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They're small medallions about the size of a Toonie. Passengers receive a lanyard to hold them, or you can simply put them in your pocket as I do. They basically replace the old style cruise cards for on board purchases etc, but add a lot more functionality when combined with the onboard network.

Consider yourself lucky, we had to endure an intolerable TWO minutes when we went to collect our disks last month in San Pedro. The things we paying passengers have to endure ;o)

Excellent, thanks for the confirmation. No worries about the points, we almost always go Marriott due to my status, but in this case, the VT price is so good we're happy to go Hyatt ;o)

We've done that at the HP a few times, but we now tend to use Uber on embarkation morning, faster and easier, no need to visit other terminals before being dropped off. ;o)

Perfect, thanks. Will the booking show up on the Hyatt site when I log in to my account, and so In the unlikely event of us having to cancel, can I do it on the Hyatt site or do I actually have to call the hotel?

We haven't used Valuetrips in a number of years, but I do recollect it was a great deal back then. I just started looking for hotels for our mid-Oct 2024 trip, and hotel prices shown on the 17th Street strip are VERY high during that period. Our usual Renaissance is about $US370 all in, the Hyatt website shows the Hyatt Place as $US500!!!, while VT shows a price of $US119 + extras, a significant savings. Please refresh my memory, do VT require payment in advance upon booking, or is the credit card simply used as a guarantee and is only charged at the time of the stay? Thx...

We're also Elite and make a point of being literally among the very first to board, just to try and snag decent Sanctuary seating. Sadly, the last few times we tried we were shut out. We only wanted sea days and can only take full shade loungers, which are in the minority on the newer big ships. Those constraints, as well as the fact that B2Bers get to board first and so are able to get upstairs before any of us newly arriving passengers, mean that we are finding it increasingly difficult to book our favorite location on the ship. On one of our last sailings, on the Sky last fall, the B2bers on the previous trip were given the option of booking the Sanctuary on the NEXT sailing, which was ours. Since there were literally hundreds of them, the Sanctuary was completely full and sold out before any of us newly arriving passengers even boarded.

True, but the so-called "destination pricing" is quite rare. Certain Alaska days and possibly certain Panama Canal passage days. Other than those few days, pricing is always $20/$30/$40/$220, every ship, every itinerary

Thanks very much, sounds like our arrival around 9AM on a Sunday would also be easy. I'll definitely be contacting them ahead of time. Greenland and Iceland would be right up there as a top bucket list trip for sure, but this trip is a Canada/New England on Princess, as we're limited to short-duration trips for now. This will be our first ever sailing out of Boston, though we've through there many times on our way to the Cape.

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.