lx200gps

9 hours ago, Not_enough_travel said:

@lx200gps after your cruise, would you please let us know if you were able to use  the C1 lot?  I’m cruising in August and would really like to use that lot. 
 

Thanks!

Welcome to Cruise Critic ;o) I will attempt to remember to do so. FWIW, Boston is a "seasonal" cruise port, so the season is only just starting off for 2024 so there wouldn't have been much discussion recently on this subject. I am quite sure there will be a lot of posts and threads here in this forum over the next few weeks and months about the parking situation and I will be following them closely myself.

While I still plan to use either the C1 lot or the covered garage, my third fallback is the "official" Boston Cruise Port parking lot at 93 Fargo Street. Unfortunately the Cruise Port website clearly states "Parking arrangements must be made online prior to arrival" and I'm not a fan of booking online (what if plans change?). Interestingly, when I select the online booking, it actually shows our July 14 sailing on the Emerald Princess and shows a rate of $US210 for the cruise.

20 hours ago, stoddaj1 said:

We just booked a cruise leaving from Brooklyn and have started the hotel hunt.  I'm wondering if it might be less expensive to stay in New Jersey and if we did so, best way to get to the cruise port in Brooklyn?  Ideas for hotels, routes etc. are welcomed.  Ideas about staying in Brooklyn area would be great as well.  Thanks in advance.

How are you getting from here to the US, are you driving or flying? We did trips from both Manhattan and Brooklyn two years ago, driving down, and stayed in NJ both times as hotels and long term parking are significantly cheaper than either Manhattan or Brooklyn (especially given our weak Canadian dollar). For the Brooklyn trip, we stayed in Teaneck just off the GW Bridge, then drove to the BCT. Fortunately for us, it was just before the parking rates at the BCT almost doubled to their current ($US45/day?). Unfortunately, while the ferry system from NJ to NY is fantastic, it's not conducive to staying in NJ and getting to Brooklyn as there is no convenient direct ferry between the two.  Though convoluted, one way would be to stay in Weehawken, take the ferry across to 43rd St, Uber down to the Pier 11 ferry terminal at the foot of Manhattan then take the ferry across to Brooklyn. The ferry terminal is literally next to the cruise pier. The easiest way, though at higher cost might be to stay in NJ near one of the Tunnels for the  cheaper hotel and long term parking then Uber directly from the hotel to the BCT. Hoboken or Jersey City are near the Holland Tunnel which would probably be the shortest route. In future when we sail from Brooklyn, that's probably what we will do.

3 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Lots of choices  A lot of people have suggested aloft el segundo which is apparently across from an in n out burger. Presumably you'd still be stuck in traffic going to torrance?

Torrance is pretty much on a direct line between LAX and the port, so you won't be going very far out of your way and you will be stuck in traffic either way. If we arrive very late into LAX (as we did last Feb), we will stay at an LAX hotel and Uber the next morning, which is usually a Saturday or Sunday so little traffic. If we arrive into LAX on a mid-day flight, we will Uber down to Torrance for the area infrastructure and so as to already be half way to San Pedro. Then it is a simple, relatively short Uber to the port on Embarkation morning (short for LA anyway ;o). We have had decent luck with the traffic from LAX to Torrance on a weekday afternoon, though always before the evening rush hour. I wouldn't want to consider driving to Torrance at 5PM on a Friday night.

7 hours ago, MAXII said:

You might like to take a look at the Torrance Marriott Redondo Beach. 

Excellent choice. Torrance has become our go-to area for pre-cruise hotels as well. Half way between LAX and San Pedro, and situated right next to the huge Del Amo mall, with lots of shopping and restaurants next door. For those times of year when the Crowne Plaza and Doubletree are to expensive, Torrance is a great option.

We rarely eat dinner in the Dining Rooms and frequent the SDRs at least 4 or 5 times on a 7 day trip. Aside from issues in the immediate post-COVID restart when staffing issues forced them to scale back, we have pretty much much never had any issue booking SDRs on board. Admittedly we prefer to eat early to ensure making theater shows, when the restaurants first open and the experience is at it's calmest, the staff is fresh etc.  Bottom line is head to the restaurants IMMEDIATELY on boarding (and try to board early) or call the DINE line and make your bookings by phone. If you make your bookings early and are a bit flexible when as to dining times, you should be quite successful.

