lx200gps

Following this, thanks for posting. We'll be there on May 30 and so far, my inclination is to use Hertz as they seem to be the biggest car rental agency with a location close to the cruise dock. Prices seem to be quite decent, though the exact location is a bit fuzzy as the address on LG Smith Blvd, right across the street from the dock is supposed to be a Renaissance hotel which has a different name. The Hertz site calls it "Renaissance Ocean Suites" but Google calls it "Renaissance Wind Creek". I have some more digging to do to sort out the mystery, but we'll probably use them. A very short walk from the ship, and we'd rather use a brand name agency.

We taxi'd from PE T2 to FLL T2 in Feb this year. I was well aware of the taxi scams being reported here on CC so I guess we were lucky in that our driver used his meter properly and the fare, with tip, was a normal $20 +/-. Amusingly, as we were standing in line at PE waiting for the taxi to pull up, I made a point of asking one of the sheriff's deputies doing crowd control about these scams and whether taxis from PE are supposed to use meters. He was quite adamant that ALL taxis use meters there, so it seems the local sheriff's dept don't read CC ;o)

FWIW, we did a 7 day C/NE on Princess out of Brooklyn last September. We missed three of the five port stops due to winds. There's just no way to predict....

Long time Princess sail-er here, and yes, the Princess forum is the place to go for the answers. Be advise that there are a LOT of threads on this, so I would suggest that you do a lot of reading of the many threads on this subject first. Sadly, some if the regulars on that forum can get pretty snarky when a new dress code thread is started, since they seem to pop up on almost a daily basis.. TL:DR the dress code on Princess has relaxed quite a bit in recent years. Many folks do dress formally but it's absolutely not necessary to do so. The formal nights are only for the main dining rooms anyway and even then, many people still use the MDRs dressed casually, albeit tastefully (so no jeans, thongs, baseball hats, muscle shirts, camouflage, etc ;o) The dress code for the Specialty restaurants is always Smart Casual. Thanks to Air Canada's strict enforcement of weight limitations on baggage, I haven't brought a suit (or even a tie) on a cruise in years.

Another Canadian here, and this is our experience as well. You can get by here in Canada much easier with plastic than in the US, I use cash perhaps once every few months, if that. Credit cards are used and accepted pretty much everywhere. As to tipping the port employees for "handling" your bags, I wouldn't hesitate to tip them in greenbacks.

We sailed for the first time out of the BCT last September, driving down from Montreal. We chose to drive directly down and stay in northern New Jersey rather than pay the very high hotel rates in either Manhattan or Brooklyn. We used a great Marriot just off the west end of the GW bridge. The morning of the cruise, we left the hotel around 8:30AM, completely misjudging how much traffic there would be and got to the BCT before 9AM. We drove down the Hudson Parkway along the west side of Manhattan, through the Battery tunnel, and a short drive to Red Hook. Since we were driving Manhattan early on a Saturday morning, the traffic was not bad at all. We hate heavy traffic as much as you, but we wouldn't hesitate to do it again. While northern New Jersey wouldn't be ideal for you as you're coming from farther east, I guess my point is that you don't necessarily need to fear Manhattan traffic if you're coming in to (or leaving) the BCT early on a weekend morning

You shouldn't have any problems using your carrier's roaming service (we use Bell), but if you are physically on the ship, make VERY sure you are connected to the land system and not to the ship's cell network. That would get very expensive very quickly.

For us, the Uber experience at both the airport (to the hotel) and at Port Everglades (from PE to FLL) is just too frenetic, loud, cramped etc. Many people swear by it, but for us it's not worth it. Taxis at both locations are lined up and available in minutes, if not seconds. No need to figure out which white Kia is your Uber ;o) From the hotel to PE, however, hands down Uber is easy and cheap.

Can't speak to the HP specifically (we've stayed in other properties) but the Plantation hotel zone is an excellent bet. During high season the price of hotels in Plantation can be SIGNIFICANTLY less than hotels near PE as the prices tend to be much more stable and don't go up very much. The area is well served by large mall and restaurants, though you should factor in the slightly higher transport costs to get between there and the airport and PE.

We've only sailed out of the BCT once so far, but arrived very early after misjudging how short the drive was from northern NJ. We arrived and parked our car a little before 9AM and immediately dropped our bags off and waited in the "terminal" until check in started a few hours later. Not very comfortable place to wait.

Sadly, I don't think they do. Only options right now seem to be NCL, Celebrity, RCCL, Carnival, MSC or Oceania. Having done it with NCL, the only line we would consider in the future would be X if Princess won't step up.

