Boarding today Avalon Illumination Amsterdam to Budapest

Am sitting on the Illumination watching a handful of ships whose names I recognize. The Emerald Sky, Avalon Visionary & Tranquility. No other passengers yet as they all followed the rules and went to the Hotel for bus Transfer.... :)

A handful of us staying at a lovely B & B (Canal House Hotel) decided to come ahead and board early. I will say the girl manning the front desk was not pleased and we told her we had no intention of standing on the street! So here we sit enjoying a beautiful 70 degree day in Amsterdam.

I will try to post often, and answer questions.

We went to Anne Frank House this morning and thank goodness we got out tickets last June. The lines are over 3 hrs long and we were able to walk right in immediately.

Once again a glorious day to be in Amsterdam!

Tiny details: flew Dutch KLM non-stop San Fran To Amsterdam (business class was lovely, using air miles even lovelier).

Stayed Canal House Hotel for 2 nights.

Have a great trip! I am envious. How did the Avalon Visionary look?

Glad it has finally began for you!

jc

I'll try and take a picture of Visionary :)

Looking forward to your commentary, have a great trip.

Does the Canal House hotel have an elevator? (Never mind, just checked online and for those prices it should certainly have one--out of my price range.)

Bon Voyage! Enjoy!

Thank you all! Visionary sailed before I got back upstairs. Noticed 2 Viking ships rafted together nearby and we are rafted to the Emerald Sky.

Dinner was good, lots of excellent wine. They certainly pour freely.

In the morning we have our included canal cruise and there are 3 optional tours. Anne Frank, an 18 mile bike trip and a 4 hr Muiderslot Castle visit in the country.

Have not decided to do anything yet, I'll sleep on it :)

Seem to have a real mix of passengers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S., a fun group of people.

Sailing at 2pm rather than 5pm due to low water..... We have been warned there is trouble upstream due to low water, so we need to keep the rain dancers busy dancin!!

Hmm... aren't you our resident rain dance specialist?:D:D

jc

Yay. Have a wonderful journey.

We are going Budapest to Amsterdam on Viking next Friday. So excited

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I'm Dancing for you! ;)

Am sitting on the Illumination watching a handful of ships whose names I recognize. The Emerald Sky, Avalon Visionary & Tranquility. No other passengers yet as they all followed the rules and went to the Hotel for bus Transfer.... :)

 

A handful of us staying at a lovely B & B (Canal House Hotel) decided to come ahead and board early. I will say the girl manning the front desk was not pleased and we told her we had no intention of standing on the street!

Quite a difference from our treatment by AMA this past week! We arrived very early on the quay, were greeted warmly and a swarm of crew members were sent up to transport our luggage, housekeeping was alerted to work on our cabin first, and we were offered a light lunch in the lounge. Our cabin was ready in about half an hour (three hours before "boarding time"), and our luggage was already in it. On disembarkation, since we were doing it DIY, we were told that the lounge, sun deck and public restrooms were available for us as long as we wanted (as long as we were out of our cabins by 9 am). When we returned to the ship with our rental car, a swarm of crew carried our luggage up the quay to the parking lot. Definitely made us feel part of the "family."

Hmm... aren't you our resident rain dance specialist?:D:D

 

jc

Apparently additional help may be needed, so hop to it! ;)

Quite a difference from our treatment by AMA this past week! We arrived very early on the quay, were greeted warmly and a swarm of crew members were sent up to transport our luggage, housekeeping was alerted to work on our cabin first, and we were offered a light lunch in the lounge. Our cabin was ready in about half an hour (three hours before "boarding time"), and our luggage was already in it. On disembarkation, since we were doing it DIY, we were told that the lounge, sun deck and public restrooms were available for us as long as we wanted (as long as we were out of our cabins by 9 am). When we returned to the ship with our rental car, a swarm of crew carried our luggage up the quay to the parking lot. Definitely made us feel part of the "family."

