Topic: Amsterdam enjoys record cruise season

Amsterdam will be breaking all records in the North Sea Canal area this year.



The 2011 schedule includes 149 calls by cruise ships and some 1,300 calls by river cruise vessels.

The Dutch port will also enjoy 16 maiden calls, the highest number ever, and on June 9, three large cruise ships will call into the capital, plus one more at Ijmuiden, which will see a total of 25 calls, as dredging now allows larger ships to enter the port.

1,000th visit
Last month, Amsterdam celebrated its one thousandth cruise call since opening its new terminal in 2000. And over the April 16 - 17 weekend, there were 46 river cruise vessels in port.

Have you ever been to Amsterdam? How was it for you? Do you have any tips -- eg. what are the best sights/where to avoid etc?

If you've never been, is it a place you'd like to visit in future?

Nope never been and not on my list of places to go on a cruise. If I did want to visit I'd probably just go on DFDS Ferry - 2 nights for 79 squid from Newcastle!

Being a small city Amsterdam makes a nice port of call. You can see quite a bit of it in a day. I like the Anna Frannk House/Museum.

However 'Stenna Hollandica' from Harwich is a wonderful way to go. She's a new car Ferry, but very cruise-ship-like.

Been with P&O ferries .. Hull to Zeebrugge. But it is a 1 hour 30 min coach trip. Whereas the cruise ships will probably be a lot closer.
Well worth a visit. Loved the canal boat trip.
Fascinating sights to see
But just stick to 'High tea' on the ship !!!!!

I first went to Amsterdam nearly 50 yrs ago and have been a few times since. We stay at the Hotel Pulitzer...I can recommend it.

The only trip from a ship was on a Baltic cruise and as we had a small person with us, we went to visit the 'smallest city in the Netherlands'. Madurodam !

we have just returned from there after visiting on Vision of the sea's last week. It was Queens day, very busy carnival day. Easy to travel around under own steam in the city, tram runs from docking area but easy 10mins walk to central station. Took a canal tour 13 euros per person, half day excursion to tulip gardens outside of city, very pleasant, closes end of May though.

We are going there in Sept & my son is looking forward to visiting a certain cafe to have a cake ..lol .. i didn't know he liked cake !!!

We were also there for Queen's Day but that is not an experience that everyone will enjoy as it is very noisy , crowded and to be honest dirty with litter. I used to go there when I lived in Germany and also when I was an Area Manager with a company that owned a Dutch Bulb Company.

It is a fascinating place with loads of places to see and things to do in a fairly small area. When you have done these there are places around that are easy to reach like Keukenhof for the flower gardens and Lisse for the bulb fields, Volendam and Marken for old and traditional Holland, Maduradam, a miniature village that kids love, Etfteling with animated Grim's Fairy Stories, Den Hague and Scheveniningen for history and the beach, so much in a small area.
But the city itself can be enjoyed time and time again. ....Neil

Amsterdam is a great city - an absolutely fascinating place and easy to walk around. Like any other big city, though, it does have it's rougher element and you need to keep your wits about you and try not to look too much like tourists.

It's one of the best places for settling down at an outside cafe and watching the world (and some very interesting people) go by. There are also some great restaurants with food from all corners of the world.