lx200gps

Thanks for the feedback and advice folks. Once SWMBO has chosen our cabin, I'll be contacting our hard-working TA and have her book it for us. Interestingly, when I scan the available Deluxe Balconies using the "3 passenger hack", it only shows Category DB as selectable, the other categories (DA, DD etc) do not show. Perhaps the other categories that are the ones Princess keep in their back pocket for upgrades, 3 or more pax, families etc?

My go-to drinks are the Chairman of the Board (3X Vodka, 3X gin, 1X Cointreau) or Ian Flemings's original James Bond martini from Casino Royale, the Vesper (1X Vodka, 3X Gin, 1/2X Kina Lillet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesper_(cocktail) When I make a COTB here at home with the exact formulation above, it compares pretty well with what I received in a number of bars on the Discovery last week.

Question for those who had endured the hard mattresses on the Discovery: did you have the beds configured "normally" as a queen, or did you, like us, have Stewart split the beds into two singles? Is it possible that those who kept the beds together had a soft topper on the queen configuration, but those of us who had them split into singles did not have a topper as Princess didn't have a soft topper for the singles. Perhaps that's why some of us who felt the beds on the Discovery were too hard (and ours were), while others had no such complaint

We're thinking of booking either a Deluxe or PD Balcony on the Regal. As we know, when searching the Princess site, it's not possible to select your cabin in these two categories as they show as Guarantee only. We're extremely picky about cabin location so won't accept a Guarantee The well known work around is to put 3 passengers in the selection field then the cabin maps show which cabins are available. Q: Is it only Princess reps who can book one of these cabins for us (since we can't do it online), or can our long-time TA do it for us by contacting Princess? IOW if we tell our TA which cabin we want, will she be able to book it for us, or am I required to contact Princess myself? Thanks in advance for any advice and personal experience with this ;o)

I'm not really sure the mattresses we had on the Discovery were worn out, the ship is too new and the mattresses felt too hard to be old and worn out. I think they are just cheap, rock hard mattresses, not the famous Princess mattresses. Perhaps they just couldn't get the correct ones when they outfitted the ship, so they had to use whatever they could get and bought them in bulk from the lumber department at Lowes or Home Depot ;o)

Absolutely have to agree with the OP on this one. We disembarked off the Discovery a week ago. The beds in our Mini were hard as a rock, and nowhere near as comfortable as what we remember from other Princess ships. We'd been on the Sky three times and Enchanted once "post-COVID" and remember the beds as being the great, comfortable Princess beds we've all known for years. No idea why the beds in our cabin on the Discovery were like granite, but they were.

It was also gone off the Discovery a few weeks ago. I also noticed that the IC no longer offers any salads. I used to like the Waldorf.

The OP is almost certainly referring to the Lobster Cake at the Crown Grill. Coincidentally we also ate there on the same sailing as the OP a few weeks ago, though came away with no dental trauma. FWIW the CG menu does say the dish contains olive, though IIRC from what we had, it's not SUPPOSED to be in the cake but in the surrounding accompaniment. I personally like the Lobster Cake and have it any time we eat in the CG Mediterranean-Style Spiny Lobster Cake, Tarragon Foam, cured olives, grilled asparagus

We flew home to YUL a few days ago from SP. Did the early walk-off and found a bunch of taxis waiting for passengers, didn't even need to call an Uber. We were at T6/Air Canada by 8:30 for our 12:30 flight (gotta love the Maple Leaf Lounge ;o). Note that the traffic jam inside LAX took almost as long as the drive up from SP, traffic at LAX is horrible.

We disembarked there a few days ago. The GE line is no longer necessary as they use facial recognition. Walk up to the camera, it scans your face and when the green light goes off, you walk away.

Thanks very much for the update. We're going to be sailing from Boston for the first time next summer, and this seems to be the best option for us as well. Q: how big is this lot and assuming we are early arrivers (say 9AM), will we possibly have any issues finding a spot? This appears to be the site: https://www.parkwithabm.com/c1-parking-lot?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=5terminalstreet&utm_campaign=google Interestingly, the link on that page says: Cruise ship parking must be purchased online

I only have a single data point, but two weeks ago sailing out of SF southbound to San Diego, we experienced very high winds and heavy seas for most of the day after leaving SF. That being said, our ship, the Discovery Princess, had superb stabilization, and even my normally hyper-seasick-sensitive wife was amazed at how well the ship handled the motion.

I vaguely recollect that a number of other Canadian Travel Insurance companies also offer CFAR coverage as an option, albeit at moderately higher cost. I believe that Manulife was one such company. It wasn't very obvious on their site, but it was available and only covered 75-80%, not the 100% that Princess did. IIRC other companies that offered CFAR also only went as far as 80% as well.

