How’s this for a way to start the day? We got up at 7:15, so
that we could quickly dress and get the luggage out the door by 7:30 for
pick-up and delivery to the ship. When we opened the curtains, there, shrouded
in fog, was our ship, the Koningsdam, looking all ghostly. It had been so quiet
when it arrived that we didn’t hear it. It was just there. So cool!
Our daughter soon arrived and we headed down to the second
floor for breakfast at 8:17. It was quite a spread of hot and cold foods, with
a nice selection of cheeses, rolls, and cold cuts to make my favorite European
breakfast. The pastries were scrumptious! There was a honey comb just dripping
for self-service. Bananas in orange juice was a tasty, if weird, way to serve
bananas. We loved the tiny Dutch pancakes. They even had the purple Muesli that
I enjoyed in Germany last summer. We ate
well, because we didn’t plan to eat again until we boarded the ship.
We checked out at 10:35 and put our hand luggage in their
storage room. When we walked outside, it was positively lovely. Where was this
for photos during our canal cruise last night?
We’d had trouble yesterday figuring out how we were to use
our Holland Pass to make a reservation for the Van Gogh Museum for when we got
back. Nothing on the museum site allowed for the Pass. I had set my daughter to
work on sleuthing it out last night and it turned out that we had to go to
where she’d picked up the Pass to make the reservation and get tickets. So,
that was our first stop. The girl behind the counter said that it was a good
thing we were doing this so far out to be sure to get the tickets. They would
spend the next two weeks in the safe in our cabin.
We then went to Primark for my daughter to pick up something
she’d seen there and I wound up getting some Harry Potter pins and a gift for
my niece. It was getting warmer and we shed our jackets.
I wanted to see the Royal Palace, even if they didn’t live
there. So, at 11:45, we found ourselves out front taking selfies.
My other wish was to
see tulips in bloom. It was Tulip Time and we’d had to pay almost twice as much
for the hotel last night as the night at the end of the cruise and, dagumit, I
was going to see a tulip. The Flower Market seemed our best bet. We took the #2
to Koningsplein and then walked to the market. At first, it was all wooden
tulips and bulbs. Finally, though, I found beautiful pots of tulips. The colors
seemed so different from my childhood. Now, there were tulips in lilac with
purple edges and others in gorgeous shades of pink. The edges of the petals
could be ruffled now. The photos I posted when we got back to the hotel were a
big hit.
The city looked so much brighter and more cheerful than
yesterday.
We took the #24 back to Centraal Station and then the #26 to the
hotel. As we passed the Mövenpick ice cream shop, we promised ourselves we’d
try it on our return. It was 12:58, when we got back to the hotel to post
photos in the last free Wi-Fi for a while, make a pit stop and get the hand
luggage.
Our boarding time was 1:00 and we entered the terminal at
1:15, as I felt my excitement growing. The booking was in my name, so they had
to look it up under me. My husband’s photo in their system is 5 years old, as
is mine, but they retook only mine. I don’t think I’ve changed that much in 5
years! We collected our keys and the $50 beverage cards that AAA had provided because
we booked through them.
Within 15 minutes we were onboard and headed for our cabins.
We went to our daughter J’s #7171 first, because I’d arranged for a surprise. I
was not expecting the balloons we found attached to her “mailbox” outside her
room, but it was not unwelcome. Inside, she found the birthday flowers we’d
booked through Holland America and she was very pleased. I liked that there
were tulips in the mix.
Our cabin was #7181, which had an umbrella on the bed, which
I found disconcerting. I’d checked the weather for as far out as I could and I
hadn’t seen rain in the forecast. The room looked comfortable and I was very
happy once again that we had a veranda. I love the ability to run out there any
time I want to take photos like this panoramic. (I cannot tell you how much I
like being able to take a panoramic with my iPhone and how great the quality is
on the 8.)
At 1:50, we went for lunch on the Lido, where I promptly
used the room key card instead of my drink to pay for it. Sigh. At least, I now
knew they were $2.25 each, so that we could calculate how many we could drink
for $50.
I try to be relatively good at lunch on a ship, which means
having a salad. I have them pile all kinds of greens and vegetables in there
and top it with my favorite, balsamic vinaigrette. My husband got chicken
cacciatore and I failed to write down what my daughter got. We did pick up a
nice selection of desserts to split, including the cookies she likes.
We went back to our cabins to unpack and found our luggage
on top of the plastic protectors that had been on the bed. My husband and I
divided up the various storage spots, not finding the two drawers under the bed
until almost a week later. They did come in handy once we found them, as
laundry was taking up more space by then.
At 3:30, we noted that it the TV said the temperature was up
to 69.4 degrees. When we had to watch the muster video in the cabin at 3:45, it
was up to 70. Just 10 minutes later it was 71.1. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed temperatures
rise like that.
Instead of going out to the lifeboats, they had us go to
muster stations, which were noted on our key card, even though, for safety
reasons, our cabin number was not. Our muster station was in the dining room.
