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Today in Dordrecht we went 30 minutes away to see the Kinderdijk Windmills (children’s windmills). There is no definitive explanation for the name. we had our safety briefing at 2:30 as it has to occur within the first 24 hours and we didn’t leave until 10 last night so all aboard was 9:30. Well wouldn’t you know it…I fell down an exterior wet stairway and landed hard. I may have to go to a doctor tomorrow as my left foot, right knee and left hand are swollen and in pain. so I missed the chef’s cheese tasting extravaganza and by all accounts I really did miss an event. But the evening canapés were delivered: steak tartare. DH ate both as I don’t eat raw things except vegetables.

Here is the glass open on the balcony and a photo I took of our morning neighbours without anything between them and me 😊

If the safe was on the floor rest assured our friends would have been ranting about it!

On the Gem in 2019 we were in a deluxe balcony suite and it was in relatively the same position. Friends in a balcony suite said nothing about the placement of their safe. Chef Lynn Crawfor is a Canadian chef and tv personality. She has competed on Iron Chef and restaurant makeover as well as having her own show called Pitching In. She has been the head chef in a number of restaurants. I am not vegan nor lactose intolerant. I can not consume heavy cream so the chefs are accommodating me by removing cream from all my dishes. Like today they made me a pea soup without cream.

Today’s itinerary

The chefs are here! They will host a cheese tasting this afternoon. We had a choice between 4 excursions this morning, all returning to the boat by 1:00 for lunch. yesterday I attended a Stroopwafel demonstration. This decadent delight is a Dutch delicacy that has a caramel like sauce between two layers of waffle.

Let’s talk about the balcony. On HAL it is a true outdoor space while on Scenic it is an extension of the cabin that you can choose to turn into a balcony by opening the “window” by sliding down half the glass “railing” to be in front of the lower half. The buttons to operate the glass are inside the cabin on the wall by the glass sliding partition. If you have the glass open, even a few inches, the thermostat in your cabin will not operate. Since it is cooler, we close half the sliding glass partition at night to keep the cooler air away from the bed. This sliding glass partition can be left open so that there is more room in your cabin but they suggest closing your curtains at night as you never know where you will be in the morning. If you are on the riverbank side people may be walking by mere inches from your “balcony”. That wouldn’t happen on HAL! We have arrived at our first stop on our itinerary. It is 6:00 in the morning when I took the pictures. Later I will show the window open.

The “balcony” has a two window “railing”, the top half can slide down to cover the lower half. When that window is open the thermostat in the room will not operate. There are two buttons inside on the wall which operates the top glass. the balcony is separated from the cabin by a sliding glass partition, in our cabin it is 4 pieces of sliding glass. We have it half closed at night to keep the cooler night air away from the bed. But in daytime we open it right up along with the opaque and blackout curtains to have more room in the cabin. In 2019 we were sailing in August so we never shut that glass partition. They suggest that you always close at least the opaque curtain because most sailing to new locations is done at night so you never know where you will be in the morning and if there will be a clear view into your cabin. We are docked for our second day but if we were on the port side we would either be along another bot or the riverbank which may have people walking right beside.

You didn’t miss anything Jacqui. I do believe they refer to all cabins as suites but we booked a junior suite that is above the standard and balcony suites but below the royal and panorama suites. So we get a few more amenities than the two lower suites like the complementary pressing of two garments a day, the afternoon delivery of canapés and the wine pairing dinner with the captain. In suite dining is available to balcony suites too. Host Jazzbeau is correct, the photo doesn’t show the fourth leg. Those chairs are almost too comfortable, as is all the furniture in the lounge. There is also a variety of seating so you can find something to suit your taste: low and slouchy, swivel club chairs, and higher chairs that don’t make sore knees bend. they made me a separate dessert tonight- a chocolate hazelnut cake! Very impressed.

We made 3* Mariners until I fell ill. I usually tell people if they are comfortable in boutique, smaller hotels then they will probably enjoy a river cruise. I will try to be balanced in my posts but if you have any questions please ask. As for packing, keep in mind the weather where you are going and if windy pack for layers. That said, try not to overpack as the cabin comes with an umbrella, slippers, robe, hairdryer, laundry bag, walking sticks and shoe shine cloths. There is also an amenity kit in the bathroom. There are 2-3 dressier dinners depending upon which deck or cabin category you are in. They say a suit jacket for men (no tie required) and a dress or nicer outfit for ladies. Since I didn’t want to bring more than one pair of dinner shoes I brought blouses and pants. People are very casual during the day and some are casual at dinner. But I brought two pairs of comfortable walking shoes so I can alternate..

To compare embarkation is fruitless and unfair. It is an apples to oranges situation. They both float but one holds 1,200 - 2,000 passengers and the other 163. So no queues, no paper checking, no security screening. We got our ID cards at the concierge desk and were escorted to our cabin. We then had a drink in the lounge followed by lunch. Crew were standing in the lobby greeting every new passenger. It is so nice to be back aboard a floating vessel! I already attended a stroopwafel demonstration and had a meeting with the head chef, restaurant manager and the bar manager to review my dietary restriction.

The safe at the Hilton Doubletree Centraal Station was over my head!

