Hotel to Ship Transfer process - southbound cruise
This is a question for those who have taken this cruise southbound from Amsterdam and who stayed 1 or more nights at the Sofitel Grand (Tauck hotel) beforehand. What is the timing/process for transferring luggage and people to the ship? My hope is that they pick up luggage relatively early, let us check out after breakfast, head out for sightseeing, and then meet back closer to the 4pm cruise start time for transfer to the ship.
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In Paris on the French Waterways they took anything from the hotel room that you didn't want to carry on the TGV down to the ship by truck so space wasn't an issue. The TD's freely offered extra tags for this.
Haarlem does sound interesting. We only have 2 nights precruise in Amsterdam and so much to see there I don't think we'll have the time.
Any recommendations for dining is either Amsterdam or Basel?
Did you have any news of low water on the Moselle?
Claudia,
We ate at the seafood restaurant located in the hotel. It was very, very good (but not cheap!). Here's the website if you want to check out the menu. Be sure to make reservations.
http://www.bridgesrestaurant.nl/en/
Ken
Was hoping to find something casual featuring traditional dutch foods. Lonely Planet recommends Bistro Big Ons.
Their website has an English language version and links to menus with prices. I'm dying to go there for breakfast so I can have "flipped bitches" (the dutch version of french toast apparently).
http://www.bistrobijons.nl/eng/welcome-to-us.htmlends
I think I will check with the concierge about the bistro we are considering to see if they have a better recommendation.
New question, where is breakfast served at the Sofitel and is it buffet or order from the menu? 3 weeks and counting - getting excited.
I'll try to answer some of your questions:
We did the Southbound out of Amsterdam last spring. We arrived 3-4 nights early as we wanted to "do" some of Amsterdam, having never been there. We had a friend studying abroad in The Hague, so one of those days was devoted to training out to meet him, touring there, lunch, then back. We weren't able to see as much of Amsterdam as we would have liked - I'd have gone a week early had our schedules permitted.
One day we bought tickets (hotel concierge) for the Keukenhof Gardens - a MUST see - they had just opened for the season (we went in March or early April) - you need tickets ahead of time and there are numerous companies running trips there and easy to get at your hotel.
My suggestion to Tauck is to add at least 1-2 days onto this trip and get folks to see more of Amsterdam - there is just so much we missed - couldn't get tickets to Anne Frank, no time for Van Gogh museum, that sort of thing. They could possibly use the ship as our hotel, and add on more to do there.
I recall all breakfasts are buffet - we've taken 7 Tauck trips and have never not had a buffet breakfast. We'd hoped to do an Indonesian Rice Table place as well, but no time.
We stayed one extra night in Basel, and I was sorry that we did. By then, the trip was "over" and we were ready to come home, and Basel just does't have enough draw to stay another night. That said, we toured it again as we had done with Tauck the day before, with another couple, and had a wonderful time.
As others have pointed out, you should be able to sightsee on that last half day before boarding ship. Tip: since we were at another hotel, and just weren't up to running around that day (we're not the earliest of risers!) I'd called Tauck ahead to get the lay of the land, and was told we could just go right to the ship to board later in the morning, have a light lunch on board, settle in, and relax, which is what we did - it was perfect! The ships are all docked together in the Amsterdam harbor, and you have plenty of time to actually walk back into parts of the city and look around with no problem.
We also had the option of leaving our luggage at our first hotel, sightseeing, then picking up our luggage and taxiing to the Tauck hotel to meet up with the rest of the group to bus to the ship - I think that was 2:30PM or so.
Many options, Tauck makes it easy to work out.
We're coming in early staying 2 nights at the Sofitel - one night gift of time and one on our own. Not as much time as I'd like but at the daily hotel rate all we were willing to go for.
We are staying on in Basel as well and I've worried a bit about the anticlimactic feeling however, my grandfather came from a town east of there so I want to see his home.
Lucky you to see the Keukenhof Gardens - its only open Mar-May so we'll miss it. Have no interest in the Anne Frank house - I read the book and that was sad enough. Also read Russell Shortos book about Amsterdam (its on the Tauck recommended reading list) and highly recommend it to anyone going to Amsterdam. He talks about a nunnery during the protestant restoration era and part way thru I realized the building is right across the street from the Sofitel.
Thanx again, ttfn