lx200gps

4 hours ago, bennybear said:

Just be aware that your airline has entered things correctly, and your boarding pass says TSA precheck.   I had to recently go back to the checkin when they wouldn’t honour my nexus card without Precheck on the boarding pass.   
 

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Sometimes it is you that need to enter the number when you check in online. 

Our on-line account on the Air Canada site already has all this information loaded in and it is applied to every booking we make automatically, so I never have to bother entering the info myself. When we check in on line the day before the flight (or at the check in counter), our NEXUS/Global Entry info is already loaded into the system and our boarding passes are automatically tagged with TSA-Pre-Check.

3 hours ago, jargey3000 said:

Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Hyatt Place(10th St.)

(and maybe Extended Stay America Premier Suites)

Anyone stay at either one lately? Is there much difference between them - for 1 or 2 nights pre-cruise, seniors, no car. Comments welcomed.

is there a particular reason why you aren't including the other two big hotels on 17th St, the Renaissance and the Hilton Marina? Depending on the time of year, and therefore the hotel pricing, these two can be excellent alternatives to the three you have referenced. We have stayed at the Renaissance a number of times when it has been lower priced than the Hyatt Place, and it is a large, full service hotel, even closer to the port, and IMHO better than the Hyatt Place and Holiday Inn. We haven't yet stayed at the ES, given all the reviews here on CC. Taxi from FLL to the 17th hotel strip is around $20 =/-

24 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

To get what they want done. That transaction is pretty simple. I haven’t had any trouble getting it taken care of. I always have to do it by phone since paying with gift cards isn’t an option on the website.

I'm sure it can be done over the phone, even though we always work through our TA. The first, last, and only time I ever called Princess I was on hold for 45 minutes. When I finally connected, I was talking to what I assume was a home-based rep who answered the phone with me while yelling at her kids in the background. Before she even acknowledged me, I was disconnected. Obviously your experiences have been fine, but I'm disinclined to call Princess. Next time I'm talking to our TA I'll ask her if this is something she would normally handle, but realistically I'd rather not bother her with it and we'll just wait until we board.  Especially if she has to call Princess to do it.

20 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I am a dinosaur...I freely admit it! 😄 I simply refuse to do almost *any* kind of financial transaction via my phone.  (Don't get me wrong...I retired from the IT world...I fully embrace the convenience of a smartphone, but almost exclusively for reference only.)

 

When it comes to my cruise bookings, I will *only* do so on a desktop PC where I can easily *print* screenshots and/or create screen grabs.  Perhaps not being able to upgrade your package level via the cruise personalizer is something new, as per @startedwithamouse.  IDK.  I have been able to do so for the 2 times I upgraded to Premier.  One thing we all know to be true...Princess is consistently in consistent!

Same here, I detest using a smart phone as a PC. In this case, even the web version of the "app" did not allow the upgrade either. And yes, I'm pretty sure it's a new thing, up until pretty recently, when I clicked on the "Upgrade Now" button, it did open up a table that showed what I currently had (Plus), the upgrade price, and a way to select the upgrade immediately. This change, where this was eliminated, seems to have happened very recently. Given the world-class skill of Princess's IT consultants/web site managers, I can only assume this is a conscious change and not an error ;o)

Thanks for feedback every one. This sailing is July 14 on the Emerald out of Boston, final payment is next month.  I suspect we will simply wait and do it after boarding as usual, there's obviously no shortage of staff waiting by the gangway to help with the upgrade ;o).  You would think that Princess would want to offer a pre-cruise upgrade path as a way to take our money ahead of time, but they don't make it easy.

I'm in the process of trying to upgrade the "package" for our next trip from Plus to our usual Premier. Yes, I well know that we can very easily upgrade upon boarding, as we usually do, however I want to do the upgrade now rather than waiting until we board, as we have very little OBC for that specific trip to use for the on board upgrade.

Up until recently, when I went to the Personalizer and signed in to the specific trip, I was presented with a loud blue banner which had an "Upgrade Now" button, which opened a window showing all three packages, the one we already had booked (Plus) and a button against Premier which would allow us to upgrade on the spot and pay the delta. Now, when I click the Upgrade Now button a window flashes past too quickly to read then another window opens up saying "You’ve purchased Princess Plus, great choice", listing the perqs that come with Plus, but with absolutely no apparent way to buy the upgrade.

