Amsterdam, Netherlands Port Reviews

Not excited about excursion

We stayed in Amsterdam before and after the cruise. The old city is charming, but crowded. All of the merchants spoke English and there were plenty of things to do. We walked around the old city on our first day waiting for our hotel room to become available. From our hotel room I was able to take some photos of the APEX coming into port for our cruise. Having spent time in the city before the cruise allowed us to determine what we wanted to do and see when we returned after the cruise. One thing was to do a canal boat you.

Always enjoy a visit to ‘the Dam’, Take a river cruise or just walk into the town. Celebrity tend to dock actually in Amsterdam where lots of other lines stop at IJmuiden to avoid expensive port fees (allegedly) and this requires a coach transfer.

Watch out for the bikes which appear to have right of way! The best way to travel around Amsterdam is by a day card which can be used on both buses and trams costing 9 Euro. Unfortunately tickets cannot be bought at the cruise terminal but at the GBV office next to the main railway central station. The walk from the cruise terminal to buy the tickets is 15 minutes but once the ticket is bought you can ride the tram back to the cruise terminal. On reflection download the GBV ap and buy the ticket online so that you have the ticket available immediately on your phone to travel from the tram stop at the cruise terminal. The site does say that tickets can be bought onboard the trams but often there is no conductors onboard to buy them from so be prepared.

Getting off the ship was a nightmare. Port delayed clearance and captain only had one gangway open. Many people missed excursions. We, fortunately, had arranged for tickets at the Van Gogh museum for 2.5 hours after the stated arrival time and were, barely, able to make it. Fabulous museum. Took public transportation to the museum.

wasted a day at sea waitig for port authorities to clear protestors

Highly recommend pre/post extension

Visited: Aug 24, 2013

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we arrived a week early and rented a car. visited the flower auction and Krukenhof

Visited: May 03, 2015

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Excellent, easy city to navigate around. Got to Amsterdam two days early and got a 2-day hoho canal boat ticket. We were able to get to everything we wanted using the canal boats.

Visited: Jul 30, 2017

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We found 1 1/2 days enough for us and would probably book hotel on our own. Red Light district was entertaining but alot of drugs and extremely crowded

Visited: Apr 10, 2015

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