After our three nights stay at Banks Mansion in Amsterdam, we caught a taxi to the Amsterdam cruise terminal for our embarkation on the Scenic Pearl.

This was our first river cruise, hence why we chose a short seven night one.  In fact, it was my husband’s first cruise of any sort, whereas I did an ocean trip from Singapore to Melbourne many years ago.We booked a Junior Suite, primarily for a little more space, and also for the table d’hote dining evening and the delivery of nibbles to our room each evening for us to enjoy with our predinner drinks.  We do love a pre-dinner drink!Upon arrival at the boat our luggage was taken, and we were shown to the lounge and offered a light lunch and drinks of all kinds while we waited for our cabin to be ready.  From memory we had some wine, and a toasted focaccia and got to meet a couple of our fellow guests.  After an hour or so our cabin was ready so off we went to unpack.  I believe we could have had our butler do it for us, but I much preferred to do it ourselves.

We were very happy with the location of our cabin, as it was the second one along on the top deck.  This meant that it was quick and easy to return to the cabin for a jacket, to use the bathroom or to simply pick up something if needed.

The cabin was a reasonable size and pleasant, without being overly luxurious.  I was glad at this point that we had paid extra for a junior suite as I wouldn’t have wanted to have a smaller sized cabin.  The cabin had excellent storage, with an entire wall of wardrobe space, drawers etc.  There was also a small desk area, with a small flat screen television.The bed was comfortable and queen-size and next to the bed was a large sliding door which opened on to our balcony.  There was also a very nice bathroom with both a bath and a shower, and a vanity with storage space.

After unpacking, we went back into Amsterdam to sample some fries from Mannekin Pis, before coming back on board to prepare for dinner.There was a talk and introduction before dinner in the main lounge.  We had the first sitting for the degustation dinner at Table La Rive, which was a delicious French meal.  We got to meet a few of our fellow travellers and had a lovely evening.