (obviously, one would think...though in light of the folks who spent 3 days eating spam off San Diego, I guess you can't take anything for granted!).

Please do visit my gallery from the cruise - all photos are captioned:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/emerald_princess

And soon I'll be returning to normal here on the boards, in the leadup to Pixelmania. ; This weekend I have a few projects to do, but I'll be getting back into my rhythm at TMIP, and looking forward to getting back up to Disney - because, it's been far too long since I've had a vacation. ; :)
 
Thanks guys. ; I'd say I missed everyone too - but I must admit that I was fairly esconced in the cruising mode and the ridiculous coddling and service aboard, and pretty much would have stayed aboard for another month if I didn't have to get back to work. ; But I have been thinking of TMIP since I've been back!
 
There are a lot of some very nice shots in there Justin! ; I really like the Iguana against the waves. ; It reminds me of the scene from Oceans in a way.
 
Thanks Roger. ; Those iguanas definitely don't mind the water - they all hang out along the shore...just like our green iguanas here in Florida that hang out by all the canals and intercoastal waterways. ; Aruba was a good wildlife shooting opportunity - that was the one island on the whole cruise where I brought my 300mm F4 with me for the walkaround.
 
I just hope I see such weather in the Caribbean someday. ; Probably not much hope for a January sailing is there?
 
You never know - Caribbean is always about the same - not much change throughout the year. ; Maybe it takes the edge off some of the heat, but I haven't ever been out there where it wasn't sunny 90% of the time, and I've cruised a lot! ; Haven't ever done a January, but I've cruised from March through November in my 26 cruises, and never had more than a day or two of them be ugly. ; Go for it!
 
Beautiful shots Justin! ; I am so going to have to make it to the Eastern Caribbean to see this for myself. ; Looks like you had a great time! ; See you in a few weeks.
 
Awesome shots Justin. ; The "movie poster" sunset could look like it is from Star Wars if there were two suns! ; I know, I am a Star Wars geek! ; I really like the caribbean parakeet shots too!
 
Thanks guys. ; That movie poster thing was something I wanted to capture - I was actually thinking of a poster for 'Empire of the Sun'...but that super-zoomed, partial mirage sunset with the hot colors has probably been used in 10,000 films! ; Finally, I have one of my own. ; ;)
 
Justin,

Fantastic cruise photo set. ; The flying bridge and seaplane really caught my eye. ; And of course a cruise is nothing without your fellow table mates. ; We have always enjoyed meeting new people on our cruises.

Here's to a future Pixelmania Cruise!
 
Thanks Paul. ; You've got that right about meeting people - we had a great table on this cruise, and our table got along so well from the beginning - we all stuck together, went to the specialty restaurant together as a table, and exchanged e-mails. ; I've got quite a few long-distance contacts from cruises past, some of whom I've even ended up cruising with again.
 
Oh my, Justin. ; I just had to jump on here a bit and tell you how much I enjoyed your Princess Cruise gallery. ; I was considering them for an Alaskan cruise next year, decided to go with Disney but now I'm questioning that decision and wondering if I should defect to Princess. ; Their land/ sea tours are alot more attractive. ; I'll have to give it some consideration. ; Looks like you had a great time!
 
not to hijack the thread, but we are booked on the first disney alaskan cruise, and it was a hard decision, because except for the cachet and swag that will only be available to those on the innaugural, there are a lot of other cruise companies with some serious add on land packages, that enable seeing a lot more of alaska than disney is currently able to offer. this is primarily because dcl is coming very late to the alaskan cruise party, i'm actually surprised in some ways that they have been even able to get port slots, i know skagway in particular was thinking of trying to reduce/spread out the number of ships in port on any given day, they have had days with as many as 10 ships in, that's quite an infrastructure strain on a small town. and i don't care how well you plan, or how nice the weather is, that many people in a town of that physical size, reduces the experience for everyone.
 
I have not really found any cruise line to be disappointing - I generally don't do Carnival, but otherwise I've had wonderful cruises on Costa, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Celebrity. ; I wouldn't worry too much about picking the wrong ship - the Disney ships are gorgeous - the land tours might make bit of a difference - but if you haven't done Alaska before, let this be the taste, and if you like it, you can always go back on another line! ; :)

Sounds cool, Gary - the inaugurals are always fun - either of a ship or a route. ; I agree with you on the small places with too many or too big ships - spoils the whole culture and feel of the place. ; Even on 'private islands' that all the cruise lines have - a small chunk of land with 3,000 people dumped onto it...the first thing I do is take a walk to get as far from people as possible so I can enjoy the unspoiled land. ; All the places I go, I tend to jump in a taxi or take a long walk, and get far from any signs of other tourists - I want to see the history, the people, the culture, experience the music, taste the real food, and not some packaged tourist experience. ; Those small Alaska towns are just overwhelmed and overrun when multiple ships are in port, and all the dockside areas are being filled with the same generic stores as in the Caribbean...sad!
 
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