We had to cross through the Scenic Jewel to get to the Jade. They are going Amsterdam to Basel. Unfortunately, all places seem to have done away with individual toiletries. We stayed at a Ritz Carleton recently and even they had the multi-use bottles. In 2019 we had individual soaps, shampoo, conditioner and body wash but they told us back then they would be getting rid of them for environmental reasons. Thank goodness the safe isn’t on the floor as I couldn’t use it then!

We walked from the hotel to the boat in about 10 minutes. Arrived just after 11:00. So much different than arriving on a big coach! I had forgotten how attentive the crew are; they nearly trip over themselves to serve no matter if that is in the lounge, restaurant, room attendant. I told DH he has to start referring to me as “my lady” 😂 We left our luggage and carryons with one of two Scenic reps in the hotel. We arrived before the luggage so we sat and had a drink then lunch. I just attended a Stroopwafle demonstration. I need to be in the dining room for 5:30 to discuss Mr dietary restrictions with the chef and the restaurant/bar manager.

I quilt and make bags, purses, totes, etc. Fabric is always my souvenir of choice.

Clarification: we just spoke to the Scenic rep downstairs in the lobby. There are two Scenic boats leaving Amsterdam today. We are requested to have our luggage downstairs by noon. There is a shuttle running to the boat beginning at 2:00. But the boat is moored very close by and she said we can walk over for 11:00 and enjoy lunch onboard. That sounds like a plan!

It’s embarkation day 👏👏. And it is sunny! I already scoped out the procedure and there is no comparison to our experience in Paris in 2019. Then there was zero information given to us and the hotel had none. As a result, people started filling every available space in the lobby with their luggage before 10:00 am for a 2:00 pick up. We only found out the timing by asking people who were already in the lobby. It was madness. Now a Scenic representative will be in the lobby tagging luggage to be transported to the boat. We then are free to do whatever we want until 2:00 when the transfer will pick us up from the lobby.

I like how you think!

Yes you are correct, the floating flower market is on the canal next to the tower. Our canal cruise captain told us to avoid that flower market though as you are as likely to get a bag of onions in place of bulbs! Not sure about that, but that’s what he said. I see the rail but honestly hadn’t noticed it as not all canals have it. I wonder why? There seems to be a lot of things going into the canals either intentionally or not 😂 he said few people drown nowadays but it does still happen. Most recently were 3 males in their late teens and very early 20s. Given those public urinals are all at corners of bridges right beside the canals I can see one reason 🤷🏻‍♀️

DH agrees! But if he wanted to go to menswear shop then…fair is fair!

Today was another great day. The brief rain held off until we were back in our hotel but it was windy and a high of 12 C. On recommendation from a fellow CC member I had booked a canal cruise via Captain Dave who now ownes the 1928 teakwood boat that used to belong to the Dutch royal family. Our captain, Jan, was full of interesting facts as he guided the electric boat through the canals. For instance, an average of 40 bikes/week are thrown into the canals by vandals; the homes have such big windows as there are no side windows; there are over 1600 bridges in the city and he doesn’t recommend visiting the Red Light district as it is now considered an embarrassment for the city as over 50% of the girls are from sex trafficking. The cruise lasted 90 minutes and we really enjoyed it. We then walked to a haberdashery so I could browse and then on to do a bit of shopping. A good day and we saw the Senic Jade as we returned to the hotel

Thanks for sharing your experience. Good to know that other river boat companies provide the same experience.

I haven’t boarded yet so I am going on my memory of our 2019 Scenic cruise. I hope to be balanced but it won’t be until the end that I can truly summarize the main differences between an ocean going ship and a river boat. There are many differences and size and experience are two of the “biggest”. Our experience in 2019 had no issues with drinks running out or with lack of service so I can not comment specifically, other to say all drinks were free flowing and all but the very top shelf brands were included. If you are looking to be entertained in a different lounge or bar on a river cruise you will be disappointed. Space is the limiting factor. Dare I say the focus is more on the itinerary and where you are and the excursions you choose and not the ship itself. I interpreted the excursions as our entertainment and was quite tired after dinner so an hour or two talking with new acquaintances worked well. But that’s just me. As I said in my first reply, I am unfamiliar with your specific rating system. If there is something specific you would like to know about then please ask and once we board on Wednesday I can find out as much information as I can…hopefully report back in a balanced fashion.

Thank you for sharing your experience. My DH would have been left with similar ratings in 2019 regarding the drink situation if that was our experience. Thankfully the bar and wait staff issues must have been rectified by 2019 and staff in general were tripping over themselves to provide us with whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted it. I don’t recall them running out of anything. I agree, there is no comparison when it comes to entertainment. But I figured with less than 200 passengers, it is a completely different experience than an ocean cruise and entertainment is one of the largest and most obvious differences.

Our first full day in Amsterdam. Once again the weather was fantastic. We thought it was going to rain but it didn’t and it was way warmer than expected. We went down for breakfast and were surprised to find the best laid out buffet in our memories. It had something for every taste/culture from fruit and yogurt to sliced meats and cheese. From baked cod to eggs and bacon and waffles of course. I had booked a private WWII walking tour with a local. Turns out our guide, Ben, is a retired university history professor with experience in foreign affairs and espionage! He was amazing! Not your typical happy tourist tour but that isn’t what I was looking for. Since my 3 uncles served in Europe and 1 was in The Netherlands, I was very interested to fill in the gaps of family history. It was fascinating and I learned more than a few things. Enjoy some pictures.