cluedweasel

We're heading back to Portsmouth on this cruise. Having to dock outside the city was a disappointment. Waking up to views of chemical factories wasn't ideal. The shuttle service worked well enough but the VV staff telling people it was a 20 minute trip was disengenous. The fastest we did it was 30 minutes and that driver seemed to be colourblind as he bowled through every traffic light regardless of it's hue. Average was around 40 minutes and the slowest just under an hour. We were met by protesters at the docking port anyway. They managed to hold things up a little. We didn't see any signs of protests in Amsterdam itself or at the Amsterdam cruise port which is where the shuttle buses dropped us. A couple of observations without trying to sound too whiny. We picked this cruise for the proximity of the ship to Amsterdam. I have a couple of medical issues that mean I need access to refrigerated med on an ad hoc basis. Having it a 40 minute bus ride away doesn't help. The fact that VV only informed people at 9pm the day before a 7pm departure didn't help. At least with 48 hours notice we would have been in the change window. As a side note, I see Norwegian Dawn is happily tied up at the Amsterdam cruise terminal this morning. Finally, for anyone who hasn't visited Amsterdam, do. It was wonderful once you get past the red light/grand station area. It was well worth a little nausea.

We found that our phones got decent 4G data almost the entire time the ship was in Norwegian waters, even in the fjord on the way into Alta. Roaming was included on our £6 Lebara plans. A lot cheaper than using the shipboard Internet.