lx200gps

I suspect they meant that Minis are "extended" balcony cabins (which they are) rather than "extended balcony" cabins. Yes, the balconies on the newer are ships sure are minuscule. We just booked an extended balcony cabin on Caribe deck on the Emerald for next July and the balconies look to be the size of tennis courts compared to the balconies on the new ships.

How do you access the Internet if you don't access MedallionNet. Isn't that the portal TO the Internet? I only use a laptop/tablet onboard but haven't tried a VPN yet.

You're quite welcome. Any more questions, I'm happy to help.

I'll let other chime in with details, but I've read reports here on CC that using a VPN on a Princess ship can be problematic.

No worries at all. Your drink package is honored all over the ship, and very definitely in all the specialty restaurants. That being said, be sure to check your onboard account on a regular basis, as occasionally the staff make mistakes and a drink may get charged to your account in error. When that happens a trip down to Guest Services sorts it out right away. I check our account via the TV every day. Have a great trip.

Here is a link to a huge thread from a few months ago re Starlink performance on specific ships. It's pretty long but you may be able to find someone with knowledge of Starlink status on the ship you are interested in. We're on the Discovery in a few months and it looks like it was one of the first to get the system.

Montrealer here. If you are driving down from Quebec City to Montreal to board a late afternoon flight, I HIGHLY recommend you make use of the excellent Google Traffic system and watch very carefully for road closures and traffic jams. Learn to avoid the red and black lines on Google. There has been a huge increase in road closures in and around the island of Montreal over the last few years and there are actually times, particularly on weekends, when entire highways and/or bridges are completely shut down for construction. In the inner city orange traffic cones are pretty much everywhere these days. Note also there is massive construction going on at the airport, with complete re-building of the parking garage and long traffic jams with cars lining up to drop off and pick up passengers at the terminal, even on weekdays. Car rental return at YUL is in the same parking garage immediately adjacent to the terminal building, and that garage, as at two days ago when we drove past it, has been 30% demolished for its reconstruction. I'm not trying to sound alarmist, you should still be fine, but please plan ahead and watch for traffic jams. They're not guaranteed, but are happening far more frequently than they used to.

Interesting. Any chance it's in that office building on 17th housing the Princess Medallion folks, right across from the Renaissance hotel?

You'll only pay the difference, plus tax. Enjoy ;o)

FWIW, you are not alone in North America. We used to buy the Princess coverage solely for the excellent 100% CFAR coverage, but a few years ago it became unavailable to us here in the province of Quebec, which has long had some bizarre insurance rules and restrictions. The Princess coverage is still available to anyone else in Canada, just not this province.

Lifelong Canadian here. While I understand the desire to get some small amount of cash, it's not absolutely necessary. I literally don't remember the last time I used cash, easily many years ago. Even a $1 purchase is easily done on my credit card, the machine doesn't care what the amount is and it avoids having to receive those annoying big coins as change. Up here we make extensive use of the tap and rarely even have to insert the CC into a reader and enter a PIN though that option will always be there if your card isn't so configured. The only exception I can think of is Costco which only accepts a very limited number of credit cards and we just use our ATM card when we're there. Have a great trip ;o)

Definitely keep us all in the loop if they do make the announcement. We've flown out of YOW a few times when our usual YUL doesn't work, much simpler solution for us love the cheap parking ;o) If flying Porter means not having to endure AC Rouge in the winter months from YUL, we're on it.

Thanks for posting. Google shows that lot just NW of the terminal, about a 12 minute walk just past the big Hampton Inn. We certainly wouldn't bother with a shuttle for that short distance, but that's just us. Farther than the covered garage and about the same distance as to another also open air lot on Kennedy Ave, on the other side of the adjacent drydock. So lots of parking options, just nothing right at the terminal as in many other cruise ports.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Further to the advice above, you need to try and get upstairs to the Sanctuary ASAP, as in as fast as possible, no stops, no delays. Sea day slots sell out very fast, and even us Elite status folks who get to board among the very first are often shut out of getting decent loungers. You can improve your chances by opting for port days if there is a stop you've been to a thousand times e.g, for us, Cozumel), don't care if you are in full sun, or want a $220/day Cabana.

That's one of the many advantages to the Sanctuary, they do a great job of keeping it quiet (at least every time we've ever been there). Anyone in the Cabanas are expected to use the provided headphones if they watch TV

Thanks all, very helpful comments. I was concerned after having read the comment in Post #2 above that "The garage across from the terminal is no longer an option" That is pretty loosely worded as to exactly what "...across from the terminal" means, and I was concerned that it meant the parking lot just down the street from the terminal exit, next to the port police station, was closed. As to the management of the parking garage not wanting cruise passengers taking up space, that's quite possible, but unless they outright ban us, I will prefer to use that covered garage in lieu of an open lot.

