We had a few criticisms but on the whole we thought the experience was very good and would do it again if the need arose (and it will in September). Our biggest problem was the timing of arrivals in the ports (which was not in the control of the ship's officers). We had Good Friday in Tauranga with hordes of holiday makers, Easter Sunday in Napier, only three hours late in the afternoon at Colon (Panama),10pm arrival in Savannah and 11pm in Philadelphia. Then we missed out on Jamaica and Tilbury altogether, but we did see a few hours of Rotterdam. As we sailed into Rotterdam we saw loading wharves everywhere and we noticed some large barges with stacks of about 20 containers which Pierre told us were heading for the inland rivers and canals; seems much better than using trucks or trains.
They use this system for delivering oil products.
We saw a couple of traditional dutch windmills like the one they put on our mobile phone but also a huge number of modern generator windmills; enough to power a whole city?
The Manet was booked to berth at 3pm but tied up at 2.30pm. There was no immigration procedure
on board and we were surprised to be able to climb into a Citroen MPV taxi at 3.15pm after bidding farewell to our fellow passengers and crew. The driver took us straight to an ATM so we could pay him in Euros, then to the POLITIE office to clear our arrival. He dropped us at the P&O wharf at 4.15pm, we paid him 200 euros for the taxi and the ship tickets and we decided to go to a quaint hotel in the middle of the industrial area for afternoon tea of coffee, soup and bread roll which served as our dinner. The hotel patrons spoke very loudly and that seems typical of Dutch people; at least they all speak very good English. We bought some apple pies and a bag of chips on the wharf and negotiated immigration again as we were only officially in Holland for about 3 hours. They stamped our passports this time.
On board we found our cabin which was a double bunk room about 50% bigger than the Indian Pacific Gold Class;big enough but we had the whole ship to wander around and it was set up just like a smallish cruise ship with shops, lounges, buffets, restaurants and bars. We went up to level 12 which was level with the bridge so we could watch the "SPIRIT OF HULL" exit from the port through the sky lounge windows. We were entertained by a pianist and agreed that 118 euros was very cheap for an overnight crossing of 10 hours. We still do no understand why our tickets were sold as returning on the next day but were supposed to be cheaper than single tickets. The ship was very quiet and steady in comparison with the Manet and we slept well.
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