lx200gps

Probably a similar reason as to why it's also not available in Quebec or New York state. Provincial/state regulations governing insurance won't allow some or all of the product to be sold in their jurisdiction.

Yup, it sure is. We know Boston pretty well as we visit occasionally heading to the Cape. Fortunately, we will be doing the drive around 8-9AM on a Sunday, so we should be OK but I sure will be using Google Traffic. Still, I'm going to be investigating closer possible Park and Fly/Cruise options, maybe near Logan, as the idea of just leaving the car where it is for a week and Ubering to and from the ship also has its appeal.

I would only caution that if the bottle is stored, and you try to access it from another dining venue such as a specialty restaurant, make very sure you tell the waiter who is going to try and retrieve it exactly where it is stored. In the days before the advent of the packages, we would bring wines on board as well, and if we shifted restaurants, the delay in finding the half-empty bottle could be significant while the crew tried to find it.

We booked a C/NE trip out of Boston for a surprisingly good price when Princess first opened them up for sale a few months ago. As it's a July 2024 sailing, the hotel prices are stratospheric in the downtown area near the port, so we're going to stay much farther north in Burlington, right on our route down, then drive the half hour down to the pier the morning of the cruise (unless I can find a hotel with a good Park and Fly package). The Hampton Inn right at the pier is almost $CAD800 for one night, for example, and the Homewood Suites next to it is over $1K per night. I'll be trying Trinity to see if they have anything useful

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Technically, the Green Line should be called "Americans and Canadians Only" line as Princess has recently started shipping up here to the Great White North

Weather could be an issue when doing this for sure, especially in March. We were lucky when we did it last summer as the weather was perfect for our walk. The walk from the Envue to the Ferry terminal is very short, just a quick walk across a very quiet street in front of the hotel. The ferry ride is easy and if you are taking it on a weekend, the ferry should be empty (ours was, around 8AM on a Saturday). As to the 15 minute walk up the Greenway to the ship, while it's perfectly flat and safe from cars, watch out for those maniac cyclists ;o) We hedged our bets against possible rain by just bringing with us two huge green plastic garbage bags which nicely covered our rolling suitcases against raindrops, but never needed them. Worst case, if the weather is really bad, you can always hail a taxi or an Uber from the ferry terminal at W 39th St., right over the Manhattan end of the Lincoln Tunnel. Have a great trip !

That would appear to be the 7 Day California Coastal on the Discovery, almost exactly the itinerary we did two weeks ago, and for which there are TWO current "Live From...' threads going on right now here on CC. Great itinerary, almost the same as we did, save that we didn't get to go to Monterey and had to settle for two nights in San Francisco. I very much wanted to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And yes, before final payment if the price drops you can re-fare and get the lower price. Only caveat is that when you re-fare, the person doing the work has to be careful to get your exact cabin re-assigned to you. Usually easy to do but requires a bit of care when doing the re-booking

Welcome to Cruise Critic. We just finished a California Coastal ourselves. EXACTLY which itinerary are you looking at, exactly which dates, which ship, which departure port and is the price you are quoting per person or for the two of you? And yes, you can always book now to grab your preferred cabin, then re-fare if the price drops later on, some time before final payment..

Yup, that's the Take 5 we know and love. I'm VERY glad to hear that they have removed the slot machines. Can't wait to get back on her in Feb for yet another trip to PV and Cabo. And thanks also for the news about The Catch. While we love La Mer, a new restaurant experience is never a bad thing. Keep up the great reports 🥰

No problem. It's really worth looking in to. Both hotels are modern and clean, and the ferry parking is part of the entire hotel/parking complex. You can get an idea of how close it is to the ferry terminal by looking at Google Street view. There's even a good restaurant in the lobby of the hotel with knockout views of the Manhattan skyline across the river. IIRC there is also a big Sheraton also on the river not too far from the Weehawken ferry if the Residence Inn or Envue are booked out. Ferry was $9/pp each way and the walk was dead easy, flat and safe from cars as it's pedestrian only, also easily investigated by Google Earth/Street View. I only wish I could figure out an easy way to use this when sailing from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal ;o)

Absolutely. Given the design of most of the Sanctuaries, with so many loungers in the blazing sun with no shade to speak of, not having the ability to select the SPECIFIC lounger would be dreadful.

We did exactly this for our first ever trip out of the MCT last summer. Drove down and parked at the ferry terminal at Weehawken. The garage is co-located in the same building as two hotels, the Residence Inn and the Envue, both literally across a small street from the ferry terminal and FAR less expensive than the price of a comparable Manhattan hotel. Parking at the time was $22/day, about half of the rate at the MCT. Morning of the cruise, we took the 8 minute ferry across the Hudson, then walked the 13 minutes north up the pedestrian-only pathway to the ship.

When we Uber'ed up to Berth 93 at San Pedro a few weeks ago, a porter appeared right at our vehicle with his trolley within seconds. You shouldn't have any problems finding one offering to take your bags ;o)

Are you on the Discovery right now? Take 5 has always been our usual go-to place for peace and quiet. During the day, it is usually so empty I wonder whether most of the passengers even know it's there. When we use it, there are rarely any other passengers in it, never more than two or three others and it's never used as a thoroughfare the way some other venues are (e.g. Crown Grill bar). It is very occasionally used as a venue for a lecture, or a game show involving a lot of shouting, but those rarely last more than an hour. Sadly, on our cruise a few weeks ago it was shut down for installation of equipment for a gambling tournament so we never got a chance to use it. Hopefully it's open for us when we're back on board in Feb. HIGHLY recommended as a place for peace and quiet, and those tables for two along the windows are great.

