Amsterdam airport to Rijksmuseum

We are going on a cruise that leaves from Amsterdam next October. I thought we had the arrival day and the next day in Amsterdam. It turns out the ship leaves port at 7:00 a.m. on the second day... So since we have transfers through the cruise line, and arrive in Amsterdam at 8:15 a.m. I was thinking of a couple of options. #1. Send the bags off to the cruise ship from the airport and make our way to the Rijksmuseum. (What is the best way to travel from the airport to the museum&from the museum to the cruise dock?)) or #2 take our bags to the ship and sign in, leave bags and go to the museum(what is the best way to travel there and back?). Any advice would be appreciated.

The Rijksmuseum is about a 20 minute cab ride from the cruise terminal. Last year we were on the HAL Zuiderdam which made a stop in Amsterdam. We were off the boat by 9 AM. We had booked morning tickets for the Van Gogh Museum (about a quarter mile from the Rijksmuseum) and ate a quick lunch at the Van Gogh. We had also booked a 2 PM entry to the Rijksmuseum, and were done by 4:30 PM. It took us a few minutes to catch a cab, but we were back on board by 5:30 PM.

I would go to your ship, drop your bags, take a cab or Uber it to the museums, and cab back. While it will be a full day, and you will be jet lagged, you could easily do the Rijksmuseum, eat lunch and head back to your boat. It was easy to pre book the museum tickets. The lines seemed to be lengthy to purchase tickets.

Thank you for the quick reply. I was also thinking of a canal cruise, do you think this is too much? Would that be close to the museum?

Thanks again.

I do not think I can help you about a canal cruise. We had visited Amsterdam several times before this last cruise stop, and had done a canal tour. On our most recent visit we had decided we wanted the see the Van Gogh as well as the Rijksmuseum in a single day.

The cruise terminal is on the far side of the city coming from the airport, so distance-wise it would make sense to go to the Rijksmuseum on the way to the ship instead of doubling back. If you're comfortable sending your bags to the ship unaccompanied, you can do that, and then take bus 397 from the airport directly to the Rijksmuseum. It takes about 30 minutes.

There are a couple of canal tours you can take from right near the Rijksmuseum. There's a map on this page.

To get to the ship from the museum area, you can take any tram that goes up to Central Station, and then switch to Tram 26 for a couple of stops (or just walk from the station, it's not very far).

Thank you so much.