So we went down for one last breakfast together and then back to the rooms to brush teeth and put in last minute items in. We all three walk off with our own luggage, because they let us stay in our room until it was our time to leave.
There's no passport check or anything (even though they said to have them ready). We say our goodbyes to Brian at the sidewalk, then he goes left and we go right.
He is walking to the train station, then taking the train to the airport and a plane into Oslo. Karen and Pat walk half way to our New York Hotel, that we stayed in a couple of weeks ago, to catch a shuttle from the MS Rotterdam over to the SS Rotterdam Ship/Hotel.
We are amazed at how many people are getting the shuttle bus to the ss Rotterdam Ship/Hotel. We think the line to check in will be long. So I took my back pack and went to the check in line while Pat waited for the luggage below. Then I found out they were all parking there, not staying there.
Our room was not ready so she stored our luggage. We wanted to do a tour of the ship here, but don't quite understand. She says it's at 10am, so we waited around only to find out later that we had to get back in line to buy our tickets from her. There was always a long line at this front desk.
Then she told us 10 wasn't available and we could do 10:30. Later we find out this is just the engine room guided portion of the tour. It was a fairly good tour, if you understood the way it worked.
Part of the tour is self guided with a hand held audio device. Part is volunteers guiding you through certain rooms and part is a guided tour that happens at a certain time. We got to see the first and tourist class lounges and sports areas (shuffle board on the floor, not table game like on our ship).
We went to the engine room at our appointed time and his tour was in Dutch. But our audio guide told us some of what he was saying in English.
We finished our tour at 1:45 and went to Lido Deck for lunch, out on the back deck by the pool. We split a burger & fries, two Coke Zeros and a large bottle of water. We had no water since leaving our ship.
Our room is so spacious: king bed, three chairs and so much room to walk around. There's two closets and another closet with an iron and an ironing board. The bath has two sinks and two medicine cabinets and a rolling cart that has three shelves.
Next we got a reservation at front desk for a water taxi to the Euromast. The water taxi ride was really nice because it was so hot out and it took us straight there.
We had 10% discount coupons for our tickets. The elevator takes you to the observation level. Just one floor below is the restaurant. It's beautiful out here. The observation level is completely outside. We go around and get pictures of our ships, the ms Rotterdam, The New York Hotel, the ss Rotterdam, and the locks.
We decide the ship isn't leaving yet, so we go up the stairs to where they board the ride to the top. It's like a lot of amusement park tower rides. Rotates around as it rises to the top. But the glass is much clearer and not scratched so pictures turn out much better.
When we get back to the observation level we think we still have 40 minutes until the ship leaves, so we go into the restaurant and order a chocolate muffin and two cokes. But then the ship starts pulling out. So I went and asked the waitress to hold our order, we were going to watch the ship leave, then come back.
We went up to the level above the observation level and watched the ship leave and sail past the ss Rotterdam (our hotel for the night). Back to the restaurant, she not only held our order, but put a reserved sign on our table and held it also. Awesome.
We head down the tower knowing we need to find something to eat for dinner before going back to our hotel, because there is nothing around the hotel. We cross the street and check out a place, then go back and eat at the cafe at the base of the tower. We had two ham and cheese toasties, water and a Coke.
At 6:45 we start to head back to the ship/hotel. We tried to take the water taxi back, but couldn't call, so we waited at the dock about 10 minutes. Nothing came. Finally a group of people came and they called to go to the New York Hotel. Their taxi came about 10 minutes later and took them. He said he couldn't take us, but would call. We waited 30 more minutes and then headed out to catch two buses to near our ship and walk back (a 45 minute excursion instead of the 5 minute water taxi ride).
We have an early trip to the airport tomorrow. So we prepared and went to bed early.
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