lx200gps

I just checked two of our upcoming trips, a California Coastal in October 2023 and a Mexican Riviera in Feb 2024, both basic balcony cabins on the Discovery. The October trip is almost exactly $CAD1000 more for the two of us, with much less OBC, and the Mexico trip is $CAD700 more. I, too, would love to know how Princess can consider this the Best Sale Ever.

The OP's reported issue (and as observed by us a month ago) was specifically with Delta at Terminal 2 at FLL. Air Canada, who share T2 with Delta, are still at 3 hours. It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who has recently transited through FLL about experiences with other terminals and airlines. Are American or United also limiting check-in to 2 hours pre-flight, or is this just a Delta problem?

We'll be on the Sky again in Feb, and have a 13:20 flight out of FLL. That means a check-in time of 10:20, so we'll have an hour to kill sitting around the terminal after leaving the ship at 9:30. Thanks for the heads up.

Which airline and terminal? At FLL terminal 2 a month ago, we discovered this rule the hard way, showing up 4 hours before our Air Canada flight, since their web site (and our previous experience) says bags can be dropped and check in can begin 4 hours before a flight. They were running 3 hours instead and refused to allow us to check in. Delta, in the same terminal, had the 2 hour rule in place, so the pre check-in concourse was absolutely jammed with people sitting on their luggage not allowed to check in. I don't know if this is just a Delta thing, or an FLL rule across all terminals. We'll be back there in February and will wait at the ship until the very last minute.

+1 on the Princess insurance, we used to buy it for every trip largely for the industry-leading 100% Cancel For Any Reason coverage. Up to the day of travel, if something happened and you couldn't (or didn't want to) travel, they gave you everything back as an FCC, no questions asked. Sadly, a few years ago they stopped offering to us here in the Democratic People's Republic of Quebec, so we've had to make due with credit card and Blue Cross coverage. When we move to Canada next year, we'll be buying the Princess coverage for every one of their trips

We'll have to agree to disagree with that. We've been on the Sky twice, the Enchanted once and the Royal and Regal more times than we can remember. The Royal and Regal are absolutely our favorite platform, pretty much a perfect fit for us but the other ships, though perhaps the same size, are very different in layout, amenities etc. In fact, the Enchanted has now supplanted the CB as our least favorite ship, one that we will never sail on again. Dysfunctional or completely missing Crooners, horrible Sanctuaries, a good restaurant in a dreadful location (Bistro)... the list goes on.

We did almost exactly this back in September. njhorseman's first routing is pretty much exactly how we drove down, though we stayed in Teaneck at a great big Marriott since we driving down from up north. The trip over the GW Bridge, down the west side (right past the Manhattan Cruise Terminal) and through the Battery tunnel into Brooklyn is quite simple to navigate, and since we were doing it on a Saturday morning around 8AM, there was relatively little traffic. Hotels in New Jersey are much cheaper than either Manhattan or Brooklyn and the drive to the BCT took less than an hour. I can highly recommend staying in NJ.

It's on the ship's bridge cam channel

Interesting, thanks for the data point. That's not normal procedure but I guess it happens

AFAIK, the rule seems to be that if two Princess ships are at PE on the same day, then the larger one gets T2 and the smaller one (such as the Caribbean Princess) gets shunted to T21. When two of the large ships are in port at the same time, the newer one gets T2 and the "older" one gets T21. That's why we ended up at T21 on the Sky when the slightly newer Enchanted got T2.

Sorry, but that's a bit inaccurate. Princess's "main" terminal is T2, but if there are two or more Princess ships in PE at the same time then clearly one of them has to use another terminal, usually Terminal 21. This is not at all an uncommon occurrence and has happened to us a number of times. On the Sky a month ago, we left from T2 but returned a week later to T21, as the Enchanted was at T2.

Lifelong diver here. The snorkeling at PC is pretty basic, definitely not Bonaire or Coz standards. As you ride the tender in to the dock, look off to your left (towards the north) maybe a hundred yards up the beach and you'll see a structure jutting out onto the water with a red roof, basically a lifeguard station/observation deck. That's about the best snorkeling you will find at PC, either around/underneath the structure or on what passes for a reef just to the north of the structure. Viz can be iffy, especially on windy days but you'll see small schools of the ubiquitous sergeant majors etc.

Exactly and precisely what we went through a few weeks ago on our way to Montreal. T2 is mostly Delta, so their 2 hour rule really caused huge traffic jams inside the concourse. No seats available, people sitting on luggage with no room to move. But as you say, once check in started we flew through the bureaucracy, no wait at security on the TSA-Precheck side. We're doing exactly the same trip in mid-February, but we will sit at the ship for as long as possible to avoid the lines at FLL since we have a 13:20 departure. That means we will not be able to check in until 10:20. The annoying thing is that AC's own website still clearly says bag drop can be up to 4 hours before departure.

