Trains, Seniors and Luggage

The obvious answer to reducing the stress associated with so many roller bags is to bring half as much stuff and only have to deal with one bag each. If that solution doesn't seem reasonable to you, then I would consider looking at different transfer options from the airport to the cruise port where luggage handling won't be such an issue.

My first step would be to contact the cruise line and ask if they have airport to port transfer buses available. Then, I would look at shared shuttle or transfer services.

Reducing bags just doesn't work. We will be in Europe for 10 weeks all North of Rotterdam including 3 weeks in London.

Can't get everything in a carry on so we need a carry on for survival gear when the checked pieces get lost.

During our cruise time we will be expected to wear nice clothes to dinner occasionally.

HAL hasn't even announced the port change yet so support from that direction is pretty worthless.

If I walk out of the airport will I find shuttles? Should I try and book one ahead, any recommendations? I will contact the hotel to see if they have a suggestion.
Thank you.

I agree with Carol. We only each take a 22” rollerboard and a small backpack whether we travel for one or six weeks, worldwide. We have taken trains but usually avoid them, preferring to rent cars. The title of your post says it all. It will be very, very difficult to do this.
Are you able to lift your bags onto racks at end of train cars, if there room left? Or pick bags up and put them on smaller racks above your seats? That is the reality you will face.
There also are luggage shipping services available from your home to destination. Google will give you a list of these companies. That may be your answer. I have seen posts here about doing that.
Good luck figuring this out, and then enjoy cruise.

That looks to be a relatively short train ride. I don't suspect you'll be in any great rush to go from the airport to the train station (it appears to be a high-frequency route) so time is on your side, ignore the myriad of packing advice posts, take what you want for your 10-week trip, take a deep breath and be relaxed. I'm sure you can use luggage carts between arrivals and the train station so NO probs handling your collective 4 bags after arrival.

I know nothing about this route but it could be just a back and forth commuter train. Typically trains have luggage storage at the entrances so zero need to lift them to the overheads.
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I've been riding the rails in Europe for years, all shapes, all sizes, rolling around with a 26" bag, packed to the seams almost bursting, and a day pack - no problems.

It’s not really easy, but it’s not that difficult as the first replies make it seem. I would however suggest to take a taxi from Rotterdam train station to the cruise terminal instead of the metro/subway.
When you arrive at Schiphol and have picked up your luggage you follow the signs to the trains. It’s easiest to buy your tickets online, but you can also buy them at the train station. The fastest and easiest train to catch to Rotterdam is the Intercity Direct service, this train uses the highspeed rail line and takes you to Rotterdam in only 26 minutes. I frequently take this train, so I know this route and the train very well. The only tricky part is to get your luggage on the train, this requires 3 steps. But that’s it. You don’t have to place your luggage in a luggage rack, nor in a rack above your seats. So you don’t have to be able to lift your luggage above your head. There will be many people on the train with luggage and more often than not I’ve seen other passengers helping those with luggage. I certainly always do so myself. You can place your luggage near your seat, many people do so because there are no luggage racks. You will likely have more space in 1st class, but it’s only a short train ride.
Be aware that in addition to the train ticket from Schiphol to Rotterdam you need to buy a supplement ticket because the train uses the highspeed railway. See here for details about this supplement https://www.ns.nl/en/season-tickets/other/intercity-direct-supplement.html

If you have any additional questions please don’t hesitate to come back and ask!

You say you are unable to do less than those two bags each, yet you say you are packing your carryon for when your bags get lost. So, you are already ready to not have your two bags. Therefore, you are ready to have one bag, but have it lost too. Same thing. So, pack one bag, if it goes missing, you are with the same carryon survival bag that you would have had whether you started with one or two checked bags. If the one bag makes it through, you are ahead of your self imposed plan to end up with only your survival bag.
And, you learn what it is use one bag. Perhaps your packing has always been predicated on two bags and you a fixed in your mind. Look at this as a chance to change your style and convenience of travel.
Even one larger bag would be better than trying to maneuver your two bags through trains.

Holland America has just move departures and arrivals from Amsterdam to Rotterdam thru October and hasn't told the passengers yet

Umm, so how do you know this?

No personal experience, but this may be a solution

https://www.suntransfers.com/

or just take a taxi?

I think it's risky to expect someone else to help you. I can't always even count on help getting my carryon out of an overhead bin on an international flight when the overhead bins are way above my head. Hopefully this train will stop longer than some on of the ones I've been on where you have maybe 3 minutes to get yourself and your luggage on or off a train. And I can't imagine carrying all those bags on a subway, but maybe others would not be as intimidated by this idea.