We got to go through a crew-members-only door, but my knees hated the stairs
going down 4 decks. We wound up at a table with a couple, who not only lived in
15 minutes away in Amsterdam, but could see the ship from their house! We would
run into them just about every day, as their cabin was just a couple of doors
down from us, and I never failed to be amazed at their command of English. When
you can even cuss absentmindedly in a foreign language, you really know the
language.
Sailing was at the traditional time of 4 pm. We went up to
the Lido deck to take photos of the scenes around the waterway. The observation
deck on the tall building we’d seen across the water had a XXX above it, which
is on the Amsterdam flag. The moment I say the yellow seashell logo on another
building I remembered the company is Royal Dutch Shell, not just Shell.
We had to cut our viewing short to hurry down to the Half
Moon I room on Deck 1 for 5 pm Mass. The priest, Father Robert or Father Rob,
told us that Holland America uses the Apostleship of the Sea to provide
priests, who are actually onboard to serve the crew. The crew is mostly
Indonesian and Filipino, the latter of whom are overwhelmingly Catholic. Doing
daily Mass for the guests is just a bonus for us. He asked for volunteers and I
got to do the Second Reading. What a blessing! Father Rob was a wonderful
speaker and he had us all do the Our Father in our native tongue, because it
was Trinity Sunday. He noted that this is the captain’s first trip with the
ship and that it is the 2nd anniversary of the christening of the
ship by the queen. (The Lincoln Center Stage quintet that played on the
Greece/Turkey cruise that J and I took 2 years ago left at the end of that
cruise to go practice for the christening of this one. So, we feel a connection
to this ship) I am SO happy Holland America has priests onboard!
After Mass, we hurried up to deck 3, because it was 5:40 we
were late for our 5:15 seating in the dining room. We were assigned a table for
4 behind a screen behind the desk at the entry, table number 230. Gandhi was to
be our head server and he was terrific. We had good chats with him over the
course of the cruise. Kade, his assistant, wasn’t around to chat with much.
I’ve never been disappointed by a meal in the dining room of
any of Holland America’s ships. That said, I was disappointed on this cruise,
because I love cold soups and they were never offered. Maybe, the Baltic is
seen as too cold for cold soup.
You’d think a three course meal every night would be too
much, but it isn’t the servings are not the huge American ones. They are a
reasonable size, verging on small. If you don’t like food pictures, I’m sorry.
The food is just too photogenic. We disappointed the wine steward by not
ordering wine, but J ordered a Coke nightly and he came to expect it. My
husband and I ordered iced tea, which would soon be at our place when we
arrived for dinner each night.
To start, my husband K had Lemon Shrimp Salad. J had French
Onion Soup and I had Baby Spinach and Button Mushrooms. This is when I learned
that J does not like spinach, by the way. All three were deemed delicious.
K chose Grilled Salmon with Ginger-Cilantro Pesto, which I
could not possibly try, as I hate fish, but he liked it. I’ve seen enough on
the Food Network to know that its presentation, as well as that of all the
food, but especially the desserts, was spot on. J ordered a Sautéed Chop, that
was incredibly tender. I love asparagus, although I prefer it soft, so I
ordered the very tasty Chicken, Smoked Mozzarella and Asparagus.
J and I negotiated the desserts. We try to each order a
different one and split them, even if we are positive the other will “hate” it,
the moment the deliciousness hits our mouth. K does not usually participate in
this. J ordered the Chocolate Caramel Tart, K ordered Dutch Apple Pie, and I chose
Crème Brule. Before these came out, Gandhi brought a birthday cake for J and he
and other servers sang the Indonesian birthday song to her. This was over a
week before her birthday, but we would be eating in one of the special
restaurants that night. (I was glad I had remembered to tell our travel agent
to make sure Holland America knew we’d be celebrating her birthday. I’m not
sure that ordering the flowers would have been enough.) All of the desserts
were great!
We were finished dinner at 7:10 and went off to watch the
ship go through a lock from out on deck and out to the North Sea from the
Crow’s Nest. What a cool thing to be able to see! The sky was gorgeous, too.
We took some time to
appreciate the interesting art up in the Crow’s Nest, too. Some were surreal,
which is one of my favorite types.
K headed off to the entertainment preview that was starting
at 8, while J and I headed off to be nice to him by buying him a lanyard at the
Shops. It gave us some time to look around and appreciate things like the tulips
on the table at the Dutch Bar and the geometry of the Atrium that appealed to
the retired geometry teacher in me.
We retired to our cabins and the requisite towel creature on
the bed about 9:15 and the temperature had dropped to 54. Later in the evening,
I could see the lights of the lighthouses on the West Frisian Islands.
So far, we know that there are guests onboard from Holland,
US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan.
We like what we’ve experienced and seen of the ship so far,
which is good, because we are on here for 2 weeks!
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