We did not get off to a good beginning! We were an 1 1/2 hr early..... Not a glass of water or smile in sight. Decided to move on and get over it. But that first impression, well let's just say we started off on the wrong foot :(

Wow, what a different welcome than we had. We arrived later in the day though - I think about 4:30. All the crew were lined up on both sides welcoming us with big smiles, hellos and welcome-aboard greetings and we were immediately given a cold glass of fruit punch and a cool washcloth. We were directed to the main lounge and sat there for about 10 mins. before being called to the desk to check in.

Good thing we weren't early I guess! Hope you have a fantastic time and wave "hi" to the Tranquility for me! ;)

We did not get off to a good beginning! We were an 1 1/2 hr early..... Not a glass of water or smile in sight. Decided to move on and get over it. But that first impression, well let's just say we started off on the wrong foot :(

To be fair Avalon has a different setup than other lines, they transfer All from the hotel meeting point. They have their system. I guess you can say their system is rigid but it works for them. On the other hand their excursions run like clockwork, and so does the mealtimes.

Apparently additional help may be needed, so hop to it! ;)

Since today was the first cool day since May, we built a bonfire after work our friends up street with their 11 and 7 year old kids came down and we did smores. Dad and I hung out in my bar drinking cognacs, Lochnora and other things before returning to stir the fire, to help bring the rain 4500 miles away in the middle of Europe.... Let me know if it worked...:D

jc

Cloudy and cool this morning... A curious Swan has been parading past our open window.

have a great cruise. will read with interest and travel vicariously with you. who is the cruise director?

Where are you now? We just passed an Avalon boat. Didn't catch the name on the back, though.

Where are you now? We just passed an Avalon boat. Didn't catch the name on the back, though.

We are docked in Amsterdam harbor, we sail for Cologne Germany at 2pm today (Sat).

I'll get the Cruise Directors name :)

We have the boat almost to ourselves this morning. Everyone else is doing the Canal Cruise (included) we have done that twice in the last two days and decided to rest this morning.

We are docked in Amsterdam harbor, we sail for Cologne Germany at 2pm today (Sat).

 

I'll get the Cruise Directors name :)

 

We have the boat almost to ourselves this morning. Everyone else is doing the Canal Cruise (included) we have done that twice in the last two days and decided to rest this morning.

We will be in Cologne at 1 pm today 😊.

We will be in Cologne at 1 pm today [emoji4].

Did I miss it? What boat are you on? Ahhh I see you are on AMA Certo.... Safe journey!

Quite a difference from our treatment by AMA this past week! We arrived very early on the quay, were greeted warmly and a swarm of crew members were sent up to transport our luggage, housekeeping was alerted to work on our cabin first, and we were offered a light lunch in the lounge. Our cabin was ready in about half an hour (three hours before "boarding time"), and our luggage was already in it. On disembarkation, since we were doing it DIY, we were told that the lounge, sun deck and public restrooms were available for us as long as we wanted (as long as we were out of our cabins by 9 am). When we returned to the ship with our rental car, a swarm of crew carried our luggage up the quay to the parking lot. Definitely made us feel part of the "family."

That has ALWAYS been our experience on AMA and we have shown up at 9am on occasion due to early flight arrival times.

 

A handful of us staying at a lovely B & B (Canal House Hotel) decided to come ahead and board early. I will say the girl manning the front desk was not pleased and we told her we had no intention of standing on the street! So here we sit enjoying a beautiful 70 degree day in Amsterdam.

 

Stayed Canal House Hotel for 2 nights.

We arrived early on our first Avalon cruise because we took the train from Munich and went directly to the ship in Nuremberg. I think we got there around 1:30, quite a bit early and we were the first on the ship. We had originally planned to just drop off our luggage then walk around the city but it was pouring rain and decided to just stay on board. Our room wasn't ready but the front desk staff were very gracious and told us we were welcome to tour the public areas and relax in the lounge.

We did Budapest to Amsterdam last August on Tauck and just loved it. Wishing you lots of rain, at least during the night, and a fantastic river cruise! Thanks for sharing!