If indeed the cruise line has moved the departure from one port to another this is one of those cases where it is worth it to purchase the cruise transfer. That way you get on the bus, they load the luggage, and deposit you at the cruise terminal. No dealing with getting on/off trains, transfers, etc.

In the Netherlands trains are a very common and popular means of transport. A lot of people travel to and from Schiphol Airport by train, with luggage. So what the OP wants to do is a perfectly normal thing to do in the Netherlands. The train will most definitely stop long enough at Schiphol to make sure that arriving passengers can get off with all their luggage and new passengers can board with their luggage. And at Rotterdam it will also stop long enough to safely get off the train. I travel frequently on this particular route and there are always lots of people with luggage on the train.
Like I wrote earlier, the only lifting the OP will have to do is to lift their luggage up and down 3 steps. There are no overhead bins or luggage racks on the train, so there is no heavy lifting involved.

Thanks everyone I will try and work backwards and respond where I can.

First, the Holland America part. I participate in a Forum called Cruise Critic. There as a subset of Holland America are separate forums for each cruise. I am currently registered on 4 of them. One of them begins this Sunday. As of now, Tuesday everything HAL says it departs Amsterdam. On these forums there are maybe 10 cruisers from the Netherlands.
They report that because of the low water in the rivers they can't use the port of Amsterdam because they don't want the salt water to swamp the estuaries. This has been going on for over a month. The passengers on the first cruise diverted received 3 days notice.
This was just posted this morning on the forum.
https://sea.cruiseportamsterdam.com/update-ms-rotterdam/
This has been covered extensively in Amsterdam. We are 5 days from our cruise and we have not been notified of the change. The Cruise Critic Roll Call for this cruise might contain 40 persons. The cruise will have 2600, probably half will be new and half will be remaining on board.
None of the new people have been notified and the same goes for the next 6 cruises. All of those new passengers are booking Amsterdam for a Rotterdam departure. A small group of 4 is talking 450 euros for a van.

My carry on will be good for 3 days, not 10 weeks. The stuff that will be lost is a sports coat , my rain coat, a fleece jacket, tennis shoes, three dress shirts, some pull over shirts and a couple more pairs of pants. It is a burden eating in nice restaurants 3 or 4 times a week. Three weeks in London in September, tell me about the weather? How about Iceland, Scotland and Norway. 90 degrees in Rotterdam Monday, low 60's and possible rain by the weekend.

So yes, a little bit of anxiety about the train and luggage. But, if nothing is lost it will only be a pain for a few hours.

Taxi from Central to Cruise Port. That sounds good. I had / have a little concern as I have read that they charge extra for luggage. Like 15 euros each ?

The link for suntransfers does not work.

The Cruise Line solution. What they did on each of the 3 previous cruises is leave everybody on there own and provided them $50 each in onboard credit. For me I had 3 nights reserved in Amsterdam and 3 nights reserved in Rotterdam. When I became confident in the change I canceled Amsterdam. Now at Schipol I make a left turn instead of a right turn. and get a little longer train ride.

I am planning on purchasing the OV-Chipkaart so adding the direct looks easy. Don't know if it matters as check in is 5pm.

thanks all

Have put a new suntransfers link in earlier post (this one https://www.suntransfers.com/)

I suspect the one I did earlier 'expired' as it was at the point where it showed the choices/prices for the trip form AMS to Rotterdam ( ~150 euro)

Hope this one works, so you can explore your options

I will relate our experience, perhaps it may help.

Our first trip to Europe began on April 2nd, when we set sail from Ft. Lauderdale, bound for Hamburg. Our destination was Haarlem, so we asked for and were granted permission to disembark when the ship stopped in Rotterdam. My journal indicates that we took a taxi from the port to the train station, and then took the train to Haarlem. We each carried a backpack and had a suitcase that was packed to comply with European airline weight and size limits. Handling two rolling bags each would have been very difficult, and I'll just leave it at that.

That transatlantic cruise was cold to us, having spent all winter in Florida. Layers took care of that, and continued to do so throughout our trip, which concluded November 18th, when our return cruise docked at Port Canaveral. I must note here that on neither cruise ship would there have been room for two additional suitcases in our cabin.

During that time we visited the Netherlands, France, England, Scotland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Layers handled all the different weather. We did laundry regularly, just like at home.

Are you spending the entire time onboard the cruise? They offer laundry services. Shipping your dressier clothing home is and option if you're not spending the entire trip on the cruise.

If you are taking the train, you move all your baggage yourself. When we got on a train, I carried my backpack, and my husband moved his backpack and two suitcases onto and off of the (always) busy trains. It was not always easy.

