lx200gps

Another data point, based on our sailing out of Boston three days ago. Not only were we absolutely carpet-bombed by staff and crew selling the packages once we boarded, there were actually people in the departure area selling the packages BEFORE boarding. Never saw that before ;o)

We're on board the Emerald now as well, scheduled into Portland on Saturday. For this specific C/NE itinerary, the only practical option, if the port schedules allow it, would probably be to put Portland at the beginning rather than the end of the trip. Boston to Portland no customs/immigration issues. Portland into Canada no issues either, just fill in the Canadian CBSA form, hand it to your Steward and all is done. Then the final leg would be Canada direct Boston so clear customs/immigration at a relatively large port like Boston should be easier than doing so in an out station like Portland. I assume that Boston isn't sophisticated enough yet to have facial recognition like the big ports in Fort Lauderdale or LA but should be much better staffed than little Portland.

Sounds like we're in for a wonderful time ;o( Are you saying that there were four agents for non-US and only three for all US citizens (who are by far the majority of the passengers) for a total of seven US agents? If so, I would think that us Canadians will be processed faster since there are far fewer of us with more agents to process us through.

Thanks for the heads up. We're currently on the Emerald, scheduled to arrive in Portland at 10AM on the 20th. Sounds like we will be spending the day in a lineup and not even bothering to get off the ship. How did they prioritize passengers, i.e. by nationality, NEXUS/GE status etc? How did you know where and when to get in line? It's a shame they can't bother to get facial recognition set up to speed things up. At least with entry into Canada all we had to do was fill in the usual Customs form and hand it to the steward, and we should just be able to walk off the ship tomorrow in Halifax.

Montrealer here. Montreal prides itself on being a "festival" city and is well known for major events like the Jazz Festival, Formula 1, Comedy and fireworks festivals etc. That being said I have never so much as heard about this "event", let alone knew anything about it. It is definitely a fringe event in more ways than one and is apparently centered in the usual place, the so-called Quartier Des Spectacles just east of Downtown. That would place a linear mile or so from the cruise terminal which is in Old Montreal. Given that this event lists only one hotel that will put up with them, it is highly unlikely that it will attract huge crowds or that you would encounter any of them, and it is even more unlikely that it impact your cruise in any way. Just don't be staying at their hotel ;o) and have a great cruise

The OP stated that they are sailing on the Emerald on August 4, so they would be returning NLT 11 August, by which time the tunnel is scheduled to have been re-opened for almost a week. We drove down from Burlington and parked at the port to board the Emerald yesterday around 9AM . I didn't find the Sunday AM traffic in the area to be bad at all, so I'm sure you are correct that the OP won't have any worries.

We have done this upgrade numerous times, both on the ship right after embarking, and twice on the phone with Princess (we have a TA who handles all our trips but things like this I do myself). I haven't tried the Chat yet but I may try it int he future; connecting by phone was very fast anyway. The first time I upgraded over the phone they changed our booking to say "Premier" in the Personalizer, on the Travel Summary etc. The second time it was done as an upgrade instead of a full change and our details for that trip still all say "Plus" but explicitly show all the upgrades. In addition to the Travel Summary, you can also see the status of this on the Personalizer under the "Extras" tab. Scroll to the bottom and a Plus to Premier upgrade looks like this. There are a lot of other line items I didn't bother copying:

I do recollect a web site (pre-pandemic) that did try to collate and publish a list of group cruises like this (gay, sports, special interest, music themes etc) I can't remember what it was called, and I don't know if it is still around, but I did find it very useful at the time I suppose it's events like this that make CFAR insurance so appealing.

Thanks for highlighting this. I just checked their website and they are on the Sun the week after us in October.

You are correct, the Lansdowne entry point is in the Thousand islands, just off the 401 about 30 minutes east of Kingston.

We're on the Emerald this coming Sunday. AFAIK, you are correct about the C1 lot not being available to us, as it's only open for Norwegian cruises leaving on Fridays. The "official" Cruise Parking Lot is currently at 93 Fargo street and is only bookable on line at the Parking.com website. You will find your specific sailing listed and the cost for a 7 day trip is $220. The parking lot apparently has a free shuttle bus directly to the Terminal. There is also a covered garage, the ABM Marine Garage at 12 Drydock Ave one block north of the terminal. Have a great cruise ;o)

Depending on your budget, the Chateau Frontenac is always a good bet if available. After all, it was good enough for FDR and Churchill.... https://www.fairmont.com/frontenac-quebec/

That's exactly how we have done it since inception, as it has never worked well for us either. The one difference with us is that after cancelling the Link and entering the Booking reference, name etc, it ALWAYS fails for us. I then have to re-enter the same booking ref etc and the second time, we're in.

