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Join Pete and Judy on their Celtic Adventure aboard the ms Zuiderdam


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Our day at sea started with our usual room service breakfast, which we always enjoy and the galley

continues to honor our substitutions and modifications to the standard menu. We didn’t care for bacon,

so we crossed it off and wrote in we wanted some extra sausage – all requests were honored.

 

We had a special treat this morning when we happened to sail near several United States Navy warships

including the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) and the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75). The Captain made several announcements alerting all the passengers to their

presence in addition to reading details about the ships from Wikipedia.

 

CVN-77.jpg

 

Many passengers rushed to the open decks to watch as the ships all passed us on our port side. They

were probably going 3-5 knots faster than us and they were visible for about 30 minutes until they

disappeared over the horizon.

 

Beth Brown Reinzel had a busy day teaching her class on knitting traditional Gansey techniques.

I signed up for the Texas Hold-em tournament at 11:30 but there weren’t enough people to start the

game, I signed up for the game scheduled for 1:30 PM.

 

Judy and I met back in our cabin for lunch and decided to order a Dive Inn Cheeseburger and Hot Dog

from room service. The price was $4.95 per item. I contemplated walking up to the Dive Inn Grill, order

them there, then bring them back to the room. This way they would be free (or at no additional charge

as nothing is really free on a cruise ship – you pay for it one way or another), but I decided I’d rather

lounge in my cabin and that the ten dollars this would cost was not a big deal in the grand scheme of

things. We have learned to budget our onboard spend into the cost of the cruise and then not worry

about it once onboard.

NOTE: One nice feature of the ships Intra Net is that it is very easy to check your onboard account.

In all my years of cruising, I have never had a mistake on any of my bills, but there is always a first

time. There was a case of someone at our table that was charged for the incorrect drinks when the

waiter got their cruise cards mixed up while taking a big order. Always pays to check your receipt

when you get your drink to make sure that you were billed correctly.

 

The Dive Inn food arrived in about 30 minutes. It was good, but I forgot to order catsup for the fries, so

remember to order whatever condiments you prefer rather than assume they will be delivered

automatically as they would be if you ordered food from hotel room service ashore.

 

There were enough people for a Texas Hold-em game at 1:30, but unfortunately the Poker Pro table

kept freezing up and they had to cancel the game after about 20 minutes. We did get a couple of free

drinks for our trouble so it wasn’t a total loss.

 

We invited Jesse and Colleen Kazemek to join us for dinner this evening and they graciously accepted.

They were delightful dinner companions and we enjoyed learning more about their background and

how they developed their wonderful Beatles tribute show after they met while they were both singing

on cruise ships as cast singers. Earlier in their careers they were both in National Tours of Broadway

shows: Jesse was in Miss Saigon and Colleen was in Hairspray. They will be leaving the Zuiderdam

tomorrow in Edinburgh and head over to the Prinsendam.

 

Tonight’s show was a screening of the BBC show “Frozen Planet Live” accompanied by live music played by Adagio and the Zuiderdam band. It was OK, but I prefer live entertainment rather than watching a movie with a live sound track.

 

More pictures on the Blog

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Thank you for the update.

 

Great photos of the US navy ships.

 

Updated the blog with a short video clip of the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) - find it HERE on the blog. You will hear the Zuiderdam give a long blast of her horn and then hear the Donald Cook respond before she accelerates and loops around in front of the Zuiderdam.

 

Here is a link to a USN press release about the military exercise we witnessed

http://www.c6f.navy.mil/news/uss-george-hw-bush-carrier-strike-group-completes-saxon-warrior

Edited by The-Inside-Cabin
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Updated the blog with a short video clip of the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) - find it HERE on the blog. You will hear the Zuiderdam give a long blast of her horn and then hear the Donald Cook respond before she accelerates and loops around in front of the Zuiderdam.

