Globus River Cruise April 2009

River Cruise on Globus/Avalon Waterways Tulip Time on the MS Poetry-Lucy

Yes, the tulips were in full bloom but they are not planted along the waterways of the Netherlands. You need to know this before you sell this particular itinerary. I should also mention that most of where we cruised was industrial port towns, not picturesque little towns that are postcard like. The Netherlands is industrial for the most part and the waterways are industrial.

That said, we still had a wonderful time. The cruise director, Hendrick was wonderful and really made us all “get together”. The towns were mostly interesting and quaint (Rotterdam not so much) and the ship docks were walking distance from most of the city centers. The tours were nice and part of the overall cruise price but if you have clients who are elderly and not great walkers, this is not good for them-loads of walking on uneven pavement. Bruges was by far the best and I need to go back for a few days.

The ship was nice and very well laid out. Our cabin was small but I knew that going in-NCL and RCI like in size. You do need to like who you are traveling with. The only really complaint I have of the Poetry is that at 5ft9 and a few pounds overweight I had a tough time in the shower-it was really small. I could not scrub my back without my elbows hitting the glass doors. Seriously, it was uncomfortably not wide enough.

There is a nice internet café on the ship and a wonderful sun deck with no cover so if it is raining, you will get wet. The exercise room was not well equipped but I didn’t expect it to be. There was no hot tub on the top deck but one was located in the exercise room, it was never used. The food was good but not wonderful and the wait staff was lovely, really lovely. FYI, the meals are served at specific times and if you are not eating during that period, you are out of luck-not like “regular” cruise ships and there is no room service unless you are sick. I also noticed that the passengers did not dress for dinner like you do on a “normal” cruise ship.

I would like to do this again but would do a Danube cruise as there is more to see while actually cruising.