lx200gps

Fortunately, our trip in July out of Boston is a closed loop Canada/New England trip that does start and end in Boston

Following, as we are sailing out of Boston in July for the first time. Along with Global Entry, do they have facial recognition? We sail through the formality in Port Everglades and San Pedro in seconds using FR, it's a great technology.

We disembarked off the Discovery Princess yesterday. On embarkation and disembarkation days, we were the only ship in SP that day, yet we were docked at 92, in the channel right next to the Iowa. The "usual" pier we have always sailed from before, 93, was empty on both days. The physical layout of the parking lots at SP can easily be seen on Google Maps: https://www.google.ca/maps/@33.7452929,-118.276366,323m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu There are plenty of sidewalks and pedestrian crosswalks between the two terminals and between the terminals and the various parking areas.

Then that would be a rare exception, would it not?

If your trip starts and ends in New York, then it will be Brooklyn. Only when NY is an intermediate stop on, say, a transatlantic, does it use Manhattan. We have always sailed out of Red Hook/Brooklyn. Yes, it's idiotic that Princess still won't fix this.

Unfortunately, the only Uber "class" that can pick up at the terminals at LAX are the Uber Blacks. If you don't mind paying the $$$s, they are a good option. All other Ubers are shunted to the adjacent LAX-It lot, which passengers have to access by taking a shuttle bus. There are two well hidden taxi stands at the terminals, one of which is at the end of Terminal 7, but based on our experiences, that would be a last resort. No problems in the other direction, we just Uber'ed from SP to the Air Canada Terminal 6 here at LAX an hour ago and they can drop you off no problem right at your gate. The problem is the pickup from LAX, picking up at the port in SP is also very easy.

That's exactly our experience when we did the upgrade onboard the Discovery last October. The price was precisely the same on board as it was online ahead of time, and the upgrade was done within minutes of us boarding and went live instantly. They station the folks doing the upgrades within feet of the embarkation area when you board, so they will very easy to find. The cost did come out of our OBCs

...though we do have to remember that the drink options on PC, while all-inclusive, are a small sub-set of what's available on board. I wonder if the bartenders on shore can knock a Chairman of the Board ;o)

If it gets recovered, it has to launch, no? According to the Vandenberg SFB web site, the launch was, IIRC, around 4:30 local time, so the boost back return would have followed shortly thereafter though I don't remember whether the recovery is at Vandenberg or off shore. The launch would have been a higher energy event than the booster landing, so louder and more visible but should still have been visible from where we were at the time given the clear-ish skies. Vandenberg launches are generally to south so the path should have brought it fairly close to us, and as rocket launches go, 30 miles ain't that far. Remember that the old Saturn V Apollo launches, though much bigger rockets, were visible hundreds of miles away

Question for the OP (or anyone else on board yesterday) Around 4PMish, the Captain came on the speaker to warn us of possible visible and audible effects from a rocket launch that was apparently imminent. That was a first for us for sure, never had that announcement sailing out of PE for sure. Turns out there was yet another Starlink launch out of Vandeberg, which would have put the trajectory right off our port beam around that time. I didn't get outside to see it, did anyone else?

Can't claim any experience with FLL to YYZ, but we have flown FLL to YUL many times. We always do the self walkoff and try to be among the first off the ship. We usually make it to FLL terminal 2 (the Air Canada Terminal) by 8 AM, as FLL is very close to Port Everglades. Terminal 2 is a small terminal shared with Delta so you don't have far to walk to your gate. A 10:30 flight should be pretty easy to make, especially if you have Air Canada priority check-in and TSA pre-check to speed you through security. Of course, your ship could always be delayed for any number of reasons, so a back-up plan would be advisable.

Further to what Mon Says above ;o) As a Montrealer, YUL is our "home" airport. As the others have said, you definitely will have to clear US Customs/Immigration during your layover, and keep in mind your flight to Denver will start boarding 30-45 minutes after you land from Quebec City depending on how the large to outbound aircraft is. Also, the inbound flight from YQB will probably end up in an "internal" gate at YUL, meaning you will have to walk across the airport to the Transborder/US gates, quite a haul. Yes, YUL is tiny, but it's not THAT tiny. There are only a few things in your favor: 1) Since you are flying AC on both legs, there is the possibility that AC personnel will be active in the US Customs hall armed with clipboards, expediting and hand-holding in-transit passengers through Customs and security to ensure they make their connections. Not guaranteed though, but we have seen it done many times 2) As you have Global Entry, you MAY be able to use the NEXUS line at the Transborder Customs hall, which will greatly expedite your passage time. You will want to look into that. When we did this very thing a few days ago on our way to LAX, there were probably a hundred people waiting in the "normal" line, while we NEXUS holders walked right up to the facial recognition scanners and were talking to the USCPB agent in under a minute. 3) The only other thing in your favor is whether or not Air Canada actually lets you book the flight itinerary. If it does let you book, then, to my way of thinking, that means their "system" says the 1 hour transit is acceptable All that being said, a one hour transit like this is very tight. Maybe call Air Canada and ask an agent?