Beyond messaging our TA and asking her to do the upgrade, is there any way for me to buy the upgrade now? Calling Princess is a non-starter, won't happen, and I'd rather not try to do this on a cell phone with the App. Thanks in advance.

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

 
Money saving efforts are in place, that’s for sure.  It may be port dependent and even with that, it may even be cruise dependent on if they have the available staff or not.  I can also just take it or leave it, just found it strange that it was missing on 3 cruises in a row.  
 

The last time were "shut out" of having the pre-boarding lounge was at PE early last year. I suspect that in that particular case, they knew in advance that they would start boarding so early (which they did, not much past 10AM), that they decided to save a few bucks and help out the overworked staff by ditching the PES lounge altogether

53 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Not that it’s a huge deal for me, but looks as though coffee, juice, pastries in the PES waiting lounge may be going by the wayside.  

I think that's heavily dependent on the port. On one of our sailings last year, at PE T2, there was no lounge at all, all passengers herded into the big lower level waiting room for a very early boarding. On our other sailings from PE there has been a fully equipped lounge. This past October, and again a month ago, at San Pedro, there was a full lounge set up. Why do you say they're disappearing? Which port and when? Thx.

1 hour ago, daisy-mae said:

Just curious - why the refund? Is renewal free of charge?

Certain credit cards, such as my wife's TD Visa Infinite and my TD Visa Infinite Privilege (and there are almost certainly others) include a paid NEXUS renewal every 5 years. Her card was refunded the $CAD69.74 as a "NEXUS Rebate" within a day or two of us submitting her renewal application.

There are actually two steps in the process. The first step in the embarkation process is check-in, where the Green and Blue lines happen. Those who have their Medallions in hand before arrival are in the Green lane, those without their Medallions are in the Blue lane.  Once checked-in, if boarding has not yet started, you can sit in the appropriate "boarding" area waiting to start loading. Elites, Suite guests, Platinum usually have a dedicated area they can sit in and get to board first. Note that the very first to board, ahead of everyone else, are the back to back returning passengers

7 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

I know what you are saying.  I see Nexus advertising here and there on social media to increase membership, but that would only slow us all down.

 

The only thing with Nexus and arriving back into Toronto, is there really is no time saving because Toronto is so SLOW at bringing luggage, by the time the luggage shows the whole aircraft has come through customs/immigration.

 

Nexus gets us to the luggage hall in minutes, but then we wait for 30-40-50 minutes for luggage.

 

Hope it is better in Montreal.

It's been a number of years since I last flew through YYZ, but I can guarantee that YUL is absolutely dreadful in that regard. We have waited every bit as long for our bags here as you do. More annoying is the fact that the baggage handlers here do not recognize the bright orange PRIORITY tags that AC put on luggage and our bags often come out much later than those without priority. Most airports in the US do seem to try and get our bags out to the carousel first, but not here in Montreal.

19 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Absolutely.... Our American friends talk about the cost of adding TSA and then I say "That is included in my $50 bucks every 5 years!"  

 

Nexus is a great deal for us Canadians.

 

I did not realize at first as we typically do not transit through the USA, but the latest couple of times we did, the Global Entry was so quick and easy.  Did not realize that we could use that.

NEXUS is a huge no-brainer and the best freebie I can think of, we can only hope that it doesn't get so popular that the usually empty NEXUS lines start to get crowded ;o) We just renewed my wife's card and the full refund to the charge was automatically credited back to her credit card within two days.

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

I've used AdblockPlus for years and never see any ads on Cruise Critic.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I too have never seen this popup when signed on to CC

2 hours ago, jimlouisesophie said:

One comment mentioned that Uber may be at the port dropping off pax...Perhaps I could approach one and get a ride with them to LAX?  Definitely will not do a Princess Transfer

Interesting idea, and theoretically possible but probably unlikely. In October and again last month, we Uber'd from our hotels in Torrance and LAX to San Pedro, and both times, our driver already had a confirmed booking from  passengers getting off the Princess ship were arriving to. I suspect it would be tough to find an Uber driver just sitting there trying to bag a fare on speculation.  That being said, one other option if you don't want to use your cell phone data, would be to use the ship's wifi before arrival, even the day before, and pre-book the Uber to have them arrive at the pickup area at a certain time. I can't speak to pre-booking Ubers but I know people do it all the time.  The only problem with that is that without an active data line/cell phone, i don't know how you would know which Uber is yours, so finding your specific vehicle may be tough. One of the things I love about using the system is the ability to track, in detail, the arrival of your ride and to know in advance the specific details of the vehicle, its color and license plate, the name and photo of the driver etc. I don't know how that would work without a cell phone. Perhaps some real Uber experts can chime in...

