"Tulip Time" River Boat Cruise in Holland and Belgium
Trip Report
April 1-April 13, 2008

The first part of this report will be general information. The rest will be done by date and port of call.

Some General Facts:
The cruise was total of 415 nautical miles and passed through 15 locks.

Our Group
We were traveling in a group of 17 including our travel agent. Our next door neighbors, former neighbors, friends from down the street and his sister also went on this trip. We made up 9 of the 17. It turned out to be a very compatible group.

Airline and Arrival
We flew US Airways out of Philadelphia on April 1. Everything went very smoothly. We, in fact, landed an hour early! Our travel agent arranged our air transport and transfer herself rather than doing it through Viking Cruise Lines. She had to call the bus company because of our being early. Along with the bus came our first guide who was trying to be funny and was just obnoxious. Jet lag didn't help.

Immigration
Immigration was just as laid back in Amsterdam as it is in the Dutch islands of the Caribbean.

He did comment on the fact that I had been to Aruba.

Our Ship
We boarded Viking Spirit in Amsterdam on April 2. Our trip started with 1 ½ days in port in Amsterdam. We returned to Amsterdam on April 10 with departure from the ship on April 11. After disembarking, we all stayed on in Amsterdam until our flight departed on April 13.

The ship is very long. The first comments made by our group were, "There it is! I can't believe how long it is."

Our stateroom was large especially compared to some of the other riverboats that we saw—how we know this will be explained later. We had plenty of storage space, a completely adequate bathroom with any amenities that you would want. We choose the top deck (Deck 3) with a window that opened. Our cabin attendant opened it everyday when she came in to clean. There was no sitting area as on a larger ocean going ship.

The ship did have a large lounge area with small round tables so that you could sit there and read, write your journal or have a drink. It very conveniently had a bar with a bar tender available most of the time. Drinks were pretty reasonably priced.

From the bow of the ship going toward the stern: Lounge/bar area; starboard side—library; portside—coffee, tea, iced tea service; reception area going the full width of the ship with steps to each deck of cabins and doors to exit the ship to go up to the sun deck or to get to the gangplank; mid-ship—cabins; stern—dining room.

Dining
Coffee, tea and iced tea were available at no extra charge outside the lounge area all of the time. Iced tea was an extra charge item in the dining room. I was very surprised to even to see iced tea because it was certainly not available the last time Paul and I were in Europe in the 1980's.

Times are very precise. If you are told that the dining room will open at 7:00, it will open at 7:00 and not a minute sooner (or later).

At times we felt that it was very obvious that the kitchen was on a tight budget.

Breakfast
There was an early risers breakfast in the lounge area serving pastries, juice, coffee or tea. This was precisely from 6AM to 7 AM. At that point whatever pastries were left were added to the buffet in the main dining room

In the main dining room which opened at exactly 7 AM there was a very substantial buffet with breads, pastries, fruit, cold meats, bacon sausage, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, cheeses, muesli, yogurt, etc. It was also possible to order cooked to order eggs, omelets and blueberry pancakes

Lunch
There was a light buffet in the lounge or a more substantial meal in the main dining room. In the main dining room there was a choice of buffet, menu order or a combination of both such as soup from the menu and sandwiches from the buffet.

Dinner
Dinner was served in the main dining room at precisely 7:00 o'clock. It is open seating meaning that you can sit where ever you like. That becomes a problem when you are traveling with a large group that wants to sit together. Paul and I would have been happy to sit with people that were not in our group, but we never did so. Open seating in this case does not mean you can eat whenever you like it refers only to where you sit.

There were only 2 menus on each table even a table of eight, so they had to be shared. An annoyance because you had to order your entire meal; and, of course, no one could remember what they wanted after they passed the menu on to the next person.

There were normally 2 choices for each course. Dinner always started with a cold or warm appetizer, soup, entrée, dessert, and a cheese course if desired. We both thought that the soups all tended to taste the same. They did not promote it, but there were alternative main courses usually chicken, beef steak or salmon available if nothing on the menu appealed. We always ordered from the menu of the day. The best meal was the Captain's Farewell Dinner, and they really pulled out all the stops for that one.

The quality of the food varied from dinner to dinner.

The Crew
The crew for this ship is very small. There was only a total of 48 crew members.

Most of the crew except the those at the higher levels are from Eastern Europe. Almost all of the housekeeping staff were from Slovakia. The Maitre 'd was from Bratoslavia and her staff, the waiters, were from all over Eastern Europe. The program director was originally from Denmark and now lives in Germany. His assistants were both German. The hotel director was Spanish/German, the executive chef was German. His staff was from all over Europe. The ship's captain was German.

Everyone was very, very nice.

