lx200gps

Our next two trips are out of SP as well, one in October and one of February. In Feb, we don't land into LAX until after 10PM, so rather than drive immediately down to our usual intermediate stop, Torrance, we elected to stay right at LAX and continue on to the ship early on Embarkation Day. We chose the big Hyatt Regency, right at LAX and the physically closest hotel to the terminals, right on Century Blvd. For us, a short 15 minute walk from our Terminal 6, but they also have a shuttle. For us, it had the best combination of price, location and reviews for our Feb 2024 arrival.

Don't sweat it. As Canadians, we fell afoul of a recent change to Princess's "system", wherein everyone who can't get their Medallion shipped to them, and has to pick it up at the port, was automatically changed to Blue Lane, even though, like us, we they were previously Green Lane. Rumor has it that an update announcement re shipping to Canada is forthcoming, but the bottom line is that even if you can't get the Medallions shipped north, it's nothing to worry about. Just show up at the port on your embarkation day, spend an extra 2 minutes at checkin collecting your medallion, then board and start enjoying your trip. Have a great cruise.

Thanks for the data point, it's encouraging to hear that VPN use seems to be working well. Any chance you notice a performance drop when connected to the VPN vs disconnected? The connection speeds on the ships, even with MedallionNet, are not very fast, though quite usable. Do you notice any slowdown when connected, is it in any way discernable?

Point taken. I would only ask that when you do go to Guest Services to have the charges reversed, as we will also be doing, please keep in mind that the kids behind the counter down there are not the ones responsible for this amateurish bug in the software, so please go a bit easy on them. You can be quire sure they will have heard of this issue many times before, but they are powerless to fix it. That specific responsibility lies elsewhere.

Hopefully when they refund the money it goes back to our CC. I understand that in some cases (not necessarily for a restaurant booking error like this perhaps), they will only refund with OBC and not to the CC. We'll find out when we board I guess

Interesting, thanks. I'll remember t do that next for our next trip. I guess that means that, unlike me, you were smart enough not to have booked the second restaurant so did not get charged on your credit card? I booked them at the same login so I got charged for the second one before I could log out.

We actually just received an Email from Princess today announcing a series of theme cruises, including our magic-oriented trip on October 7 on the Discovery. Oddly, there's no mention of this 3 day EFX themed cruise Hopefully this link works https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/special-events/

They sure are, not just here but all over. At least folks from south of the border have the favorable US exchange to help them out

Must have been yet another new Princess CSR reading from a script ;o). Our trip is in early October and I've been able to book these "free" SD meals for weeks, though I never committed and clicked OK until today. We'll be heading to Guest Services as soon as we board to straighten it out, and something tells me they will have heard this before.

Old Montreal is very historic and a beautiful area to visit, I can highly recommend it. What time of year are you planning to visit? During the summer months, May to early September, it's VERY popular and can be crowded, particularly on weekends. Even so, it has lots of great restaurants, some in very historic old buildings (Old Montreal technically dates from the 1600s, though most of the real old stuff is archeological now), and most of it dates from the early 19th). Lots to see and do, even the Cirque Du Soleil run a show there every summer. There are also a bunch of hotels, Marriotts and Hiltons and a bunch of boutique hotels, probably every price range. As a local, I've never stayed in a hotel down there, but there are a bunch to choose from. A site like Tripadvisor should give you a good idea of the options.

Valid question. As we understand the math, we each have two SD dinners, so a total of "4 person-dinners" I booked both under my account, which is the only one we ever use, so I would think that after booking the first dinner, MY account should still have 2 person-dinners, one each, remaining. Apparently the Princess "system" doesn't think so. I hadn't thought of looking at her account, I'll check and see. Shouldn't have to though, it should all work through mine.

We have the Premier Package for an upcoming trip next February, and as we know the Premier Package confers 2 Specialty Dining meals per passenger. Accessing the Web version of the "app" I made our first booking, at the CG, and was presented with a confirmation at the bottom of the page saying "You have a dining credit" etc. with a charge of $0. I then proceeded to book Sabatini's for a few nights later and failed to notice that the message did not appear when I confirmed. Sure enough I just checked and our CC was charged for the meal. It's not a major issue as we tend to eat in the SD restaurants most of the time anyway and would be paying for other meals from our OBC in any case, but has anyone any ideas as to what I did wrong and how to avoid it in the future when I make future SD bookings with this package. Thanks in advance...