I'd love to hear some RECENT experiences with trying to book the Sanctuary on a warm-weather cruise. On our last trip, last February, as Elite status very early boarders, we were literally among the first people on the ship and raced very quickly upstairs to book. Still, maybe a half-dozen folks beat us to it. We were all told that the Sanctuary had been completely booked out, loungers and Cabanas, for our entire week by the hundreds of B2Bers from the previous cruise who were offered the option of pre-booking for our voyage ahead of time. We're on the Discovery this October for a California Coaster, hopefully we'll have better luck booking the Sanctuary this time.

I'm interested in this as well, as we just booked our first ever trip out of Boston on Princess for next July. According to our friend Google, there are numerous parking lots near the Cruise Terminal, the closest being the ABM garage right down the pier next to the Port Police station. It still shows on the ABM website as active so if it is shut down their website should be updated. From what I'm seeing now, I think we will use the covered garage on Drydock Ave a block north of the terminal building, a 5 minute walk away.

In addition to dive charters along the St Lawrence, we've also done day trips out of Kingston and Gananoque. The 1000 Islands is pretty impressive, some lovely sights along the way. A cruise around some of the Great Lakes and up (down?) the St Lawrence, along the "real" Seaway up to Montreal is definitely one we'd love to try

Correct, I'd forgotten about the Welland Canal, thanks for the clarification. Bottom line, as we say, is that after Montreal, and certainly after Quebec City, it's just the St Lawrence river, devoid of any "Seaway" like locks etc.

What are your expectations re the "Seaway"? The Seaway pretty much starts at the mouth of Lake Ontario near Kingston and follows the St Lawrence upriver to the Atlantic. For the first 300 miles or so, the river is narrow and the Seaway traffic uses a series of locks. I've SCUBA'd up and down the St Lawrence in that area and it would be a very interesting sail if you could find such a cruise, tons to see and experience. Here in Montreal for example there are quite a few locks and bridges for the ship traffic to navigate. The river can be surprisingly narrow in places and the Thousand Islands is gorgeous. Pretty much after Quebec City the St Lawrence hugely widens out and is at least 10 miles wide right after QC, opening up to a good 30 miles wide as you approach the Gaspe peninsula. So after leaving Quebec City, while you may technically be in the "Seaway" it won't be as impressive as it is downstream in Ontario and as navybankerteacher says above, it will just be a big wide river, very much open water. If you depart QC at dinner time, by the next morning's sunrise, I would think you will be very much in open ocean at or past the mouth of the St Lawrence.

Any ideas as to exactly how this will work if and when Princess does start shipping up north? I just checked our Oct 2023 sailing on the web version of the App and our original order, placed in February, still shows "Status: Pickup at embarkation" . I would expect that once we see here on CC that Canadian shipping has started, I would have to cancel the existing order and re-order, specifying "Ship to Home Address" The alternative of course will be to leave it as is and endure the horrors of spending an additional 60 seconds picking it up at the counter.

The poster was asking about the parking garage at the Weehawken ferry terminal across the Hudson from the MCT

Hi yourself ;o) There are actually two parking garages at the Weehawken ferry terminal. The one we used is in the same building as the Residence Inn, Envue and the restaurant I mentioned. It's basically one huge building. The parking garage is completely indoors and multi-level. We parked near an elevator and took the elevator down to the hotel lobby. For IIRC $2/day LESS, there is an overflow garage one block north in case the main garage at the hotel is full. You can go to Google Street View and see the overall layout of the hotel/garage building, where the entrances are etc. And you will also see how ridiculously close the hotel is to the ferry terminal building. You raise a valid point about weather if walking up the Hudson from the ferry terminal to Pier 88. It's an easy 15 minute walk on flat ground and free from worrying about cars (though you might have to dodge crazy cyclists ;o) It didn't rain the days we walked it, to and from the ferry terminal, but I had planned for it just in case. We always bring small travel umbrellas on any cruise, and I simply brought along two large bags to cover our suitcases just in case. Bottom line is that parking at the MCT is a little less than TWICE what it cost to park in Weehawken, and the savings are even better when one factors in the US/Canadian exchange

Not sure of this is interesting to you, but Princess just opened up Boston sailings for Canada/New England for July 2024 on the Emerald, and we are considering them seriously. I priced pretty much every cruise line for around the same time, Canada/New England, and HAL and Celebrity were far more expensive. NCL was also more expensive, though not as bad as HAL or X. Princess would be a better fit for the OP than NCL, pretty much on par experience-wise as HAL.