"Short" is not really in my wheelhouse
THIS IS a new blog and a new idea for me. The inspiration for this blog came while aboard the Celebrity Apex recently in the Baltic. My plan is for this blog to center more on the travel and cruising aspects, and less on photography. There will be plenty of illustrative photographs, however. Photography has been my enthusiastic endeavor for many years and it cannot help infuse itself here. I began my blogging adventures in the early 2000's and never really embraced the then conception of a blog: short, punchy, frequent content. Indeed, my "blogs" have always been more of a journal style publications. "Short" is not really in my wheelhouse. 😁I have about 15 years of cruising to cover, with more on the way. So - we will see how far this one goes.
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Diamond Princess - Whittier, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
THE IDEA, here, is to talk about all things “cruise,” but from my own personal perspective. I expect the blog to contain a lot of my own travel anecdotes, stories and photos, as well as some commentary on travel and cruising. I am certainly aware that there are already 100's of "Cruising" Blogs out there. Some of them are pretty darn good - and always interesting. I will link to some of them here, eventually. So, without further background, let’s get started. My first cruise was an Alaska, “Inside Passage” cruise in 2010. Prior to that time, I had never set foot on a cruise ship. My perceptions about cruises were inaccurate. After 13 years and multiple cruises, I often find that to be the case when I discuss cruising with others. Hopefully, I can give a better picture of cruising through my “eyes” here.
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Diamond Princess
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
UNTIL I spent some actual time on board, my idea of a cruise was a big, floating party in the Caribbean, with all-you-can eat, mediocre buffet food. I am happy to say here, that that was a major misconception. Of course, my perspective is limited to only a few cruise lines, and the reading and talking I have done with other cruisers. But it is important that you do your research and choose the cruise line for your own tastes. There are “party” cruise ships. Let me make clear from the beginning that my target audience here is not the party cruisers. My cruising focuses on travel.
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Diamond Princess
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
IN A very overgeneralized way, I will characterize the cruise industry as having 3 basic levels: “Luxury,” “Intermediate,” and “Budget.” These are my own labels and in no way attributed to anyone else, or to the industry. I just find it a convenient way to separate them. We avoid the ones I call “budget.” We also avoid the ones I call “luxury.” There are reasons for each; often nuanced. We will touch on these distinctions over time through several blog posts.
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"Crooners Lounge" - Diamond Princess
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
THE IDEA, here, is to talk about all things “cruise,” but from my own personal perspective. I expect the blog to contain a lot of my own travel anecdotes, stories and photos, as well as some commentary on travel and cruising. So, without further background, let’s get startedY FIRST cruise was an Alaska, “Inside Passage” cruise in 2010. Prior to that time, I had never set foot on a cruise ship. My perceptions about cruises were inaccurate. After 13 years and multiple cruises, I often find that to be the case when I discuss cruising with others. Hopefully, I can give a better picture of cruising through my “eyes” here. |
Diamond Princess
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
UNTIL I spent some actual time on board, my idea of a cruise was a big, floating party in the Caribbean, with all-you-can eat, mediocre buffet food. I am happy to say here, that that was a major misconception. Of course, my perspective is limited to only a few cruise lines, and the reading and talking I have done with other cruisers. But it is important that you do your research and choose the cruise line for your own tastes. There are “party” cruise ships. Let me make clear from the beginning that my target audience here is not the party cruisers. My cruising focuses on travel.
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Diamond Princess Balcony
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
I WAS very lukewarm about cruising. My wife was interested in trying it. My brother-in-law had been on a couple warm-weather (Caribbean) cruises and was in favor of us all booking one. Reluctantly, I agreed. But on one condition: I got to pick the destination and cruise line. Fortunately for me, they agreed. I chose Alaska's Inside Passage, and Princess Cruise Line. At that time, my limited research had boiled things down to Holland America or Princess, based on ship size and amenities. My "gut" told me that Princess was going to be a better "fit" for our needs. We sailed on The Diamond Princess. As you can see from the images here, party decks and wide-open buffets wasn't the "total picture." Instead, what I found was more of a "Poseidon Adventure" look, but much more modern, with a mix of nice amenities. There are lots of different "spaces" on these ships, which create places you can go and not feel like one huge crowd in a room. While I did take to the grand ballroom dining arrangements, with a set table and time, as we will see, the industry - at least with the bigger ships - has moved away from that to more flexible dining arrangements, often with smaller, numerous dining rooms.
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Diamond Princess - Skagway, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
YOU MAY have already noted the emphasis I am applying to the travel theme. At the time of the first cruise, I had always wanted to visit Alaska, and this seemed like a good way to see a good slice of a huge state, in a short time. For me, the ports and excursions were of primary importance. I will touch on that in future posts.
