Cruise Ships

could probably use a navigator to get around the cruise ships I've been on but I definitely feel I might have trouble below deck. Would get tired of hearing "lost satellite reception" !
But I did have a little hand held Magellan gps receiver with me on first cruise 5 years ago - just to do my own checking of where we were even though the TV on board showed where we were !
Little brains have to work overtime !

I don't see any reason why you could not have one along, just not too sure of the value - unless you fear you may accidently run a red light camera while at sea - ha ha

you could however make a waypoint for whales that you see out there;)

Miss Poi

We have taken our etrex vista on a number of cruises. We always have a balcony room. We tracked the ships movements as well as area's we docked. Our kids liked checking the waypoints on google earth.

I also took a very old and very slow Magellian unit that connected to a Palm PDA aboard a cruise ship. I don't know why, except possibly the fear of boredom. If you had paper charts to track your course, it may give you something to do while the other 3,499 people aboard play Bingo, and actually provide you with a nice memento you can frame when you get home. I remember coming across an internet site with downloadable software that allowed you to take any digitized map and coordinate it with your (Magellan/Palm) software. Theoretically, if you could get a digitized map of Belieze (or anywhere else) and orient it so north is up, you could calibrate it to work with your GPS. As it was, I didn't take paper maps and I never downloaded the sofware. I spent my time in front of the ice cream machine and the GPS was never used.

Used the nuvi 350 on 2 cruises. One to Mexican Riviera and one to Alaska. Always have had an interest in navigation, since a major at the U.S. Merchant Marine (Kings Point, NY) in navigation before gps - did it the old fashion way with a sextant and the ship's chronometer.

The Nuvi performs great. Shows precise position in lat and long, and a relative position to islands running along the Mexican coast.

Alaska shows more detail.

Not only shows speed, but averages as well to destination, height above water, etc.

Also handy in the car getting to the pier.

We always have a balcony suite, and no problem acquiring multiple satellites.

Question , any poi's that I should load prior to the caribbean cruise ?

it goes into that much detail? do i need to load any applications or is it good to go right out of the factory box?

I'll know about cruise ships in jan 08.

I left mine on by accident while on a plane. My max speed was way up there

Well... a working active GPS.

I know that anyone on a gambling cruise with a GPS is considered law, the law makes sure the vessel is the required three miles off the coast.

Some do and some don't... You can check in the airline magazine when you board. It changes from time to time. I fly Delta who does allow it and Southwest Airlines who use to allow it and now they don't. Go figure.

I used my Magellan on a dinner cruise on the Delaware River once. It was interesting seeing the buoys on the GPS as we passed them and to know the speed the ship was going. I was also on the lookout for fishing spots.

It will show what ever is on the installed maps. So while a Nuvi doesn't have marine or topo maps, if you have all of North America installed, it'll display however far from shore that the map is. Not as precise as marine or topo maps, but it'll do in a pinch.

What year did you graduate? A good friend of mine, Neal Brennan, graduated from there and is a Navy helicopter pilot now. His dad was CO of the USS Texas.

The following site will convert your tracks and waypoints to maps. You could track your travel and mark destinations anywhere in the world and see it on a map later. I would, however, be careful using a GPS while traveling in certain countries especially while near important landmarks, military installations or government buildings!

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

Wouldn't that be sorta useless, sorta like when ppl say, turn right at the cow grazing on the left.rofl...j/k