 

Here is a link to a USN press release about the military exercise we witnessed

http://www.c6f.navy.mil/news/uss-george-hw-bush-carrier-strike-group-completes-saxon-warrior

 

Thank you, great to hear the horns.

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Day 9, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

We dropped anchor about 10 AM today in Edinburgh’s harbor and the crew readied the ship to start

tender operations. The tender ride would take about 20 minutes but since it took 10 minutes to load

and 10 minutes to unload, each tender trip would take about 40 minutes.

 

Tender tickets were required and were available starting at 9:30 in the Ocean Bar. Four Star Mariners

and above didn’t need tender tickets and could proceed directly to the tender line at their convenience.

Fortunately, the weather was nice and the seas calm, so loading the tenders went as quickly as possible.

 

Our plans were to go ashore around 1 PM, spend the afternoon visiting local yarn shops, visit the Royal

Mile and ultimately arrive at the Scottish Whiskey Experience for dinner as part of our Tattoo package.

All aboard would be tonight at 12:30 AM with an expected departure time of 1 AM. Whenever you see

a late night or overnight departure chances are there will be a special evening shore excursion. This is,

of course, the Edinburgh Tattoo, which takes place every August here in Edinburgh. The Tattoo starts at

9 PM and ends and 10:40 PM.

 

Usually after two hours or so tender tickets are no longer required and guest just proceed to deck A

when they want to leave. Not today. When we headed down to the tender line at 1 PM they were still

requiring tickets. This was now 3 hours after they started – not good. We had to wait about 10 minutes

– we set foot on the tender at 1:15 and we stepped off the tender in Newhaven Harbor at 1:47 – 32

minutes. The Zuiderdam was originally scheduled to anchor near South Queensferry, but we think that

the Koningsdam was there so we ended up anchoring near Newhaven, which was much closer to

Edinburgh.

 

NOTE: We ran into some people ashore who said they left the ship at 2 PM and they were still requiring

tickets (4 hours!). I heard an unconfirmed report that some people never left the ship having given up in

frustration over the tender lines. This tender queue was the worst I have ever experienced. Not sure

what the problem was, but the ship should have chartered additional tenders or ferries – taking more

than 4 hours to get everyone ashore is not good.

Once ashore we waited 9 minutes in the taxi queue and were on our way to our first yarn shop: Ginger

Twist. Ginger Twist is normally closed on Tuesdays, but the shopkeeper was going to open for an hour

or so to accommodate all the knitters on the cruise. However, due to the slow tendering, not many

people got off the ship early and she was closed by the time we arrived.

We kept our taxi and continued on to the next yarn shop: Be Inspired Fibres. The shop was very nice

and had a wonderful selection of Wollmeise, Habu and WalkCollection yarns.

Our next shop was back toward Newhaven so we used our trusty Uber app to hail a ride. The Uber

arrived in 2 minutes. Uber is wonderful as you don’t need cash or credit cards and your destination is

already programmed into the drivers GPS.

Twenty-five minutes later we arrived at Kathy’s Knits. This shop was slightly below street level, but was

still pretty easy to see from the street. They had a great selection of local yarns, all warm and heavier

weights for the Scottish winters.

 

It was now 3:45 and we headed to the Royal Mile for shopping, sightseeing and people watching.

People watching is always fun on the Royal Mile, but today was a special treat as we discovered that

August is also the month when the Edinburgh Fringe Festival takes place. Billed as the world’s largest

arts festival, it takes place over 25 days and features over 50,000 performances in over 250 different

venues. Lots of fun to see such a wide variety of people all having a good time.

This sign caught our eye – Proper Hamburgers – and since we have never had a “Proper Hamburger” we

simply had to give them a try.

We were seated promptly and our server took our orders quickly. The wait staff all wear black T shirts with a

single word “Pickle”, “Cheese”, “Classic”, “Proper” or

“Byron”. Our waiter was friendly and told us he switched his shirt from “Pickle” to “Cheese” as he was

getting too many comments about the “Pickle”.