Gratuities
There is a recommended amount that you can add to your final bill. These are handled much differently than the large cruise lines. All gratuities are evenly divided amongst the entire crew so that no one gets more than any one else. This also includes those crew members like dishwashers that are behind the scenes who passengers never see, but are very necessary to the operation of the ship.

Shore Excursions
With very few exceptions, all shore excursions were included in the price of the cruise.
There was at least one, sometimes two, scheduled shore excursions everyday. Most left at 8:30 or 9 AM. There is little or no down time during the day. There was often free time in the afternoon, but we did not want to spend that time on board. We preferred to go exploring.. As Paul so succinctly put it, "This was a trip, not a vacation."

Viking literature makes it very clear that there is a great deal of walking over somewhat uneven terrain. Much of the walking is on cobblestone or brick paved streets making surfaces very uneven.. There are some curbs is some strange places especially in Amsterdam. There were a couple of bad falls including our travel agent who fortunately was not hurt. For the most part we walked anywhere from a 1 ½ to 2 miles or more each day. Bicycles and motor scooters are a constant hazard when walking both in Holland and Belgium.

For the most part, the guides used by Viking were really outstanding. We had one that was mediocre and one that was truly awful. We were lucky enough to have one of our favorite guides 2 times.

Viking is using a state of the art communication systems for the walking tours. The guide is provided with a transmitter and microphones. Each member of the group with the guide is provided with a receiver and an earphone. The earphones are recycled so that the one you receive is brand new and sanitary. For the most part it was a terrific system.

They did a great job of getting our groups in a head of the crowds. There was always a Viking program member with each of the tour groups to make sure everything went smoothly. I noticed when walking with Christian, program assistant, that he was doing an evaluation of the guide. As one of our group said, "They make sure that they take very good care of us."

Language
This was never a problem. This particular cruise was oriented to English speaking tourists. Passengers were from the UK, Canada or US.

All of the crew members that had contact with the passengers spoke English, most of them very well.

The Dutch are required to take English in school and start learning it at a very early age. So language here is not a problem.

It was not a problem in the areas of Belgium that we visited either.

Entertainment
Entertainment was very low key and very unlike that on the big cruise ships

There was an onboard musician, Jerry, who traveled with us the entire trip. He played keyboards, guitar and trumpet and also sang. He played during afternoon tea, cocktail hour, and after dinner most nights. It was very pleasant to sit, have a drink, and watch the scenery roll by as we listened to him play.

After dinner, one evening was the "Liars Club." A word was projected on the screen and each member of the "Liars Club (2 crew members and 2 passengers)" gave his/her definition. The groups sitting in the lounge had to decide which definition was correct. Our group did pretty well. We were not going to go, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

One evening was a question and answer session with senior crew members. Interesting, but brief because there were not a lot of questions.

Another night, the Dutch game Sjoelen was taught. We didn't do this

In Volendam, 2 women were brought on board to demonstrate the making of wooden shoes, but it was more of a sales pitch to go to their "farm" and make purchases; although parts of it were very interesting.

One evening in Arnheim. a group of Dutch women and men came on board to demonstrate their clothing, and then did some folk dances in wooden shoes. I only got to see this on Paul's video because this was the day I got very sick..

Another night, was a "music quiz" which had more to do with the country of origin and a fact about that country than the music itself. Jerry played part of a song before the questions were asked. People that got up and danced got extra points. We partnered with our next door neighbors and do not do very well at all on this one; even though all 4 of us are pretty knowledgeable as far as music is concerned.

In Rotterdam, a traditional Shanty Choir performed. We had a great time watching and listening to them.

Viking News
As on other cruise ships, you receive a daily newsletter outlining the next day. It is only 1 side of 1 page. Sometimes it was easy to tell it had not been written by some one whose first language was English. We found it charming. There would be descriptions under each time. Below is an abbreviated version of the daily newsletter:

6:00 – 7:00 AM Early Riser' [sic] Breakfast
7:00 – 7:30 AM Morning Exercise with Qui Gong Elements (from Tai Chi). A few people did participate.
7:00 – 9:00 AM Breakfast
8:30 – 12:30 PM Shore Excursion (Very few were extra cost options)
12:30 PM Light Lunch Buffet (Lounge)
12:30 PM Lunch (Main dining room)
Afternoon Free time
3:30 – 4:15 PM Tea Time
5:30 PM Cocktail Hour
6:00 PM Anchors Away
6:30 PM Daily Briefing (Information about the next day's port of call and tour time start times)
7:00 Dinner (Main dining room only)
9:00 Evening Entertainment (different each night)
Followed by live music.

I don't think many people remained in the lounge after the entertainment because each day started early, was very full and physically tiring.

The rest of this report will be by date and port with our observations at each port as well as some on board observations.
Sue