On our last C/NE trip, two years ago, we missed three of the five ports due to weather and winds, though the seas themselves were not what I would call rough. Some folks can't handle the slightest sea state or ship movement, while others, like me, are pretty much immune to any cruise ship rolling or pitching.

i thought the IC was almost 24/7. I guess it's closed during your trip?

That's very interesting, were you after final payment, or on board now?. When I did the upgrades, twice, by phone, it was well before final payment and all they did was increase our final payment by the upgrade amount ($US280?). No charges at the time of upgrading. And like you, we still show as Plus for one of the trips, with the Travel Summary showing the full upgrade details.

Welcome to Cruise Critic ;o) In the image you are showing, loungers 1-9 and 20-24 are effectively in full sun, (at least on a sunny day) or at least have no overhead cover. Loungers 10 thru 19 are under a type of translucent shade cover but can sometimes be in full sun for brief periods as the ship and sun move. Cabanas 1 and 2 have full sun on the loungers but you can "retire" inside for shade. Cabanas 3 thru 7 have a bit more shade. Keep in mind that you can move the loungers around a fair bit to escape sun, as we usually do. On our last trip, on the Discovery, the Sanctuary staff created a new space for us by moving a sofa and putting two loungers between position 15 and the hot tub.

Thanks, I imagine the new lot on Fargo will work the same way. So arrival and departure aren't through a mechanical computerized gate where you scan a QR code or enter a credit card and the arm lifts, you simply talk to a human and show them your reservation? That's how Brooklyn parking worked last time we used it, though we paid them on the spot rather than pre-booking.

Princess no longer assigns arrival or boarding times, you can show up as early or as late as you want. Brooklyn isn't really different from any other North American Port in that respect. The last time we sailed out of Red Hook we arrived VERY early. I misjudged traffic (we drove down the day before) and arrived at the terminal around 9AM; our bags were among the first to be dropped off. We had to sit in the terminal until security opened around 10AM. Once through security and checkin (which is very fast thanks to the Medallion) we sat in the Lounge until boarding started around 11AM.

I've done this Plus to Premier upgrade twice, by phone with Princess, and it's been successful both times though with slightly different results. I called in myself to the 800 number though we always work out bookings with a TA. Both times I called, amazingly, I was talking to a human within minutes, virtually no waiting. Both times, the CSR I spoke to did not know if they would be able to do the upgrade and had to put me on hold for a few minutes while they checked with their superiors. The first time, she processed the upgrade effectively as a new package booking, and our Personalizer showed us as having the Premier Package when it previously showed Plus. The change happened within hours. The second time, a few weeks ago, was different. She processed the upgrade as an "upgrade" rather than as a new package booking, and to this day, the Summary page on the Personalizer for this trip still shows us as Plus. It's only when I look deeper into the Personalizer pages that I find us as having the Plus package with the "Premier Upgrade", rather than as the Premier package. All the Premier add-ons are listed correctly. So as the others have said, the agent you spoke to was wrong, you definitely can do it by phone. Try calling again. Best of luck...

Any idea on exactly how one enters and exits the lot? Assuming we have a pre-paid booking do they use QR scanners at the entrance? Is it possible to just drive up without a reservation?

I agree, Google isn't much help, as there are different date stamps on the various views of the lot at 93 Fargo, between Street View and the satellite overhead view. None of them are recent enough to show the summer 2024 Cruise parking set up. When I enter 93 Fargo in the search box it says the lot is at the location of the little red teardrop. BTW, how did you get such a great rate for 17 days? The asking price for our 7 day trip leaving next Sunday is $220

Welcome to Cruise Critic ;o) When sailing from the US Northeast, we always prefer to drive over flying. Far easier and less stressful, not to mention much cheaper. As stated above, it would be about 7.5 hours plus any stop times, an easy day's drive. As you have never driven down there, and are unfamiliar with the local area and the port, I would definitely agree with driving down the day before and staying at one of the many NJ hotels in the immediate area. No way would I ever drive down the day of a cruise. You would then have a leisurely short drive on Embarkation morning to the ship from your hotel, and have an easy time parking at the port.

Interesting. And you're right I also only see "Standard" and "Plus", no option to choose Premier. Very strange, as Princess's website never has any bugs ;o)

The Sun will almost certainly dock at Terminal 2. We have disembarked off Princess ships many times at PE Terminal 2 and there will be lots of taxis standing there waiting. Self-walkoff will allow you to be off the ship by about 7:30AM, assuming a normal arrival. You would absolutely need to be standing in the self walkoff line on the ship very early to ensure you are among the first off the ship. Arrival at 6AM does not mean that's when pax start disembarking. Facial recognition will be a breeze if you do get off very early. It's 10-15 minutes to FLL and we usually get there by about 8-8:15AM. We have both Pre-check and airline priority checkin so we usually end up at the gate by 9 to 9:30. Your 10AM departure means boarding starts as early as 9:15, so I personally think you would be cutting it VERY close. It's do-able but you should have a fallback to the later flight just in case.