Thursday morning, we went to the Executive Lounge for breakfast and packed for our check-out from the
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| baked goods |
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| spreads and cereals |
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| cold items |
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| you can also have eggs cooked to order |
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| one more espresso before check-out |
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| one last view out the window |
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Since we scoped out the river cruise pier yesterday, we had no trouble navigating the streets with our luggage. Today's weather provided much relief compared to yesterday's 85 degree F.
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| our ship! |
When we approached the gangway of the
AmaPrima, one of the ship's staff checked our names on a clipboard, then we were led into the lobby to check in. No one asked to see our boarding passes, just passports, so it wouldn't be a problem if you forgot your travel documents at home. As cabins were not available until later in the afternoon, Aurel the purser said that we could wait in the lounge and enjoy a light lunch and/or go out sightseeing, and our luggage and backpacks would be stored and delivered to the room when ready...great! Let's see what's for lunch...
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| set of travel documents |
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| got $200 OBC from promo code I found on the internet |
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| page 2 from Day 1 Daily Cruiser on display |
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| day 1 Daily Cruiser page 1 |
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| day 1 Daily Cruiser page 3 |
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| day 1 Daily Cruiser page 4 |
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| soup and sandwiches in the lounge |
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| pea soup was tasty |
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After our meal, we headed out into the city again. I had printed out
Rijksmuseum tickets before our trip to skip the lines, so we bought one-day tram tickets from the station again and headed to Museum Square. We enjoyed several hours of browsing through Rijksmuseum, especially the works of
Rembrandt and other painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
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| ticket kiosk inside the station |
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| in front of the "I am Amsterdam" sign |
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| one side of the Rijksmuseum building |
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| lots of awesome works inside |
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360 spherical photo of Rembrandt's "
The Night Watch", taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
Rembrandt's The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
After the museum visit, we dropped by the
Heineken Experience but didn't go in since the admission was 18 euro (comes with two beers per person) and Kaleb didn't feel like drinking all four.
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| Heineken building |
We returned to AmaPrima and were checked again at the gangway by a different staff member with the clipboard, since we did not have our keycards yet. Our room was ready, though we were missing one piece of luggage, which was found and delivered shortly.
Our cabin was a category C with French balcony, meaning that we had floor-to-ceiling glass doors that could slide open, but no veranda.
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| one side of the room |
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| other part of the room |
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| complimentary water, computer desk |
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| Quietvox headsets for tours |
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| I will have a love/hate relationship with this safe |
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| marble bathroom |
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| love this rainshower |
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There were two gifts on the bed: a baseball cap with the AmaWaterways logo for the men and an elegant wrap for the ladies. An alarm clock was also on the bed, but I figured it wasn't a gift as the buttons looked a bit worn from use.
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| gifts from AmaWaterways, and a clock |
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| thanks! |
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Then we went exploring the ship before the welcome cocktail party.
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| the hallway can invoke vertigo |
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| our cabin was near the captain's quarters |
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| fitness center |
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| pool |
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| top deck, breaks down flat for really low bridges |
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| gangway to parallel-parked river boat |
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| Chef's Table restaurant |
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| main restaurant |
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Raul the cruise director gave a welcome speech in the lounge; he was very personable, funny, and friendly. Most of the guests looked 60+ years old; there were no children aboard. This demographic was expected for such a long river cruise, plus school was still in session. I saw one couple close to our age traveling with a group of older couples; I was sure we'd meet them during the 14-night voyage. Otherwise, we were pretty much the youngest guests on board.
The cocktail reception also served as the muster drill; we just listened to the safety information given by the staff.
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| Raul the cruise director and Imola on the piano |
Afterwards, all the ladies were given a single stem rose...how lovely! Then the welcome dinner was served in the main restaurant at 7pm. It was open seating, and we ended up having a booth to ourselves.
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| tonight's dinner menu |
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| key to allergens |
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| bread accompaniments |
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| fresh baked bread every day |
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| amuse-bouche: crab meat wonton |
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| shrimp and salmon with tzatziki |
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| mushroom cappuccino soup |
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| lemon sorbet intermezzo |
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| beef sirloin with green peppercorn sauce |
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| and another knife-and-fork shot |
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| butterfish filet |
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| chocolate parfait with raspberry sorbet and petit fours |
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Dinner was really tasty! Over the next few nights, we figured out that ordering everything from the "Chef's Recommendation" list would guarantee a delicious meal. Also, if you wanted to get a large table to sit with your new friends, you had to get to the restaurant early.
Upon returning to our room, it was already turned down, with
Milka chocolates on our pillows and my rose inserted into the vase that I saw earlier in the above-desk cabinet next to the safe.
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| turn down service |
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| still bright outside close to 10pm |
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| greetings from Ida (pronounced "E-da") |
AmaPrima stayed overnight in Amsterdam. Our windows were facing the pier so we had to close the black-out curtains to maintain privacy from pedestrians walking down the street.
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| day 2 Daily Cruiser page 1 |
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| day 2 Daily Cruiser page 2 |
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| day 2 Daily Cruiser page 3 |
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| day 2 Daily Cruiser page 4 |
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Friday morning (and most mornings), we enjoyed a breakfast buffet in the main restaurant. Many times, we had Dan as our waiter and he welcomed us with a smile and exceptional service. He noticed that we picked up a "vitamin shot of the day" on our first breakfast and subsequent breakfasts, if our hands were too full to get one on our first pass of the buffet, he would deliver it to the table without asking!
