Amsterdam, Brussels, then France?

There are actually five TGV trains a day- at 0817, 1017, 1317, 1617 and 1817 which do the Brussels to Lyon journey direct in 3 hours 43 minutes.

So you could do Day 1 arrive AMS, Day 2 tulips at Keukenhof or elsewhere, then transfer by train the evening of Day 2 or morning of Day 3 to Bruges or Ghent (on Eurostar/Thalys or Inter City to Brussels, then local train).

Then say Day 5 one of those direct trains from Brussels to Lyons to embark on Day 6. It may not be advisable (in case of unforeseen events on the train) but the 0817 would allow same day embarkation.

Then post cruise go to Paris for a few days.

Book an open jaw/multi city flight- in to AMS, out of CDG.

Thank you! I hadn't even thought of doing Paris post-cruise. That train from Brussels to Lyon would be just the ticket, so to speak.

When exactly in April do you plan to do this? The tulips don’t bloom the entire month.

I would spend at least 3 nights in Amsterdam and go from there to Paris if you can spend a few days there or just head right on to Lyon for your boat. You want one of those days to go to the great tulip 'museum' of Keukenhof. I saw this in the spring of 1961 and still remember the amazing diversity of tulips -- it was beautiful. There were fields and fields and small gardens of dozens of different varieties. Brussels is IMHO not worth the effort when you are limited in time. I think you really need 3 nights minimum in Amsterdam one day for Keukenhof and one day for Amsterdam - if you only have a few nights maybe that is enough. I would not want Paris for fewer than another 3 nights but if you can be very disciplined, a couple of nights and day could be nice. We have spent one evening in London and had a great time - BUT we had no illusion of seeing london -- we had fish and chips at a pub, went to a Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy and walked across Westminster Bridge -- and that was it -- for our one evening.

In Paris you could do a Seine Cruise, have a nice dinner, get drinks on a pretty square and stroll and call it a day. It is always worth adding things onto the starts and ends of river tours if you can get the time.

My rule of thumb: Every move from one city to another costs me at least two-thirds of a day travelling. Does your trip afford the extra time to do justice to all these once-in-a-lifetime locations?

Dutch traveler -
We will be on our Rhone cruise April 12-19, so we could visit Amsterdam either before or after that trip. When will the tulips be blooming?

One relevant URL for you:
https://keukenhof.nl/en/

No one knows what the spring weather will be like. Besides the fact that people will ask you if you went, one reason to go to Keukenhof (there are other options) is that it's a highly managed and engineered botanical garden that hardens and plants bulbs for a season-long bloom, with rotation of plants when needed.

I think you are spending too much time traveling. But I have had the luxury of multiple trips to Europe, so I never think I might never pass this way again. I avoid hotel stays under three nights. You might also contrast having everything done for you (on the boat) and Independent Travel, which is quite a lot of work, even for the experienced. Taking the train is not that hard, but there are posters here that are terrified by the idea of changing trains along the way. Taking my mighty, independent, SUV to the mall at Christmas, now THAT'S terrifying.

“ We will be on our Rhone cruise April 12-19, so we could visit Amsterdam either before or after that trip. When will the tulips be blooming?”

The tulips in the vast tulip fields usually bloom in the second half of April, so if it’s the tulips you wish to see, I would definitely recommend you to visit the flower region after your cruise. The flower region also produces bulbs of hyacinths, daffodils etc, these flowers bloom earlier than the tulips
The Keukenhof is a flower garden meant to showcase all the spring bulb flowers that the bulb farmers in the immediate area produce. They use all kinds of planting techniques such as layered planting to make sure there are flowers in bloom during the time the Keukenhof is open. The tulips in the huge famous flower fields however are solely dependent on Mother Nature to decide when they will bloom. You have by far the best shot of seeing these tulip fields if you visit after your cruise.
A warning though; next year we have a late Easter. Which means that Easter is on Sunday April 20, 2025. The flower area will be even more busy than usual and hotel prices will reflect that. I would suggest you to book a refundable hotel room asap.

I appreciate all the great suggestions. I'm thinking we will skip Belgium this time and do Amsterdam and Paris, pre/post cruise. Is there a train from Amsterdam to Lyon? Would that be on Eurostar?

One other question - isn't there a flower market in Amsterdam, where cut flowers are shipped all over the world? I thought I saw a Rick Steves episode showing that. Or is that somewhere else?

I think you mean the Royal Flora Holland flower auction. It’s in Aalsmeer, not in Amsterdam,
You can visit it from Amsterdam, but you’ll need to get up early as most action takes place in the early morning
https://www.royalfloraholland.com/en/about-us-old/who-we-are/ambition/visit-our-floriculture-marketplace

Amsterdam to Lyon has no direct service. You could take Eurostar/Thalys to Paris Nord then cross Paris to the Gare de Lyon for Lyon; or Eurostar (ex Thalys)/ Inter City to Brussels, connecting into one of the through trains from there- the easiest option.

For instance for the 1017 from Brussels- leave from Amsterdam at 0625 on an Inter City to Brussels Midi arrive 0917 or the Eurostar/Thalys at 0708 arrive Brussels Midi at 0908. So in both cases a healthy 1 hour connection in Brussels.

On that 1017 from Brussels the NS international website even offers you travel from AMS to BRU on the day cars of the 0631 European Sleeper from Prague. Not a good idea in case it has been delayed on it's long journey west.

The IC is cheaper, but in the overall context of the cost of the vacation the difference is relatively negligible. For someone travelling in the Low Countries exclusively many here would suggest the Inter City. In this case I think I could justify the extra over cost of the Eurostar.

On the Eurostar an extra 14 Euro even gives you 1st class (soon to be renamed as Eurostar Plus), or 26 Euro for Premium (so a meal service as well plus Lounge access at AMS and BRU, admittedly airline style catering).

On the TGV the extra over cost of 1st class is a subtler question, but depending on your date of travel could be as low as 20 Euro.