Panasonic Lumix ZS3 review

In short, the Lumix ZS3 is a fantastic camera. It has a large (3 inch) LCD display, 10.1 megapixel resolution, 12x optical zoom, image stabilization, and it also records HD video. Very impressive, especially for the price.

Image quality is great, and the camera is very intuitive. It even has a fully-automatic mode that automatically recognizes your shooting conditions and switches between macro, landscape, portrait, sports, etc. so you don’t have to (unless you want to).

Also, if you’re trying to take shots of active subjects (like little kids), it has a nice focus lock that latches onto the subject and keeps them in focus no matter where they move within the frame. Very cool.

The ZS3 also has a little brother, known as the Lumix ZS1, which likewise shoots 10.1 megapixel pictures, but sports a slightly smaller display (2.7 inches, and records standard definition (640 x 480) video. For the price difference (about $60 on Amazon), the ZS3 is a no-brainer in my book.

Accessories for your Lumix ZS3 (or ZS1)

If you’re look for a great case to go along with either the ZS1 or ZS3, check out the Tamrac 5691 camera case. The main pocket is just right for the camera itself, and the outer pocket fits the battery charger perfectly.

As far as memory cards go, both the ZS1 and ZS3 use either regular or high capacity SD memory cards. We went with an 8GB card, which is likely way more space then we’ll need.

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Part of this has been due to the high cost of movies, but mainly it’s been due to the continual presence of young kids running around our house. Now that our youngest has reached an age where he can sit still a bit more than in the past, we’ve started going to movies again. What follows is a ranked* list of movies that we’ve seen this summer. These rankings reflect my own not-so-humble opinion, whereas the star ratings are taken from IMDB.

1. Iron Man (8.2 stars)
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (7.1 stars)
3. Kung Fu Panda (8.1 stars)
4. Speed Racer (6.6 stars)
5. WALL-E (9.2 stars)

A few notes: Son #1 largely agrees with these rankings, though he puts Indiana Jones ahead of Iron Man. Kung Fu Panda was very fun, and loved by all. Speed Racer was particularly well-loved by Son #2 (eight years old) and Son #3 (six years old). Pretty much all of us found WALL-E to be a bit, well… Boring. It was interesting to a point and I wanted to love it, but it ended up being little more than one of those Pixar shorts that they run before the main attraction, except that it seemed to run on forever.

Next up… We’re looking forward to seeing both Get Smart and Hancock in the near future.

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It seems like just yesterday that we were in the early stages of planning a Disney cruise, and yet… Here we are in March, having returned from the Western Caribbean over a week ago. Given that it’s still relatively fresh in my mind, I thought I’d put pen to paper (so to speak) and hammer out a review of our trip. With all that transpired, I hope I don’t leave out anything major…

Our Disney Cruise Itinerary

Day 1: Departure
Day 2: Key West
Day 3: At sea
Day 4: Grand Cayman
Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico
Day 6: At sea
Day 7: Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island in the Bahamas)

Accomodations Aboard the Disney Magic

We had a pair of adjoining, interior rooms on Deck 2, Midship. While we didn’t have exterior windows, this was a blessing in disguise as we were able to regulate the boys sleep patterns a bit by keeping them up a bit later than normal and then letting them sleep in longer than they’d normally be able to if the sun was peaking in. Our cabin steward was great, and we were greeted every night with turn down service complete towel creatures of various sorts that he had whipped up (this sort of towel origami is one of their trademarks).

Overall, our cabins were “efficient” but totally sufficient. The fact that we very close to dead center in the ship meant that we were convenient to pretty much everything, and we experienced far less in the way of rocking and rolling when we got into heavier seas. This difference was really evident when we’d return from the upper decks in the bow or stern to our room. While we could still feel the ship rocking, it got a bit rough at times and I can only imagine what it was like trying to sleep elsewhere on the ship.

Recreation Onboard the Magic

Once aboard the ship, there were tons of recreation options. For example, there were three pools topside, including two family pools and one “adults only” pool. One of the family pools (Mickey’s pool) had a big water slide whereas the other (Goofy’s pool) had a huge video screen at one end where they showed Disney movies.

There was also a full-size cinema screening first-run movies, a basketball court near the bow on Deck 10 (the top of the ship), and a fitness center (we worked out nearly every day) and spa (yes, my wife and I got a couples massage).

Children’s Activities

There was a ton of stuff for the kids to do and, best of all, they could do nearly all of it on their own. When we first checked in, they put wrist bands on the kids and issued us a pager. From that point on, we were free to check the kids into age-appropriate areas known as the Oceaneer’s Club, the Oceaneer’s Lab, and Ocean Quest (there is also stuff for teens as well as a nursery, though the nursery costs extra).

The kids are generally split up into 3-4 year olds, 5-7 year olds, 8-9 year olds, and 10-12 year olds and they did activities ranging from sports to games to free play to lab activities. These activities are available from shortly after breakfast until midnight, and your kids can even eat there if you’re so inclined.

We typically checked the kids in for a stretch in the morning so we could go work out, and then again in the evenings after dinner and the show so we could get a bit of time to ourselves in the “adults only” section of the ship.