I would also have thought that they aren't in as high demand, based on previous experience. On the Sky a few weeks ago, we only had one day in the Sanctuary (it being a port-intensive itinerary) and the day we were there, the cabanas were at least 80% booked which is something we had never seen before. Admittedly though, if someone makes a big effort to board as early as possible, then they certainly would have a better chance of booking a cabana than one or two loungers.

And you have no idea how ridiculous this statement is to those of us who enjoy the peace and quiet of the Sanctuary. ;o)

Too right. On the Sky a few weeks ago, I made the mistake of taking the center gangway instead of the forward gangway, thereby having a longer run to the forward elevators. That simple mistake allowed a few folks to beat us to the Sanctuary by just a few seconds and cost us the chance for the best locations. It can be THAT close.

We're regular Sanctuary users, most recently a few weeks ago on the Sky. As other have pointed out, you have to board early, among the very first, to have a chance of snagging decent loungers. We're Elite and try to check in as early as possible, so as to be among the very first to board once boarding starts. Keep in mind that there is a priority to boarding, with B2Bers first, then Elites and Suites, then Platinum etc. so there will be a lot of people ahead of you in the line. On the Sky a few weeks ago, we arrived very early, about 9 or 9:30, sat in the lounge until boarding started around 11, and were probably the fifth and sixth Elites to reach the Sanctuary, but the B2Bers had arrived well before any of us, and we had little selection to choose from. The newer ships like the Sky and Discovery, have different Sanctuary layouts from the older ships, with more empty wasted space, hot tubs, sofas and expensive cabanas reducing the number of basic loungers. They also have far more loungers in full sun, which is a show-stopper for us, further reducing the number of decent loungers available. Of course, sea days are far more popular than port days for Sanctuary booking. Although it's far more expensive, you may want to consider a cabana; loungers are $40/pp/day so $80 per couple, while a cabana is $220 total and you should have a better chance of getting a cabana.

We did exactly that trip two weeks ago after disembarking from the Sky Princess at terminal 21. With tip we paid the driver $20.

Thanks for posting this, we never thought to ask. We've eaten there a number of times, most recently on the Sky two weeks, and my wife had never thought to ask them for the "old style" escargots. She's not a fan of the crunchy fried version n the menu, but when we're back on the the Sky in February, she will definitely be asking for the original recipe.

Although we'll never sail with them again, outside dining is one area where Norwegian absolutely kills Princess to death. The Waterfront dining venues are amazing, very well designed

We've eaten there four times recently, twice on the Enchanted in September and once on the Sky two weeks ago. Great food and service, the location and ambience not so much. As a general aside, has anyone ever actually seen patrons dining al fresco on the small patios outside the Bistro? Every time we've EVER eaten there, or even walked by, the outside dining area has been empty. It's very exposed, with no overhead cover and probably quite windy whenever the ship is in motion, so I can't imagine it would be a comfortable place to "fine dine".

We were also on the Enchanted in late September, Canada/New England. Internet service then was every bit as bad as on the Sky two weeks ago.

We disembarked from the Sky 10 days ago, Eastern Caribbean itinerary. The internet service ranged from barely functional to completely unusable. Download speeds were often in the 150Kmps range or worse, vs our usual 500+Mbps here at home. Sea days, of course, were the worst, and the only time it was even tolerable was VERY late at night or very early AM. There are numerous discussions here on CC about Princess's internet issues, it's not pretty.

We were there just last week on the Sky. As a port/day stop, Princess docks in the Old Town at the "San Juan Cruise Port Terminal". GREAT location, the Old Town is a wonderful location. https://www.google.ca/maps/place/San+Juan+Cruise+Port+Terminal/@18.4620688,-66.1115636,18z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x8c03686fe268196f:0xad6b7f0f5c935adc!2sSan+Juan,+Puerto+Rico!3b1!8m2!3d18.4670588!4d-66.1184593!3m4!1s0x8c036ec438f4875b:0x26fd083b4ad73035!8m2!3d18.4620816!4d-66.1098017?hl=en

Exactly what we did on the Sky a week ago. We had paid for the Premier package on the Enchanted in September and were royally ripped off as they had few of the expensive wines in stock. On the Sky last week, where they had almost ALL the wines in stock, we had "downgraded" to the Plus package but still bought only the expensive wines by the glass, in the $16-$22/glass range and paid the delta. Even at 3-5 glasses/day we saved tons by only paying the delta, over the cost of the Premier package, even after factoring in the two free Specialty Restaurant meals., Also, FWIW, I'd say the majority of the wines in the Specialty Restaurants tended to be at or below $16, with relatively few beyond that. Interestingly, the MDR wine list was MASSIVE compared to the wine lists in the three SDs. As an aside, I've seen a few comments from folks here on CC who actually seem to believe that they MUST buy the Premier package to "have access" to the better wines. Absolutely not the case, the Premier package, at far greater cost, merely gives a higher deductible ($18 vs $12), but all wines are available to anyone with a cruise card.