After a short wait, we received our “Proper” cheeseburgers with a side of fries. They were both juicy

and very good.

 

Next on our schedule was the Edinburgh Tattoo.

 

The Edinburgh Tattoo is a performance of military bands from around the world and other related

artists. The highlight of every show is the massed pipes and drums from regiments of the British Army.

 

NOTE: You can always buy a ticket to the performance from the ship which cost more but

provide transportation both ways. The HAL price was $229 or $289 dollars depending on your

seats. You can buy them directly from the venue for $68 or $101 respectively. Taxi fare each

way would be around $25. Another issue with the ship tour is that you must be back at the

Tender spot to catch your bus to the Tattoo – so if you are already downtown, you would have

to go back to the tender point, meet the tour, just to return to downtown. You may be able to

avoid this if you bought the ships tour and only ride the bus one way, but I am not sure

.

Since we waited to buy tickets, the only ones left from the venue were the premium packages – We

chose the Bruce package for $300 each, which included the following:

 

* Three course Taste of Scotland menu followed by coffee or tea and Scottish fudge –

the perfect opportunity to sample the finest Scottish produce

* Sampling of three specially selected Scotch Whiskies, chosen to complement your

meal and introduced to you by a member of the Senior Tasting Team

* Half a bottle of wine with your meal

* A brief recital by members of the Tattoo cast

* A private viewing of the World’s Largest Collection of Scotch Whisky

* A host to escort you from The Scotch Whisky Experience to the Castle Esplanade

* A prime location Premier seat, with padded seat/backrest and armrest, in Section 8

of the outdoor arena with exceptional views of the performance

* An official Tattoo Show Programme

 

Our package started at 6:30 PM, with the earliest arrival time listed as 6:15, but we arrived at 6PM and

were admitted immediately. The venue for the dinner is on the 4th floor of the Scottish Whiskey

Experience in a room with about 8 tables of 10. Our table was empty when we arrived, but we were

soon joined by 4 other couples from Houston, Phoenix, New York and Kelso, Scotland. We had a

wonderful time chatting with our tablemates and learning more about everyone’s experience on their

vacations to date. The one couple from Scotland had lived here all their lives, but as often happens with

residents, they never took advantage of their own tourist attractions and had never been to a Tattoo.

Their children gave them this package as a present and they were looking forward to finally seeing in

person what they have been hearing about for years.

 

The menu for our Bruce Package is on the blog. Each course had a single malt scotch that was selected to

complement each course. We also had a choice of red or white wine. The food was all very good and at

first, we thought we would have to choose between the different main courses, but as it turns out, we

had small servings of all three.

 

After dinner, we walked down a few flights of stairs and through the largest collection of Scotch Whiskey

in the world – over 3,300 bottles!

 

Our tour guide met us on the street and escorted us to the entrance where we ascended the steps to

our seats in section 8, the closed end of the horseshoe shaped arena. Our seats had a cushioned seat

and seatback – the standard seats were hard plastic. Cushions were available to rent for 1 Pound.

 

The Tattoo started promptly at 9PM with a short opening song by the Royal Choir followed by the

entrance of the Royal Army Pipe and Drum Corps, which filed in from the Castle at the arena’s open end

and gradually filling half of the arena before marching down toward the closed end. Quite spectacular.

 

Tattoo.jpg

 

The remainder of the Tattoo was a series of individual performances by a variety of military bands from

around the world. The USA was represented by the US Naval Forces Europe Band. For the finale all the

musicians entered the arena for a stirring rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” followed by Leonard Cohen’s

“Halleluiah” and finally “Scotland the Brave” as the bands left the field except for the Royal Army Pipe

and Drum corps which made one final parade before exiting thru the closed end themselves.

