lx200gps

No, it would be both of us using EZ Air, or me booking direct with AC and we apply the buddy pass for SWMBO. Either way, it would be a guaranteed, paid for seat, no standby. The buddy pass is through my Aeroplan card, one per year and expires soon. The fare with the buddy pass is technically $0, but by the time we add taxes, surcharges etc, it ends up "costing" $99. Still one hell of a deal, especially for a long-ish flight to LA.

I'm looking at EZ Air for a flight from YUL to LAX early next year. EZ Air is actually a few hundred less than direct with AC for the same flights, and EZ Air's flexibility etc is excellent. I have a $99 Aeroplan Buddy Pass I need to use/book before mid-July and would like to apply it to this flight to save about $600 over the AC price. Has anyone used a Buddy Pass in concert with EZ Air and if so, how was it applied. Booking directly with AC there is a box to select using the Pass, but of course not on EZ Air. The cynic in me says if I call EZ Air they will say "No idea, talk to Air Canada, and if I call AC they will either say "No idea, talk to EZ Air", or more likely "What's EZ Air".

We had visited S On 5 for Sushi early in the trip, and one of the waitresses mentioned it to us. I can't remember whether it was mentioned in the daily newsletter or not. The menu was a formal three course offering, but when we sat down, the waiter was quite free with the food and offered to just bring us tasting sizes of every entree and main course to try. Worked out very well, everything excellent, though the fish curry was a bit "tough". My wife generally doesn't like Indian but decided to give it a try and loved the experience.

Very definitely inconsistent. The Maitre'D was quite firm that it was not covered by the package so I didn't press the issue. In any case, it just meant we had an extra night in the TG to use up our 4 package dinner ;o)

On the Equinox last week, it was also $50 for Sushi On 5. One important tip, as we found out the hard way. On our sailing Sushi On 5 had a special Indian night, (which was excellent BTW). We had the 4 night dining package and naively assumed that our dinner that night would come from our 4 night allotment, as it had the first time we ate there a few days previously. Not so. The Maitre'D informed us that because it was a special meal, it wouldn't come from pre-paid allotment and we ended up with a $100 bill. FWIW, we prefer to eat very early and had absolutely no problems getting the first sitting, 5:30, at Murano, TG and S on 5 despite having no previous reservations.

Correct. Only their CFAR coverage is worth it, at least for us

To the OP: As you are looking at a Princess trip, have a read about their own Princess Platinum insurance. One very good benefit of that particular coverage is a no-questions-asked Cancel For Any Reason clause which gives you 100% of your non-refundable trip costs back as a Future Cruise Credit. If something should happen to you even as close as a day before departure, you can simply cancel and get everything back as an FCC. The rest of their coverage is only so-so and can be bettered by shopping around, but we always bought the Princess coverage fo their CFAR clause as extra insurance, until they stopped selling to us Quebecers a few years ago. Every other insurer out there only offers CFAR up to 70-80%, so Princess's 100% was very appealing given the cost of cruising these days. As to our own experience, we use Blue Cross and have only had to use it once. Some years back, on our return into Galveston on a Princess trip, the port was utterly fogged in and we didn't disembark the ship until late in the day, missing our return flight. Blue Cross easily and quickly refunded all our out of pocket expenses such as hotel, rental car, meal per diem, etc.

We walked it in a very leisurely 13 minutes, carefully timed, each towing a suitcase and a smaller carry-on

Welcome to Cruise Critic. We're on the Equinox at the moment and the experience is exactly same. I'm gobsmacked that people would consciously choose to endure that level of noise for so long; the few times we have to go to the upper decks/pool area, we're in and out as fast as possible to avoid ear damage ;o). Sadly, the sound levels in the lower deck areas are also very loud much of the time as well. I'm perfectly fine with loud sound levels in the Theater, but in the atrium areas the sound is way too loud for our taste. FWIW, we're Princess regulars, our last trip being in February. The sound levels on Princess are overall definitely lower than here on X.

Quite correct. $50US

We're currently on the Equinox steaming south towards Aruba. Per the Maitre-d at Sushi on 5, the "deductible" is currently $50 for those of us who have a multi-night Dining Package. Anything we eat beyond the $50 is chargeable. We'll be confirming that tomorrow when we eat there for the first time this trip.

That's very interesting, I had no idea. As I had said, I assumed drivers knew their destination before even picking up the fare. Based on your experience, and that of other drivers, what is your opinion of very short distance fares? I assumed that when I called an Uber to drive half a kilometer, farther than we can drag our heavy luggage, that the driver would know he is going a short distance and agrees to the fare. Now you're saying they don't know, is a typical driver upset by that? IIRC there is a minimum fare charged, but is it considered a bother? Admittedly we only ever use Uber between an airport, a pre-cruise hotel and the cruise port but sometimes the drives can be very short.

