lx200gps

Excellent summary, though I would add that the Sanctuary has a much nicer look and feel, better loungers etc and is kept VERY quiet and peaceful, hence its name ;o). Cost is $20/pp for a half-day, $40/pp/day for a full day, or $30/pp/day if booked for a full cruise. The Cabanas are $220/cabana for a full day. They feature two loungers, a sofa, table, TV, fridge etc. Photos of the Discovery Retreat pool area and the Sanctuary can be found on Google. There are also a lot of threads and posts here on CC about how hard it is to actually book the Sanctuary these days.

Thanks very much for that bit of info (and welcome to Cruise Critic, by the way ;o) I would much rather park in a nice covered garage than in an open lot, and for us, that covered garage is still a very easy walk back to the ship, even schlepping a bunch of luggage. How full was the 4th floor? I'd hate to try and park there only to find it was full up. It was my understanding that this lot is usually used by local employees, so I would expect it would be pretty empty when we arrive there on a Sunday in mid-July.

Not sure if it's the same lot, but IIRC there have been a number of discussions here on CC about this very lot. I believe we're referring to the C1 and C2 lots right next to the cruise pier, and next to the Boston police harbor patrol office, easily found on Google Maps/Street View, on Black Falcon Ave immediately west of the terminal building. I recollect a number of users/cruisers saying that they used the C1 lot recently with no problems, but upon arrival had to call the phone number on the sign, to have the attendant walk over from the C2 lot right next door to let them in. I too would very much want to use the covered garage you mention, but a number of folks here on CC keep saying that cruise ship parking is very much discouraged at that lot. When you visited their office, did you mention that you were getting on a cruise ship, and if so, what was their reaction? Thanks for info....

Some of us have been there a dozen or more times. Been there, done that, we would rather spend the day in the Sanctuary than put up with the crowds, tender lineups etc, as there is nothing on PC that interests us any more.

Quite agree. On our recent California Coastal on the Discovery, I had identified a tour in San Francisco we wanted to book, but it had been shown as Sold Out on the Princess website for along time. One of our first stops on Embarkation Day was to visit the Shore Excursions desk, where we had no problem booking that very trip. I fully expect that a certain percentage of shore excursions, like specialty restaurant reservation slots, are held back from on-line booking so as to be available for on board booking.

Hard to say, as the 2024 dates have yet to be published, so presumably those blackout dates are from 2023 as currently shown on the VT web site? As we can see, Jan and Feb are pretty popular times with lots of blacked out dates, so your mid-Feb dates may possibly be on the black list, but we wouldn't know until they are published. Most of those VT blacked out dates shown are around weekends, as is your desired Feb 16/17, 2024.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm only a bit hesitant to call Princess myself, as my last few experiences with doing that haven't worked too well (LONG waits on hold, dropped calls etc; one time I called and when the call went through, all I heard was the agent screaming at her kids in the background, then the line went dead ;o) We do get lots of Emails from one Princess CVP, so I'll try and book through her first and see what happens.

Thanks for the tip. We use a TA who insists she can't book Deluxe Balconies, so I will have to resort to either calling Princess and waiting on hold for hours, or use the services of a CVP, which we've never done. We get MANY Emails from Princess under the name of a certain CVP, though we've never used her. Any idea how (or whether) it would work if I contacted her, got her to book a specific DB that we want, then transferred the booking to our usual TA?

We're contemplating a Deluxe Balcony on a Regal sailing in Feb 2025. The ship still shows completely wide open, only a very small number of any cabins are taken, and when I search for DBs, using the "3 passenger" trick, pretty much every one is still available, maybe 5% are showing as already booked. Sadly, our long time TA insists she can't book a DB for us, claiming they're Guarantee only so we will have to resort to either calling Princess, or using a CVP, then hopefully transferring the booking back to our TA.

Looks like it will sail out of Pier 92. Tons of parking right next to the ship https://www.portsamerica.com/operations/cruise-los-angeles-terminal-schedule

San Pedro uses facial recognition, so "customs" clearance can be very fast. We were off the Discovery Princess last month using self-walkoff and were through the process in seconds, never even had to speak to an agent. We also disembarked on a Sunday and the taxi ride to LAX was, as you say, about 30 minutes in light traffic

One possibility for the OP is Plantation, just a bit down the 595 from PE. Not the 30-45 minutes away, but maybe 20-30 minutes. I just checked Tripadvisor for hotel pricing in late January and the various Plantation hotels are significantly cheaper than those on the 17th St strip.

Great minds think alike, I guess I'm not the only one who does that. I've been a very active AP member since its inception, and I actually had high hopes for it when they made the big change a few years ago. At the time, despite the general hike in redemption points, there actually was a very good sweet spot in medium-haul North American trips, where the points for trips from here in Montreal to, say, Florida were quite a good deal compared to other destinations. That has gradually eroded away, though those trips are still a "decent" value compared to others. Last time I checked, it took more points for us to fly to Halifax than to Fort Lauderdale for example. It's gotten to the point now where about half our trips are done with points and the other half done by purchasing tickets, though having a yearly AP buddy pass has been VERY helpful, with SWMBO only paying $99 within NA.