 

We were concerned that finding a taxi afterward may be a problem, but it turned out to be easy. We

walked to the nearest hotel – the G & V Royal Mile and discovered that there wasn’t any taxi queue and

boarded a taxi immediately. We left the Tattoo at 10:40, took 10 minutes to walk to the hotel and were

in a taxi and back to Newhaven by 11 PM. If you were on the ships tour, you had to walk much further

than the G & V hotel to catch the return bus.

 

Thirty minutes later we were back on the Zuiderdam and ready for bed after a long day. We had to get

up early for class tomorrow, so we were a little disappointed to see a card on the bed -

** Set the clocks ahead one hour **

 

More pictures and video on the blog www.theinsidecabin.com

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We did the Tatoo three years ago. One thing for sure, the time moves so quickly. We also felt fortunate that it didn't rain. When we got back on board well after midnight, there were three kinds of sandwiches for us to choose from. It was greatly appreciated. I wish I could remember her name. She was the best maitre'd ever. of course, this was on the Prinsendam.

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How was the tendering ? Maybe faster with smaller ship?

LOL! Tendering is always faster on the Prinsendam! Such a small ship, with many fewer passengers.

 

However, my experience with the Prinsendam is that we docked for Edinburgh. We were across the water from South Queensferry, but the name of the port escapes me at the moment.

I do remember that there is a train station near the dock.

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Aug 9th, Sailing toward Kristiansand, Norway

 

It was nice to have a sea day after the late night in Edinburgh. We enjoy sea days and this cruise was

fairly port intensive with only 3 sea days out of 12 total.

 

We started off our day with our usual room service breakfast – which we are modifying every night so

we get exactly what we want. We haven’t been disappointed yet, but I am tempted to print out little

pieces of paper with our request rather than having to pencil in our changes every time. Life is going

pretty good when that is the only thing I have to worry about.

 

The daily “When and Where” is on the blog and lists all the activities and you will find the usual activities

e.g. Towel Folding demo, art auctions, martini tasting, two enrichment lectures, the usual assortment of

digital workshop computer classes and so on.

 

I did learn a few things from people in the know about certain activities that are now no longer

authorized aboard HAL ships based on guidance from Seattle: Karaoke, golf putting games in the

atrium, dancing lessons using the ships dancers or those shows based on the “Newlywed game”. Not

sure why – has anyone else heard this – or observed these activities recently?

 

Seas remain calm for the most part and there hasn’t been a lot of deck motion – no soda crackers or

green apples at the front desk.

 

There are two Texas Hold’em tournaments every sea day: 11:30 and 1:30. I signed up for both games

but there were only 4 people for the 11:30 game so that didn’t happen and we would all return at 1:30

when there were 7 people already signed up.

 

The Texas Hold’em game started a little late after some trouble with the Poker Pro table. We ended up

getting free drinks while waiting for them to fix the problem, and we were soon underway. This was my

first game in a while and it takes a little bit to try and figure out the other players. Everyone was playing

conservatively and I managed to catch a Flush on “The River” that kept me in the game until we were

down to 4 players. The cards were not with me any longer and I was soon knocked out of the game.

 

At the next table, the Blackjack tournament was in full swing. I bought a ticket and had a good run, but

screwed up the final hand by not thinking thru my last bet. I had $9000 in tournament chips which put

me well above the current last place contender who had $7000. The next player had $9400. Another

player at the table had a pile but would need a black jack to beat me – so I felt safe and bet $100 and

ended up winning. I should have bet at $500 so if I won I would have had two players below me instead

of one. As it turned out, the other player got his blackjack and ended up with $9600 and I ended up at

$9100 and out of the finals. You always feel a little rushed in these situations, but I should have paused

and thought it thru at the time. I realized my mistake as they started to deal the cards … Oh well.

 

There was a little excitement during the finals as one player hit a 12 with the dealer showing a 4 –

normally you would stand in this situation. He busted with a 10, but that 10 would have been the

perfect card for the next player who doubled down with an 11 and drew a 3 rather than the 10 he would

have had otherwise. One of the spectators criticized this player’s perceived poor play and things got

heated quickly with some taunts and discussions about “taking it outside” - Geesshhh. Fortunately, the

manager came over and was able to cool things off and the game proceeded without further incident.

