Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Yeah Hilton Hhonors!! Love those benefits. Dinner seemed PRICEY for what you got - but if it was the only option, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.
There were other options in the airport terminal, but to be honest, in a place like that, it's a bit like Disney, everything's going to be a reasonably high price, as there's nowhere else you can go, so they have a captive audience.
Thursday 9 February – part one: walking on our own to the plane!
Just to be on the safe side, we set THREE alarms for this morning! As well as the wake-up call from the hotel, we both set the alarms on our cell phones and all worked fine, although someone (can’t think who? ) didn’t need any of the alarms, as apparently he’d been awake since 2:30 am! At least that meant he was a bit fresher than me, as it took me a while to get going, but finally I did.
We left the room about 4:50 am, which wasn’t bad going and checked out, with no wait. Then it was off towards the terminal, and my goodness you could feel the cold from outside as we headed towards the enclosed tunnel. I commented to Mark that I wouldn’t want to go to the health club here, as it’s right by the tunnel, and it was freezing! Not great planning...
We walked through the car park and over to the new entrance to the terminal. The last time we were here in April of last year, they were renovating all of this and we were curious to see what the result was. I think it’s fair to say we were both blown away with what they’d done – it looked stunning!
We headed inside and made our way to the monorail station over to the north terminal. By the time we got there, it was about 5:00 am, so it had been a 10 minute walk, which isn’t bad for a hotel that’s literally just over the road from the terminal. It gives you an idea of how big the place is!
We had a couple of minutes to wait for the train, then we were off. We were also very impressed with the other end at the north terminal, which was renovated first.
We headed for Zone A to drop off our baggage and there was no line, something to do I’m guessing with the fact that this was about the only British Airways flight at this time of the day. I think the next ones I saw up on the board were about 8:30 am, so it was worth getting up this early to have no lines. I got a few photos of the area for the next edition of PassPorter’s Walt Disney World for British Holidaymakers
Then it was through security, and that was relatively painless, although I did get specially selected for a nice pat-down (don’t you love it when that happens... )
We headed into the shopping area and tried to get a spare battery for my camera, as I don’t have one, and was worried about how well mine might last with all the photos I’d be taking over the next couple of days. Sadly, no-one had any, so we just got some snacks and a paper from a shop and then settled down to wait for our gate.
The board kept saying that it would be up at 5:30 am and the time ticked past that. I even went upstairs to get some shots of the terminal, hoping that would speed things up, but it didn’t...
Finally, we got the gate number – I don’t remember it now (I’m thinking 113, but I wouldn’t swear to it). There were a bunch of people standing there and I assumed they’d all follow us, as nothing else was due to have a gate assigned in the next 20 minutes, but no-one did follow us. As you can see, it was soooo busy in front of us..
.
As we made our very long trek to our gate (perhaps one of the longest at the whole airport... seriously, you have to go over a pedestrian bridge to get to this set of gates), we saw two people behind us, then another two, so at least we wouldn’t be alone on this flight.
By the time we got to the gate and settled down to read the paper... oh and photograph a couple of planes outside...
.... a few more people had joined us. We sat there for a few minutes, then we were called to board. There was no wait, as there were literally about 30 people I reckon. To put this in perspective, the plane had something like 25 rows, all with three seats either side of the aisle. My maths isn’t that great, but I make that (thanks to the computer calculator! ) 150 people that it can accommodate. As you can imagine, we were pretty spaced out and, as a result, it was a very pleasant flight.
It’s about an hour in total, including take-off and landing, which means it’s all over and done with really quickly. Despite that, they manage to serve you up with a complimentary continental breakfast and a hot drink, which is one of the reasons I went with British Airways. It didn’t cost me much more than Easyjet (one of our budget airlines) and with British Airways, you get complimentary food and drink on board, free baggage allowance (one suitcase each) and you can pick your own seats at 24 hours when check-in opens. By the time you add up how much that would cost with Easyjet, you’re on about a par with price.
Landing was interesting. The actual landing itself was fine, then we taxied to our gate. We didn’t rush to get up, as there weren’t going to be that many people in front of us, bearing in mind how busy the plane was. Well, we stood there and stood there and stood there. We started to wonder what the heck was going on, as we’ve been off transatlantic flights, which have over 300 people on board, quicker than this morning.
Well, soon enough we found out... there was a problem with the portable gate that reaches up to the plane. They said that it would be sorted out in the next couple of minutes. We waited for another couple of minutes, then we were told that they couldn’t sort the problem out, so we’d be using the rear exit and heading down the steps into the lovely cold! The pilot had already told us that it was a lovely minus 8C outside, which I think is around 20F. Whatever temperature it is, it’s waaaaay colder than we usually get at home, so this was a shock to the system!
As we walked over, we could hear the portable gate bleeping in protest, telling anyone listening that it was broken. It was stuck and obviously just wouldn’t move out all the way to our plane.
Then we had a real hike from our gate all the way back to the main terminal. My goodness, have British Airways decided that we need exercise this trip? They seem to have selected the furthest gate away at both airports.
Finally we got to the passport check and quickly cleared that and at least the baggage claim carousel was right there, with our suitcase already going around. That says something about how long it had taken us to walk over there!
A quick restroom break and then it was into the main arrivals hall. From there, we easily found the tourist information kiosk, where we needed to activate our I Amsterdam cards and that was quickly done. We were told everything was running, with the exception of the canal boats, because the canals were frozen solid! Now my swimming partner had joked about that in an e-mail yesterday, but I thought it was a joke. Apparently not! Wow, now that is something I have to see!
We got our instructions about how to get the bus to our hotel, which I’d read on TripAdvisor was much cheaper than getting the train. We headed out through the shopping area, which was quite something!
Then it was outside into the freezing cold again, although seeing it with the snow on the ground was very neat!
Unfortunately, we must’ve just missed the 197 bus, which is what we needed, so we had a lovely 10 minute wait in the freezing cold. Once it arrived, we boarded and got our tickets, which I tried to snatch away before the driver could stamp them.
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What a nice, easy, short flight! The walk to and from the plane could have been shorter (and warmer), though. It's like the flight from Boston to NYC--you spend far more time getting to the airport and through security than on the flight. That's a COLD welcome to Amsterdam!
Welcome to Amsterdam! How cool that the flight was so empty. That always makes for a better flight! And a meal too. Wow! Well, interesting weather always makes trips more fun, doesn't it?!
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Both airports look really nice! I'm glad it was a quick trip. What a cold welcome, though!
I often wonder why airlines can't "plan" a little better to avoid empty planes like that (I'm sure scheduling is very difficult, and they never know how many people will be on a particular flight). They must lose so much money just on gas to fly empty planes like that!
I used to fly from LAX to New York on bigger and emptier planes, if you can believe that, and then I would have to transfer to a 2 propeller 21 seat plane to go from New York to Philadelphia. Go figure.
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Welcome to Amsterdam! How cool that the flight was so empty. That always makes for a better flight! And a meal too. Wow! Well, interesting weather always makes trips more fun, doesn't it?!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
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As you can see, it was soooo busy in front of us..
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Wow, now that is something I have to see! 
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