Disney Entertainment

Given that this was a Disney cruise, it should come as no surprise that the live entertainment was top notch. There were nightly after-dinner shows for the whole family, and there was also a good bit of live music as well as a number of adult shows in the various bars/night clubs on board. Note that when I say “adult,” I don’t mean adult as in risque — rather, these were just comedy and/or variety shows that weren’t really appropriate for young kids.

They also had a number of other events, including a couple of family-friendly deck parties, Disney character appearances, etc. And I’m sure that there was a lot of other stuff going on that simply escaped our notice (I recall hearing about bingo, art auctions, trivia contests, etc.).

Dining

Dining aboard the ship was quite good, though I wouldn’t go so far as to classify it as great. There are three main dinner venues, known as Parrot Cay, Lumiere’s, and Animator’s Palate and you get to rotate through each. One of the nice aspects of the rotational dining (aside from the changing scenery) is that your waitstaff rotates with you, such that they get to know you and your kids and are able to quickly accommodate your preferences. For example, by the second or third night, the kids preferred drinks were waiting on the table when we arrived.

Breakfast and lunch are typically on your own, and you have several choices ranging from buffets in some of the more informal restaurants to sit down service in some of the nicer restaurants. There are also a number of burger/sandwich/pizza-type options at snack bars near the pool. Since all food and non-alcoholic drinks are included in the price of the cruise, you’re free to do whatever you want when it comes to eating.

One dining option that deserves a special mention is Palo, which is the adults-only fine dining option. Palo requires a special reservation and a small additional payment (currently $15/person) but the food and atmosphere are both fantastic. Highly recommended.

Shore Excursions

First stop, Key West. Instead of booking our Key West shore excursions through Disney, my lovely and talented wife did a bit of research on her own and saved a good bit of money by purchasing tickets directly for the Pirate Soul Museum and the Key West Aquarium. Disney has a fantastic docking location in Key West, allowing you to walk off the boat and straight into the middle of the action.

The Pirate Soul Museum was great. It was located just a few blocks from the port, and the boys loved seeing all of the pirate paraphernalia and getting their picture taken with a pirate. The Aquarium, on the other hand, was a bit disappointing. Given what we paid to get in, it was a pretty small-time operation and didn’t have all that much to offer.

Our next stop was Grand Cayman, where we booked an excursion to Stingray City through the cruise line. I went with the three older boys while my lovely and talented wife stayed aboard with Son #4 and got a pedicure while he hung out in the Oceaneer’s Club.

If you’ve never been there, Stingray City is a Cayman Islands must-see. While it was a bit harder for Son #2 and Son #3 to enjoy themselves since the water was a bit choppy and they could barely touch bottom, Son #1 had an absolute blast snorkeling with the stingrays (as did I). He’ll definitely carry those memories with him for a long, long time to come.

Our last ‘regular’ stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. While Cozumel is famous for it’s world-class snorkeling, we were fortunate not to have scheduled any excursions as it was incredibly windy and there were 8-13 foot swells up and down the coast. Definitely not ideal snorkeling conditions. Instead, we just walked around town a bit and then headed back aboard the ship for some swimming and relaxation.

The last stop was a day at Castaway Cay, which is Disney’s private island in the Bahamas. The island was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and we had a blast snorkeling, swimming, and eating.

Disney Cruise Retrospective

All in all, we had a great time. It was a tiring, but fun and relaxing week. And ever since we got home, the boys have been pretending to be back on board the ship, wanting to have “Cruise Parties” almost every night.

Photo Credit: lemoncat1

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» Elf
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All in all, my wife and I were somewhat disappointed with the latest chapter in the Pirate of the Caribbean saga, although the boys loved it. From the looks of the reviews over at IMDB, it seems that the majority of people agreed with our boys, as it’s averaging a 7.8 (that’s quite high for IMDB). In our view, however, the movie ran on far too long and the storyline was far too… Well… Jumbled.

I didn’t realize this going in, but the movie is just shy of 3 hours long (2 hours and 48 minutes, to be exact). Thankfully, Son #4 took an hour and a half nap during the movie or there’s no way he would’ve made it. Aside from that, the movie generally held our boys’ attention quite well, although Son #3 did get a little squirrelly as the movie wore on. Overall, it seems like they could’ve gotten away with a much shorter movie — in fact, I think it would have improved things a good bit if they had tightened up the production.

As for the story itself (and no, I won’t go into detail for fear of spoiling things for those who haven’t seen it), it really felt to me like they didn’t have a clear good idea of where they were going (or how they were going to get there), so they simply patched together a bunch of different subplots and called it a day. Here again, I think the movie would have been a good bit better if they had tightened things up a bit. Then again, they did manage to work Keith Richards into the script, so it wasn’t all bad.

Based on what I read over at IMDB (which I visited after we went to the movie), there’s an additional scene after the credits that we missed. I have, however, Googled a bit to see what it was all about. I won’t mention what I found here because I don’t want to be a spoiler, but the information is out there in case you’re curious. And if you’re planning on going, you might want to stick around to catch the extra scene — if you’re not ready to bolt out the door after nearly three hours, that is.

Oh, and in case you’re looking for a good cheap source of movies (albeit not new release blockbusters like P3), be sure to check out our compilation of free summer movie promotions for kids.

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