 

Since the Blackjack Tournament took longer than expected I missed the 2PM Captains Q and A and

virtual tour. I always find these interesting and was disappointed to miss the presentation.

 

The “Cast Chat” was at 3PM and I joined about 50 other folks in the Vista Lounge to listen to the

Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers discuss their backgrounds and a little inside baseball about what goes on

backstage during their shows. Most of the cast lives in NYC when not on ships and uses their time off

contract to audition for Broadway shows. If they get picked up – its goodbye to the cruise ships,

otherwise they may be back for another contract. One of the dancers had numerous contracts and over

50 months on the Zuiderdam alone – Wow!

 

Tonight was the second Gala night of this cruise and we decided to go to the Pinnacle Grill. In the main

dining room they were serving Filet Mignon and Lobster tail, but in the Pinnacle you still had to pay for

the Lobster Tail add on. I guess if I thought about it more I should have gone to the Pinnacle on another

night – but I didn’t mind paying the $20 for a giant 12 oz lobster tail to complement my Filet. Service in

the Pinnacle was outstanding as always. We did notice some fine print on the menu that a second

entrée would cost $15 but no mention of any surcharge for extra starters. We always look at the

monster “President’s Cut”. A 36-ounce bone-in ribeye handpicked by HAL President Orlando Ashford

himself. One of these days we may get a group and order one for the table just to give it a try.

 

Most of the guests make some effort to dress up a little for the gala night. There are still some folks in

tuxedos, with most in sport coats with or without ties and quite a few men with the collared shirt

minimum. Anyone who is worried about what they should wear on Gala night should stop worrying –

wear whatever you want and you will find plenty of people dressed just like you. We didn’t see anyone

wearing jeans or other clothing not up to the very minimum gala night standard.

 

Tonight’s show was called “Off the Charts” featuring the Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers singing and

dancing to a variety of Billboards hits from over the years. It was wonderful – lots of great songs from

the Beatles to Beyoncé and more. All the shows this cruise were new to us and we enjoyed them all

very much.

 

Show-1.jpg

 

More on the blog

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Have never witnessed people getting into that kind of a discussion in the Casino. Glad the manager came over and calmed things down.

 

I was thinking the same thing, KK...I have certainly seen a lot of players take a hit when most regular players would stand, but they certainly have the right to play that way. Of course a tournament situation you can't just pick up your chips and move, but on a regular table that's exactly what I do if other the cards don't seem to be coming out the way I prefer.

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I did learn a few things from people in the know about certain activities that are now no longer

authorized aboard HAL ships based on guidance from Seattle: Karaoke, golf putting games in the

atrium, dancing lessons using the ships dancers or those shows based on the “Newlywed game”. Not

sure why – has anyone else heard this – or observed these activities recently?

I don't remember those types of activities on my recent Prinsendam cruise, but chalked it up to the fact that ship is different, and that it was a port-intensive itinerary.

Perhaps it is more because HAL is definitely changing direction, and these activities don't fit in. Not to mention they are not income-producing activities.

'Tis a pity.

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I did learn a few things from people in the know about certain activities that are now no longer

authorized aboard HAL ships based on guidance from Seattle: Karaoke, golf putting games in the

atrium, dancing lessons using the ships dancers or those shows based on the “Newlywed game”. Not

sure why – has anyone else heard this – or observed these activities recently?

 

The Newlywed Game was always one of my favorites so I definitely did notice it missing on my last 3 cruises! would love to know the reasoning behind that...especially since my daughter just got off a Carnival Conquest cruise (as we know HAL is owned by Carnival) and they did have it! We didn't have the Liars Club or any of the other fun stuff either.

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...a Carnival Conquest cruise (as we know HAL is owned by Carnival)... .

Ah, no. 'We' don't know that at all.