14 hours ago, njhorseman said:

It couldn't be easier. This video shows literally every step of the trip from Pier 11 to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal:

 

Absolutely agree. Although we have yet to do the Pier 11 to Red Hook trip, we have used the ferry across the Hudson from Weehawken to near the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, and the process seems identical. The ferry access is easy and level on both ends even for those, like us, who are dragging big suitcases. We did it early on a Saturday morning and the ferry was virtually empty.

6 hours ago, Tomnsgirl said:

Received an email 5/1/24 from value trips stating Hyatt place overbooked and our reservation for 2 rooms fpr 5/17-18/24 is canceled.  Has anyone experienced this?  Don't understand how a reservation confirmed on Jan 16. suffers the loss, does not make sense.

Called hotel and was told they have a top floor room with 2 beds for $600.

 

I had made a VT reservation some months back, for a date this October. The reservation was booked and VT sent me the official confirmation Email. I then called the hotel to make sure they had the booking and was informed that our booked date was blacked out and VT shouldn't have allowed it to be booked. I don't know if it the cause, but Taylor Swift is closing down south Florida for concerts right on our dates, and the HP is selling for many times what we had booked through VT.  To this date, VT have not sent us a cancellation notice for our reservation.  VT is a great deal for sure, but I will ALWAYS call the hotel once I book to confirm things.

On 5/7/2024 at 1:18 AM, Retired-N-Happy said:

You can currently submit any requests for cruises through the end of 2024.  I just submitted our Enchanted cruise in August and our Sun cruise in October.  Any cruises embarking in 2025 will be able to be submitted starting on November 1, 2024.

Thanks for the heads up on the November date, it's now in my calendar. I just submitted a request for a trip this October and the OBC is in my account in less than 48 hours. Interestingly, when I selected "Redeem Perk" on the app, it only asked for the trip details and immediately submitted the request and did not ask for a recent brokerage statement. The statement they ended using was from my last request many months ago.

3 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

 

Sorry, I'm not following. You said you must DECLARE EVERYTHING, yet you say "Just scan and go" which is not explicitly declaring. Can you please clarify.

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

You must declare all goods purchased and gifts received.  Each product is being imported into Canada whether an exemption applies or not.

 

How do you "...declare all goods purchased and gifts received" when you use a kiosk, do not talk to a human and are not asked by the NEXUS "process" whether you have something to declare?

7 hours ago, Eastsideirish said:

Hi we are coming from NH and this is very helpful. We are actually driving from St Louis area and first visiting Niagra Falls, Cooperstown and Vt and NH and this is good information. Thank you. Any other info feel free to advise. So looking forward to seeing NH

If you are driving in from New Hampshire, then I would second the earlier comment about considering the big Marriott in Teaneck. We stayed there last year before a trip out of Brooklyn, but it would be an excellent choice if sailing out of the MCT. It's very near the west end of the GW Bridge and assuming you are driving in early on a weekend morning for your cruise, it should be an easy drive over the bridge and down the west side parkway to the MCT.

Just now, Lindy Sue said:

That makes sense. Hadn’t thought about the specialty restaurant part. They must hold some, because I see I can still book (limited time slots) for the specialties.

The issue of how to handle all the Premiers and their two allotted SD slots is a mystery. The idea of the Premier slots being "sold out" is a possibility I suppose, but the general consensus here on CC is that Princess hold a lot of SD restaurant slots (possibly up to 40-50%) back from on-line pre-booking to make them available for walk ups, and I would expect that those slots would be converted to use for last minute Premier bookers as well.

Very odd for sure. Some dates it shows up as available, other dates it doesn't even exist. Since Boston is a "seasonal" port, there haven't been too many reports for this season yet, but over the next few weeks we should be hearing from folks who have, hopefully, used C1 successfully. We plan to use it in mid-July as a drive up.

