lx200gps

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I believe you will find that Princess, Celebrity and Holland America are your best bets.

This is pretty much the only way currently due to the convention center construction going on in the area. From Eisenhower and 17th to Terminal 2 is about 600 meters on level ground. There is a sidewalk most of the way, until you hit 20th and turn left towards T2, then there MAY be some construction going on which may compromise the sidewalk. It was like that when we drove to T2 for our November trip. The whole route is easily visualized on Google Maps/Street View

Thinking out loud here, and it probably isn't your issue, but exactly what phone number did you use (and that it wants to send an SMS text message to)? If you used a non-SMS capable phone, such as your home phone, then their system may recognize that you can't receive a test message. Our home phone can't receive texts.

Unfortunately, that requirement varies. When we checked in at the counter for our last flight, in November from YUL to Fort Lauderdale, even though we had already attested to being vaccinated when doing the online checkin, the Air Canada agent definitely asked to see our vaccination cards. Bring them along just in case.....

Typical Air Canada obfuscation ;o) It does clearly say that regardless of whether you booked a "Vacation" or a "Cruise" the first bag should be free. My only worry would be what the tiny little "1" is against the "FREE 1st checked bag" Did you dig down into the Ts and Cs to see what the 1 refers to?

Re the COVID testing requirement, you may want to check your booking on the Air Canada site. There's a big section called "COVID 19 Entry Requirements" which should be specific to your trip. For our next trip, to FLL in a few weeks, for example the wording is: So it seems that any testing requirements is tied to having been anywhere near the Far East in the last few weeks. As to your question about bag fees, it MAY depend on your fare class (unless you have a higher Aeroplan status or have a premium card; we never pay bag fees because of this} IIRC, fare classes Basic and Standard pay the $30 for first checked bag per person. Fare classes Flex, Comfort and Latitude get the first bag free. Perhaps check your ticket/booking to see what fare class you're in. Have a great flight.

Also a silly generalization. There is clearly no relationship between neurosurgery and learning a simple procedure that takes a few minutes online. You obviously underestimate yourself.

Apologies for my loose wording, I was referring to arrival times for check-in. I fully understand boarding times are not assigned. It seems from the responses here that X DOES in fact enforce check-in times which is disappointing. I'll have to make sure we get one of the very first available slots when they open up. Hypothetically, if someone shows up early for check-in, before their assigned time, I assume they are not allowed into the terminal and have to wait outside?

Question re Celebrity and assigned boarding times: We'll be on the Equinox in May for only our second Celebrity trip, we usually sail Princess and their assigned boarding times are only suggestions but passengers are free to show up whenever they want. We always show up at the pier as early as possible, there is never any line when we check in, which takes less than 2 minutes, and then we have to sit in a lounge for a while until boarding starts. That guarantees we are among the very first to board and have a head start to book restaurants, start drinking martinis, etc. Does Celebrity enforce the boarding times, or are they like Princess and boarding times are only a suggestion? Our boarding times are not yet available for selection, I believe they will only come open in April a few weeks before sailing but obviously I will be trying to snag as early a time as possible..

That's pretty much peak season and 17th St hotels are at their most expensive. We booked the Renaissance on 17th months ago at $336, and it's currently, for the same date (Feb 10-11) is $592. The Hyatt Place, if booked through Valuetrips, is a good bet. An alternative to 17th St could be Dania Beach, just south of the airport where the I95 crosses the 848/Stirling Road. MUCH cheaper than 17th St, lots of shopping and restaurants and not too far from the airport and Port Everglades. Farther north, as mentioned above, Las Olas, pretty much downtown Fort Lauderdale with lots going on, is a good bet as well though for one night pre-cruise, we prefer to be as close to PE as possible. The Renaissance we stay at is literally walking distance to Terminal 2 at PE, love waking up on cruise morning and staring at a huge flotilla of cruise ships moored at the various piers ;o)

Absolutely an over-generalization. It's only above what 99% of people who can't be bothered to spend a few minutes learning how to do it can do. Sideloading APKs is quite easy, as a number of folks on here have already pointed out. They just took the time to learn how to do it.

It can vary with itinerary, dates etc, but on the Enchanted in September and the Sky in November, the show times were 7:30 and 9:30.

Our Celebrity invoice mentions this second-day restriction as well, though in our case, it says "...Please note that $50 US will appear on your on board account as of the 2nd day of sailing" so we should be OK

IIRC, when my wife ate there in November, there was only one server on duty at the time. She was a lovely lady and very attentive, but was running ragged, even having to run to a nearby bar to bring drink orders in addition to serving, clearing tables etc.

