lx200gps

We rarely eat dinner in the Dining Rooms and frequent the SDRs at least 4 or 5 times on a 7 day trip. Aside from issues in the immediate post-COVID restart when staffing issues forced them to scale back, we have pretty much much never had any issue booking SDRs on board. Admittedly we prefer to eat early to ensure making theater shows, when the restaurants first open and the experience is at it's calmest, the staff is fresh etc. Bottom line is head to the restaurants IMMEDIATELY on boarding (and try to board early) or call the DINE line and make your bookings by phone. If you make your bookings early and are a bit flexible when as to dining times, you should be quite successful.

Absolutely agree. Although we have yet to do the Pier 11 to Red Hook trip, we have used the ferry across the Hudson from Weehawken to near the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, and the process seems identical. The ferry access is easy and level on both ends even for those, like us, who are dragging big suitcases. We did it early on a Saturday morning and the ferry was virtually empty.

I had made a VT reservation some months back, for a date this October. The reservation was booked and VT sent me the official confirmation Email. I then called the hotel to make sure they had the booking and was informed that our booked date was blacked out and VT shouldn't have allowed it to be booked. I don't know if it the cause, but Taylor Swift is closing down south Florida for concerts right on our dates, and the HP is selling for many times what we had booked through VT. To this date, VT have not sent us a cancellation notice for our reservation. VT is a great deal for sure, but I will ALWAYS call the hotel once I book to confirm things.

Thanks for the heads up on the November date, it's now in my calendar. I just submitted a request for a trip this October and the OBC is in my account in less than 48 hours. Interestingly, when I selected "Redeem Perk" on the app, it only asked for the trip details and immediately submitted the request and did not ask for a recent brokerage statement. The statement they ended using was from my last request many months ago.

Sorry, I'm not following. You said you must DECLARE EVERYTHING, yet you say "Just scan and go" which is not explicitly declaring. Can you please clarify.

How do you "...declare all goods purchased and gifts received" when you use a kiosk, do not talk to a human and are not asked by the NEXUS "process" whether you have something to declare?

If you are driving in from New Hampshire, then I would second the earlier comment about considering the big Marriott in Teaneck. We stayed there last year before a trip out of Brooklyn, but it would be an excellent choice if sailing out of the MCT. It's very near the west end of the GW Bridge and assuming you are driving in early on a weekend morning for your cruise, it should be an easy drive over the bridge and down the west side parkway to the MCT.

The issue of how to handle all the Premiers and their two allotted SD slots is a mystery. The idea of the Premier slots being "sold out" is a possibility I suppose, but the general consensus here on CC is that Princess hold a lot of SD restaurant slots (possibly up to 40-50%) back from on-line pre-booking to make them available for walk ups, and I would expect that those slots would be converted to use for last minute Premier bookers as well.

Very odd for sure. Some dates it shows up as available, other dates it doesn't even exist. Since Boston is a "seasonal" port, there haven't been too many reports for this season yet, but over the next few weeks we should be hearing from folks who have, hopefully, used C1 successfully. We plan to use it in mid-July as a drive up.

On the Sky you are probably out of luck, unless you want to sit on your cabin and watch the bridgecam ;o(. The Sanctuary would be the only place I can think of and it's for booked passengers only. You might be able to see forward from the extreme upper deck (19?) but it is only from mid-ship, not forward. On the older ships (Ruby, Emerald etc) there actually is a great forward-facing observation deck which is accessed by going full forward on the Lido deck and walking forward up a short flight of stairs. It's actually the roof of the bridge and makes a fantastic spot for sightseeing. Sadly, AFAIK the newer ships don't have it.

As soon as you walk on board, there will be a stand set up very close to the gangway with a very helpful crew member who will be happy to do the upgrade for you. You can use OBC if you have any, and the upgrade goes live instantly.

...and yet I just tried that and the C1 lot does not show up as an available parking lot. The ABM covered garage a block north shows up, but not C1. Dates don't seem to matter, any date shows no C1 lot exists on the Parkwhiz site

We bought our 100 shares of CCL years ago and apply it for every Princess trip we take. A great program. As previously mentioned, they recently outsourced the management called Stockperks, and it is to them that you send your information. Right now, it is done through a phone app, but Stockperks did mention that they were working on a web-based version as well. NOTE: many people report being up in arms over the intrusive amount of personal information that they claim Stockperks demands from the user when submitting the application. That turns out to be incorrect and unnecessary. Many of us who use it have successfully submitted our applications and received our OBC without submitting anything more than the minimum redacted brokerage information, cruise details etc. Just be careful when using the app and you will have your OBC very quickly.

It's not just about the food. We pretty much only eat in the specialty restaurants, because of the ambience, service level, atmosphere etc. For us, there is a big difference between a restaurant and a dining room....

In the other thread on Boston parking, someone just posted their experience with trying to book Lot C1. Seems pretty confusing. We will need parking for our July trip as well, and our current plan is to show up at C1 around 8AM without a reservation, then have the indoor ABM Marine Park Garage a block away as a fall back.