***EUROPEAN CUSTOMS QUESTION ****

[volleyballmom87]

 

We are taking an Arctic Circle cruise next summer. We are looking at return flights, and want to know if 12:00 or 1:30 is ok? We weren’t sure about timing with customs at the cruise port and being able to get through the Amsterdam airport on time.

[little britain]

With the recent news on Amsterdam who knows where the ships will dock next year?
 

Personally I’d hold off booking any return flights until this is known.

[gumshoe958]

Various sources suggest it’s very unlikely that anything will change in Amsterdam in the near future, and cruises currently booked to call there will still do so. Eventually there’ll be a new terminal further away from the city centre, but it’ll take many years to build.

 

So I would be fine with a 12.00 flight from AMS. If you’re off the ship by 8-ish you’ll be at the airport well before 9 and - touch wood - we haven’t heard a repeat of any of the horror stories from last year with regard to queues.

 

 

[Ashland]

I'm not too worried about the 2024 season as things aren't going to move that quick.

I've booked my pre-cruise hotel and will look at flights soon.

 

It was a mess at Scheiphol last year for our arrival July 2022 but our flight from there was absolutely easy. We made a 2:30pm flight and was so sorry we hadn't booked it earlier. 

 

I won't hesitate to book a noon flight.

[jwlane]

30 minutes ago, little britain said:

 who knows where the ships will dock next year?
 

Rotterdam, Amsterdam, as I understand not a substantive difference between the time to travel to each.

[Crism]

I made an 8:25am flight, no checked bags, coming off the Jewel TA. 🤣

[little britain]

3 hours ago, jwlane said:

Rotterdam, Amsterdam, as I understand not a substantive difference between the time to travel to each.

But you’re stuffed if they move the homeport to Copenhagen….🤷‍♀️

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

move the homeport to Copenhagen….

Tell us again which ships homeport there now.

[little britain]

6 hours ago, jwlane said:

Tell us again which ships homeport there now.

Voyager home ported there last year, so there is no reason why they can’t homeport a ship there again. 

[jwlane]

8 hours ago, little britain said:

 no reason 

Other than the war.  Get back to us when it happens.

[little britain]

3 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Other than the war.  Get back to us when it happens.

Get back to me when you’ve looked at a map and let me know how many miles Copenhagen is from the Ukraine….

[little britain]

4 minutes ago, jwlane said:

It's not about Ukraine---it's about St. Petersburg, the primary draw for these cruises.  Until it's available for tourism again (hopefully never, eff you putin) there will be a reluctance to add capacity to that area.

So many ports can be visited from Copenhagen: Tallinn, Stockholm, Helsinki, Gothenburg, Aarhus, Kristiansand, and my personal favourite port in the area; Skagen.   

[jwlane]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

So many ports can be visited from Copenhagen 

Been there, done that---twice (out of Southampton)---and missed St. Pete both times (weather and war).  Again, the PRIMARY DRAW is St. Pete.  Go back and review the threads from 2022 when it was dropped.  Almost all express it as the main reason for booking that itinerary.

[Celialeah98]

No customs at port of Amsterdam today, we came in from Norway so it was still in EU.

[fruitmachine]

Pedant alert!

Norway is not in the EU ... but it is in the Schengen Zone (and EEA), which is what matters for this.

[Celialeah98]

Thank you Fruitmachine. I meant Schengen zone. 

[Globaliser]

On 7/23/2023 at 4:08 PM, fruitmachine said:

Pedant alert!

Norway is not in the EU ... but it is in the Schengen Zone (and EEA), which is what matters for this.

 

A bit more pedantry: Schengen means that there's no immigration border, so there's no immigration control to be cleared coming from Norway to the Netherlands. However, there is a customs border between Norway (outside the EU Customs Area) and the Netherlands, so you do have to clear customs. But I suspect that like most customs clearance for personal travel in Europe, this is almost invisible.