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I'm still questioning why they would let someone book a date that according to Hyatt and the hotel itself, is currently blacked out, give me a formal confirmation number, and to this date have still not told me they made a mistake. I'm wondering if they ever will correct their error.

Lifelong Montrealer here. Boy are you out of date ;o) Construction is absolutely all year round in many areas. One of the major bridges into Montreal, part of the Trans-Canada, is reduced to ONE lane out of three while panic repairs taking months are being effected right now, 24/7. You can imagine the traffic jams we have to endure. Yes, driving around here can be hell.

I suspect it's another one of those "ship to ship" things, where the decision is up to the individual Sanctuary manager, and some may be more flexible than others. I can't speak to getting a complete refund for the rest of a cruise, but they have always been very good about refunding the particular day's remaining cost when the weather turns bad. I've had them refund a full day when we showed up at 8AM in a driving rain, and I've also had them refund a half day when the wind turned into a tornado around noon. And yes, being turned away from booking when it was completely sold out BEFORE the cruise even started, has been an issue for us as well. As Elite, we make it a point to being among the very first to board and still haven't had much luck in recent years due to all the B2Bers getting priority. On sea days when we couldn't book the Sanctuary, we've found Take 5 on the so-equipped ships to be a decent alternative. Just wish they full time bar service ;o)

A number of times we have been "weathered" out of the Sanctuary by high winds or rain. They have always refunded us the half or full day we had paid when that happens. And it was up to us to decide whether we wanted a refund or not. They tend to be pretty flexible about the weather.

That has also been our experience as well. We generally eat in the SD restaurants for the peace and quiet, and have been surprised that the wine lists in the SD restaurants we've been to (Sabatini's, CG, and La Mer) have been absolutely tiny compared to the huge wine lists in the MDRs. I wonder what would happen if, in an SD restaurant, we asked for a wine that was not on their list, but came from the much more comprehensive MDR wine list? Even if they would fetch it for us, it would probably take ages for it to arrive. We're back on the Discovery in a few weeks, maybe I'll give that a try ;o) And yes, on our last trip, on the Discovery last October, having a dedicated "sommelier" walking around filling up our glasses was a wonderful improvement is service.

I was very careful when I selected the dates, and the date of 18-19 October, as I said previously, WAS outside the blackout window and bookable. Whether you believe it or not, I checked a number of times before I made the booking. You don't seem to believe that they can, and did, modify the list of blackout dates after I made our booking and added that date range. Their own fine print says they can make such changes at will.

No problem. IIRC the Port Everglades website query function is a bit obtuse, but once you figure it out it should show you exactly which ships are at which berth and it should go out about three months. Not sure if your April sailing would be there yet, but it will eventually show up. Also, there are huge screens at the entrances to the port, at the security gates, showing which ship is docked at which berth. If you are in fact leaving from Terminal 2, that one is actually before the security checkpoint off Eisenhower Blvd, but you would be able to see your ship anyway, it'll be hard to miss ;o) Have a great cruise

In our case, the waitlist didn't work, we never received any word about it. We just went to the Shore Excursions desk and they had availability for our "Sold Out" trip. YMMV of course.

I obviously can't claim to know about your specific sailing and the excursions in question, but we had a similar situation last October on our California Coastal. The one excursion we wanted was sold out long before we sailed. Immediately upon embarkation we walked over to the Shore-Ex desk and had no problems booking that very excursion. They had slots available for walk-ups. A lot of folks here on CC are having issues pre-booking things like dining, excursions etc on-line, finding them sold out well ahead of the cruise. In our experience there is ample evidence that Princess doesn't truly "sell out", they do keep a certain percentage of slots so as to be available on board the ship. Still, the advice above to search your Roll Call for alternatives would be prudent.

I assume that was the covered garage right next to the terminal? That has been under constant construction for a few years now, and part of it has actually been completely dismantled as part of the on-going airport expansion. Yes, it's an absolutely nightmare to use, but we continue to park there as we usually find a spot literally within a few feet of the door to the Transborder terminal. We are anxiously awaiting the opening of the massive new P4 covered garage just down from the Marriott which should open in the next month or two. They will run constant shuttle buses, or it's about a 6 minute walk to the terminal

Good call. Re my earlier warning about traffic congestion accessing the airport, remember to keep an eye on Google traffic in the weeks preceding your flight to see what the situation is. Late afternoon is the worst. This was a CTV report from last November: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-airport-moves-to-reduce-car-congestion-after-traffic-backups-1.6656511