I had been watching the price of the excursion we wanted for a few months prior to the trip, and it never changed, even as the tour showed Sold Out. The price was exactly the same when we did book it on board at the time of embarkation.

FWIW, it's been our experience that even if an excursion shows as sold out before the cruise, there will probably still be slots available for on-board booking. That was our experience last month on the Discovery. We had wanted to book a specific San Francisco tour, but it had been "sold out" for a long time on line, forcing us to be on the waiting list. One of our first stops upon embarkation was to visit the Shorex desk, where there were plenty of open slots for that very"sold out" tour.

Welcome to Cruise Critic ;o) We sail out of Port Everglades very regularly, (mostly Princess, some Celebrity). We also do self-walkoff and are among the first to leave the terminal. As others have said FLL is very close to Port Everglades (you can actually see the ships from the departure gates at Terminal 2 if you are flying Air Canada). We routinely get to the check-in counter by around 8AM and end up wasting a lot of time sitting at the gate waiting for our flight back to Montreal. So yes, I would expect you would easily make an 11AM flight, particularly if you have airline status (so priority check-in) and TSA Pre-Check. Obviously, if your ship's arrival is delayed, all bets are off.

We dropped off a car at the SP Hertz office across the street from the Crowne Plaza a few years ago. Based on the size of that office, I would highly doubt that they would offer any kind of shuttle, but you'd be advised to call them and ask. If you are mobile, it's a pretty short walk to the terminals, maybe 15 minutes. You could drop off your party at the ship, return the car, then walk back to the ship?

That price is about right, we did it just a few years ago and with tip, IIRC, it came to around $US90, so around $2000 in our money ;o) Any reason you don't want Uber, the system works great down there, there's usually one within 5 minutes of wherever you are?

Can't speak to YYZ but at YUL the NEXUS machines can also be hit and miss. The last time we flew back home, the machines were pretty much all dysfunctional, so we just walked up to the CBSA agent and handed him our NEXUS cards when we couldn't get the machine to recognize us. They are quite used to the machines being down and they have a special form they use to "manually" process passengers. We were through him and gone in about the same amount of time as if the machines were working. Other times the machines have worked fine.

The newer big ships like the Sky, Discovery etc, have a big thick curtain between the two cabin "halves" that serves to block one TV watcher from interfering with the other pretty effectively. We've never had one remote control the wrong TV and provided both keep their volumes down, there's little interference at all..

We fly into FLL terminal 2 pretty regularly, and this is what I would suggest as well. Meet in between at the Delta/Air Canada Terminal 2, halfway between your own two terminals. For reference, the walk from the middle of T1 to the middle of T2 is about 400 yards. I suggest that you will meet under the skybridge at Terminal 2 that connects the parking garage to T2, a big landmark easily visible from far away. It's all easily viewed on Google Street View, and have a great trip.

We've done exactly that a few times in the past, stayed in LB because the two San Pedro hotels (the Crowne Plaza or the Doubletree) were too $$$ or not available. There's far more to do in LB, a much greater selection of hotels, restaurants etc, and the ride over the 710 to SP is easy and quick, especially if your trip starts on a weekend. That being said, the last few times we've sailed out of SP, we've taken to staying half way between LAX and SP, in Torrance. It splits the taxi/Uber ride in half, there are also a lot of hotels, restaurants etc, in Torrance, and we also find that even when hotel pricing in LB and SP are very high, the hotel rates in Torrance are usually much more reasonable, as they don't seem to be subject to "surge" pricing. There's an excellent Marriott at the massive Del Amo mall (Torrance Marriott Redondo Beach). Embarkation morning, we call up an Uber and the ride to SP is only maybe 20 minutes. We are back in LA yet again in February, but this time, because we could only get a very late flight into LAX, we're going to bite the bullet and stay at one of the airport hotels on Century Blvd rather than drive south at 10PM. We'll have the long drive down to SP the next morning. In your case, a lot depends on what time of day you arrive into LAX, what you need to do when you arrive etc. We prefer to stay in Torrance because of the local infrastructure, pre-cruise shopping etc, lots of good restaurants etc, which is completely lacking around LAX

Absolutely, I use them every trip, including on the Discovery last month. There are laundromats with washers, dryers and irons/ironing boards on pretty much all passenger decks. They are always at the aft end of the ship, easily found on the deck plans, just forward of the aft elevators. https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=XP&version=1

We flew out of YUL Transborder "T-1" last month. I notice that the CATSA website makes a slight differentiation between "Verified Traveler" and "Verified Traveler (Transborder(US Flights)", with the principal difference being that if flying to the US, laptops still have to be removed and scanned separately. This certainly was the case when we went through last month.

Same experience for us as well. Flew YUL-LAX last month and ran into long, slow lines at this new screening area, when the lines at the regular plebian security line, and the premium credit card line were literally empty. Sadly, it was a mistake to have entered the new "verified traveler" line as it made the process much worse, especially since my metal hip guarantees a physical patdown when I set off the alarm. When we fly out to LAX again in February, I'll ask whether I can use the Infinite Privilege line and still go through to the NEXUS machines