Carnival Cruise Line does not 'own' HAL. Carnival Corporation owns both cruise lines. Carnival Cruise Line is a sister company to HAL, not a parent company. Both cruise lines, as a matter of fact all the cruise lines owned by Carnival Corporation, run their own companies, and have their own policies. There are some policies that are the same, while others differ.

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Day 11, August 10th Kristiansand, Norway

 

Arriving at 7AM would not be our choice for a port visit arrival time as we prefer to get started later in the day when it is a little warmer and more of the shops are open. But 7AM it was and we would have to make the best of the time we had especially with an all aboard of 3:30 PM.

 

Kristiansand is the 5th largest city in Norway with a population of almost 90,000 people.

 

The ship moored within an easy walk of the city and very near a small harbor with some restaurants and shops called “The Fish Market”. We left the ship around 11 AM and headed off to town to visit several yarn shops that were close by.

 

Once on the pier we spotted a large stuffed moose that was used as a backdrop for the ship’s photographers when taking pictures of passengers leaving the ship. The photographers were long gone by this time, but we spotted them using the moose as a backdrop earlier from our cabin.

 

As we walked down the street towards town we spotted the Kilden Performing Arts Centre across the harbor. Completed in 2012 it looks very modern and we learned later that it will seat around 1,000 people.

 

The weather was beautiful and we walked about ¼ mile until we arrived at “The Fish Market”. This was one of those areas with lots of open air seating with people strolling about and it was very tempting to grab a seat and enjoy the weather and watch the world go by. If we had more time we probably would have done that, but we had to press on to get to the four yarn shops on our schedule.

 

Along the way we came across several sand sculptures in a park. See the picture on the blog. We couldn’t tell why they were constructed but we learned later that Kristiansand occasionally hosts a sand sculpture symposium. The sculptures were starting to deteriorate, but were still in pretty good condition.

 

Markens Gate is one of the main streets and a pedestrian-only mall for a large part of the street. There was an interesting collection of shops and restaurants that we wish we had more time to explore.

 

Our first stop was Hobby Hymmelen, a store much like Jo-Ann Fabrics, that has a variety of craft supplies, fabric and a small yarn section. The yarns were mostly heavier weight than Judy likes to knit and she didn’t buy any.

Across the street from Hobby Hymmelen was Langfelt Garn, the oldest yarn shop in Kristiansand with a very nice selection of local and European yarns. Ase Helene and Kirsten Marie welcomed us into their shop and were very helpful.

 

Annemor Sundbo is an accomplished designer and author with a studio near the edge of the central area of Kristiansand, a little over a mile from the ship. She was meeting small groups of knitters throughout the day to show us her studio and explain what she does. We arrived about 1:45 and her presentation started at 2PM. It was very interesting and we learned more about her efforts to document and preserve the knitting patterns knit years ago.

 

We left at 2:30 to head back to the ship and would have time to visit our final yarn shop, Karmin, on the way. The shop has three large rooms with a big selection of yarn. Judy was intrigued with the cones of yarn lined along the top of the shelves, but she didn’t have room in the suitcases to buy any.

 

Another nice benefit of the ship mooring close to town is that you can return right before the all aboard time as there is less risk of being late due to transportation issues. We retraced our steps back thru town and arrived back on board with 5 minutes to spare.

 

Back in the room, we pulled out our suitcases and started to get everything organized for our departure tomorrow. We will be heading straight to the airport to catch an 11:45 flight so we would be leaving the ship in the first wave.

 

Our final dinner was just as wonderful as our first. The dessert was Baked Alaska but the days of the flaming Baked Alaska parade are long gone – along with sparklers or anything else. In fact, there was no parade at all, but the Cruise Director did announce the Chefs who came out of the galley to accept some recognition from the enthusiastic diners.

 

Tomono Kawamura, a classical pianist, was on the main stage this evening. We enjoyed her performance very much and she amazed the crowd with an original song she composed when she was 12.

