Curaçao day 1: Amsterdam to Curaçao, Chogogo dive and beach resort

Today after all the corona misery we can finally go on holiday again. We decided to go to Curaçao, although I do think the temperature is rather high there it is one of the destinations where we can go without much corona testing, quarantine etc.. For this holiday I bought two new cameras, a Sony RX100M7 and an Olympus TG-6. The first one is kind of a smaller version of the RX10M4 with less zoom and a slower lens (bigger f number). Hence there are some disadvantages to this camera, however the big advantage is that it is really small. For this holiday we did not like to cary around a big camera, and there was also not that much point (for the things we expected to photograph). The TG-6 is waterproof, as we are intending to go snorkling. The quality of the photographs of the TG-6 are nowhere near those of the RX100M7 but of course it is half the price and the RX100M7 is not waterproof. There are underwater casings for the RX100M7, but those are rather expensive and not sure how practical those are.

This time we went again with the car to Schiphol airport. We reserved a parking spot in the P3 garage. After passing the boom we stopped to remove the suitcases from the car. While doing that somebody came out from a small building (N52.321495, E4.767567) close to where we stood to ask if we were flying with KLM or TUI. If so we could drop off our bags right there and we did not have to take them to the terminal. That looked attractive to us as there was no line whatsoever so we did that. Turned out to be the fastest check-in and baggage drop off ever! Once that was done we took the ferry bus to the terminal and we could proceed to security etc. After that we got some coffee as we still had to wait for the gate to open. Some time later we finished the coffee and proceeded to the gate. We will go with this airplane:

Once we finally got onboard there is an announcement made that the flight will delay because some passengers are still checking in. They were late at the gate due to lack of ground personnel at TUI… Luckily we checked in already at the parking garage and did not have to stand in line for who knows how long. Once everybody is finally on board the plane got a push-back and then proceeded to taxi to the runway. First north then east then crossing runway 09/27:

then in the direction of 18L. This is the track (from flightradar24.com):

And the Jeppesen taxi chart:

After takeoff we fly first a bit south then north and finally towards England:

After passing Ireland we start turning more towards the south. Not a 100% the fasted route (= Great circle, but close):

To kill the time I watched the movie “Dunkirk”. I saw that one before, but the choice was also not that big, and I liked it the first time. I also watched “Just Mercy”. I liked that one as well. Hard to imagine how such wrongs can happen in a justice system.

After quite a while we passed Sint Maarten:

We arrive at Curaçao in a sort of direct base leg:

We arrived:

After passing immigation and customs we went to transfer bus to take us to the resort. We have a rental car reserved but only in 2 days time, we can pick that one up right next to the hotel. After quite some drive we ended up at the Chogogo Dive & beach resort Curacao, we checekd in and went to our room. The view was kind of disappointing, we paid a bit extra for sea view. If you look carefully ( first click on the photograph) you can indeed see the sea (N12.079783 W68.877785)… But to call this “Side sea view” is a bit overstating

The room itself is ok:

Bathroom:

Once all our stuff was in the room we went back to the bar (close to the reception), to get our free welcome drink. Also helps us stay awake to kill the jet lag