Sailing in the Evening on the Disney Dream

Cruises are exciting during the day because of all of the fun things that you can do during the day, whether you are exploring a port or just hanging around on the ship. But everything takes on a different look when the sun goes down.

As you can see here in this view from our recent Disney Cruise, the sun had just gone down, peeking through the heavy clouds that had filled the sky for most of the day. In fact, even with all of the rain that we received during our cruise, we were treated to some pretty nice sunsets. This photo was taken at the end of our day of exploring Nassau, after we had finished eating at the first dinner seating. We were getting ready to enjoy the Pirate Night festivities, and we took some time to enjoy the evening before watching Muppet Treasure Island, one of Laura’s favorite movies, on the big Funnel Vision screen, which you can partially see on the back of the funnel here. That is, if you can take your eyes off of that magnificent sky! Who says that clouds are bad, anyway? Skies like this are much more interesting than clear skies.

For the Pirate Night festivities and fireworks later on in the evening, the crew had closed the cover over the pool, so that the space could be used as a standing area and dance floor for all that would be happening later on. But for now, there were not many people out there. One look at the wet surfaces will give a clue as to one reason why there were not more people. Fortunately, the rain had ended, and everything was able to happen as it should. The other reason that there were not more people out was that one group was in the second dinner seating and many of the other group had probably gone to see the magic show in the Walt Disney Theatre. Or maybe it was just that not that many people were interested in seeing Muppet Treasure Island under the stars. Or the clouds.

For whatever reason, I always enjoy finding areas of the ship with no people in them, especially if it is a wide open area such as this. That is no small feat when you have almost 4,000 passengers on a ship, but it does happen from time to time. But even so, you can still see a few people here if you look closely. I suppose about the only times you can find the ship almost completely deserted are either in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. But since I usually tend to be asleep at those times like everyone else, I am fine with not getting photos during those times.

As the evening went on and the time for fireworks approached, more and more people filled this area. Which is fine, of course, and completely natural. Fireworks always draw a large crowd, after all, and it is easy to see why. But it is still fun to find a few quiet moments when you can get them.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. - Psalm 23:1-3

About the photos:

Even though I later went to our stateroom and grabbed my tripod for fireworks photos, these photos were just handheld photos, and there was still enough light that a tripod was not absolutely necessary.

You may not notice it, but for these photos and the photos of the previous post, I have made a very slight change in processing, opting not to use the Detail Enhancer filter of the Google Nik Filters. It gives the photos a slightly different look, but as I said, it is not major. And I am definitely not saying that I will never use that filter again, but rather just that I have not used it for these photos. There is a time for every filter, after all.

Also, this photo is similar to one that was used in a post at the Beyond the Berm website:

The Beyond the Berm photo was taken just moments before this one, but it has a bit of a different look because I used very minimal processing with that one. That was largely because I needed something quick at the time, but that one still looks good, too. Maybe a little heavy on the color saturation, but that sometimes comes down to one’s opinion.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 9, 2017
Location: At Sea on the Disney Dream