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Thanks to a tip from a fellow Canadian on another sub-forum here on CC, I was able to use another UK-based cruise TA's site to obtain the information I needed. Despite some issues with browsers, firewalls and VPNs, I can use their site to select sailings, review and choose cabins, chose perqs etc, exactly what I can't seem to do on P&O's site. Apparently this TA allows Canadians to book through their website if I can't book directly with P&O over the phone.

Would anyone here have experience in booking cruises, as a Canadian, on P&O? We're thinking about a Spring 2024 sailing out of Southampton up to Norway, but are not able to do any online research on their website. I can't get beyond the basic the sailing details, unable to view available cabins, obtain final pricing, etc, as I can do with all other cruise lines I've worked with. I am presented with a message saying I have to call a 1-877 number to book. There is a P&O Americas website but all booking must be done through a US travel agency I have never heard of, and we use a major cruise-specific TA here at home, well known to many people here on CC, who do not book P&O. I even tried to access the P&O UK site through a VPN, using a UK server, to no avail. I'm fine with doing a booking by phone, but I very much want to do all my due diligence beforehand, as researching and choosing the right cabin is very important to us. If anyone here has booked P&O recently, how did you do it? Thanks...

We were in a Caribe deck mid-ship mini just last week on the Sky. We LOVE minis for their many advantages and for us are well worth it. We're back on the Sky in Feb in another mini. For us, the better bathroom with full tub, full sofa (not just a loveseat), two TVs with large privacy curtain between the two halves allowing two people to watch different TVs at the same time, etc, all make the Minisuite our sweet spot in Princess cabins. We, too, don't hang around the cabin much, but when we do, the extra space and amenities are great.

We were in a Mini on the Sky just last week. I can't imagine any circumstance where the sofa would block the door. While the door is full width, the sofa is "against" the fixed half of the door, so opening the sliding half of the door is not affected by the sofa.

This is what I see when I log on to the UK P&O site, whether from here in Canada or via my VPN through a UK server. I can't get beyond selecting the cabin type and it won't let me see the individual available cabins. When you are at home in Blighty do you see a different presentation than this? Re the poamericas.com web site, it seems to be allied with a travel agency (who must remain nameless per CC rules) and I will want to work with our existing TA

Therein lies the problem, as we don't find using our TA to do the research for us to be a good way to book cruises. I spend many hours researching the ship, and the exact cabin in great detail. If P&O won't let me see the available cabins with their pricing when I try to research as all the other lines do, then the booking process becomes far more tedious and inefficient. As we currently book, generally with Princess, our TA has very little to do, as I simply tell her the exact cabin we want and the price and she books it in seconds, adding her agency's and the cruise line perqs. It sounds like we can't do that with P&O, it has to be done with human intervention. Our TA is great, I was just trying to save her some work.

Canadians here, very interest in a spring 2024 sailing out of Southampton up to Norway. I've been pining for the Fjords ;o) for a while and P&O have some very interesting itineraries. My usual ritual for investigating sailings is to log on to a cruise line's website, and proceed all the way through the booking process, selecting the specific cabin from a map of available cabins, then I am presented with the final all-in price. This has never been an issue with Princess, X, HAL, NCL or RCCL, but when I attempt to view the deck plans and choose the specific cabin we are interested on P&O, no such option exists and I can only see a large red button instructing me to call 877-828-4728. I have a registered P&O account now, and I tried VPNing in via a UK server to no avail. While we do have an excellent TA, I usually prefer to do all the research myself then provide her with our chosen cabin selection, but that doesn't seem possible here. Am I missing something obvious, or is that how P&O work? Is there no way to see the available cabins on any given P&O sailing and obtain a final pricing as with other lines, or do we have do it through a TA or directly with P&O. Thank you in advance.

I'm Canadian and have had TSA-precheck for years through NEXUS/GE Just used it a few days ago at FLL

? Port Everglades is in Fort Lauderdale

Can't speak to RCCL, but we disembarked from the Sky Princess at T21 a few days ago. Amongst the paperwork in our cabin, buried in the "Disembarkation Information" was a reference to a port-operated shuttle that ostensibly ran between terminals. It's always been my understanding there were such shuttles between the various terminals at PE. We actually left from T2 but returned to T21, so some of our passengers had to get back to T2 to pick up their cars. If you haven't already done so, I would recommend repeating this question over on the RCCL forum, where you may get some specific info on the shuttle. I would fully expect RCCL to have a shuttle to carry B2Bers between the ships.

For us, it's pure economics. Carrying a heavy suit for me and my wife's "formalwear" puts us WAY over our airline baggage allotment (we are always right at the limit anyway) and would add a lot to the cost of the trip in baggage overages. Can't be bothered. FWIW, on our two trips out of New York this summer, where we could drive and be immune to airline policies, we did carry all the gear.