Looks like someone already answered for me, but yes, the "Queen E" is a good bet, not quite equidistant between the prime shopping area between Blvd Rene Levesque and Sherbrooke St centered on St Catherine St., and Old Montreal where the cruise port is located. From the QE to the center of Old Montreal, which is considered to be Place Jacques Cartier and Nelson's Column (Yes, that Nelson) is about a 30 minute walk. Happily much of it is downhill going, but that means the walk back is uphill ;o( Notre Dame Cathedral is sort of on the edge of Old Montreal and is a slightly shorter walk. So much of that area between downtown and Old Montreal, which passes through the financial district BTW, is so heavily used that I've never considered it anything less than perfectly safe. I might be a bit more cautious if I had to walk it at 3AM, but during daytime and especially in tourist season, no problems at all. Montreal has seen an uptick in homelessness in recent years, and they are to be found quite regularly downtown. I'll rely on the previous response re the bus service to the airport, as I have never done it and would take a taxi or Uber to the airport over a bus 8 days a week. One note of caution, there is massive construction going on at the airport proper, and we've seen staggering traffic jams leading up to the passenger pick up areas, as in kilometers long bumper to bumper traffic jams. I don't know whether buses or taxis have special lanes to access the drop off areas, but you may want to consider leaving a few extra minutes to catch your flight. At the very least, Google Maps Traffic does a credible job of showing the state of the traffic jams around the airport leading up to the terminal building, so it would be well worth it to check it regularly around the time you expect to be heading there. Certain days and times of day will better or worse than others, IIRC late afternoon can sometimes be problematic due to the folks picking up and dropping off pax from all the arriving European flights.

;o) In may case that's a guarantee of problems with my bank, which I haven't found a way around yet. If I try to access any of our bank or trading accounts through their website via my VPN (Nord), regardless of location (home or on the road), their security system senses an attempted breach from an unknown location and denies access, even if I'm at home.

FWIW, that is correct. Princess turned our October 7 California Coastal sailing on the Discovery into a theme cruise with the Magic Castle folks. It happened just a few weeks ago, no prior notice, and they haven't even sent us passengers a formal notice about it. I learned about it from our Roll Call here on CC

OK, got it, thanks for the clarification. I never use OceanNow but am on the internet quite often during a cruise with the "always on" service. I'll try accessing NordVPN when we're on the Discovery in a few weeks. It's something I haven't really tried in a few years, and back then I was unsuccessful.

I suspect they meant that Minis are "extended" balcony cabins (which they are) rather than "extended balcony" cabins. Yes, the balconies on the newer are ships sure are minuscule. We just booked an extended balcony cabin on Caribe deck on the Emerald for next July and the balconies look to be the size of tennis courts compared to the balconies on the new ships.

How do you access the Internet if you don't access MedallionNet. Isn't that the portal TO the Internet? I only use a laptop/tablet onboard but haven't tried a VPN yet.

You're quite welcome. Any more questions, I'm happy to help.

I'll let other chime in with details, but I've read reports here on CC that using a VPN on a Princess ship can be problematic.

No worries at all. Your drink package is honored all over the ship, and very definitely in all the specialty restaurants. That being said, be sure to check your onboard account on a regular basis, as occasionally the staff make mistakes and a drink may get charged to your account in error. When that happens a trip down to Guest Services sorts it out right away. I check our account via the TV every day. Have a great trip.

Here is a link to a huge thread from a few months ago re Starlink performance on specific ships. It's pretty long but you may be able to find someone with knowledge of Starlink status on the ship you are interested in. We're on the Discovery in a few months and it looks like it was one of the first to get the system.

Montrealer here. If you are driving down from Quebec City to Montreal to board a late afternoon flight, I HIGHLY recommend you make use of the excellent Google Traffic system and watch very carefully for road closures and traffic jams. Learn to avoid the red and black lines on Google. There has been a huge increase in road closures in and around the island of Montreal over the last few years and there are actually times, particularly on weekends, when entire highways and/or bridges are completely shut down for construction. In the inner city orange traffic cones are pretty much everywhere these days. Note also there is massive construction going on at the airport, with complete re-building of the parking garage and long traffic jams with cars lining up to drop off and pick up passengers at the terminal, even on weekdays. Car rental return at YUL is in the same parking garage immediately adjacent to the terminal building, and that garage, as at two days ago when we drove past it, has been 30% demolished for its reconstruction. I'm not trying to sound alarmist, you should still be fine, but please plan ahead and watch for traffic jams. They're not guaranteed, but are happening far more frequently than they used to.

Interesting. Any chance it's in that office building on 17th housing the Princess Medallion folks, right across from the Renaissance hotel?

You'll only pay the difference, plus tax. Enjoy ;o)