53 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

The phones will 'work'.  Connecting to a local carrier using a phone based in Canada incurs some hefty roaming charges.

We're with Bell and US roaming is a hefty $13/day. That being said, I still regard it as worthwhile for no other reason than Ubering between LAX and San Pedro. The $13CAD plus the much lower Uber cost still works out a lot less than the taxi from San Pedro all the way up to LAX. Also, an elevated Uber, like XL or Comfort usually means a higher rated driver, and we've had some maniac taxi drivers before we started using Uber. For our other usual port, Port Everglades, it's not worth it since FLL is about 30 feet from PE and so taxis are cheap, so I don't usually use the cell phone there.

8 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

SuperShuttle, and Primetime no longer hang out at a pick-up area by the dock as they did before Covid. I don't recall seeing cabs waiting either, but I wasn't looking for them. Our last debark there in August '23.

I hope other Canadian CC members here, perhaps @Lady Arwen can advise for a phone plan for those who cruise often. We have a very basic (US) plan, T-Mobile, and calls from Canada incur no added charges. 

We departed SP for LAX in October and again last month. Tons of taxis and Ubers available. Wasn't looking for shuttles.

1 hour ago, JJK2008 said:

Couldn't agree more. There are many here on CC who swear by using a TA. In our years of travel, 99% of the time we do all our own bookings directly with the cruise line, airline, hotel, etc. Many don't realize that if you book through a TA, the TA is the customer of the cruise line. You as the passenger are a customer of the TA. If an issue arises (which they often do) the cruise line will not even talk to you. You MUST go through the TA since the TA is the customer NOT you. This has come as a shock to many who have become agitated when a problem arises, and the cruise line won't even talk to them. While I'm sure there are many really good TA's out there, not all are created equal. For us it is a personal choice to book direct. We like the personal touch. This is not for everyone. To each their own.   

If a problem arises, why would I want to talk directly to the cruise line, sitting on hold for hours for the privilege of being disconnected in the middle of the call? I would much rather our excellent Travel Agent handle that for us ;o) Yes, if you have a bad TA, the ability to deal with the cruise line is important, but for those of us with excellent TAs, I don't understand the driving need to deal with a cruise line directly.

G'day..

The Doubletree in San Pedro gets a lot of great reviews here on CC, though we've never stayed there. We have sailed past it many times leaving the port though ;o) It's pretty remote, in a nice marina area with little to do, and in our experience, can be a bit pricey. You'd probably need to taxi or Uber if you wanted to explore. The Crowne Plaza is the closest hotel to the port but I gather you need to stay with Hilton so that's out.

We have taken Torrance as our usual pre-cruise area, as it's very well situated. It's on almost a direct line from LAX to San Pedro, so no diverting to get there. It offers a lot of hotels, shopping and restaurants and is quite residential/suburban so no real issues with danger, at least as far as we could see. Hotel pricing tends to be quite stable relative to the fluctuating pricing for the San Pedro or Long Beach hotels. The hotel we usually stay at, the Doubletree Torrance, is right at the corner of Torrance and Hawthorne,  right across the street from the Del Amo mall, apparently one of the largest shopping malls in the US.

The other area to consider is Long Beach, not too far from San Pedro, though a bit more of a diversion than Torrance. Lots of hotels, restaurants etc, but pricing can be high in peak seasons relative to Torrance. Lovely area though, the harbour and marina have a lot of places to stay and things to do. Should you stay in Long Beach, I can highly recommend visiting the Queen Mary. An amazing way to see what cruising was like in the good old days. Have a great trip

Technically, the article is misleading. What they are calling "Embarkation" is really the new Medallion check-in procedure, before actual boarding, and has been mentioned, is now many months old. The priority boarding, for Elites, suites etc, is still in operation in most ports, no change there. We used it in San Pedro for priority boarding the Discovery a few weeks ago.