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| breakfast special of the day |
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| items you can order; vitamin shot |
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| the buffet laid out in the center of the restaurant |
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| baked goods and egg station at the back |
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Today's morning excursion was a tour of Amsterdam. After breakfast, we picked up a plastic tour ticket from the front desk, which assigned guests to buses and local tour guides. The colored tickets would differentiate the tours by activity level - pink was "gentle" (a very slow pace, good for guests that have difficulty walking) and red was "active" (fast-paced, somewhat steep walks, no lingering to take photos); all other colors were "regular", meaning a normal walking pace with plenty of photo stops. Since we were going by bus, followed by a boat ride, no active tours were offered. We held green tickets, with other colors also distributed. Tour guides carried a sign corresponding to the respective color. We also brought our Quietvox audio headsets (which needed to be charged constantly, so don't forget to put them back into the power cradle upon returning to the cabin). They were programmed by touching the tip of the receiver to a special spot on the guide's sign until it buzzed, then the headset would be paired with the guide's microphone.
The groups were split up for efficiency - half of the buses would tour the city while the other half headed to a pier to board a canal boat, then they would switch. The green bus was assigned to the canal tour; it took a while to get to the pier as there was a lot of traffic. It turned out that the pier was just a few blocks away from our river boat and we could have walked there faster!
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| green group |
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| brand new bus with leather seat smell |
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I knew we would be doing a canal tour as a shore excursion, else I would have booked one during our pre-cruise stay in Amsterdam. It was fun to ride on the water and learn a little bit of about the history of famous landmarks and buildings.
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| on the canal boat |
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| six bridges in a row down the canal |
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After the canal tour, we had some free time in the city so we headed to a (real) coffee shop for something warm to drink, as well as peruse the grocery store to see what interesting foods were for sale.
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| meet back here in an hour! |
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| warm drink...aaaaaahhhh |
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| interesting chip flavors |
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| more chocolate than biscuit, my kind of cookie |
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| fun candy |
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| small cups of instant noodles |
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| ox tongue and salt beef lunch meat |
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| half a roast duck in a box |
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We boarded our bus and did the city tour. Since we had been in Amsterdam for a couple of days already, we didn't pay close attention. Due to traffic, the bus was moving slow enough for me to play Pokemon Go.
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| windmill sighting |
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| spinning stop after stop |
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The plastic tour tickets were collected when we returned to AmaPrima. Lunch was served; full service in the main dining room and a "light" buffet lunch in the lounge that usually offered a few of the same selections on the lunch menu, plus sandwiches. We tried the main restaurant today. The offerings included an appetizer buffet as well as plated entrees. There was an ice cream bar in the back. Complimentary beer and wine were served during meal times. We shared a table and met two couples, one retired and one still employed.
We ended up doing "light lunch" in the lounge most days as we could eat at our own pace, the buffet choices were enough for us, we could take the plates of food and eat outside on the deck, and the staff still offered beer and wine there. Plus, after lunch, we'd walk into the main dining room and get ice cream from the bar to take to our cabin! Not to say that full-service meals are undesirable...we just like to keep it simple for lunch.
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| today's lunch menu |
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| appetizer buffet |
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| that pickled fish was the best! |
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| just ordered a soup to accompany my meal |
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| amarena (cherry) ice cream was my favorite |
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Then AmaPrima departed from Amsterdam! Once lunch was over, we went to the top deck to watch the ship navigate on the river, then went to our cabin to see the scenery go by from our French balcony.
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| we're off! |
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| still in an urban area |
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| wind turbine right on the riverbank |
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| looooooow bridges |
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Our dinner tonight was at the Chef's Table restaurant. We made the reservation with the purser at check-in. From the documents, it seemed there would be a different menu for the second week of the cruise, but Aurel said it wasn't so. Thus we only ate there one night, though you could eat there again the next week. We arrived a little past 7pm and everyone was already seated at the 4-tops along the window. The only table left was the 8-top in the middle of the room, so we had it to ourselves. If you want to ensure a table next to the window, come early.
The cuisine was very creative, with flavors I had not thought of combining. I had fun tasting everything, but the best bite of the night was the lamb; I could have eaten a whole rack of it.
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| main restaurant menu |
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| Chef's Table menu |
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| welcome cocktail |
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| cheers! |
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| fresh bread with upgraded accompaniments |
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| Chef's welcome amuse-bouche |
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| Kaleb ordered the wine flight |
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| seafood appetizer with iced watermelon |
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| laksa soup with halibut, plus cheddar chili sorbet |
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| beef and lamb entree |
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| more wine |
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| warm Bailey's almond cake with mandarin sorbet |
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After-dinner entertainment in the lounge was provided by "La Strada", a classical trio ensemble...excellent performance!
We returned to the room and caught one of many sunsets from our cabin.
Tomorrow, AmaPrima heads into Cologne, Germany...stay tuned!
Missed any of the previous entries? Refer to the Trip Index at the top of this post to navigate.
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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