In general, the higher the level, the higher the cabin, at least when it comes to ship operation. We can be pretty sure the big Kahuna has his cabin a very short distance from the bridge, similarly the Staff Captain etc. If not on the same deck as the bridge, then steps away one deck down. Senior non-bridge personnel, like the hotel director etc may be a bit "lower" to be closer to their major areas of influence.

Princess stopped selling their insurance to residents of NY a year or two ago. The same holds for us residents of the province of Quebec. Local laws apparently.

It was disappointing, given that it was a warm weather cruise and the Sanctury is our go-to place for peace and quiet. On our last trip, two weeks ago on the Discovery, we didn't even bother with the Sanctuary given it was a California Coastal, but we're on her again in February down to Cabo etc. We'll certainly be trying again, with very low expectations ;o( One thing in our favor is that one of the days we will want it is the Mazatlan port day, which hopefully won't be as heavily booked as a sea day, of which we have three anyway. And yes, I certainly agree with you that some spaces should be held back for arriving guests, as they do with specialty restaurant and excursion reservations. Allowing passengers from the previous cruise to fully book the place out is unfair.

We were on her two weeks ago and saw 2.98 down pretty much constantly, sea day or port day, regardless of time of day. On many ships, certain cabins, due to their physical location, can see worse reception than others. Have you tried the speed test in other locations on the ship?

Sad but true. Earlier in the year, on the Sky, we were among the very first to board thanks to Elite priority boarding. We raced upstairs in the faint hope of getting decent loungers and found that only two or three folks had beaten us up there. ALL of us were told that the Sanctuary was completely sold out for our entire cruise, because the 800 B2Bers on the previous trip had been given the opportunity to book for our voyage the previous week, thereby shutting out all arriving passengers.

Very true, except that only a small fraction of pax are in bulkhead or exit rows. We always buy the preferred seats with the extra leg room but never on an exit row as my wife insists that the seats on exit rows are colder due to the removable plug doors not being as well insulated as the rest of the cabin.

That is great news, thanks so much for the confirmation. We also love Take 5 as it's our absolute favorite spot for great QUIET ocean view seating on those long sea days. ;o) From what you could see, did it appear that those slot machines were permanent or temporary? When we were on board Oct 7-14, I could peer into Take 5 from a glass door in the casino and saw a few slot machines installed right inside the aft (Piazza) entrance into the area, as you entered, they were on the left side. Have they been removed? Keep up the great work, excellent thread ;o)

We were on her two weeks ago and I was VERY worried about this as well, as Take 5 was completely sealed off when we were aboard and we had no access for the entire week. I was told that on our cruise it was closed off for prep work/hardware installation for a gambling tournament the following week (i.e. last week), but that once the tournament is over, it was to be restored to normal operation. The few views I had inside showed a bunch of slot machines being installed. The OP here reports that this week some slot machines are still installed but Take 5 is open and operating.

One other point about Berth 91/92 which we noticed. The walk off the ship, down the gangway, down the escalator and through the big tent to the facial recognition cameras and freedom, was about the LONGEST walk we've ever had off a cruise ship. We had boarded at 93 which was much less of a distance than what we had when we disembarked. If anyone is disembarking into the big tent, be prepared for a long journey if mobility compromised.

SUPERB write up, thanks very much. We were on her the week of Oct 7-14 and can certainly agree about many of your points, particularly the mattresses in our Mini, the sound in the Piazza etc. Q: what is the current state of Take 5? On our sailing, it was closed due to the setup for a gambling tournament. We'll be back on her in early Feb, and we will be very unhappy if Take 5, our go-to place for peace and quiet on sea days, is still closed off. Re your comment about no erroneous charges, keep a close eye on your account on a daily basis. We also had the Premier package but did have an erroneous charge. I had booked and paid for a specialty restaurant reservation pre-cruise, and we used our two free diners from the package. Sure enough, we were incorrectly charged for one dinner for two. Assuming it was an honest mistake, I headed down to Guest Services to have the charge removed, a simple job I've done many times before on other sailings. The CSR went into some long winded explanation of why the charge was correct which made no sense to me despite my half dozen courses in accounting and finance in university ;o( Fortunately, his supervisor just happened to overhear the conversation, walked up to the computer screen he was using, took one quick look at our account, apologized profusely for the error and fixed it on the spot.

We sailed out of 93 and returned to 92 two weeks ago. There are elevators and escalators available. There were, however LOTS of ramps to negotiate getting on and off the ship up and down the gangways. Not steep, but very long. You may want to consider arranging for a wheelchair? Berths 91 and 92 are the ones that connect with the big "tent, right next to the USS Iowa. Berth 93 is the one at right angles to it, tucked away from the channel. The San Pedro schedule has you leaving from berth 92 on Nov 11. Have a great cruise. https://www.portsamerica.com/operations/cruise-los-angeles-terminal-schedule