We actually stayed on the QM for one night prior to a cruise out of San Pedro a few years pre-pandemic. While the visit was very well worth it, and the ship is a great tour, the hotel stay was, sadly, horrible. While the room was wonderfully antique, we had a big insect infestation issue in all rooms and were VERY happy to get out of there the next morning. Here's hoping the new management does a good job of cleaning the hotel up. If the reviews start to look promising, we would try her again.

The ArriveCan app has morphed from a COVID-tracking tool (which didn't work very well in any case) to what it should have been all along. It's basically now a voluntary replacement for that little card we used to fill out in the airplane prior to arrival in Canada. We always do the ArriveCan submission, as it only takes a minute or two. Can't say what will happen if you don't pre-complete ArriveCan, but worst case it would mean a few extra seconds and a few more questions from the CBSA agent when you land. No big thing, maybe download the app and do a mock submission, answering the questions to get a feel for it, just DON'T hit Submit ;o)

I believe the OP was referring to the March 14, 2024 SAILING of the Equinox, where it would have arrived a few days later on Bonaire, now sadly off the schedule. We're on the Equinox for the same route in late May this year and fortunately Bonaire still shows our arrival on June 1.

Looks like it's a temporary thing, as Bonaire is back as a port stop on the very next trip, on March 23, 2024. Maybe Celebrity was too late in applying for access and was shut out of the limited dock space? IIRC, space is limited there.

The last time I researched car rentals near the port, the big Westin hotel, right across the street and co-incident with the train station, had a lot of the big agencies. According to Google Maps, it's only a few hundred yards away

Looks like it may be a browser issue? With Firefox/Linux, my usual browser, I can't log in. Switching to Chromium, no problem logging in.

Easiest way would be to check the Uber Price Estimator site https://www.uber.com/global/en/price-estimate/ and input your EXACT origin and destination (there seem to be three different Hampton Inns near Port Everglades, and PE has a number of piers/terminals) and it will give you an estimate of the cost for all Uber options, though you may face surge pricing. Uber is so easy down there that it is now our preferred way to get from hotel to ship, hands down.

+1 on Uber, we used it for the first time last month to go from the Renaissance to Terminal 2 at PE. Couldn't be easier. Question for you experienced Uber users: When we disembarked at T2 after our cruise, I wanted to Uber from there to FLL. When I turned the corner and proceeded to the rideshare pickup area, there were a million people crammed around, all staring at their phones trying to find their driver and car. Ubers were double- and tripled parked loading people, blocking traffic and it looked very unnerving. We got scared off by seeing that and grabbed a taxi instead, as there were no lines and taxis are very plentiful. Do you find it easy to find your driver in that pandemonium, I'd really like to try it on our next trip in May? Thanks...

I would probably also stay at the airport and head in to the port the morning of the sail. You probably wouldn't get to a hotel near the port until midnight. My suggestion would be to stay at the big new(ish) Marriott which is physically attached to the airport terminal, making it easier to get a taxi or Uber to the port the next morning. It's a very nice, conveniently located hotel.

Montreal native here. Which hotel are you looking at and what time of year? Anything that close is probably going to be in Old Montreal or just on the fringe. Old Montreal is very safe and touristy at any time, particularly in summer, but keep in mind that some roads in Old Montreal are heavily cobblestoned and may be a bit challenging if you are dragging luggage. Easily do-able though.

Apologies for the slight hijack, but what is X's policy on bringing on board alcohol purchased at intermediate port stops? Some other lines (Princess for one) certainly allow pax to bring alcohol back and are happy provide a receipt and to keep the bottle(s) for them, returning them the day before disembarkation. Does Celebrity also do this or do they confiscate & dispose?

Generally, there will be a table set up near the security station on the ship when you re-board at each stop. If it's there, you will leave the bottles with the staff, they will give you a receipt, and the bottles will be put into your stateroom near the end of the voyage. Can't speak to port security getting involved, it's never happened to us, we've only dealt with Princess security on the ship and we've never had a problem.

If we're talking about those ubiquitous coffee makers being in cabins on the Sun, then according to the artist renderings on the Princess site, they appear to be clearly visible on the cabin desk in every class of room except Interior. Are we saying those renderings are in error, which is highly unlikely given Princess's well known reputation for extreme accuracy in it's advertising and announcements ;o)

No worries. We have used the CP shuttle in the past and it's also very convenient. And if you don't want to wait, or share a bus, there's always the ubiquitous Uber option as well.