#Cruising101
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desertdad.bsky.social
Another #PSA for the younger generation. When a dad nods his head...that is an open invitation to say hello. #Cruising101
handfree.bsky.social Grandpa Chub Bear @handfree.bsky.social · Jul 21
CRUISING THE DICK DOCK
July 21, 2026 at 11:01 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
Excerpt from the Alaska timelapse just for #bluesky
Music: Liborio Conti

#photography #photooftheday #alaska #bigboat #Cruising101 #onwalkabout #timelapse #naturephotography #sunset #sailaway
July 25, 2025 at 6:59 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
Closing out today's #blueskyartshow #openhouse with a moving #momentofzen. Got some Chicago Bears highlights to catch up on..!

#videography #Cruising101 #Alaska #babyitscoldoutside #gopro

Music by Liborio Conti, check out his youtube channel 👍
December 21, 2025 at 7:48 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Was a guest on a @princesscruise.bsky.social this past week, first one I've been on. It was an interesting experience. Not at all what I was expecting. Took some pictures, took some notes... #Cruising101 #photography #Alaska #onwalkabout
Looking back at the wake left by the travel of a cruise ship. I think we're being followed. One of the inner dining areas on a Princess Cruise ship. It's a Western theme, with leather or wood surfaces, and warm mood lighting.
June 20, 2025 at 6:05 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
For the absolute best experience, be one of the .05%. That's the ONLY way to really savor the cruise ship cash grab. Every single cruise grosses in the millions just for tickets, but still there's a sales pitch around every corner. #Cruising101 #photography #Alaska #onwalkabout
Their interior designers really know how to do a job. My time-lapse rig 😂. A GoPro7 on a cheap tripod, bungeed to the balcony rail to counter the wind. Detail of gentle ocean swells.
June 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
Get the wifi. Just do it.

And the drink packages are really designed more for the alcoholics than the normies.
#photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
Sunset over the Alaskan coast, with the clouds drawing a line of shade over the ocean's surface. Hours past sunset off the Alaskan coast. The light would simply persist until close to midnight. One of several Alaskan cruise ports. The waters of the bay mirror the adjacent cruise ship, the mountains in the background, and the clouds and #bluesky above.
June 21, 2025 at 10:40 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
Ngl, maybe mask up. The plague rats hogging the elevators are just the beginning. Walking through the ship you will be trapped by the Sunday strollers in front of you, and haunted by the footsteps trailing at your heels. Think bird flu. Think measles. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
One of the bars on board, closed in port. Golds and browns and blue highlights for a little pop #colortheory Close up of the crystal elements in the Promenade light colums. The stars spiral the bulbs, illuminating them from within. There was a boat behind us.
June 21, 2025 at 3:48 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Ultimately your mileage will vary. I set out to see if a good time could be had in the horde with someone as anti-people as me and yeah it's totally doable. You can lunch with the lemmings every day, or put some work in and really get away from it all. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
The mountains above #Skagway While sailing out of #Skagway we turned a bend & saw what we decided were recent avalanches (the spray of grey/brown) with some frequency atop the passing mountains.
June 26, 2025 at 8:09 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
You will hear that you are on vacation. Do not take this to mean you have actual freedom. You're still bound by the expectation that you have fun exclusively in the way that other people think is fun. #Cruising101 #photography #Alaska #onwalkabout
A view of the boat's central Promenade area, opulent with massive crystal light fixtures and polished brass highlights. Cruising the Alaska coast. Very 'Hunt for Red October' vibes during these moments. Most things out there don't react well to missiles.. Another view of the boat's Promenade. Crystal lighting, spiral stairs, very posh.
June 20, 2025 at 6:20 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
Put together a little montage of timelapse clips from last month's Alaska adventure. Thank goodness for people who make decent music available for free..! #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout #timelapse #naturephotography #GoPro #wildkingdom with fixed credits 😬

