Viking River Cruises Disembarkation in Amsterdam

[Mike]

We are going on the Viking River Cruises Tulips and Windmills river
cruise next spring and are trying to book FF award seats for the
outbound and return. Our TA indicated that Viking River Cruises dock
very early in the morning 4:00AM and that since there are no customs
or immigration to deal with, we can get off the ship anytime we want
after that. Is this information accurate? Is it a very long trip
from the pier in Amsterdam (where exactly is it anyway?) to the
airport?

[Jim]

"Mike" <donte...@getlost.com> wrote in message
news:2195j1tpsecsrl8ja...@4ax.com...

Mike,We went on a Viking cruise 3 years ago that left from Amsterdam. I
have a map that shows where the cruise terminal is, but I located one on the
internet that will show you where the airport and cruise terminals are.
http://www.hotels-holland.com/amsterdam-info/adam-7citymap.htm
When you get the site above, click on "Map of Amsterdam and surrounding
area" to see where the airport is. The airport name is Schiphol. It is
southwest of the city. To find the ship terminal, go back to the original
site and click on "Map of Amsterdam in 3 parts". Then click on part 3, and
you will see the cruise passenger terminal. Central Station is near there
and the train goes to the airport, I believe, if you wanted to try that.
Hope this helps.
Jim

[Bobbye Haupt]

Yes, when I did that cruise some of the passengers were leaving extremely
early (4:30 - 5 AM). Viking has a sign up list for cabs to the airport.
You just tell them the time and they have it set up quite well. I believe
it was about 20 minutes give or take.

Bobbye

"Mike" <donte...@getlost.com> wrote in message
news:2195j1tpsecsrl8ja...@4ax.com...

[jcoulter]

Mike <donte...@getlost.com> wrote in
news:2195j1tpsecsrl8ja...@4ax.com:

This is one of the more memorable of my cruises. It was incredible. The
ship docks outside of but a comfortable walking distance from the center of
Amsterdam. We walked in at night to check out the open air variety show
that is the red light district.

Actually the worst thing was finding the ship. Our cab driver was totally
incmpetant (but to his credit he did turn off the meter when it was obvious
he had no idea where he was going.

To answer the question, yes they bring in cabs early and are quite
efficient in getting people out even early in the morning.

--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

[Bert Hyman]

donte...@getlost.com (Mike) wrote in
news:2195j1tpsecsrl8ja...@4ax.com:

Just did a Uniworld cruise which ended in Amsterdam. For all those
with air transport and transfers included in their cruise purchase,
transport to the airport was arranged at a time appropriate for the
flights, even if it meant leaving the boat at 3AM.

For those making independent arrangements, the cruise director
arranged for cabs or vans to the airport (or other destinations),
again at whatever time was needed, but left payment up to the
passengers.

All luggage handling was done by the crew, again at whatever time was
needed for the passengers to make their connections.

I'm sure that these procedures are standard for any cruise company.

I've already managed to forget the trip to the Schiphol airport, but
I'm sure it was less than an hour.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | be...@iphouse.com

[Mike]

Thanks to those that replied. It is good to have others with real
world experience back up what the TA told me. Any other
interesting/useful information woudl be greatly apprecated.

[Dan Wenz]

This morn we're looking at Globus river cruises back to back, 7 nights
Amsterdam to Amsterdam in April, then, if possible, 7 nights cruising
Amsterdam to Basel, if that's "arrangeable". It looks like maybe the
same ship that arrives back to Amsterdam might be the one that departs
the same day for the Rhine cruise. Anyone done anything similar to the
above, comments?

[How B]

Great article in the Washington Times, review of the Amsterdam/Budapest
cruise:
http://washingtontimes.com/travel/20050923-090549-2124r.htm

How B