The 3 Day Sale this year runs from June 8-10, we usually receive a notification a few weeks ahead from our TA with the Agency. We've usually booked 2 or 3 trips every year with the sale and will do so again this year. The value has gone way down in recent years, the base pricing is rarely much better than booking directly with Princess, but they still do throw in some useful perqs such as increased OBC. The days of REALLY good prices, free drink packages etc are long gone, since even before the pandemic.

Around the time of our first visit to Jamaica on a Princess ship, a few years pre-pandemic, we actually received via Email a targeted mini-survey from Princess specifically asking about our feelings re Jamaica and whether it was a worthy cruise port stop. We certainly answered in the negative. I guess even back then they were aware of issues with that particular island, but it appears that folks like us who don't particularly care for the place were in the minority, as Princess kept going there and still has it on their itineraries.

Our first visit to Jamaica on a Princess ship was to Falmouth. We stayed in the immediate port area and found it just boring, nothing special. Our second visit to Jamaica stopped at Ochos Rios. An utterly dreadful experience walking away from the immediate port up towards "Main Street", a distance of maybe 300 yards past rows of taxis and VERY forceful and aggressive locals shoving unwanted excursion etc down our throats. We are well used to gentle harassment on other islands in the Caribbean and in Mexico, particularly Cabo, but this was on an entirely different level, at one point bordering on threatening. If we ever do have to stop in Jamaica on a cruise again, we sure won't be getting off the ship. Maybe we'll have a shot at actually getting Sanctuary loungers ;o)

Thanks for the data point. Did you use the regular lanes or NEXUS?

Excellent point. There should be one other advantage to using a ride share. Given the comments about taxi drivers not even knowing how to get to Red Hook (and I've driven to it from northern NJ, it's not that hard to find), I would expect that using, say, Uber would get by that problem by it's very nature. When you use the Uber app to call a ride, you are required to specify exactly where you are, and EXACTLY where you want to go. If the Uber driver accepts your ride, doesn't that mean they are admitting they know exactly how to get there? I'd love to hear examples of people hailing an Uber only to be told by the driver they have no idea where they are going.

We've sailed out of PE many times. Unless things have changed since February when we were there last, and I doubt it, Terminal 2 is definitely BEFORE the security checkpoint, as is Terminal 4 right next to it. They moved the checkpoint a few hundred yards down Eisenhower a few years ago. It's visible on Google Maps satellite view, just after the entrance to Terminal 4.

If you are sure that you are sailing from T2, then yes, entering from 17th/Eisenhower would be easiest. Keep in mind that not all Princess ships sail from, or return to, T2. If there are multiple Princess ships in PE that day, which is very common, then the older or smaller ship gets shunted to T21. In the past, we have even sailed from T2 but returned to T21. Terminal 21 would probably be easiest reached from the south via Eller.

We fell exactly the same way, particularly the comment about "...time on hold w/Princess" Having done that once myself, as much as we love our dedicated TA, we're happy to let her sit for hours on hold which, sadly, she's done for us many times.

The Sanctuary pass includes the dedicated lounger, a lunch menu and afternoon tea. There is full time very attentive service for food and drink delivery, but you would have to either have a drink package or pay for the drinks. Drinks are not automatically included with the Sanctuary pass. When you order a drink, the Sanctuary staff will head to a nearby bar to pick it up for you. No pre-booking, you have to RACE upstairs the moment you board, and expect all the best loungers to be gone by the time you get there on a warm-weather trip, it's extremely popular. Our last trip on the Sky, as Elites we were among the very first folks to board and were still completely shut out of booking the Sanctuary due to the massive number of B2Bers who boarded just before us. Of course, sea days will be much more popular than port days.

I don't think it's "likely" you will lose NEXUS, I expect it's a certainty. We make a point of always staying within our exemption if we plan to use NEXUS, but it would be nice if they would allow honest declarations of overage. That being said, the last 3 or 4 times we've returned home and used NEXUS, the lines at the non-NEXUS terminals have been much smaller than the NEXUS lines.

No sweat, enjoy the trip. Actually, the wait isn't bad and once boarding starts, the waiting rooms empty out pretty quickly.

As an aside, has anyone used the NEXUS system to re-enter when they were over your personal exemption. It's my understanding that if you are bringing back alcohol over your limit, you have to use the "regular" lanes and not the NEXUS lanes.

In general, Princess ships will start check-in around 10AM, +/- and anyone checking in will then wait until boarding starts, generally around 11-11:30AM. If check in hasn't started, you may be waiting outside, though you will be able to drop off your bags. Boarding will depend on your Princess status, with B2Bers going on first, then Suites, Elites and Platinums, then everyone else. If you are "below" Platinum status, there could be more than a thousand people boarding before you. FWIW, we generally show up between 9:30 and 10AM as we are also keen to get on board ASAP.