Anyways, perhaps some things to think about. Have a good trip.

1) Well Holland America is not the same as Viking. I can't afford Viking! 2) It is 7 weeks crusing not 10. 3) one of the reasons I can afford 7 weeks cruising is I don't throw money around on triple priced hotels so somebody can carry my bags. Sometimes this reading is tough to follow.

For the rest of you, I just got an email from HAL announcing the port change. "If you made pre cruise arrangements thru HAL for triple priced rooms your transportation will be taken care of." So if I get $100 OBC I will survive.

Thank goodness for cruise critic! And that’s not meant sarcastically. Real-time and boots on the ground seem to be faster than the corporate communication. I do agree with Dutch traveler about a taking a taxi in Rotterdam rather than trying for a metro. I know 15e might sound steep, if that is indeed the case, but a injury at that point in your trip would ruin it for you. You’d be managing a lot of stuff in a system that isn’t necessarily meant for that.

@aa7yy; I think perhaps you misread something because taxi’s in the Netherlands don’t charge €15 per suitcase. Perhaps you read a story about someone who was ripped off by a taxi driver? When you exit the train station follow the signs to the taxi stand. Make sure the driver turns on the meter and confirm that luggage is included in the metered price (just to be on the safe side)

And like you, I’m puzzled (to put it nicely), by some of the replies here. I wonder how many of the posters actually took the train from Schiphol to Rotterdam. It’s not the climbing expedition that some posters make it seem. Also, how you many bags you want to bring and how you choose to spend your money is nobody’s business. You certainly don’t need to justify yourself for wanting to use public transport.

By the way; Should you wish to go by metro to the cruise terminal that’s certainly doable as well. The metro car doesn’t have steps, you can easily roll your suitcases on board and there will be plenty of space to put them. The only tricky part is that the metro is below ground, but there are elevators and escalators.

Thank you very much! Yea, for a while I thought I was on Twitter 😁

OP I’m glad you found a solution that seems like it will work for you. One of the challenges on the forum is that people will often read the original question and then answer without reading any of the following posts. Anyone who read as far as the second post learned repacking was not a viable option and that should have been the end of those suggestions. You, understandably, became upset as people keep giving you advice that didn’t fit the information you provided.

I hope you have a wonderful trip!

For the rest of you, I just got an email from HAL announcing the port change. "If you made pre cruise arrangements thru HAL for triple priced rooms your transportation will be taken care of." So if I get $100 OBC I will survive.

i have not done a cruise, so please excuse my ignorance, but what is a "triple priced room"?

Is that a room for 3 people or a room that is 3 times the 'normal' rate? or...?

Why not look into the cost of a private transfer from airport to cruise terminal. It will be easier with the number of bags you have not including the fact that you'll be coming off a transatlantic flight and may be dealing with jet lag.

Sometimes spending a bit more makes life a lot easier.

I'm with you, Frank. Save money when you can, but sometimes when a problem pops up, you have to throw money at it.
Joe's link is in the 125-135€ range for the taxi, while HAL is giving $100 OBC. With three legs and two transfers, that taxi looks good.

I'm with Frank and Bets - I'd definitely use a taxi. We normally prefer taxis when we are bleary eyed from a transatlantic flight but it's especially warranted in your situation. Sometimes it makes sense to spend a little more.

Back to your mobile clothes closet. The magic word is "wasserette". Google translates as "laundromat". Probably there are local nicknames. Whatever the word, that's where you can cut your necessary bags in half. It will take some time, but think positive: You're meeting the locals, learning new mechanical skills, and finding liquid refreshment nearby as other customers will be glad to point out.
Some European hotels have laundry facilities. So do some cruise ships. Both will do the work for you upon request, and substantial payment. I'd rather mix and mingle.

I remember when we lived in Germany from 1987-1991 we took the train a lot. The wife and kids would go inside and get a compartment and lower the window, I would be outside the window and hand the suitcases to her through the window.
You can't do that anymore. Also, most trains seem to not have compartments.

Im not sure why this topic was brought up again in October, and not by the OP. The OP started it on August 16 and indicated that they would arrive that Thursday. Their bags were already packed weeks ago. I hope everything went well, and that the OP is still enjoying what I hope to be is a great trip!

Would be interesting to know what OP did and how it worked out.

As usual I think I'm 100% with Dutch Traveler. It's not a big deal to wheel your bags onto a train at Schipol. And people will help you if you ask, and often if you don't.

And a taxi in Rotterdam is the right call too.

OP you might make life slightly easier if you make your carry on a backpack instead of a roller bag? When I occasionally travel heavy domestically this is my preferred configuration over two rolling bags.