lx200gps

Assuming the terminal you disembark from has the same facial recognition setup as Terminal 2, then by being among the first walkoffs (as we always are), you should breeze through Customs in seconds and will find a long line of taxis waiting for you outside. FLL is so close to the port you can see the ships from the departure lounge. We are routinely checked in and sitting at the gate before 8AM.

There's been a good bit of discussion of late here on CC on the Premier package and its relative worth, particularly as it relates to the Enchanted. We were on her last month, on her maiden NA voyage after it spent the summer in Europe, and we had decided to try the Premier package. There were MANY wines on their lists which were not available, or which were initially available and became unavailable, or which were initially unavailable and became available. The wine lists were shortened, the crew seemed lost in trying to identify what they actually had on board, though I can't say now whether that has improved on recent sailings. Most of the time when we asked for one of the better wines, we came up empty and had to "settle" for something else. Of course we always found something acceptable, but the Premier package was an utter waste. Based on this, we definitely won't be buying the Premier package again, just relying on paying the delta beyond the $12 for the better wines. If they have them. We'll have another data point in a few weeks when we board the Sky, though unfortunately, again, this her first NA after a summer in Europe.

A reminder, particularly for folks who are new to Princess: Princess is noted for allowing access to cabins quite early in the boarding process. Just because the cabin is available for you doesn't necessarily mean the cabin is finished for you to "move in to". The majority of the time we've boarded a Princess ship, the cabin has been accessible to us and we've been able to drop off our bags (On the Enchanted a few weeks ago, this was actually before 11AM), but in every case, Stewart has been nearby finishing off his/her cabin prep, so we simply drop of our carry-on bags and leave immediately. These room stewards are very diligent and incredibly over-worked these days, so the last thing they need is to have newly arrived passengers intrude on their last-minute work, trying to unpack carry-ons etc.. Please give them the time to finish your cabin and only return after lunch when the official announcement has been made that cabins are ready.

Thanks VERY much for posting this. A quick search online shows a number of confirming comments regarding "superimposing" NEXUS and MPC. Statements like: "Nexus still supersedes/is superior to MPC. Especially since the US completely switched to facial recognition, and it takes a literal 10-15 seconds to clear immigration at the GE kiosk. Do NOT use MPC if you're enrolled in any trusted traveler program. There are enough DPs on Flyertalk and Reddit to suggest it doesn't speed up the process further, and if anything, may just cause unnecessary confusion instead." I've already deleted the newly installed MPC app off my phone and we'll be sticking with good old NEXUS. Thanks again for the clarification

You might want to consider moving this question over to the Florida Departures board, you may get more responses over there. Have a great trip.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. As long-time NEXUS card holders, pretty much since program inception, it will be interesting to see what, if any, benefits the MPC program brings to the table. I've just done an MPC entry for our upcoming trip and will definitely be watching out for any signs of it being beneficial, both at YUL and at PE as well. Quite honestly, with the facial recognition at the ports being so simple, I can't imagine how it can be made any easier, at least for us. We do tend to do the earliest possible walkoff with baggage in tow, so we inevitably end up at the "border" facing the cameras, among the very first off the ship, so lines to use it are never an issue. If only the airports were as easy ;o)

Sounds like you're good to go, have a great trip. If you really are wanting to renew ASAP, based on my experience booking, cancelling then re-booking NEXUS interviews, I would suggest checking in more frequently than every few days. You won't be the only one doing that, and I noticed new appointments disappeared quite fast. In the end, I had to resort to checking the TTP website at least once day before the perfect opening popped up.

Montrealer here, and I went through the process a few months ago. For me, the only two reasonable options were Champlain NY and Vermont. When I first started looking, nothing was available in Champlain, and I really didn't want to make the 5 hour return trip to Vermont. So I kept watch over the bookings and started to notice that occasionally, an opening would pop up in Champlain, clearly a cancellation had happened. Sometimes the newly opened slot was no good (way too far in the future), but finally, an opening popped up just a few weeks away and I grabbed it. So be patient and keep looking, a cancellation opening may very well pop up for you.

I'm curious about the MPC program, and I'll be looking into it, in preparation for our upcoming trip YUL-FLL/Port Everglades trip in three weeks. The last time we arrived back at PE, last November, we walked up to a camera/screen, had our picture taken and when the light turned green, we walked away and were done, never having spoken to a human or waited in a line. We had precisely the same experience when returning to both Manhattan and Brooklyn this past summer. As NEXUS members since program inception, what would the MPC program give us over and above NEXUS? Thanks...

Yes and no. It gave me the same error message this morning, but when I immediately tried to log in again, it suddenly went through and I can now logon as normal.

