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October 5, 2005
Cruise Ship Positions and Web Cams
Costa Cruise ships ply the Mediterranean waters, now they ply the Google Earth Mediterranean. This network link 
shows the current position and recent tracks of the Costa Cruise Ships. When you click on a placemark you get current weather conditions for the ship, and a current "live" webcam photo from the ship. It's interesting to check in every few days and see the different locations the cruise ships are located and the resulting web cam picture. Some of the ships are experiencing bad weather, but don't worry - I'm sure there are plenty of fun things to do inside the ship. Put the link in your My Places folder and it will automatically update with the latest position and the latest web cam photos.
I'm not sure if this was created by the company themselves (found this in this post), but I think it is a good way to advertise the Costa Cruises. It would be even better if they included some quality marketing photos through the network link for each location automatically based on the ships current position or destination.
Posted by FrankTaylor at October 5, 2005 8:21 AM
Comments
Posted by: ludwig at October 5, 2005 3:36 PM
A great idea by Costa Cruises.
Won't be long before all Cruise Lines and ofcourse
many private yachts can do the same.
Virtual-voyaging is certainly a reality!
Posted by: Bill McLeod at October 5, 2005 9:35 PM
Thanks, and the creator of this is not the costa company, but a small french company "Glooton", we have done this for the fun
Posted by: Glooton at October 19, 2005 1:25 PM
I turned the data into much of the same, but then in 3D, with possibility to follow any single one of the ships. Check it out at:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Number=749807
Posted by: Sven at January 10, 2007 9:05 PM
That's great!
Now my Google Earth is tuned up, great idea :)
I don't know how exactly this was put together, but it really tracks the ships, no doubt about that.
I was surprised to see even the smallest Mediterranean cruise ships tracked...
Amazing :D
TravelTalker
Posted by: Travel Talker at May 3, 2008 9:59 AM
This is great, I really wasn't expecting this to work anymore due to the age of the post, but I was pleasantly suprised when it did. Some of the ships need to take a squigee to the cameras but overall it's informative and fun.
Live streaming video next!
Posted by: Northstar Cruises at May 27, 2008 2:22 AM
Hi there, I started a new website for lovers of cruise ships. It is a site about stories about tales of the seas.
Posted by: Sean B. Halliday at July 2, 2008 12:04 PM
None are working for me, I just get a ? where the images should be.
Good idea though and a nice way to promote cruise lines.
How about a cam on their waste port so we can see when they're dumping in our ocean.
Posted by: Ben at July 10, 2008 12:11 PM
Hey, this is great, I have downloaded it, I appreciate it, but there are just a few things that bug me with this add-on:
- I was looking for add-ons to make these ships "move", in order to find their real positions at real time, like right now where is "Carnival Paradise"?
- very few ships are in it... many major ships, such as those of Fred Olsen cruise line are missing :(
Otherwise it's a handy tool :)
Posted by: Fare Target Cruises at July 23, 2008 9:22 AM
The only bug about this is that the ships cannot be made to move at all...
I was looking for a software that would allow at least a weekly refreshing of the ship positions...
Posted by: Travel Guide at April 14, 2009 9:28 AM
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I dont know if this network link is made by the company, but I took a costa cruise last year and i was was surprised to find out that i could track their ships during the weeks previous to my trip, it was quite fun of course with the antiipation of the trip and then letting know other friends and relatives that they could keep track of us during my holidays. I think that this is an excellent use of googleearth.