By I recently took a Uniworld River Cruise throughout The Netherlands called Dutch Delight. I had a wonderful time and thought I’d share a bit of the adventure.
I was flying out on a Sunday from Atlanta — scheduled to arrive in the morning at Schiphol (Amsterdam). For future flights where I’m flying to join a cruise, I believe the wiser decision would be to fly in the day before, which would allow for any delays and allow for more time to adjust to the time zone. That likely would have hurt me if I had done that…because the Friday before my flight was the day that Delta got hit HARD by a software issue. The ripple effect of canceled flights was frightening! Delta ended up ultimately canceling about 5,000 flights over four days, or more than a third of its schedule. Can you imagine? I had used miles to fly Delta One, so I was non-revenue generating. I’m pretty sure the only reason I wasn’t booted is because I was in Delta One and not in coach. I got to the airport three hours early thanks to SUBER (Sarah + Uber). Yes that is excessively early, but I had no idea what I might run into at the airport.
Now…the fun thing is that I’m standing in the TSA line minding my own person and I laugh out loud about something (if you know me you know this isn’t unusual – I enjoy a good laugh). The person behind me says ‘I know that laugh’. Come to find out it was Amy D., who I used to work with at Marsh years ago. She and her husband and kids were headed to Italy for vacay. It was nice catching up with her. My only mistake was not getting her contact info (I thought I had it, so I didn’t ask for it) as I would have loved to catch up some more with her. So Amy if you by any chance read this, please reach out!
Security was easy peasy so I headed to my gate, which then got changed 2 more times…and I see the drama. There was a massive line at the service desk for all the poor souls whose flights were missed (or canceled) and were trying to get somewhere. I don’t think these pictures capture how loooooooong the line was. To give you a better idea, you’ll see they are lined up on the left past E12 (really closer to E10). That was I would argue at least an hour wait to get into the real queue that is for the service desk that is at the center of concourse E.
I think if I saw that line, I’d have just turned around and gone home. There really was no point. Anyway, they changed my gate a few times as Delta and the airport was trying to figure out where it should go. At one point I gave up and went to the skyclub, which was packed full of drunk disgruntled skymilers. I did find a seat and had a cookie and some water while I waited.
It came time to board. I gate-checked my bag (I had repacked the night before from a big bag to a carry-on that I didn’t check, just in case Delta canceled on me) and turned left to head to my glorious Delta One seat. This was either my second or third time flying Delta One…and it is awesome. I don’t sleep very much on the plane, but just having the ability to lay flat is lovely. Plus the leg room. Plus the service. We were an hour late already but I didn’t care because I was on board and just had to sit for 8 hours and the boat wasn’t leaving until Monday night. We backed up from the gate and sat and sat and sat. Then the pilot came on. This is never a good sign. Apparently some sort of check engine light came on that needed to be switched out so we were headed back to the gate. Bear in mind this flight had just come in from Orlando, so the light had to have either been on (and ignored) on that flight or something. He didn’t seem concerned, but back to the gate we went. And then…being a good dad, he decided we needed to fill up the gas tank here in Atlanta, rather than in Amsterdam. But we were put at the bottom of the queue, so we had to wait in line for gas and then wait to get back in line to take off.
So that 5:30pm departure that became 6:30pm was in actuality an 8:30 pm departure. Nothing for me to do but sit back and enjoy the ride. Travel Mavis joined me. So in Delta One you get warm mixed nuts to start with you, then your starter (which I took a picture of), followed by your main course and dessert. I didn’t get pics of either, but for the main course I enjoyed the short ribs. Dessert I think I had an ice cream sundae. Then it was movies and sleep time. The guy in front of me warned me that he snored, but I didn’t hear him, so that’s good. I arrived in Amsterdam as refreshed as I could be and got through security in no time whatsoever. I grabbed my bag and then searched for my uniworld transport person. They were happy to see me because it was now 10:30 am and they’d been looking for me at 8:30am. The van got loaded up for a 20 minute trek to the boat…where we were informed to WATCH OUT for bike riders. They apparently take precedence over cars and pedestrians. And in Amsterdam they are quite aggressive.
I’m in Amsterdam. Hooray! I’m exhausted…and I foolishly bought tickets to the Rijksmuseum for 1pm. I should have known better. After a quick lunch on the boat (the River Queen – it looks very retro – I would love to take an Agatha Christie murder mystery cruise on this boat!), Martha and I wandered over to the museum. I’m not always good at museums, but I should be awarded an A for effort for my efforts to stay focused as the waves of jet lag hit me…not gentle waves, tsunami-strength waves. I think we lasted a couple of hours before I threw in the towel. We had fun taking the subway back to the Grand Central Station and then a quick walk back to the boat.
But the day is not over yet! We need to celebrate our first dinner on the boat…and an introduction to the most handsome Dutch captain who will lead us through these treacherous waters. Thank goodness I took pictures, because I don’t remember a thing about dinner. Oh wait..I do remember the dinner – not as much the food, just the most ill-bred/rude person, from Canada of all places. She did not represent her country well. She was at least an hour late for dinner and then announced her opinion about our presidential elections. I thought everyone knew you don’t discuss politics or religion. All other folks at the table attempted to politely change the subject but she was determined to overshare her thoughts. Let’s just say we made sure she didn’t sit at our table for the remainder of the trip.
And then it was off to sleep (pictures of the room to give you an idea of space) as we left Amsterdam for…Giethoorn!
