Not sure that much will come from the fog pics. There was light in the fog, but it was diffuse and grey…looked like twilight even though it is 11 PM here.

While I was up there (and it was very windy) I noticed (heard more than saw initiailly) a weld that had broken on the railing where the tempered glass panels are attached. A 2 1/2 foot square panel of tempered glass had one corner flapping a couple inches back and forth. Told the crew (guest services). Not sure whether they’ll do anything tonight, but seemed worth a quick head’s up. If the panel goes, the mess will be much bigger than if they secure it first.

It still blows my mind to be able to write a blog entry that anyone interested can read while sitting aboard an 85,000 ton ship plowing through a foggy evening on the north sea.

We just had a great meal in the animator’s palette. Good food and I really liked the effects better than those on the newer Dream. They were more subtle, but still grabbed me and dragged me in. If there’s ever an advertisement for the imagineering team, events like that are it.

I’m heading up on deck to see what the foggy evening does to the ship’s lighting on deck. I’m hoping that the fog and the colored lights will make for some great shots. Won’t really know till I get home and get them on the good monitor. Once I have them post processed and am back on a reasonably large pipe, I’ll post whatever seems worth sharing.

The sketches that emerged on the screens during the meal also remided me that need to get my Intuos tablet out and try to take my rather feeble drawing skills to a better place. I’d love to be able to sketch competently…so far I’ve always found more important things to do but I think the time has come to find the time.

Just got back from our outing in the Newcastle area. Took a bus from the royal quay in Tyne and roamed around for a while with the guide describing everything from the local council flats to various remnants of Hadrian’s wall. Stopped at lunch time in BlancSomething where there had been an abbey (where the monks all wore white) long ago. At this point it seems to be a nice, small tourist destination with a little hotel and a few other estblishments. It was an interesting drive in as we were on a full sized tour bus and the roads were not wide enough for anything to pass on the other side. At least once a car approacing frrom the other direction had to back up until we found a spot where they could creep past.

Lorna got to see many, many sheep but onlly from a long distance behind walls (and she said barbed wire). She was also upset that folks up here raise sheep for meat more than wool. Sheep are friends not food.

We had a nice tea and sandwiches lunch at a small eating place in the town, Lorna had a ham and white bread (real country white she says) sandwich with the best scone with whipped cream and jam she’s had in England so far. Lorna notes that the little old church in the village sure as hell smelled ancient. I have pictures, but after burning 100 MB posting pics yesterday, the rest will keep until I’m home.

I grabbed some macro shots of very nice flowers that I’ll post once I have a bigger net link.

Back at the ship by 2:15. I’m going to pull my shots off of the camera chips to my storage drives and get batteries recharging.

As we got back to the ship, a group of local dignitaries was heading out. Looks like they gave them a tour of the ship and lunch with the captain. I expect that the Disney visits will also be a nice boost to the local economy.

I took quite a few shots out the windows of the bus with my little camera. I’m not at all confident that any of these will work out, but it seemed work a try. Not something Ido often enough to have a solid feeling about.

On the Disney Magic and having a great time!

Currently we’re nearing the end of our first day at sea on the Magic. Today was an ‘at sea’ day and relatively quiet. The weather has been excellent. We had a chocolate and wine tasting this morning. Fun, interesting and tasty.

We’ve been meeting folks on the cruise this time. I guess we’re becoming a bit more gregarious this time around. We grabbed dinner with a number of folks who had been on the pre-cruise facebook group and have seen several of them around the ship since then.

So far I’ve taken a few pictures, mostly sunrise and ships on the horizon (and a bunch from Dover and London before we sailed out). We saw a huge wind farm this morning while chatting with a couple we had met at the dinner and I grabbed a few shots of that. Currently my outgoing bandwidth is limited (pay per meg with a first level limit of 100 MB) so I’m going to keep the picture postings down until I get home.

I’m going to try to keep posting as things progress and may extend entries during the day as more happens.

Getting ready for formal-ish night tonight. We didn’t bring full formal wear as our weight and bags were limited in order to make getting here sane.

A few shots from the last few days in reduced size.

Deep in the castle ramparts

Beauty among the ancient stones

The view from our room in London 🙂