Turtles06

The advice I’ve read here on CC is not to attempt that, better to stay a night in Amsterdam and not make yourself crazy.

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us, and for the beautiful photos. Quick question: in November, we'll be on the Joy for the first time. From the deck plans, it does not appear that there are really any forward-facing exterior decks open to non-Haven guests. Any thoughts about good spots for sailaway photos? (Other than one's own balcony.) Thanks and enjoy your cruise!

Actually, Cruise Critic has no Port of Call forum for Nicaragua, so this is in fact one good place to ask. (I just did a search for you here for "volcano" but it turned up no responses.) You might also want to do a search (or ask your question) in the forums for the cruise lines that do Canal full transits, including HAL, Princess, Celebrity, and NCL. (I've had two port calls in Corinto on NCL.) I'm sure there are others. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

My wife and I will be taking a 3-week Norway cruise next summer RT out of Amsterdam. Prior to that, we will be spending nearly a week in Amsterdam at a highly rated hotel along one of the canals. We’ll be flying home (to the U.S.) the day after we disembark, and are looking for recommendations for one night in a hotel in Amsterdam (it will be a Saturday) where we can just drop our bags after leaving the ship (it will be too early for check-in), and have a fairly restful day, a good lunch somewhere, and dinner. Since we’ll have been gone for nearly a month, I’m sure we’ll be pretty exhausted by then and so we don’t expect this to be a sightseeing day; however, we don’t want to hang out at an airport hotel for an entire day either. We’ll also be needing to leave for Schiphol early the next morning (Sunday), and I’m not sure if that should influence which part of Amsterdam we should stay in. I’d appreciate any recommendations. Thanks!

We've sailed many times on NCL, but never on a Breakaway+ class ship. Regarding the aft-facing balcony cabins on the Joy, I'm trying to find out whether the balconies themselves [not the cabin interiors] are larger on some of the decks, and, if so, which ones. (I know that's the case on the Breakaway.) I've done a search, but the search terms are too common to yield reasonable results. Thanks for any information!

It's been reported here for a while now that sometime in the Fall of 2020, on the Jewel-class ships, NCL is going to make some changes with respect to the amenities and perhaps prices of the forward-facing Penthouse suites on Decks 9 and 10 (now categorized as SE), and the aft-facing Penthouse suites on Decks 8, 9, and 10 (now categorized as SF). Much of what has been discussed on here is only rumor and speculation, since there's been no formal announcement of anything. However, given that people are now able to book cruises in late 2020 and into 2021, I thought it might be helpful to have a thread in which we can list the factual information that can be gleaned as of right now from the ships' deck plans and from the booking engine on NCL's own site. This being the internet, there will always be rumor and speculation, 😁, but here is what NCL's web site is showing now: 1. Looking at the deck plans for the various Jewel-class ships, we can see different dates in Fall 2020 when the changes on each ship with respect to the SE and SF suites will take place. The Gem deck plans are different for cruises departing before and after Oct. 30, 2020; for the Jade, the changeover date is Nov. 20, 2020; for the Jewel, it's Sept. 14, 2020, and for the Pearl, it's Oct. 10, 2020. 2. According to the deck plans, after those dates on each ship, the SE and SF suites will be split into four different categories: What are now the aft-facing SF suites on Deck 10 (these have the largest balconies of the SF class) will be in a category called SM ("Aft-Facing Penthouse with Large Balcony"). The aft-facing SFs on Decks 8 and 9 will be in a category called SN ("Aft-Facing Penthouse"). What are now the forward-facing SE suites on Decks 9 and 10 will be in a category called SF ("Forward-Facing Penthouse with Large Balcony"), except for the two center suites on Deck 10, 10000 and 10500, which will be in a category all their own called SD ("Forward-Facing Deluxe Penthouse with Large Balcony"). These two suites are directly under the bridge, making their interiors larger because they follow the "bump out" from the bridge. Many folks prefer them because of that, while some prefer the forward-facing suites on Deck 9 because their balconies are larger. 3. Thus, from the deck plans, we can see that NCL has carved out into their own categories what it perceives to be the most desirable aft- and forward-facing Penthouses. With these changes, people are of course speculating that there will be price differences among the new categories, and perhaps even differences in suite amenities, perhaps the elimination of butler and concierge service for some of these suites. I've done a couple of random mock bookings after the changeover dates to see what NCL's web site says now. No need for speculation, these mock bookings show actual price differences and differences in suite perks: Random Mock Booking 1: Gem 11-day Southern Caribbean from NY, departing January 3, 2021. Right now, the price of an SD (the two middle forward-facing Penthouses on Deck 10) is $50 pp more than it is for the SFs (the other forward-facing Penthouses on Deck 10 and 9). Both categories are described as having "butler and concierge service." Likewise, the price of the SM aft-facing Penthouses (the ones on Deck 10) are $50 pp more than the SN aft-facing Penthouses on Decks 8 and 9. But there is a difference in the suite amenities; the SMs are shown as having "butler and concierge service," whereas, for the SNs, NCL's web page says: "butler and concierge service in most." Since there's been no official NCL statement about this that anyone has reported, it does not seem to be known, at least as a matter of fact, which of the SN Penthouses will not have butler and/or concierge service. Maybe this language gives NCL leeway to keep those services going forward, or not, as it finalizes those plans (at least for this cruise). Random Mock Booking 2: Jewel 7-day Western Caribbean from Tampa, departing April 4, 2021. Right now, the price of an SD is $100 pp more than for the SFs. Both categories have this very odd statement about butler service (I say "odd" because neither category is a Haven suite): "Butler and concierge service, queen-size bed, luxury bath with shower, living and dining areas, sleeps up to four. NOTE: BUTLER SERVICE ONLY LISTED FOR HAVENS." Back in the stern, the price of the SMs is $100 pp more than for an SN. The description of services for the SM says: "Butler and concierge, bedroom with queen-size bed, luxury bath, living and dining area, sleeps up to three. NOTE: BUTLER SERVICE ONLY LISTED FOR HAVENS." For the SN, the description reads: "Queen-size bed or two beds that convert to a queen, luxury bath, living and dining area in some, sleeps up to three. Most include Butler and concierge service. NOTE: NO BUTLER SERVICE, SOME WITH CONCIERGE." (It would seem that, on this cruise at least, NCL may intend not to provide butler service for any of the four Penthouse suite categories.) I imagine that more mock bookings would show similar differences, some of them equally vague. For anyone booking one of these suites after the changeover date, I would advise taking a screen shot of the description of your suite amenities, and also calling your TA (if you book with one) or NCL to find out as much as possible about what amenities you will or will not receive. I hope this information is helpful, and I would encourage others to post any facts they may discover about NCL's plans for these Penthouse suites.