It was 02.15 this morning when the Koningsdam arrived at the Pilot station. Because of the sail in via the Vessel Traffic System, the captain had already been called an hour earlier, so he had a long morning as the ship only docked around 06.30 hrs. Then it was back to bed for him but not for very long as by 11 am. there was movie crew waiting for him to take shots for an American travel program. And then there was still a regular day to be followed by Guest Boat drill. Then departure again which will take until 21.30 tonight……………. And then we have guests asking, if the captain went ashore for the day because we are so close to downtown. Sometimes I wished that all the guests in the company read my blog, if it was only to understand how busy a ship’s captain is nowadays.  The days of the “jolly old salt” standing on the bridge and having not much to do besides arrival and departure are long gone. After 3 months in command, the ships captains are tired, very tired and ready for 3 months off.

Good ………………. That was my moan and groan for the day.

Ijmuiden Locks and the port of Amsterdam. Courtesy of an unknown publisher on the internet, who must have been thinking the same thoughts as I did.

The only option to avoid this long time of sailing in and sailing out again is to dock in Ijmuiden. It makes us as captains very happy as it is barely an hour from the pilot station to the dock as you do not have to go through the Ijmuiden locks. Plus you avoid the slow run through the North Sea Canal all the way to downtown. Some company’s do so and then run a shuttle service to downtown Amsterdam and for the turnover of the guests it is not a problem either. It takes as long from Ijmuiden to get to Schiphol as it does from Amsterdam.  Our Prinsendam has done it in the past for turn over calls. Although currently she is docking downtown Amsterdam but her calls are very infrequent and she has many guests on board for several voyages. And for them Amsterdam is a regular port of call and then…….the closer the better.

The ms Koningsdam aerial photo taken during her maiden arrival in Venice in 2016. She does fit in the cruise terminal in Ijmuiden but unfortunately the train does not stop in front of the cruise terminal. (Photo courtesy Holland America Line)

But; For the Koningsdam it is slightly different. The Koningsdam sails with a very large number of Dutch Guests often 50% or more. And a lot of these guests come to the ship by public transport. Central station is only 5 minutes away and you just roll with your suitcase down to the ship or take a taxi for the short distance. (If we had bicycle storage on board, I would not be amazed at all if a lot of them would come by bike towing a wheelie box with the suitcases behind it. Nothing unusual as everybody bikes in Holland, even the King and Queen. For those guests it makes good sense to park the Koningsdam right in downtown. Also this morning there was a long and steady flow of Dutch guests rolling their suitcases to and from Central Station. I could not get a photo of this phenomenon as we were just docked too much behind the Mövenpick Hotel.

Behind us was the Seven Seas Navigator and if she had been just a little bit longer then we would have been a little bit more forward and be able to peak around the hotel.

Departure Amsterdam. Coaching the senior Cadet on board so this photo is from the forward mooring deck. to have a good view of the city, the ships bow has to be where now the red harbor patrol boat is. She will later keep the “six pack navigators” out of the way when the ship sails through the canal. To the top left the rows of river cruise vessels. This was a group of 14 with more further down.

Apart from the SSN, the port was full with Rhine cruise vessels. River cruising has become extremely popular in the same way as deep sea cruising. I made my first Rhine cruise in 1972 as my mother loved it and in every town along the river we were the only ship in. Now that has changed drastically and I counted 20 river cruisers getting ready for their next cruise. As a result they were docked 4 deep or more alongside. Ships varying in quality from 3 star to 6 star and there is even a catamaran version out there that has a regular size swimming pool inside. Most of them were leaving today, with quite a few of them doing the same ports,  so they only way to avoid all this congestion is to sail on a Monday or Tuesday, when you follow “the crowd” instead of being part of it. In the same was as you see less cruise ships in the ports of the Caribbean and Alaska if you are on a 10 day cruise just because most ships are sailing on Saturday or Sunday so with an odd day departure you stay out of that cycle.

What is left from a 200 meter long cargo pier. You can see the support of the pier jutting out of the water. Each house, building, factory or other construction in Amsterdam has these, either from wood, stone or concrete. Without these supports, everything would just slowly sink into the muddy underground.

A little bit of nostalgia. When sailing out, we passed “Het Stenen Hoofd” (The Stone Head) now flat and due for redevelopment. But between 1905 and 1930 Holland America had this pier in lease (and the wooden one before that) for its ships that called at Amsterdam.

Het Stenen Hoofd in her glory days. This drawing is hanging on all the S and R class ships of the company, somewhere in a guest corridor. On the photo the ss Amsteldijk (I of 1901) .The tower housed the office of HAL for its Amsterdam business.

Tomorrow we are at sea and it has been promised that it will be a sunny day but maybe a bit breezy. We are on our way to Flam in Norway which is a tight schedule, due to the long sail in into the Fjord. So the captain is putting the pedal to the metal to get a bit of time up his sleeve as with fjord sailing you never know what can happen.