Rotterdam Instead of Zeebrugge

NCL Getaway Transatlantic, Day 14

May 13, 2017 - At Sea and Rotterdam

We were suppose to be calling at Zeebrugge today, but due to the engine problem which caused us getting into Southampton late, we did not have enough time to get to Zeebrugge on time as planned. The ship would be sailing directly from Southampton to Rotterdam, our next port of call. We should be arriving Rotterdam on Sunday morning. Having been up til late last night, and expecting that it will be another sea day, we slept in until it was almost time for lunch. 

Something on TV caught MOR's attention while he was watching all that ship information. Wait, it says we will arrive Rotterdam at 6pm. Does that mean we are going to be late getting in port again tomorrow? We cannot take another cancel port. Please Lord! Then we took a closer look as the information ran through the screen again. It says 6:00pm Saturday, which means instead of tomorrow, we will arrive Rotterdam this evening! What a relief and what good news! Then the captain went on the PA system and made the official announcement about the early arrival and overnight in Rotterdam. Finally, some good news coming out on the Getaway for a change. 

With the early arrival, we had to change our plans. We had reservations for Le Bistro at 7:30 but with this change I sure did not want to sit inside the restaurant when we can spend that time exploring the city. I went down to see if we can change our time but everything was booked until the end of this cruise. The only alternative was to change our reservations to Cagney's which had a 9:15 slot on the last sea day. With no other choices, we took that slot and hoping that someone would cancel their Le Bistro booking on these last couple of days. We were told to just keep checking for cancellation.

Taking a walk on deck 8.

Sailing into Rotterdam

We spent our afternoon staying out on our balcony watching the ship sailing into the waterway towards Rotterdam. It was like an 18-mile sailing through with interesting sights along the way and we had the best views from the back of the ship.

As we were entering the channel into Maas River.

Noorderhoofd

Beach

The HAL Rotterdam sailing past us, in Rotterdam.

We will be on the Zuiderdam after this cruise.

The old MS Rotterdam, which is now a hotel.

Euromast, the observation tower with a restaurant.

These water taxis can really make waves.

Docking at the Rotterdam cruise terminal right before the Erasmus Bridge.

Looked like a party boat at the end of the pier.

Getaway docked at the Port of Rotterdam at 6:10pm.

The old Holland America Headquarters building.

At 6:30, MOR and I went down to Shanghai Noodle to have some food before getting off at 7:15. Food was coming out very slowly so we had to call the others and changed our meeting time for 7:30 instead. We sat with a woman who was with the huge 200+ group from New York. She told us about their messed up Southampton stop. She said they did not get off the ship until after 5pm that day and their tour buses left after waiting so many hours. They paid over $100 pp for that tour and not sure if they could even get their money back. She said some people managed to hire a taxi to go into London and made it back on time but she did not want to risk it and ended up just walking around Southampton. She was very disappointed because London was on her wish list and regretted not getting there on this trip. 

An Evening in Rotterdam

It was an easy walk off the the ship and we were outside the terminal in just a few minutes time. No lines, no hassle. 

Flowers and balloons. Nice!

We made a left turn towards the bridge when we got outside of the terminal .

The Erasmus bridge (Erasmusbrug) was just a few minutes walk away.

Tram on the bridge. This kind of reminded me of Istanbul.

Quite a few people were on this bridge by now. Most people were heading towards the city center area.

A photo taken from the bridge with Getaway on the left side and the Euromast on the right.

The bridge and Getaway.

Instead of going into downtown, we took the little walkway off the bridge down to the waterfront. We needed to find the pier where we would catch the water bus 202 to the windmills the next day.

Waterfront under the bridge.

Silly!

There is a souvenir shop under the bridge and I was attracted by these wooden tulips. These were the best I have found, only about $2.00 to $3.00 each.

The tiny Waterfront Souvenir Shop. The owner also pointed out to me where the pier would be for water bus #202 which was not too far away.

This is the bridge that leads to the water bus pier. The problem was the sign posted of the schedule was very confusing with 8:35am as the first bus leaving there. There was a mark on that 8:35 bus that seems to mean that it's only available on weekdays. Tomorrow is Sunday and we wondered if that one would be running.

Just then, a water bus pulled into the pier and the captain came off. He assured us that yes, tomorrow 8:35, first boat. We were set to take that one early the next morning without realizing that the captain gave us the wrong information.

Evening walk around Rotterdam

We then set out to walk around the waterfront part of this city towards the Euromast looking for the restaurant that ChC wanted to try along the way. Here are some photos of beautiful buildings that we saw.

Made a right turn at the end near the Rowing Club.

Veerhaven marina.

Beautiful flowers of the chestnut trees.

Top of the marina.

We followed Veerhaven back down to the waterfront.

and the Getaway again

Photographers from the Getaway were waiting there with their equipment all set up, probably for the moment of a good sunset shot.

We could see our aft cabins there.

So pretty!

We found the restaurant where ChC wanted to try but we were too late. The restaurant was already closed, only the bar was still open. They guy said don't even try to come tomorrow because they were expecting a lot of people there for the big soccer game the next day. Disappointed, but what can we do?

Continued our walk towards the Euromast.

New Ocean Paradise, a floating hotel, restaurant, and Asian market in a Chinese style structure. Since it was late into the evening, we did not attempt to check this place out. This is right across from the Euromast.

near the Euromast

We even saw a Chinese pavilion at the end of the park.

The Het Dam Pavilion and Euromast.

We thought of going inside Het Park but it was getting dark and we probably won't be able to see anything anyway, so we gave up that idea.

Eventually we made our way back to the waterfront. It was a really nice walk around this area. So peaceful and serene.

Back on the bridge...

...to the cruise terminal. We were all very tired and hungry by now after the long walk so we all headed up to the buffet for some snacks. Not much was offered at that hour so I had a cheese burger which was a little dried up with the bun crumbling into pieces when bite into it. That's it for the night and time to go to sleep! Need to get up early tomorrow.