On the Enchanted a few weeks ago, they had GoPros, binoculars, the usual Nikon cameras (Princess has always been very Nikon-centric) but also a few Canon cameras as well. A VERY limited selection, and I doubt the prices are anything worthwhile. We also had tons of OBC to use up, especially given the extra they doled out in partial compensation for the three missed ports. We ended up spending the excess OBC on jewellery and a nice pair of Oakley sunglasses, as we both have far too many watches already

We did it around 9AM on a Saturday morning, and it was largely deserted. Only people in sight were a bunch of joggers, cyclists and dog walkers (including a very pleasant gent waking a pair of absolutely stunning huskies ;o) If you're thinking about it as "walking through New York", it really isn't, it was a very safe, car-free, level and easy to navigate walk along the Hudson River. Just watch out for those cyclists. We loved sailing out of both the MCT and Brooklyn so much, we're going to try to make it a yearly event, the drive down is so much easier than flying. And the two hotels in Weehawken, with cheap parking, literally at the Ferry Terminal make it a no-brainer for us. Enjoy!

FWIW, our trip on the Enchanted a few weeks ago was also out of Brooklyn. As we got closer to sail date, the Travel Itinerary on the Personalizer finally began to show: New York City (Manhattan or Brooklyn), New York Brooklyn Cruise Terminal 72 Bowne Street Brooklyn, NY 11231 www.nycruiseterminal.com

That's precisely what we do as well. An advantage to zip ties is that we can easily tell if they had been cut off, so we'd know that our bags had been opened.

After walking off the ferry at 39th Street with our baggage in tow, we turned left and walked north along the Hudson River Greenway (a pedestrian-only path) and it took us a leisurely 13 minutes to arrive at Pier 88, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. A Taxi would have been easy to find, but we walked. BTW the ferries are very accommodating for people with suitcases, everything is level and flat. In fact it was actually much easier to tow our suitcases on and off the ferry than it was carrying them off the cruise ship.

Correct. We boarded the Enchanted a few weeks ago and showed absolutely no paperwork beyond our passports.

You can start with Trinity reservations. They specialize in Park and Cruise packages out of New Jersey https://www.trinityreservations.com/ Keep in mind that Park and Cruise rates are much higher than the room itself, parking with these packages is never free. FWIW, we couldn't find anything from them that worked for us on a recent trip out of the Manhattan Cruise Port, so we stayed at a great Residence Inn in Weehawken, directly across the Hudson from the MCT and took the very easy ferry across on the morning of the cruise. We parked at the ferry terminal for half of what parking would have been at the MCT. We would never consider taking "public transportation" either but the ferry experience was so easy to use we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Also, you may want to re-consider not driving in Manhattan. On our last trip, just a few weeks ago, we sailed out of Brooklyn. We stayed in NJ again (though farther north) then drove all the way to Brooklyn the morning of the cruise, right through the west side of Manhattan into Brooklyn. It was not really that bad, and driving from NJ to the MCT would be much easier than what we did. Although expensive, the convenience of parking right at the pier is worth it IMHO.

Seems to be quite true. We live in dense forest outside of Montreal, so same "fall foliage" as Quebec City. With the exception of a few trees which always change early, the vast majority of deciduous trees have barely started to change, everything is still green.

Absolutely correct. The Sanctuary isn't General Admission, each lounger is dedicated and assigned to the person who booked and paid for it. When someone books a lounger, it "belongs" to them for the term of their booking and is clearly marked as such on the booking map sheet for that day. If someone else steals the lounger, they will be dealt with very quickly by the Sanctuary manager. Nothing to worry about.

There have been a few times when we have had Sanctuary bookings and the weather turned bad. One rainy morning at 8AM I went upstairs and the Sanctuary manager was quite happy to cancel our booking on the spot. Another time the skies opened up around lunchtime and she cancelled our afternoon and only charged us for our morning. So yes, the Sanctuary management is usually very helpful in that regard.

I emailed ours today at 8:45AM for a trip this February. When I checked our account at 1:30PM it had already been applied.

Fair enough. There are too many numbered streets in Manhattan ;o) and we had recently used the ferry terminal on 39th St in Midtown, which is also close to Penn Station, though on the Hudson side. In our case, I couldn't find weekend ferries from there to Pier 11, but there should be no such issues with East River ferries from 34th to Pier 11. Thanks for the clarification

It's become optional, but there is little to no info on what the benefits are if one does choose to use it to do their pre-arrival customs declaration, as the change is so new. If it means shorter waits or a dedicated line in the Customs hall for those who have used it, I'm in.

One note of caution re the NY ferries, particularly on the Hudson side. Be sure to check the schedules carefully, as not all ferries run on weekends, though hopefully the one you want does.. Some stops and times are weekday and rush hour only. That being said, the ferry system is great, and they are very easy to use and very convenient even for people towing luggage.

We're on the Nov 11 sailing on the Sky out of Port Everglades, her first NA trip after transiting from Europe. I had forgotten to select our Arrival Group until today, 41 days out, and the first Arrival Group A starting at 1PM, was "sold out" so I had to select Early Group B at 1:30PM. Our Travel Summary states boarding starts at 12:30, not 1PM, but this is the ship's return to NA after operating in Europe, so the later boarding may be due to delays due to USCG inspections etc. We have always just shown up at the terminal around 10AM, so we will do that here as well. If we have to wait outside for a while after dumping our luggage, so be it.