3 hours ago, No Sea Legs! said:

Thinking about when we arrive in port and sailing through interesting views, rather than looking sideways on, is there somewhere on the Sky Princess where there is a good view point facing forwards? 

On the Coral Princess we were able to stand on the Baja Deck, at the very front. 

Thank you.

On the Sky you are probably out of luck, unless you want to sit on your cabin and watch the bridgecam ;o(. The Sanctuary would be the only place I can think of and it's for booked passengers only. You might be able to see forward from the extreme upper deck (19?) but it is only from mid-ship, not forward. On the older ships (Ruby, Emerald etc) there actually is a great forward-facing observation deck which is accessed by going full forward on the Lido deck and walking  forward up a short flight of stairs. It's actually the roof of the bridge and makes a fantastic spot for sightseeing.  Sadly, AFAIK the newer ships don't have it.

21 minutes ago, Lindy Sue said:

We are leaving for our cruise in two weeks and when I tried to upgrade from Princess Plus to Premier, the agent said they were sold out.  Has anyone ever heard of this? Wondering if I should pursue further.  Thanks!

As soon as you walk on board, there will be a stand set up very close to the gangway with a very helpful crew member who will be happy to do the upgrade for you. You can use OBC if you have any, and the upgrade goes live instantly.

3 hours ago, havoc315 said:

It’s available to pre-book through ParkWhiz

...and yet I just tried that and the C1 lot does not show up as an available parking lot. The ABM covered garage a block north shows up, but not C1. Dates don't seem to matter, any date shows no C1 lot exists on the Parkwhiz site

We bought our 100 shares of CCL years ago and apply it for every Princess trip we take. A great program. As previously mentioned, they recently outsourced the management called Stockperks, and it is to them that you send your information. Right now, it is done through a phone app, but Stockperks did mention that they were working on a web-based version as well. NOTE: many people report being up in arms over the intrusive amount of personal information that they claim Stockperks demands from the user when submitting the application. That turns out to be incorrect and unnecessary. Many of us who use it have successfully submitted our applications and received our OBC without submitting anything more than the minimum redacted brokerage information, cruise details etc. Just be careful when using the app and you will have your OBC very quickly.

It's not just about the food. We pretty much only eat in the specialty restaurants, because of the ambience, service level, atmosphere etc. For us, there is a big difference between a restaurant and a dining room....

9 hours ago, miched said:

I am looking for a reasonable rate for parking for a cruise out of Boston.  I have read that there is a 20% discount if on a cruise.  I can’t find that.    I have tried others and as post 33 wrote that parking at lot C doesn’t pop up 

 

The only price I come up with is $330 for a 11 day cruise. 

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

 

Happy cruising.  🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

In the other thread on Boston parking, someone just posted their experience with trying to book Lot C1. Seems pretty confusing. We will need parking for our July trip as well, and our current plan is to show up at C1 around 8AM without a reservation, then have the indoor ABM Marine Park Garage a block away as a fall back. 

18 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

The key is to declare.

 

To me an often mis-understood part of bringing beer, wine, or spirits into Canada is "limits".  The limits that are imposed - such as One bottle of spirits of whatever size - is what you can bring in duty free.

 

Now perhaps I am completely wrong with this but when I arrive back to Pearson airport and go through the Nexus line, I am only declaring that I have nothing above my limit.  So if I only have one bottle of spirits and it's size meets the allowed volume, then I do not need to declare. 

 

My understanding is that I only need to make a declaration if for instance duty free have a sale and I decide to bring 3 bottles then I have to say that I am over my limit and declare the additional.

 

In my understanding there is no top limit to what I can bring in as long as I actually declare what is above my personal limit for the length of the trip and be ready to pay the duty.

 

So the question begs to be asked, did your sister have more than her allowance for beer in the car?

 

Please set me straight here if I am not understanding this, otherwise I have defrauded my declaration at the Nexus Kiosk and then face-to-face each time I have returned to Canada when I have been brining in what is in or under my limit.