Therein lies a big part of the current problem. Many folks board an airplane with the two "legal" items, a carry-on bag and a so-called personal item, then proceed to put BOTH items in the overhead bin when the rule is that the personal item is supposed to go under the seat in front. I routinely see people shove even three items in the bins rather than face losing the miniscule amount of legroom in regular economy class.

I'd love to know what happens when the airline tries to force a passenger to give up their bag for forced checking. What happens if the passenger refuses? I'm pretty sure the airline does have the power to do it, given the Ts and Cs of the passenger contract on the ticket. That being said, every time we've flown in the last year (maybe 8 times?), the airline has tried to get passengers to give up some bags, but even the very last passengers boarding in Zone 5 are still coming on board with two, even three carry-ons, leading me to think the forced handover is never actually carried out.

In general, the checking of bags at the jetway with return to the jetway after the flight, was/is typically only done for the small aircraft like RJs and Dash 8s, where the baggage bins are far too small in size and number to accommodate all the carry-ons of today. I can't remember ever seeing it happen on the larger aircraft (737 and above), especially when bags are loaded into containers.

As a starting point, try Trinity Reservations: https://www.trinityreservations.com/

That's exactly what we did when we booked. Had tons of OBC and it was used to pay for the excursion. Best of luck, hope you can get the trip you want.

I can't speak to this itinerary, but FWIW, we were on a wait list for an excursion on our recent California Coastal trip for about a month. Never received any confirmation that we had "graduated" to actually make the trip. When we boarded the ship, one of the first stops we made on Embarkation Day was to the Shore Excursions Desk. Miraculously, there were open spots on the very trip we were on a waitlist for and we booked it on the spot. So even if you don't get word that you are off the waitlist, try the Shorex desk as soon as you board, you might get lucky like we did. I suspect that shore excursions are like specialty restaurant spots, not all are made available for pre-booking and some are held back for on-ship sale

We flew home from LAX back to YUL yesterday. As above, there were lots of pleas from the gate agents for volunteers to check their bags for free, with virtually no takers of course. We saw no evidence of bags being sized at check-in or at the gate. Luckily, it was a new-ish 737-Max with absolutely enormous overhead bins, the new type where the bags can sit vertically instead of lying flat, to allow more bags to be carried. Very interestingly, when the gate agent was making the announcement asking for volunteers, he actually insinuated that if you were in Zone 5, they may be forced to check your bag for you. We board in Zone 2 so I don't know whether they actually had to enforce that.

Princess's PVP has never been a particularly strong program anyway, many other offerings will beat them every time. The only reason we used to buy it (when it was available in Quebec) was for the excellent CFAR coverage. At 100% FCC back with no questions asked it was a great deal when all other offerings are/were no more 75-80%

Thanks, I recollect seeing the name before but had no real knowledge of him. While his tricks were fine, though no real improvement over other magicians I had seen, his overall performance did seem a bit more polished, maybe a bit higher end.

We are currently on that cruise, arriving back in LA tomorrow. It's been a pretty low-key event so far, just a few folks with special Magic Castle lanyards walking around, a few dedicated, private events in the Vista Lounge, and some hanging signs in the Piazza etc. One magician theater show a few days ago, and a big show last night while docked in San Diego featuring someone named Michael Carbonaro, who I gather is pretty well known. There were some media folks on board, as well as a few Princess head office folks, and the show seemed pretty important. Beyond that, it's been pretty quiet magic-wise, time will tell how well the whole Magic Castle tie-in will work. Logically, one would assume that the magic/illusionist shows will be better than average going forward.

You seem to be asking two different questions, one concerning pricing on Princess cruises, and another on whether Princess gives pricing breaks based on loyalty. We're in the top "loyalty" tier on Princess and are not aware of any pricing deals for cruises based on that fact alone. Like other loyalty programs we get deals on things like on board purchases, priority boarding etc, but not relating to our loyalty level. I'm vaguely aware that some folks get big deals on casino packages, but I know nothing about that. As to getting deals on Princess cruises, a lot will depend on who you book with. Like many others, we prefer to use a travel agent (who cannot be named per the Cruise Critic TOS) and are very happy with them. They have an annual sale which confers significant OBC to us, which can add up to about a 10% savings. Others have TAs who may give even a bit more, but the good old days of perqs like free booze packages etc are long gone. As to comparing the different lines for pricing, we find that things have changed very significantly over the last few years, post-COVID. In searching out the best deals for us, I've found that X and HAL have significantly increased their pricing even more than Princess, and in doing an apples to apples comparison (same cabin type, same itinerary etc) I find Princess to be a much better value with lower pricing.

And what is wrong with showing older movies in addition to the first runs they are also showing? MUTS seems to be mostly newer movies while the TV system has a ton of both old and new.