More than likely you will be using Terminal 2, the usual Princess terminal at PE. If there are two Princess ships in port that day, then bigger/newer gets T2 and the other one will use Terminal 21. Port Everglades do have a website that will tell you pretty far out which terminal your ship will be using on that date. https://pevvesseltraffic.broward.org/webx/

I'll have agree with d970411 and say that the Disney puck appears much larger than the Princess version. I mic'd one of our recent Princess Medallions and it measures 30.2mm in diameter and 7.0mm thick. If you are interested, there have been a LOT of discussions about Princess Medallion accessories over on the Princess forum so you can get a very good idea of how folks are wearing/carrying theirs. Also, Princess ships all have a small boutique on board selling a bunch of Medallion accessories IIRC, a lot of folks also claim that Apple Airtag holders fit the Medallions very well.

It was not blacked out when I booked it. I made very sure of the dates when I booked, using the blackout dates on their website. Our dates of Oct 18-19 WERE absolutely, 100% inside the bookable window. Strange that VT would have allowed us to book, and to this date have not told us that our booking is invalid, leaving that responsibility to the hotel.

Yup, this was first noticed a few months ago. BC now joins Quebec and New York state as jurisdictions where the PVP is not available. The CFAR coverage was very nice....

Absolutely agree. We usually just walk to each restaurant and do the bookings in person, but the few times we have resorted to the Dine Line, we were successful because we called it right after boarding, and we always try to be among the very first on the ship.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. We are huge fans of the various Specialty restaurants and generally eat all our meals in them. Much quieter, better service etc than the loud and frenetic dining rooms. FWIW, we rarely ever book in advance of the cruise, preferring to use our on board credit to pay for them. The restaurants always keep a certain percentage of their SD tables "off-line" for on-board reservations, and we have never had an issue getting a table for 2. We always board as early as possible and head to each restaurant to book. There is also a "dine Line" phone number on the ship which you can use to make SD bookings as well once on board. Keep in mind that the most popular times disappear the fastest, we prefer to eat early so as to make the first Theater show at 7:30

According to the Email I received from VT, confirming the non-existent reservation, they do allow cancellations. Their exact wording is: Please call the hotel directly to change or cancel your reservation. You may also visit Hyatt.com (cancellations only). In my case, the reservation never showed up on the Hyatt site.

Nope, not only was the rate not being honored, he confirmed that we did not even HAVE a reservation, despite my having the VT confirmation Email. I don't think the hotel is to blame, as he definitely knew all abut that date and said I never should have been allowed to book it. It seems pretty clear that VT are the culprits here. The hotel Sales Director sent me a nice apologetic Email which was very professional of him, but I have now booked the Riverside. The hotel prices all over Fort Lauderdale for that one weekend are astoundingly high, but for some reason the Riverside had lots of availability at "normal" rates almost half of everybody else. Prices even way out in Plantation are very high for that weekend as well. This will be our first ever stay at the Riverside, looking forward to it. Sadly, our flight doesn't land until until 8PM, so not much time to enjoy the neighborhood.

To follow up, it now seems that Valuetrips can't always be trusted. I just spoke to the hotel's Director of Sales, who is their "Valuetrips guy" As soon as I quoted him the date off our VT reservation, he immediately responded that that was impossible, as our date is in a blackout period and VT should absolutely not have given us the reservation. Seems Taylor Swift is invading FL at that time. When I made the booking a month ago, our date was definitely NOT in a blackout, so it appears that the blackout periods are very fluid. Prices at that date near the port are stratospheric but happily, the Riverside is still quite nominal, so that will be our new home for the night. Our usual Renaissance would come in at over $C800 for the night

Interesting data point, thanks. I guess I'll just call Hyatt directly myself. I assume you just quoted to Hyatt the confirmation number from the VT Email? I was curious as to whether that was a VT reference # or a Hyatt #, sounds like it's the latter. As to saving by booking directly, I don't think that's an option for us. I booked with VT for $129, but the Hyatt site, for our specific date in October, wanted north of $500. I'm still amazed at how VT manages to do this ;o)

The remote Park 'N Fly lots just off the airport are definitely a good option to save money if you don't mind waiting for a shuttle bus to the terminal. I just checked the details of our trip in a few weeks, and the PnF lots are asking $189 for the 8 day duration of our trip, whereas we are paying $324 for the covered garage right next to the terminal.

Same here, the new layout appeared last week but as at today, it's back to the old look.

Got it, thanks. Will do.

"They" being Hyatt, or the HP hotel itself? If the hotel can do it, I'll call them. Thanks.