Your choice of Arrival Group depends on how quickly you want to board and start your vacation. We always board first thing and don't mind waiting for boarding to start, others hate waiting for boarding to start, so arrive later. FWIW, we boarded the Sky Princess last week. We ignored the Arrival Group (we had Group B, 1:30PM), as it generally means nothing, arrived at the Terminal around 10AM, pretty much walked straight through the check-in process in 2 minutes, and waited in the lounge until boarding started around 11:30. We always want to board among the very first to have any chance of booking Sanctuary seats. Check-in would have been even faster if we had obtained our Medallions beforehand, but Princess refuses to mail the Medallions pre-cruise to anyone outside the US.

After having just survived an Air Canada departure from T2 at FLL, I would definitely agree that you don't want to be sitting around the airport. We had a 1:30 flight, but arrived around 9AM, expecting to drop our bags off and check in at 9:30, per AC's published "drop luggage off no earlier than four hours before your flight". Our inbound flight was delayed and the AC staff at FLL insisted on accepting bags THREE hours before the flight, not four, so we sat with all our luggage until 10:40. Delta, who share the terminal with AC and have many more flights, was only accepting bags TWO hours before the flight. The result was huge crowds sitting on their luggage, making the departures concourse an absolute zoo, nowhere for people to sit, few wearing masks and lots of coughing. Stay away from FLL as long as you can.

FWIW, we did make a claim some years back with Blue Cross. It was at the end of a Princess trip returning to Galveston. We woke up to some of Galveston's horrible fog and couldn't dock until mid-afternoon, thereby missing our flight home. BC paid out almost all our expenses without issues, and reasonably quickly as I recall. AC flight change fees, hotel, rental car, even a small meal PD. The only thing I remember them not covering was my cheeky claim for an extra day's airport parking here in YUL. We, too, have the annual plan with BC though have not had to make a claim since that one some years ago, so I can't speak to their recent performance.

This is correct, same thing happened to us in Saint John NB, as well as Saint Thomas, USVI. Very occasionally, port authorities will require both a Medallion (which they can't scan), as well as photo ID to access the port area in the general area of the ship, whereupon the final scan to board will be by Princess security who will scan the Medallion to allow you through to the metal detector.

Wasn't the OP asking about Blue Cross Cancellation/Interruption coverage and not medical? $5000/pp would be understandable.

You can also just ask your room steward once you get onboard.

We boarded the Sky a few days ago at PE. From the moment we got out of the taxi to the time we were walking up the gangway to board with our Medallions, nobody wanted to see any documents at all except for our passports. No Arrival Group, no QR code, no Princess paperwork, obviously no COVID/Vax docs, nothing. It was exactly the same in Brooklyn in September for the Enchanted.

As I mentioned previously, we're on the Sky right now. Our beds do look exactly like the one the OP posted a while ago, with concavities in the middle of both mattresses. That being said, we have absolutely no issues with the beds, and in fact, I sleep far better on them than I do at home.

When we checked in for the Sky at PE three days ago, nobody looked at anything except our passports. Since we were already green lane, they had all they needed in the "system". No boarding passes any more, theoretically that's what the QR code is for, but, again, nobody wanted to see even that.

The last three times we did the facial recognition thing at a US port of entry (PE, Manhattan and Brooklyn) there was nothing to fill out, no questions, no interaction with a human. We walked off the ship with bags in tow, walked up to the camera and when the light turned green, we exited the terminal and were gone. I imagine that by using the camera, you are by default telling them you have nothing to declare beyond your personal exemption, and if you did have something to declare, you'd have to go and talk with a human agent. Presumably if someone gets the dreaded red light, then either they have a problem or they have been selected for a random check.

I believe you'll find that most cruise terminal have moved to a much simpler facial recognition system. The last three cruises we have taken, over the last year, ending at PE, Manhattan and Brooklyn, all used the same system. You walk up to a camera attached to a tablet, it takes your picture, then when the light turns green, you walk out of the terminal and into your ride to the airport. We have never even had to speak to an agent when clearing, the camera does everything. There were no Global Entry lines visible, I can't say whether us Canadians/non-Americans have a special line. Since we always do the earliest possible self walk-off, we are always among the very first in the line for the cameras so we always breeze right through. As to Nexus, there was a time when you could flash your card and it would get you into the dedicated (and much shorter) Global Entry line, but I don't know if that still exists.

It's such a shame, as the staff there are absolutely topnotch, wonderfully helpful and friendly, but they must be very short-staffed, hence the delays. We're back there in a few days, and I if it is as difficult as last night, I may have a chat with Luigi. He's omnipresent all night, stopping by everyone's table, and while I'm sure he is very well aware of the slow service, it may be worth a quiet mention to him. We really didn't mind the slowness, but it clearly affected the food presentation with most dishes arriving less than warm. By all means, please report back as to your experience tonight and let us know how it went

We're on board with you. Last night/embarkation day, we ate at Sabatini's. We even remembered Luigi the Maitre'd from the last time we sailed her a year ago. Service was very friendly and typically excellent, but extremely slow. We sat down at 5:30 and didn't leave until around 8PM, so missed the first theater show. When the courses did arrive, they were generally luke warm to cool, so had been sitting waiting to be delivered by the waiter for much longer than necessary. On the plus side, the problem we had on the Enchanted two months ago, sparse availability of the better wines, may have been fixed on the Sky. Every higher priced wine we ordered was delivered, actually quite quickly, faster than the meals were.