June 11, 2017

  We enjoyed the hotel’s buffet breakfast which had a generous assortment of meats, cereals, breads, fruit and eggs.  Besides coffee, tea and juices, specialty coffees were available.  We saw two couples from our group when we entered, having missed one couple and talked to Sharon and Bill when they arrived. The morning was sunny, windy and about 20 C by 10 a.m. – definitely sunscreen weather! We went for a walk along the passenger terminal buildings lining the Ij River, passing six river cruise boats and saw that the Holland America Koningsdam ship had already docked.  The pier was crowded with delivery trucks and workers loading the ship.  On the other side of the ship, there was a barge, which was tied up along the Koningsdam’s port side, refueling the ship. We wandered along to the pedestrian/cycling bridge and crossed it to go to a small park and get an unobstructed view of the ship.  There was a small garden with some orange poppies, baking in the hot sun.  We returned to the hotel after a 6 km walk registering over 9,000 steps.

  We met our group in the lobby for 12:15 p.m. with our two 24 inch suitcases. The group was split into two, since the minivans only could take 6 passengers plus their luggage. The five minute ride delivered us to the Passenger Ship Terminal. It was less than one kilometer from the hotel, and had taken less than ten minutes to walk there.  Our baggage was carried to the drop-off zone by a porter and we were directed to inside the terminal to check-in. I managed to forget my reading glasses at the hotel – the pair I bought in Australia, to replace the pair that I lost in Sydney.  Fortunately, I had packed another second pair this trip.  A two question Health Questionnaire needed to be completed, as we waited in line with over 800 passengers to obtain our keycard for our cabins.  It was well organized, but we had arrived at the peak time. We passed the 45 minutes in line chatting with Margaret and Jack from Manchester, New York.  He was a former airplane pilot. We spent another 25 minutes seated waiting to be called to board the ship.  Our cozy 153 square foot cabin, on deck 1, has a Queen size bed, a desk and stool, plus five North American plugs and three USB ports.  There were plenty of hangars in the two closets and enough cupboards and drawers for all of our clothes. The 1.5 meter x 2 meter bathroom has a shower and is just the right size for one adult. It is the smallest cabin that we have stayed in other than on a river cruise, but has enough room for two people not to get in each other’s way.  There was a complimentary bottle of Shiraz wine in the room, which we will find out tomorrow if it can be exchanged for a wine that we like. 

  We had a quick look at desks 2 and 3.  Park West Art Auctions have a gallery and sales office on board. There are jewelry stores, clothing stores and a liquor store.  The liquor purchased will be kept for you until the end of the cruise, since it cannot be consumed on board. The mandatory Emergency Drill was held at 3:30, the passengers and crew practiced the procedure to assemble at the muster stations in the event of some kind of emergency. We sat with two couples from The Netherlands.  It was the first time that we have had a muster station, this case the Queen’s Lounge, where everyone had a seat to watch a crew member demonstrate how to put on a life jacket.  After the drill we explored more of the ship, stopping by the aft pool on deck 9 and enjoying a Sail Away cocktail, in a souvenir glass. We chatted with Debbie from Ohio, who was a retired teacher, recovering from a winter fall causing a broken hip. The ship needed to move back about half a kilometer in order to go forward to get to a part of the river wide enough to turn 180 degrees to exit toward the North Sea.  It took over two hours to reach the sea. 

  We found the Deck 3 main dining room and sat with Bruce and Veronica from Melbourne, Australia.  They are on an extended vacation. They only arrived in Amsterdam today, aboard the Scenic River Cruise boat, Scenic Pearl, travelling 13 days from Budapest. They had started their trip by spending a few days in Los Angeles, before flying to Fort Lauderdale to board the Holland America Prisendam cross the Atlantic Ocean to Amsterdam.  They then spent a week on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, just 15 km east of France, before going to Budapest. They were great company for a leisurely dinner.  We ordered starts of seared Scallops, Tomato Florentine Soup or Baby Spinach and Button Mushroom Salad, while sipping wine – either Malbec or Moscato. The main course choices were Baked Salmon with carrots, broccoli and rice or Tuna steak on a bed of leaf lettuce, baby spinach and green beans.  For dessert we chose Pineapple Sundae or Lemon Torte.  The temperature, now that we were in the North Sea, was a cool 16 C but the sun is brightly shining and was still above the horizon at 10:45 p.m.

   The casino is a good size with over 100 slot machines, poker tables, both with players using cards with a dealer or each using a tablet with no person as a dealer to play a game.

  By 11:30 p.m., there was still a line of daylight showing at the horizon.

  Total daily steps 15938.