We can't claim any great knowledge of the local breakfast eateries, as we usually don't eat breakfast. IIRC the Doubletree has a full service restaurant which should suffice, but perhaps the locals here can chime in on local recommendations.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. A question like this should really be asked on the Celebrity board: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/16-celebrity-cruises/

Sorry, incorrect as of three days ago. See posts #2 and 8 above. Boarding passes were absolutely NOT required, the security people manning the pre-security desk told us we didn't need them and we never showed them to anyone.

Torrance is now our favorite pre-cruise hotel stopover destination when we sail from San Pedro, greatly preferred over the San Pedro area and a little more convenient for us than Long Beach. We have stayed at the Doubletree a number of times despite having relatively high Marriott status, simply because even with my status, the Doubletree is usually much cheaper than the Marriott. We would actually prefer the Marriott as it seems a bit nicer than the perfectly acceptable Doubletree, it's simply much more expensive the times we have tried to book it. The location of both hotels next to the massive Del Amo mall is a big plus for us as well.

Absolutely agree. There is no excuse for leaving a tray outside your cabin, regardless of cabin type. Just call and have it removed.

In our case at San Pedro a few days ago, both the personnel demanding we have our boarding passes, and the personnel saying we didn't need them, were ALL shoreside security personnel working for the same company, definitely not Princess employees or the contractors Princess use on shore (the folks wearing the Princess oval badges). The two sets of contractor security personnel issuing totally contradictory instructions were standing maybe 50 feet apart, well within earshot of each other.

IIRC, the boarding pass shows up on the main page once you launch the app. There should be a row of tabs near the middle of the screen but the boarding pass is off screen and I think I had to scroll to the left to bring it into view. It was well hidden. We boarded the Discovery in San Pedro a few days ago. As we re snaking our way towards security, we were told very forcefully a number of times by multiple people "You MUST have your boarding pass in hand along with photo ID...." When we finally reached the security check-in station, the lady told us "Oh, you have your medallion, you don't need your boarding pass" and of course we never showed our boarding pass to anyone.

And it's $30/pp/day if you book for the entire voyage. Some folks do just that simply to have a guaranteed lounger whenever they want, even if they only use it for an hour a day.

Same thing happened to us back in October. An excursion we wanted had been sold out and there wasn't even a wait list. As soon as we boarded, we headed to the Shore Excursions desk and had no problem booking the exact tour we wanted. Seemed pretty clear to me that not all inventory is put out for on-line booking, they seem to hold some slots open for walk-ups on embarkation day. YMMV of course, but that was our experience.

We are devoted fans of the Sanctuary, and up until two days ago when we boarded the Discovery, I would have assumed that was true. Turns out the floorplan is flexible at the discretion of the staff. For the first time ever, we actually made it up to the Sanctuary as the very first embarking passengers in the booking line. And of course, as it's a warm weather cruise, all the best loungers had been grabbed by the B2Bers on the previous trip. Amazingly, the Maitre'd on his own initiative offered to create two new lounger positions for us by moving/removing some of the extraneous floor decorations and adding two new loungers for us. That gave us two days (a port day and a sea day) that we wouldn't otherwise have had.

Not in my experience. The VT website fine print even says " Offers may be modified or withdrawn without notice. Not responsible for typographical errors" As soon as the 2024 dates opened up I booked a single night for next October. Received the official VT confirmation etc. Almost immediately they very subtly changed the blackout dates to add my booked date. Even now, almost a month after booking, they still haven't informed me that my reservation is invalid. Fortunately I had called the hotel, who informed me that VT should not have allowed me to make the booking as it was just inside one of their (the HP) blackout periods.

Manulife also advertise a CFAR option, it may be worth looking in to. Apparently the top plan gives 80% back, but as pointed out above, this kind of insurance needs to be bought very soon after the trip is booked. https://www.igoinsured.com/Direct/ManulifeGlobal.aspx?ag=PAYLTHL&lang=E If you simply change your mind and no longer wish to travel, we will give you up to 80% of the non-refundable trip cost if you cancel 7 days prior to departure. If you cancel 6 days to 24 hours prior to departure we will give you up to 80% refund up to a maximum of $2,500. While it's no use to you as a Cunard customer, the best CFAR coverage I've ever seen is offered by Princess. 100% back, no questions asked, up to the day of departure. We bought it for every trip for years, until it stopped being available in Quebec.

We also boarded the Discovery yesterday in SP. We got out of our Uber at 9:30 and there were already a few hundred others ahead of us waiting in a tent to get to Security. The ship was docked at the big tent next to the Iowa BTW. IOW check-in had not yet opened. About 10AM security screening opened and by the time we got through security and went into to the Green Line for check-in, it was about 10:10. The Green Line was empty and we walked right up to the check-in lady for document check, then went to the lounge for a coffee. Boarding started around 10:30