 

After the show we headed back to our cabin to finish packing and get ready for a long travel day tomorrow.

 

More pictures on the blog

 

Troll.jpg

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Day 12, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Normally we will stay in our arrival city after a cruise for one night which eliminates rushing around to

leave the ship immediately. But in this case we would have to be off the ship with the first wave to

catch an 11:45 flight to Amsterdam. We were in the RED 1 group which would be the first people off the

ship right behind the self help folks.

 

Another first for us would be taking the HAL transfer to the airport. This transfer cost $39 pp or $78 for

both of us. A taxi would probably cost around $50 total, but by taking the transfer we would avoid the

hassle of getting a cab – which could be very easy or very hard depending which blog post you read on

which day. Another advantage of taking a transfer to the airport is transfer busses leave when full –

with everyone coming off the ship at the same time, the busses leave immediately since they fill

immediately. This is the same reason I will continue to avoid airport to ship transfers since the bus will

often wait for some time until the bus fills up as people’s flights don’t all arrive at the same time.

 

We ordered room service breakfast for 6AM and it arrived promptly with our usual modifications. This

is a huge benefit of Holland America as most mass market cruise lines don’t offer hot room service

breakfast on your last day. Another HAL plus is that, unlike most other cruise lines, you are allowed to

stay in your cabin until your disembarkation time. I like this a lot and yes, the cabins are still ready for

the new arrivals by 11:30. What HAL has figured out is that enough people leave early so the stewards

will stay busy cleaning empty cabins and taking care of the last few who leave after 9:30 doesn’t take

long at all.

 

Four buses were waiting for us as the RED 1 group filed off the ship and we were on our way to the

airport. Here was our timeline for future reference.

 

7:21 am leave room

7:26 am off the ship

7:30 am on bus to airport

7:37 am bus leaves the dock

8:13 am bus arrives at airport parking #5

8:23 am off the bus

8:27 am pick up bags & leave

8:41 am in line to check-in with KLM

9:10 am up to counter

9:18 am finished check-in and leave

9:25 am in line for Security

9:44 am through Security

 

Our flight to Amsterdam was pleasant and landed around 1PM. Due to the scheduling required to use

frequent flyer miles on Delta, our flight to San Diego would be the next day. We decided to stay at the

Sheraton Amsterdam Airport which was very convenient and highly recommended. The hotel is

accessible from the airport via an enclosed walkway and you can take the free luggage carts right to the

lobby. Once in the hotel you can easily return to the airport to take advantage of the wide variety of

restaurants or even take a train into Amsterdam.

On a previous AMS layover, we stayed at the Citizen M

hotel, also within easy walking distance, but the Citizen M rooms are SMALL. The bathroom and shower

are in the same room as the bed. Here is a overhead view of a room of the typical Citizen M room - buyer

beware.

 

Citizen-M.jpg

 

We discovered a few things to keep in mind if you are leaving from AMS back to the USA. Before you

enter your final concourse to board your plane, you may have to wait in another security line to answer

a few questions about whether you packed your own bags etc. I would plan to arrive at your concourse

entrance at least 75 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time to allow for this extra line.

If you don’t have Global Entry, I highly recommend getting it for your next international flight.

 

If you don’t have Global Entry, there is something relatively new called Mobile Passport App which can be

found here https://mobilepassport.us/. This app allows you to transmit your passport information and

answer the customs questions in advance and you will then receive a bar code which will allow you to

access a special, shorter line, thru immigration. This app can be used at many airports and one seaport

– Fort Lauderdale.

 

Our flight back to the USA was on time and uneventful. We cleared USA Immigration/Customs in Seattle -

it was very fast - having Global Entry helped to speed things up. After a long layover in Seattle, we

were on are way back to San Diego and Home Sweet Home.

 

We will now be turning our full attention to our next cruise, the Grand World Voyage on the ms

Amsterdam leaving January 4th, 2018.

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