lx200gps

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

+1

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Since you are sailing Carnival, that means you will be sailing out of Long Beach, a very nice area but a good haul from LAX. We've stayed there a few times though we sail from nearby San Pedro on Princess. It has a great selection of hotels, restaurants etc but checking Tripadvisor for your date of 19-20 Jan, it's a pretty pricey time and the usual nice hotels, like the Hyatt and the Renaissance are outrageously expensive, particularly for us Canadians, though there are some decent deals at the top of your price range. Given the price of hotels down there, we've taken to staying Torrance, on a direct line about half way between LAX and both Long Beach and San Pedro. There are a lot of good intermediate type hotels (Marriott Courtyard, Hilton Doubletree etc) as well as the huge Del Amo mall. We travel to the half-way point in Torrance the day before sailing, then Uber down to the ship on embarkation day. In fact, we did it two weeks ago and will be back down there in Feb. As a final crazy idea, look into staying on the Queen Mary. It's a very interesting place to visit, right next to where you will be sailing from, and the hotel recently re-opened. We stayed there a few years ago, it's a very interesting experience

FWIW, we at in the Crown Grill on the Discovery within a few days of the OP's incident, probably Oct 9, and had the offending Lobster Cake as well. To the best of our recollection, it was a lobster cake, surrounded by the tarragon foam, asparagus and a puree which tasted like olives, but no whole olives visible. Neither of us remember having an actual olive on the plate but an olive pit could have hidden in the puree. To the best of our recollection, it was pretty much like this:

No problem. It happens that we just flew home out of LAX last week, and our taxi drove down Century Blvd right past our upcoming hotel, the Hyatt. Century Blvd is heavily built up but there's not much in the way of restaurants. I don't even remember seeing any fast food emporiums let alone decent restaurants.

We're in a somewhat similar situation for our next trip into LAX this coming Feb, though our problem is that we are arriving very late into LAX rather than flying out very early as you are. Still, we chose to stay at one of the close airport hotels on Century Blvd. rather than try to get all the way down to San Pedro that time of night. We selected the Hyatt Regency, both because it was, surprisingly, one of the cheapest options for an airport hotel and because it is physically the closest hotel to the airport proper, and also has a 24/7 shuttle. As to your requirement for restaurants, that may be a problem as Century Blvd is a wasteland for that sort of thing, you may need an Uber from any local hotel to a selection restaurants.

We flew an AC 737 Max 8 from YUL to LAX and back just last week. While yes, it's a narrow body aircraft with a 3 and 3 configuration, the baggage bins were pretty much the largest bins I've ever seen. These bins were so large that carry-on bags are inserted standing on their sides rather than flat, thereby allowing more bags to be placed overhead. Of course that didn't stop MANY pax from bringing three or even four carry on items on board. One gentleman in Business up front carried on board a MASSIVE backpack easily 3' long and far bigger in every dimension than technically allowed, but the staff let him place it over head and it fit easily

Thanks for the feedback. A 10 or 15 minute walk is nothing for us, so it sounds like there are plenty of options. I had also noticed that there is a covered parking garage nearby as well, do you have any experience with that one? Even though we'll be sailing in July, the idea of a covered garage is appealing to us.