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Creek Street - Ketchikan, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
I AM a photographer, and my travel will always have a huge photographic component to it. So, even for this first cruise, we didn't even consider anything but a balcony stateroom. We have never looked back (and I cannot see myself being happy in an inside stateroom - or even just a "porthole" room). You can see the evidence (my tripod) on the image here of our balcony. Because we were going to be seeing scenery and in particular, calving glaciers, the balcony turned out to be a real positive. During certain parts of the cruise, I spent the majority of my time out there while we were under way.
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Inside Passage - Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
AS WE have "evolved" in our travel experiences, my equipment has changed in a significant way, a phenomenon I will discuss in future posts. But for this first trip, with little "long" travel experience under my belt, I carried all my equipment, including a relatively large, Nikon DSLR camera, several lenses, and a large tripod.
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Gastineau Channel - Juneau, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
PHOTOGRAPHICALLY, THE cruise did not disappoint. I brought back thousands of digital images. But more importantly, perhaps, I became a convert to cruising. It was very different from my expectations. I will call Princess in the "intermediate" category, perhaps near the top. I would place it above Norwegian (NCL) and Holland America, but a notch below Celebrity (which I was not familiar with at the time). Celebrity gets my vote for the best of the intermediate cruise category - the one we most often sail on. Hence, the "play on words" title for the blog.
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Yukon Territory - Alaska/Canada
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
EVERYTHING IN life has pros and cons. So, with cruising. The pros (perhaps outweighing the cons to us) are substantial. As you can see here, the staterooms are nice. They are surprisingly spacious and comfortable. The main advantage here is that you unpack and pack only once during the entire cruise, and the stateroom moves (often around the world) with you. Along with this, on the two lines we have spent the most time on (Celebrity and Princess) the food is very good (again, a notch better in our estimation on Celebrity) in the main dining rooms. These ships also offer "specialty" restaurants for an upcharge (the main dining rooms are in keeping with the "all you can eat" theme of cruising). We have had some great meals in both areas. Our experience with the specialty restaurants has been generally good, but recently, the upcharges have increase in an amount which makes us question whether the incremental quality step is worth the charge. the buffets are - well - buffets. As that goes, they are decent. We mainly only use them for breakfast, the occasional lunch, and sometimes, snacks. Most of these ships have additional facilities. We like the burger and dog grill near the pool, for example, as a lunch venue (also part of the included amenities).
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White Pass Railroad - Skagway, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
THE BIGGEST "pro" for cruising it the ability to move around a geographical area and see a lot of different parts of the world. But that "pro" also reveals perhaps the biggest "con." You do see lots of places, but generally the visits are rather abbreviated. Most stops are only for the day. This means an in-depth experience of a city or place is not really possible. Many cruises have at least one overnight port, and in those cases it is possible to delve in a little more deeply. But our approach to that has been to return to those spots we want to spend more time in, pre-cruise. On a 2019 cruise, we spent less than a day in London, our first trip there. What we saw intrigued us enough, that in 2021, prior to a cruise we flew into LHR and spent a full week in the city (which still doesn't even scratch the surface there).FOR A photographer, there is an additional negative. Generally, the best light for photographs is early morning and late afternoon/evening. The ships generally cruise during the night and arrive at ports in the daytime. Usually, by the time we are off the ship, the light has begun to deteriorate (in terms of "golden hour" photography). Most often, we are leaving the port during and immediately before the afternoon "golden hours"). I have had to adapt to the idea that most of my shooting during shore trips will be during the middle of the day and try my best to capture things accordingly.
THESE HUGE ships do provide on huge "pro" though for photographers: point of view. The top decks are equivalent to a multiple story building, and I have been able to get some pretty great "grand landscape" shots from them - often when there are still nice lighting conditions.
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Eagle in Flight - Tongass Narrows, Alaska
Copyright Andy Richards 2010 |
THE ALASKA Inside Passage cruise was a bit of an exception to my generalizations above. We had a few unique opportunities to photograph landscapes from the moving ship during the cruise. And occasionally, the excursions provide opportunities - sometimes that were not anticipated by the participants. On one such excursion which centered on the Alaskan fishing industry, I have an unprecedented (and probably never repeated) opportunity to photograph eagles in flight at very close distances. That one instance during the weeklong cruise, created a lifetime of memories.
THE ALASKA trip held a kind of personal memory for me. I had the perhaps normal childhood tensions with my father, particularly in the late teen years. But after graduating from law school and establishing my career as a transactional attorney, over the years we grew very close. Dad did not retire from his private engineering practice until December of his 72nd year. He was an outdoor lover and enjoyed hunting and fishing. But not enough. He was a workaholic and a selfless family provider. He never took the time he perhaps should have for himself. I recall a number of times him telling me that one day he wanted to go to Alaska. But shortly after retirement, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer Disease, and though he made it to 78, he never really did any of the things we think about in retirement. He never made it to Alaska. I remember sitting out on the deck on evening by myself and telling him as I choked up a bit, that this one was for him! He would have loved it.
WE WOULD not cruise again for nearly 2 years. But this time, I succumbed. Up next, A Caribbean Adventure.
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