LIVE: Queen Victoria: Summer Getaway V015

[northernsailor]

A very brief update as we've still no internet. Shortly before we left Amsterdam the captain did a shipwide announcement warning us as soon as we would love the locks @ 10pm it was going to get rough. True to word, I sat eating my dessert and watched the lampposts on the quayside wall of the locks bend back an forth in the wind with sheets of rain against our windows.

 

We're about 2hrs out of the locks now and she's rolling side to side a fair amount, both chairs on my balcony have moved up against the glass, the icebucket in our cabin was saved just before it fell off. I've taken some great photos (whilst getting totally soaked) off the balcony that makes us look like we are in deadliest catch!

 

Off to bed shortly, we were also told the Zeebrugge Pilot had boarded us in Amsterdam to make sure we get into port tomorrow, we shall see!

 

Hopefully a proper update tomorrow!

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[capnpugwash]

Enjoy that wave action while it lasts, the last few trips I have made on QM2 have had almost calm seas. I love a bit of chop. It reminds me that I am on a ship and not in a hotel.

[Vic The Parrot]

Enjoy that wave action while it lasts, the last few trips I have made on QM2 have had almost calm seas. I love a bit of chop. It reminds me that I am on a ship and not in a hotel.

 

 

 

I second that! :cool:

[Host Hattie]

Hi Chris,

Try & get the internet connection fixed before I get on will you ? (And calm the seas down a bit).

 

Thanks for the updates

 

Kate

[northernsailor]

Internet is fixed, we've just left Zeebrugge so update below was meant to be on Sat night @ 4am:

 

Hello everyone,

 

Thanks for the posts. Yesterday I went on the excursion i had booked (via Cunard) which was City and Canal Tour. After picking up our tour group stickers in the Queen's Room we left on a coach for a tour of Amsterdam, the weather was quite undecided with it going dark with cloud one minute then red-hot the next. The coach dropped us off at the canal boat pickup point along with another tour from the ship and we waited around for 10mins before boarding. The canal tour itself is pretty good, it's not too slow that it drags or fast that you miss everything and the tour guide we had was very informant. One thing i would recommend is buying a bottle of water or something before you go on the tour as 4-5hrs (in total) is a long time when it's quite warm! After the canal cruise we headed for a tour on coach around the city; albeit quite slow due to the huge amount of kamikaze cyclists and taxis! We headed North out of the city to a Cheese and Clog Farm all-in-one (defo built with the tourists in mind). It's a real farm and one other coach was there before us but due to how it's organized you go in one end,*

learn how cheese is made, go into another room and watch some clogs being made and then handily end up in a shop where you go buy cheese and clogs before exiting the building back to the coach carpark. After a short journey back (via a windmill for a photo stop) we arrived back at the ship at 1845.*

 

Quick shower and changed and then we headed to the Veuve-Clicquot bar on Deck 2 which is just past midships if you were heading aft. Ordered a bottle of champagne for us to drink before our evening meal (why not, we're on holiday after all!) The one member of staff behind the bar was unfortunately overwhelmed as several other tables all arrived one after another and he upset a few people by not remembering the correct order, but made matters worse by not apologising either. Again, for the 2nd night we were made to wait outside the Britannia dining room until well after 2030 - something isn't running smoothly there it seems. Dinner was nice, everyone on the table was a lot more chatty and we all shuffled around to talk to different guests, two of the couples left to go to the show but we ended up talking to the others and leaving it too late so we headed to Hemispheres and had a few cocktails and listened to the live band for a while. After an hour we decided to head to the Commodore Club which once again was nearly empty and therefore decided to go in Churchills Cigar Lounge, the staff do a very good job of coming in and checking to see if anyone wants anything and we chatted to a brother and sister who've been on loads of cruises previous to this one until 3am! Then after a brief visit for cookies/brownies in the Lido (which there were none unfortunately!) we then headed to bed.

 

In answer to some of your questions, I love taking photos and have a multitude of devices on here that i have been using but i won't be uploading any until my return next week; I shall provide a link to them. The North Sea Locks are based at IJmuiden and are a short cut to Amsterdam as such. Check them out via google maps. We docked (like my last time i was on here) at the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal which is very much in the heart of Amsterdam. There is a tram stop just outside the terminal (number 25) tram takes you in to the city centre within 5-8mins and is around 3.50euro single.*

 

Regarding Zeebrugge, it was cancelled due to bad weather on my last cruise - hopefully won't be tomorrow when we are due there!

 

More tomorrow, I'm writing this at just before 4am! **** * * **

 

Chris

[Vic The Parrot]

No cookies!?! ... No brownies!?! :eek:

 

 

That's an abomination!!

A letter to Shanks is in order! ;) :D

 

 

 

(Glad to hear you're enjoying it ... looking forward to more.)

[Calliope]

IJmuiden as mentioned in this thread with a photo:

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1209668&highlight=ijmuden&page=2

 

and

 

http://marinas.com/view/lock/334_Ijmuiden_Lock_Amsterdam

 

 

Thanks for the links, Ray. I had no idea until just recently that Amsterdam's harbor was protected by a levy and lock system.

[northernsailor]

Hello everyone.

 

Sunday's Post:

 

It's Sunday morning in Amsterdam and we had an overnight stay. It's a little odd the Passenger Cruise Terminal as it's next to some pretty high buildings so we slot in like an apartment block next to them. The weather doesn't know what todo, one minute its really sunny and the next its torrential rain, not good. We briefly went for a little walk around Amsterdam but the rain just wouldn't stop so we caught a taxi back to the ship at a cost of 15euro - not bad as we didn't get charged on the tram on the way in. This afternoon we spent in the spa and its lovely hydrotherapy pool and various saunas. We went back to the stateroom and watched the sail away from the balcony instead of the top deck because of the driving rain. The captain made a ship wide announcement to let us know the weather was going to be rough as soon as we left the North Sea Locks and that the ship's stabilisers would stop most of the rolling action we would experience. As we finished dessert in the Britannia Dining Room we entered the locks and we could see the wind blowing things around outside.

 

Tonight we had a box in the Royal Court Theatre. The price is $50 per couple and includes; guaranteed box of your choice, pre show VIP lounge with a glass of champagne each, finger desserts (which were amazing) - a half bottle of Veuve-Clicquot and a signed cast photo of the show. All in all, pretty good value. The show started 25mins late due to the vibrations of the bow thrusters as we left the locks, as i found out later we also had two tugs assisting us as the winds were 50knots gusting upto 70knots. The show started but we didn't really enjoy it and left about halfway through, just wasn't our thing (it was an all singing show) - by this point the ship was rolling around a fair bit and we headed back to the cabin to watch the ice bucket nearly fall off the table before i caught it as at one point we went over by 7 degrees. The spray from the bow was being blown up the entire side of the ship, so when i stood on the balcony to take a few photos i got absolutely soaked, very refreshing though! The ship later closed all outside decks including the one between the Spa and the Lido. Several bars lost a lot of stock when we rolled to 7 degrees and for the rest of the evening operated a reduced drink service as most of their current stock was on the floor. Went to sleep about 3am.

 

Forgot to mention that the captain said we had boarded the Zeebrugge Pilot in Amsterdam to make sure we would make that port of call; big difference to my last cruise where we had to skip the port due to the pilot being unable to board.

 

Cheers

 

Chris