My wife loves the Ocean Terrace, and ate there twice on our last trip, on the Sky in November. She'll be going back when we're back on board in Feb. I don't eat bait, preferring my food cooked, so I bring something up from the IC while she indulges her sushi addiction ;o) She says the Sushi is great, though I seem to remember the menu is a bit limited; what they did serve was excellent. The service was very attentive, though a bit slow as Princess seems to be understaffed everywhere these days. Well worth a visit if you like sushi

Every single one of our three booked cruises, between next month and Feb 2024, is hugely more expensive for the same cabin, to the point where we're considering whether it's even worth cruising any more. Much as we love cruising, $5000 for two persons for a week in a simple balcony cabin is a bridge too far, especially given the noticeable drop in Princess's service on our last few trips.

That's important to know, thanks for the heads up. We have more than enough OBC from both X and our TA that either can cover the dining package, and if we can only use the X OBC pre-cruise, that SHOULD be OK. I say should because I just reminded myself that the Celebrity OBC is from us having selected the Elevate Package many months ago, and IIRC that OBC was for shore excursions. When I look at our Celebrity invoice however, it just says OBC and makes no mention of it being restricted to just shorexs, so I imagine we should be OK to use it for the dining package.

We'll be on the Equinox to the ABCs in late May, for our second Celebrity trip. We prefer to eat in the Specialty restaurants on most nights on cruises, and so are looking at one of the dining packages being offered. The X web site even has a small discount of 7 or 8% for each package if purchased pre-cruise rather than once on board. For this particular trip, we find ourselves with a massive amount of OBC and would prefer to use it to book the dining package. If we book the package on-line now, will we be able to apply the OBC we have, or will the system demand a Credit Card payment and not tie the purchase to our OBC? If so, we would presumably have to wait until we board, forgo the small discount, at which point I would expect the use of our OBC would be a non-issue. Thanks in advance....

Happy New Year to you as well ;o) Given that itinerary, I'd say Coz is your best bet for buying outside of the US. If you dock at the International Pier south of town, you will have to pass through a massive Duty Free store which should have Crown Royal. Belize is a tender port and you DON'T want to go walking around Belize City. Costa Maya may have something if you dock at Mahahual, though Cozumel will probably be a better bet for selection. If you do buy in Mexico, check with your cruise line's policy about bringing onboard alcohol purchased ashore, some lines may not even allow it. Princess do allow it as someone mentioned, but since you are sailing out of Tampa, you are presumably not sailing Princess. That being said, since you are flying in and out of Tampa, I can strongly recommend buying your booze at one of the Total Wine stores. Their store locator shows them having 6 outlets in Tampa/St. Pete, so if you can get there during your trip, that would be your best bet. Check their web site for pricing, Their pricing on the massive 1.75 liter bottles is astoundingly low but we Canadians can't bring that much back under our 1.14L exemption.

Actually, FLL is not a very large airport, and walking between terminals is not that bad. Much of the "inter-terminal" walking is under cover and on sidewalks, so it's easy to get around. T1 to T2 is perhaps 200 yards. You can get a good idea of its layout by looking at Google Maps and Street View . Have a great trip.

We've spent WAY too much sitting around T2 at FLL, and there isn't much to do at all in that terminal. No Air Canada lounge, Delta's is for their pax only and there are no other lounges in any other terminal at FLL that we could use. Food concessions are only OK, bring something to read and sit it out. A few years back, we took off on schedule around 11:30AM on AC back here to Montreal, the aircraft suffered engine compressor stalls on takeoff and had to return to FLL. We didn't fly out until 11:30PM but couldn't leave the terminal in case they found us a seat on an outbound flight. 14 hours in Terminal 2 is not easy ;o(

The Arrival Groups selection can show up any time from ABOUT 60 days out until even a few days before sailing, so keep checking. Eventually it will become active for your sailing and you can choose. Folks will probably be commenting soon about how these Arrival Groups are just suggestions and that you can just show whenever you like.

No offense intended at all, hence my 😃. Canada is notorious for some of the worst and most expensive cell plans on the planet, virtually no effective competition and very expensive rates. Cell service while on shore off a cruise ship can be somewhat expensive for us.

I guess you're not familiar with cell phone services for us Canadians (such as the OP) 😃 I'm with Bell, probably the biggest cell provider in Canada. Roaming in the US is $12/day, which does cover Puerto Rico as we used it in November in San Juan, and is $15/day everywhere else. On some trips I buy a prepaid SIM card off Amazon prior to a trip if I know I'm going to need cell service on shore, other times I'll use my own SIM card and swallow the roaming charges.

Thanks very much for taking the time to post. I'm not surprised Air Canada is not listed, the THIRD PARTY site I quoted must have had bad information. In any case, when we're back on the Sky in Feb, I'll ask Guest Services anyway, you never know.