 

 

This certainly is my understanding as well, and my first thought when I read that post was whether the sister had failed to declare something that was beyond their allowance. We've been NEXUS holders since program inception and rarely, if ever, exceed our allowance, but if we do, we certainly make a point of declaring any overages. We are not about to jeopardize such an important privilege as NEXUS over a triviality. If we come back home and are within our allowance, for example, 1.14 liters of alcohol after a 7 day trip, we don't bother to declare.

5 hours ago, Coffee30 said:

Great advice, thank you! 
And yes I did consider using a TA, but felt that there’re too many TAs online and I find it difficult to verify which are legit. 
 

I’m now thinking whether to 1) book through United Cruises and earn 7x miles/dollar or 2) book with Princess directly and open a new credit card to earn card opening bonus. 
 

I’ve looked into Vacations To Go as TA earlier but surprisingly found their prices being basically the same as booking with princess directly so didn’t see a point in going with them..

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Heads up, it is against CC's rules to expressly state the name of ANY travel agency in these forums. Other entities like cruise lines, insurance providers, airlines etc can be discussed and named, just not travel agents.

59 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

Whilst I don't disagree with anything you've said.......... the OP was worried about the teenagers. 
I'd put the RCL Flowriders, Abyss, Slides, Teen Club, Zip Lines, Sports Court, Mini Golf (granted it's a limited course) etc etc  up against what other lines offer in this regard. (provided a ship with these options was available)

I would, however concede the NCL go karts seem like they could flag some teen interest!!!

Agreed, RCCL do have a lot of "toys", probably more than NCL. But when comparing cost/value etc., I was amazed at how expensive RCCL have become in recent times. In our experience, the cost differential is significant.  When hosting a group of teens, if money is no object, then yes, RCCL would be a better bet.

34 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

Young teenagers? RCL 100%. 
If there's an Oasis class for those itineraries at that point don't even think twice.
If I had to pick a cruise line that attempted to be all things to both younger families,  and *ahem* those in a different age category...... it'd be RCL.
 

A great option, but I'm not sure about the 100% when pricing is factored in. We've done a LOT of researching for the various alternatives to our usual line, Princess, given all the recent price hikes. We've sailed NCL and X a few times as well though prefer Princess. Apples to apples, HAL and X are very expensive these days and we also find that RCCL can also be too pricey. They tend to offer low initial pricing, but by the time you add a drink package  and all the "extra" charges, their prices are up into X territory. RCCL seem to have very high drink package prices, and charge huge amounts for the right to select your cabin ahead of time, which is a killer for us, as we don't ever do guarantees, we need to select our exact cabin ahead of time. If we have to compare RCCL and NCL, Norwegian comes out ahead every time on price. While we prefer the calm and quiet of a Princess or Celebrity ship, we've sailed NCL enough times and had no issues with them. For a group with young people, I would consider them a great option and in our experience quite a bit cheaper, especially for Canadians with our weaker dollar.  With young folks, definitely not Princess, HAL or Celebrity

2 hours ago, MacMadame said:

I'm guessing that the staff would figure that out soon enough. At least I hope so because my goal on our upcoming cruise is to try every vodka martini they have. 🤣

I take it you are familiar with the Vesper, Ian Fleming's contribution to modern bartending and James Bond's go-to martini ;o) Three parts Gin (technically has to be Gordon's per Fleming's recipe), one part Vodka, one third part of Kina Lillet (or the modern equivalent Lillet Blanc) and a twist of lemon. All Princess bartenders either offer it on their menus or can make it upon request. It's right up there with the Chairman Of The Board as one of my favorite Princess Martinis

10 minutes ago, Crystaltipps67 said:

We went straight to Guest Services when we boarded and they added it. It was working by the time we had walked the few paces to Bellinis!

The risk of buying on board though is that Princess might increase the price between now and your sailing.

You don't even have to go to GS to buy the package. On our last trip two months ago we never made it that far and were virtually tackled by a crew member at a station right by the gangway wanting to sell us the upgrade within seconds of us boarding. And yes, it goes "live" instantly