Tulip time river cruise-Spring 2008

[aneka]

We are thinking of doing a river cruise in the Spring of 2008. We would like to do one of the Tulip time Holland/Belgium cruises. We would appreciate your suggestions on which cruise lines to consider. Also we would have to be home by April 5th. Is this too early to see the tulips?

Thanks for your help,

Annette & John :)

[KarlS]

We are thinking of doing a river cruise in the Spring of 2008. Also we would have to be home by April 5th. Is this too early to see the tulips?

Annette & John,

 

Good questions. You'll get lots of good responses here.

 

We sailed this itinerary on Uniworld's River Duchess, departing Amsterdam on April 17th of 2006. (You can see more of my comments at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=322078).

 

If you haven't seen the post at http://stevefazzio.com/Holland_Amsterdam_1.html you should go check that one out, too. (It's the one that influenced us to cruise on this itinerary).

 

Every year the weather is different, of course. In 2006, we were at the tail-end of the best of the daffodils display, and about two weeks too early for the tulips. The locals said 2006 had an unusually long winter, so your mileage may vary. Even at the time we went, if you go to the major gardens, like Keukenhof Gardens, there will still be blooms outdoors in early April, and the indoor exhibition halls' displays of every variety of blooming bulbs will be brilliant.

 

You'll have a terrific time!!

 

...Karl

 

ps. We enjoyed Uniworld's product so much, we're booked on River Duchess again this coming May, departing Vienna and sailing to Amsterdam.

[dlhamlten]

I, too, will be interested in everyone's input. We are about to dpart on our first river cruise and with Grand Circle for the first time. If the experience is positive, we want to use the future cruise credits for Holland in Spring 2008. If not, we will try a different Company.

 

I don't know how helpful this is about going in late March-early April, but the customer service people at GCT told me the peak is generally between April 15 - May 15th ( easy start date to remember thanks to the IRS ! )

 

Anybody out there that has been on the Grand Circle Holland-Belgium in Bloom cruise ?

[AWED23]

We are thinking of doing a river cruise in the Spring of 2008. We would like to do one of the Tulip time Holland/Belgium cruises. We would appreciate your suggestions on which cruise lines to consider. Also we would have to be home by April 5th. Is this too early to see the tulips?

Thanks for your help,

Annette & John :)

Yes, too early....Mid-April to Mid-May...Better weather too. If INE replys to your question you will get the very best advice...She lives there.

[aneka]

Thank you all for your responses. We are now going to wait until we can travel in late April to May based on all your recommendations. Karl S. - Thank you for the two links. The Fazio link is great. We will have to study this before we make this trip. We took a Uniworld trip to China and had a very good experience with Uniworld. We have been leaning toward a Uniworld cruise. I am glad to hear positive comments on their Tulip cruises. What category were your cabins? Did you upgrade to a higher level of cabin?

 

Thanks for you help,

Annette & John

[travelsfun]

We did "Holland in the Springtime" mid-April, 200l with Grand Circle and it was a wonderful trip! Our first of 5 with GCT and we were well satisfied. The flowers were spectacular! I have enough pictures of tulips to wallpaper a room!

Dorothy

[KarlS]

What category were your cabins? Did you upgrade to a higher level of cabin?

Hi Annette and John,

 

Yes, we upgraded to a top-deck cabin, next to a suite cabin. We probably spend more early-evening time in our cabin once underway than most folk, so we wanted the floor-to-ceiling windows. The cabins on the other two decks were identical except for the size of the windows and how close to the water line the windows were. I know all cabins would be terrific on this ship.

 

Hope you get to enjoy a Tulips cruise soon. Cheers!

 

...Karl

[Bill S]

We did Viking's "Tulips & Windmills" cruise out of Amstedam, last April 11-22 and we were there at exactly the right time! Lots of bueautiful tulips and other flowers in full bloom at Keukenhof Gardens. Ine did tell us that the flowers were late blooming last year so we were very lucky to see them. I hope Ine will see this thread and will jump in. She is great-we had met her and her DH 2 years ago when they visited Las Vegas and then she met us for dinner last year in Amsterdam!

[cruisemom123]

did you like the viking trip we jsut did a chna trip and were please with tehservice

 

we are thng 4/2008 or 4/2009

[Ine]

We did Viking's "Tulips & Windmills" cruise out of Amstedam, last April 11-22 and we were there at exactly the right time! Lots of bueautiful tulips and other flowers in full bloom at Keukenhof Gardens. Ine did tell us that the flowers were late blooming last year so we were very lucky to see them. I hope Ine will see this thread and will jump in. She is great-we had met her and her DH 2 years ago when they visited Las Vegas and then she met us for dinner last year in Amsterdam!

 

Hi Bill, Virginia (and others.)

Good to see some notes from you on the board. Hope you are o.k. in LV?

 

In general the best time for tulips is around the last week of April/1st week of May.

The year Bill was here (2006) spring was a little later then normal.

Keukenhof that year stayed open for an additonal week.

 

But this year 2007 ...spring was so warm flowers bloomed at least 2 weeks earlier. As it stayed warm for at least 6/8 weeks flowers were gone also far earlier then any other year before...Not just in Keukenhof but also on the fields in the region.

 

For those who want more info about Keukenhof, check this website:

http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html

You will see tulips (and other flowers) you never saw before!!!