Amsterdam City Council Going Mad?

There are many of us who love to take a short cruise break and even more so for those people who have not yet cruised, a short cruise is a great way to see what a cruise is all about.  One of the cruises which are particularly popular are the ones that call into Amsterdam.  For obvious reasons Amsterdam is a great place to visit.  However, it “seems” that the pesky council/government tax, (call it what you will) is perhaps spoiling this for a few people.

The city council have decided to charge a tourist tax that has come into force on January 1st. Basically this now means that some cruise lines will not dock into Amsterdam but in IJmuiden which is about half an hour away. Now I do have to say that at the moment not ALL the cruise lines are coming out of Amsterdam however, I do think a lot will.  At the moment we have P&O and Cunard who will now go to Ijmuiden and then we have Cruise & Maritime and MSC who are now going to Rotterdam.   This you can imagine, has caused many disappointed clients who were particularly looking forward to a quick hop into the centre of Amsterdam, and then there are the ones with MSC and Cruise & Maritime who will be going to Rotterdam instead. Rotterdam is a nice place to visit but it is not Amsterdam!

I can certainly understand why some of the cruise lines have made this decision though, as this new charge will cost them a fortune.  Just look at all of the destinations around the world which now charge accommodation tax, from the “local government” it is just another way of making money to the detriment of the people who visit and actually bring money into the local economy, such a shame.

The other cruise lines who have not made any decision as yet are Fred Olsen, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Viking, Holland America, NCL, Costa and Marella – these all are still going into Amsterdam but for how long?  It will be very interesting to see if they can continue to stop in Amsterdam knowing what incredible charges they will have to pay, OR will they pass this onto you in the cost?

Time will tell!

Till next time x