23 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 

Agree with this, we have never asked our steward. It has always been our understanding that this is a room service function. We usually call in the afternoon after boarding and generally we come back to the cabin to find it switched out after dinner or at latest by the next day. We also switch out for 20 diet cokes. 

Agree. I made the mistake of saying here on CC once that I had asked the steward to make the swap and got soundly shouted down. It really is the Room Service number you have to call when you get into your cabin, please leave Stewart alone to do his/her job as turnover day is hellish for them without passengers asking them to do someone else's job. The changeover will happen within a few hours.

1 hour ago, jimlouisesophie said:

Flying from Nanaimo, British Columbia to Vancouver, BC to LAX....Connecting time at YVR is 1 hr 16 minutes but have to go thru US Customs there (already went thru security)   Is this enough connecting time?

First question is whether or not the "official" booking actually allows that connection. If the airline says it's OK, then theoretically/technically it is possible. Second question, are you sure you won't have to go back through security again? Probably not, but you are going transborder. Third question, do you have both NEXUS AND airline or credit card priority security access?  Having both of these can often massively help avoid the long lines. We always seem to breeze through checkin, security and US entry here in Canada with these perqs.  Our last half-dozen flights, we've gone from check-in to sitting in the lounge in as little as 15 minutes, though that is heavily dependent on time of day of course. NEXUS is tremendous.  Without them, I wouldn't ever consider a short connection like that. One thing in your favor, assuming it's Air Canada, is that AC will often station staff in the security and US areas calling out the connecting flights and escorting connecting passengers to a shorter line so they can make the connection.

On 2/22/2024 at 12:20 PM, Taters said:

We will arrive into Ft. Lauderdale on Volendam on October 19, 2024.  We wanted to spend one night there before flying home and I was stunned to see rates for IHG hotels (Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc.) in the $500 per night range.  I did a quick search and found that Taylor Swift is performing at the Hard Rock Arena on October 18th and 19th.  Needless to say we decided to just fly home.

We found that out the hard way as well. We will be staying near PE for our Oct 19 sailing on Princess, and every one of our usual 17th St hotels (Hilton, Hyatt Place, Renaissance etc) were astronomically overpriced, worse than I've ever seen them, thanks to that concert. The sky high pricing extended out to hotels in Dania, even distant Plantation.  Amazingly, the Riverside, at that point, hadn't raised their prices and we grabbed a great deal on it. We've never stayed there before, looking forward to it, even though we arrive into FLL quite late and won't get to enjoy the local area.

26 minutes ago, mbglib said:

I have searched for a hotel with a free airport shuttle, but haven't found one.  Have you?  If you don't mind...:-)

Assuming we're talking about Montreal airport, if you'd like to avoid even needing to take a shuttle, there is an excellent and hugely convenient Marriott physically attached to the International/Transborder terminal at YUL. The Sheraton is a great hotel and quite close (even walkable in a pinch) but the Marriott can't be beaten for convenience.  You don't even go outside when walking to your check-in.

2 hours ago, lakelivin2 said:

Don't want to sound stupid, but, how do you call UBER over Messenger or WhatApp? Thanks

Not stupid at all, I'm a (semi) regular Uber user in the US especially and I don't know how you would voice "call" them to hail a ride, if that's what we are talking about. They do provide customer support over the phone, but AFAIK to use the service, i.e. get a ride etc, it's all done via the app. Certainly for the benefits of the system compared to taxi, like contacting the driver, monitoring his approach so you can find him, tipping etc, you need the app. For that you would need either wifi or a data connection when outside wifi coverage. Since I am always away from wifi when I need to hail a ride, I use my cell phone.  Bell Roaming isn't cheap, but it works.

5 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

Thanks.  We are staying at the Marriott Fairfield Inn.  They said to call hotel once we got to LAX and they will send the shuttle to us.  Hopefully at 9:30pm it will not be too crowded.

Brace yourselves. ;o( That was around the time we arrived at T6, and it was absolute pandemonium. A huge number of people all waiting for hotel buses, but of course the hotel buses have to work around all the other vehicles arriving and leaving, so their progress is slow. All you can do is stand there and watch the buses arrive one at a time.  The drivers know what they're doing and will pull up to each terminal to load their hotel's passengers, but it will be very noisy. When we were there a few weeks ago there was a giant fire engine parked across two of the lanes blocking everyone's view of the arriving vehicles, so we didn't spot our bus until it was almost on top of us.  But it all worked out in the end.