I love skylines.  The most familiar to me throughout my childhood was the Atlanta skyline.  As a kid riding in the backseat on long road trips to our family in Mississippi or vacation home in Florida, I would look forward to the 20 minutes we spent driving through Atlanta.  I didn't even mind sitting in the traffic.  Whenever we would detour for some reason and go around the city, rather than through it, my heart would sink a little in disappointment.  To this day, whenever I drive through Atlanta, my eyes divert from all electronics (if I'm driving, it's a little hard for me to keep them on the road) and stare happily out the window for the fifteen or twenty minutes it takes to cross the city.

While the skyline during the day is beautiful, there is something about seeing a city illuminated at night that just makes my heart sing.  So in Los Angeles, my heart sings quite often.  And on the overpass, I have to constantly remind myself to keep my eyes on the road.

The overpass is incredibly tempting to me.  I want to just pull over on the side and stare out at the city... and take out my camera and tripod for long exposures of the beautiful Los Angeles skyline illuminated at night.  But I fight the temptation because that's incredibly dangerous and also, I believe, illegal.  So I went to the internet for suggestions of parking garages that I could access for nighttime views of the skyline.



Someone on a photography forum suggested the parking garage at The Grove, an upscale outdoor mall in West Hollywood.  Shopping and photography?  Sounded like the perfect combination to me!

Starting on the  Royal Princess over Christmas, I've made it a habit to bring my tripod and remote so that I can take long exposure photos in the late evening or early morning around the ship.  Between 11 PM and 6 AM, most guests are in their staterooms which allows for the opportunity to take photos of large public spaces without people.  Not only that, but the lighting design on the latest cruise ships has become quite beautiful, and taking photos after dark allows you to really showcase the light both indoors and out on deck.

I was especially excited to photograph the Disney Fantasy because the ship is so beautiful.  On the first night of the cruise, Max and I were walking back from the hot tub late at night, and he even admitted that he was excited to photograph the ship because the lighting on the Disney Fantasy is so incredible.

Well.... in all of the fun that I was having with my family, enjoying activities that the Disney Fantasy had to offer, I put my long exposures off until the last night.  This was a mistake, and I will never be so careless again because on our way from Castaway Cay to Port Canaveral, we sailed high winds, rough waters, and periods of rain. I was really upset with myself and concerned that I wasn't going to be able to take the photos I wanted.

Cabanas

We started in Cabanas because I absolutely love this mosaic and wanted to make sure that I photographed it.

Saturday, March 22 - A Fun Farewell Day at Sea

Are you sad? Because I'm sure sad!

We started off our final day at sea with the Seaday Brunch in the Blush Dining Room.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - Aruba

Max requested to eat breakfast in the dining room - that's something I haven't done in several cruises! It turns out that Max paid a great deal of attention every evening when Subrata would tell us what was in store for dining the next day because he always knew where the special food was.

We wanted a table for two and had to wait a bit for it, but the view was well worth it...



Service felt rushed and impersonal. When we were ordering, I asked for an omelette with scrambled eggs. "Do you want an omelette or scrambled eggs?" I couldn't have both? I was caught off-guard and told him just the eggs.... big mistake!!!

December 30, 2013 - Pool and Magic Kingdom

Rachel looked at the week's forecast and decided that this was the best day for her pool day. The sun didn't come out until the afternoon, though, so we spent the morning sleeping in and watching Disney Channel.

Also, something to note is that the Waldorf Astoria is kind of like a Vegas hotel in the way that you may be getting a five star resort room for a three star price, but the food is still the five star price. If you're wondering prices, it's like a bowl of cereal for $7 or a cup of coffee for $4 (though the room did have a Nespresso machine with free cartridges that the restocked throughout our stay). It's just obnoxious because I could buy a box of Frosted Flakes for $4 - I find it immoral to charge $7 for a bowl. My point is it's not higher quality food, it's just more expensive. Food at Walt Disney World hotels is much more reasonable.

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 28, 2013 - At Sea

Today, we got up early and sat in the pool chairs which are on risers. We were able to watch The Proposal on the movie screen.



I couldn't get close to the ice carving demonstration, and I never figured out what they were making.

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 27, 2013

One of my goals for this trip was to take long exposures of the ship at night. This is something that I kind of started on my Epic cruise with a gorillapod. This cruise, I brought my travel tripod and remote with me. I knew that I wanted as few people as possible in the frame, and like I said before, the key to that is patience..... or getting up remarkably early. I set my wake-up call to 5 am, and while I did not want to get up, I knew that the photographs would be worth it, and I'd regret it if I didn't.

I started with the pool deck.

EPCOT

After resting, we headed to Epcot. Our first stop was Test Track to use our FP+. This was the first time we've done the new Test Track (which was changed from its old GM test track theme in late Fall 2012). It was still a 20-30 minute wait with FP+.

My first complaint is that when they have you stand on the numbers outside of the car design room, they want two to three people to stand on a single number. This really confuses people, and everyone seemed to want to stand on different numbers. The CM then had to explain over and over that two/three people needed to stand on the SAME number. Which is impossible because the dots are small and they are close together. They really should put three number 5s on the ground or whatever so that everyone gets their own individual "dot" to stand on.

Rachel and I designed a car together, and my mom and dad did a car together. Rachel and I just clicked stuff, but my dad was trying really hard to make a good car.

 Here's ours:



I think we should've gotten some extra design points because the kids behind us thought it was awesome.

This Monday, I finally got around to taking the long exposures around Columbia University that had been on my to-do list.  I'm so glad that I didn't put this off any longer.

We had the day off for Independence Day.  Our only real plan was to watch the Macy's Fireworks over the Hudson River, but we didn't really know how to go about doing that.  The Macy's website listed where the barges would be and where to view from, but we didn't know how early it was necessary to be there to reserve spots.  We also didn't know if we'd be allowed to bring coolers, chairs, and the like for holding spots after reading mixed reviews online.  I decided it was worth it to try to bring my travel tripod.

We got off the subway at 34th Street, and after talking to our friends who were ahead of us getting there, we knew that we needed to start moving south.  We ended up finding a location at 30th and 10th, right by the High Line.  Because of the construction, it wasn't the prettiest view.

I think by the time we finally got settled, it was 7:50 PM.  We thought fireworks started at 8:30 PM, but they ended up starting at 9.