Day 4

Today begins the first day of our cruise! I’d like to say I had a good sleep but unfortunately I woke up early with slight jet lag. Since we had the time, we packed up everything early before heading out for breakfast. The Dutch seem to be late risers as the nearby cafes didn’t open until 8am or later, so we had plenty of time.

We headed to a cafe named Winkel 43 where we had club sandwiches and coffee which isn’t very breakfast like, but we didn’t mind. We sat outside and watched the city go by, whether it was people, dogs or bicycles, and since it’s a quieter part of the city, it was very relaxing. Ted had originally said he didn’t think he could live in Amsterdam - after our outdoor breakfast, he has now said he definitely could.

After paying for breakfast (so expensive!), we went back to the accommodation to check out. Since our cruise today didn’t depart until 4pm, we had the whole morning to enjoy, so we decided to visit Haarlem after all. We really wanted to see somewhere outside of the capital and since my foot wasn’t hurting half as much as before, thought it sounded like a good idea.

We caught a train from Centraal which only took 15 minutes and were welcomed with some beautiful Dutch countryside. I had mentioned to Dennis and John that we would be coming there, and John greeted us halfway from the station. Haarlem is so beautiful - similar to Amsterdam but friendlier, cleaner and more relaxed. John showed us some of the sights such as the Zentralplatz, the old church, and cheese shops before taking us to their apartment to join Dennis for coffee.

Their apartment is amazing, with a view of a church converted into a brewery, as well as being within walking space of a cinema, cafes and supermarkets. The boys had bought us some Stroopwafel to take with us on our travels too. After leaving the apartment, John took us to the waterfront, where we had a tourist photo with a windmill before returning to the station for our train back to Amsterdam.

After collecting our bags at the accommodation, Ted called an Uber to take us to the station but the first Uber driver, seeing the size of our bags, drove off! Fortunately the second Uber driver was a lot nicer, and even helped with our bags. Even though we had arrived almost an hour early, the check in process at Royal Caribbean was extremely easy and smooth, whether it was the bag collection, the security or immigration.

Once onboard, Ted and I went straight to our stateroom to offload our backpacks before heading to the dining room for lunch. We had paid extra for a larger balcony room and, although the room is slightly dated compared to Princess or Celebrity, it’s still fine for the two of us. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, Ted and I overindulged slightly at the buffet, which made us feel somewhat lousy afterwards!

To work off some extra weight, we did a quick walk around the ship, seeing some of the bars, swimming pools and lounges. We also needed to attend our safety procedures and muster drill which was a surprise. Usually this involves going to one of the onboard theatres and watching a safety demonstration video - this time we merely needed to talk to one of the crew who told us where we would need to go in an emergency. Maybe it’s because of our jobs, but we were surprised how low-key it was.

Ted ended up finding our suitcases located down the hallway, after wondering where they were all this time! We met our room attendant Terrence who took some of our clothes for pressing as tomorrow night will be one of the formal nights.

Since we were still so full after lunch, we had a very light dinner before heading to the LGBTQ meetup at the Vintages bar. We met three others - a couple from Tennessee named Keith and Wee, and an older man from Fort Lauderdale named Greg. The effects of jet lag and little sleep did start to affect us though and we ended up heading back to our room just after 8pm. It has been a slow start but I’m hoping that we can meet some good people on this cruise too.Okumaya devam et