youtu.be/N-GVSMQfrAQ
Timelapse: Alaskan Princess Cruise
YouTube video by Dave the Wet Sprocket
youtu.be
July 25, 2025 at 12:47 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
The buffet is the boat's official Petri dish. Funkiness incubating out in the open, fed by the hot breath and greasy hooves of the hungry horde. Off hours will be the best time to find a seat. #photography #Cruising101 #Biology101 #Alaska #onwalkabout #Skagway #OMsystem #EM1ii #naturephotography
Turns out I brought a great lens for everything except the boat itself. The 40-150 just wasn't wide enough to really capture the scale of the boat I was on. Those have all been with the phone. But for dialing into the scenery, the 150 end was pretty awesome. Bumping up to a 300 someday is the plan. Kinda bummed that covid had me on my back through the real photo day at Glacier Bay.
June 26, 2025 at 3:13 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
I was impressed by the potential of the #Cruising101 experience to deliver interesting memories, was less impressed by Princess Cruises. If you weren't on a sun deck, you coulda been in any convention center anywhere. Felt like erring on the side of eh. Cookie cutter luxe. #photography #onwalkabout
The Princess-branded smokestack of the Caribbean Princess, berthed across the way from us. In Alaska. Nowhere near the Caribbean. That woman in the logo? She's looking for the Caribbean. Looking for this really, where I can be waterproof and well-bundled with natural sea legs or else whoa - and standing gloriously above it all, Captain Morgan-style, camera at the ready, capturing card after card of perfect shots. And then pizza.
June 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Take the stairs. There are no enforced limits on elevator occupancy, so those fill up fast with the perverted plague rats that love, love, looove to pack in like panting sardines. These people absolutely WILL kill you if you let them. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
We're s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g, we're shopping. Checked out an art auction on day 2(?), because they have actual freaking *art auctions* on the boat. First item sold at the gavel for $65k(😱), though given the mediocre interest in everything else, I suspect that might have been a plant to loosen wallets early. Come on, it's a nice day for a white wedding... One more from the sky deck. Pools, entertainment, grandeur, check.
June 21, 2025 at 3:41 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Explore the ship as early as you can. Identify the fast routes through the occupancy decks to avoid the public promenades. Remember that steps are your friends, elevators are not.

It's also a chance to discover things to revisit with a camera..! #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
The white levels are pretty close here, this is pretty close to IRL on the steerage decks. Very hotel/hospital vibes. You would seriously never know you were on a boat. That is a questionable design choice, in this essay I will Wall art from one of the boat's bars. Picture of a picture of a sailing schooner against a map and compass arrow. All in sepia. All evocative and stuff. All nothing like the experience you're actually having 🤔 Yeah in some ways the boat was the biggest obstacle for me. Most of the time you'd never know you were on a boat. It was just a hotel with maddeningly narrow halls. I wasn't expecting steel decks and grey paint, but the occasional (even decorative) hatch or porthole or *anything* suggesting something beyond a rocking Ramada Inn?
June 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
davepomes.bsky.social
These 101 posts read like complaints, they're not. They're learnings. Never met a single staffer that wasn't gracious or trying to be helpful.

It's the lines that are the flaw, having designed the experience only for the wealthiest common denominator. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
View from the balcony of an outside cabin, starboard side, looking towards the bow. That walkway bubbling out directly overlooks dozens of cabins/balconies. You don't want one of those rooms. The weirdo running this account #selfportrait
June 21, 2025 at 4:21 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Shore excursions are great chances to recover some of the ol' mental health. The ship will empty out & for a few precious hours the world will make some sense again.

Unless you didn't get the wifi, then you'll have no idea what the world is on about. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
At the Mendenhall glacier in Alaska's Tongass Nat'l Forest. As time was expiring on the trip, a powerful cloud system rolled in fast. Maybe 10-15min from when the clouds appreared to gale-force winds that stung your face with bits of plant debris moving at velocity. This photo of the Alaskan, US, and NPS flags was taken in the middle of the windstorm. The flags were clapping loud that day. An 'excursion' ended at a salmon bake with incredible scenery and horrible food. Lady puts the fish on my plate & says, "there's some bones in that one, be careful. Would you like a second piece?" If they were giving me bones on the first round, I saw myself getting the fish's pucker with the second. I asked her, "what would be the point?" and joined my group. Pulled out about dozen near-death experiences while everything got cold.
June 22, 2025 at 6:01 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
The cruise experience IS fun, but it will take work on your part to determine how that fun can be had, in the face of and sometimes despite all the obstacles presented by the cruise line. Your happy place may not be buried under other cruisers. #photography #Cruising101 #Alaska #onwalkabout
The Promenade space on the boat, looking forward from the upper deck. Opulence, finery, and an off-center photo op heart in the middle that kinda triggers me. The Promenade space on the boat, looking aft from the ground level. Très chic. The boat's sky deck, standing forward and looking aft. Pools, a jumbotron, and the majesty of Alaska in the background. Suck it, Promenade deck.
June 21, 2025 at 3:25 AM
davepomes.bsky.social
Tl;dr, #covid, #outbreak, #PrincessCruises, #StarPrincess, #Alaska, #Cruising101, drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest 👍

My 1st official positive, but it's just hitting me like a hard cold/mild flu so it could be a repeat. The gf is totally wiped out, wouldn't have thought to test otherwise.
June 21, 2025 at 4:06 AM