Friday 19 September 2014

DFDS Mini Cruise to Amsterdam // Review & Photos

I have such a love of travel, but when you're a cheap-skate like me it can be difficult to do as much travelling as I'd like to. So when I was browsing through the Living Social website, the 'Escapes' section caught my eye. On there I found a deal for a mini cruise to Amsterdam, at the low price of £79 for two people - between my boyfriend and I it would be  a mere £40 each. We invited a few friends and booked it immediately.

The Details

Price - £79 for two people.
Length - 2 nights on board (we left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived home on Friday morning)
Time in Amsterdam - 5 hours.

When the day of our trip finally rolled around, we got a taxi to North Shields ferry terminal, and checked in. This was so much easier than I imagined - we showed our passports and we got given a boarding card which doubled as our room key. Our rooms were absolutely tiny, but for two nights it had everything we needed - and for the price, we really didn't mind!

The journey itself was fine; I get sea sick but on a boat this big I barely felt a thing. The boat was really expensive which to us was the only downfall - it was over 5 euros for a Smirnoff Ice, which left us feeling gobsmacked. We raided the duty free for alcohol and mixers and had a few sneaky pre drinks in our cabin, before heading to one of the bars to take part in the quiz... which we won!

We docked at around 9.30am on Thursday morning, and boarded a coach which took us from the port into Amsterdam itself - this transfer was included in what we had already paid. It took around 40 minutes, and there we were in Amsterdam. We decided to find somewhere to eat, and down a side street we found a lovely cafe which did full English breakfasts for just over 6 euros.

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around the streets, exploring the Red Light district and admiring the canals. Being there for 5 hours meant we couldn't go to one of the museums or the Anne Frank house, because we didn't want to run the risk of missing our return coach journey. It also meant we had an excessive amount of time to not do much - that was our only negative point; 5 hours isn't enough time, but it's also too much time.

Amsterdam is beautiful, full of bikes and happy people, fantastic architecture and crazy coffee shops. It's not as expensive as I thought it would be, and even in September the weather was lovely. On the whole I would so recommend the DFDS mini cruise, because it gave us the chance to visit a wonderful city for such a cheap price, with the added bonus of two hilarious nights on board a ferry.

DFDS Seaways Ferry.

The Bulldog Coffee Shop, Amsterdam.

One of many canals...

My clique in The Dam.

Jack and Rose/My boyfriend and I

This is my favourite ever photo of us!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my trip and if you are considering a DFDS mini cruise, definitely go for it!



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