Public Servant Lifestyle

Lifestyle Review heads from the UK to Holland and back on a short city break with DFDS Seaways.

Brandon Davis heads out on the ocean waves for the 'Lifestyle Review', this time making his way from Newcastle to Holland and back with DFDS Seaways.

“Having driven effortlessly from Manchester to Newcastle we made our way to the long stay car park and were promptly able to put our car away safely and securely. We made our way by foot to the passenger lounge and were able to quickly retrieve our tickets from the check-in desk. After a comfortable forty-five minute wait we began to board our waiting vessel - the MS King of Scandinavia.

Romantic?

“Our boarding cards turned out to double as our room keys, which is a great idea that enabled us to swiftly make our way to our cabin and settle in for the trip. I would suggest upgrading to the commodore suite if your intentions for your journey are of a romantic nature, as bunk beds in the standard cabin make this more difficult – but not impossible!

"Having dropped our bags off in the cabin we decided to familiarise ourselves with the ships’ layout and book our table in the buffet dining lounge at the same time.

"Set out across several floors the ships’ layout has a good selection of restaurants and bars. The bars and lounge areas have a strange feeling of being slightly ‘disco’/1980’s in its layout, styling and ‘vibe’. The evening cabaret and entertainment on our particular trip I have to say matched this – but the end result was unfortunately just a little bit too ‘cheesey’ for my and my travelling companions’ particular taste, consisting of a cover version band and a dance group.

Food & Drink

"The buffet restaurant we chose to eat in provided a wide and varied selection of both hot and cold foods, however having chosen just a half bottle of house red to accompany our meal we were a little surprised at the overall cost of the meal.

"We slept quite comfortably during the crossing arriving in Amsterdam at around 9.30am. Greeted by a very friendly DFDS representative we were shown to our sightseeing tour bus that took us past most of the sites on route to heart of Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam itself we were left to our own devices for several hours to go sight seeing etc... With not an enormous amount of time to spend we decided to venture to just a single attraction and really see it, rather than trying to cram too many things in and rushing through. With that in mind – after consulting our guidebook – we picked the controversial exhibition The Bodies - which looks at human biology through a series of startling skinless tableaux - in the Beurs van Berlage. This proved to be fascinating and well worth a visit. Having taken in as many other sites as possible during our personal time (we strolled through the red light district, through the cities’ historic Dam Square and took a gentle stroll in the fine weather along the canals) then made our way back to the ship for our return journey.

Return Trip

We were a little surprised – particularly as it had been something that had made us chuckle the first time around - that the cabaret and entertainment was actually the self same act as on the way over to Amsterdam. As a result we decided to venture to the lower deck and watch one of the movies. However much to our disappointment the quality of the print at the screening was so poor we felt we had to return to the reception and register our complaint. Happily the staff dealt with this issue promptly and we were offered a full refund – and it was back for more of the same entertainment during the evening with an early night in mind.

We arrived back to Newcastle in the morning following a smooth departure and easy crossing and – I was back behind the wheel of the car making our way back to Manchester.

"All in all - setting aside our chuckles at the '80's cabaret and our gripe over the mid-sail film - based on this trip I'd say DFDS Seaways offer a fun, smooth quirky way to travel to Amsterdam and with their value for money prices it’s well worth the trip.

DFDS Seaways was founded in 1866 and today operates on four routes employing approximately 1,500 full-time. The route operated are: (the route we took) Newcastle - Amsterdam, Newcastle - Stavanger - Haugesund - Bergen, Harwich - Esbjerg and Copenhagen - Oslo. The firm operates a fleet of six modern passenger ships: King of Scandinavia, Queen of Scandinavia, Princess of Norway, Dana Sirena, Pearl of Scandinavia and Crown of Scandinavia.

For more information about DFDS Seaways and the trips they operate, visit the company website: www.dfds.co.uk/DSW/EN/

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