On Friday 6th April the Forth 1 team took almost 800 listeners took a voyage from Newcastle to Amsterdam on the biggest party of the year – Boogie on the Boat!

I had just finished the breakfast show with Grant on Clyde 1 on the Friday morning and so I headed straight down to Newcastle from Glasgow after my 4am rise (hardcore) with my boyfriend, Callum who was DJing on the boat so I was really sleepy by the time we boarded the King Seaways, but because of the excitement of the party, the anticipation of heading to Amsterdam and of course the brilliant (and very loud) crowd we were with, I could only manage a wee 20 minute nap! After a few drinks, we headed down to Deck 9 where the bar and dance floor are to meet everyone on the boat and have the welcome meeting with the one and only Boogie, Arlene and Marty from Boogie in the Morning! It’s always great fun and the best way to start the party. Breakfast and dinner on the boat are in a buffet style and there is loads to choose from, which is amazing for a total foodie like me and perfect for lining your stomach for a night on the sauce (and not the Heinz kind)!

Friday night everyone gets dressed up and has a party, dancing till’ 3am, often with the party continuing afterwards at the bar or in rooms! It’s a great laugh, but remember we have to be up and out of the boat really early in the morning at Amsterdam (I think it’s about 9am! Ouch!) I purposely never drank a lot on the Friday night so I wasn’t hungover in Amsterdam because I really wanted to see the city and the forecast on my weather app was amazing and after being snowed in I did not want to miss a bit of the sunshine spewing in a toilet from drinking too much!

Saturday morning came and my weather app wasn’t wrong – 18 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! Now, considering we have had weeks of heavy snow it was like toot toot, legs oot!!! After getting off the coach from the ferry terminal to the centre of Amsterdam, we had four hours to spend in the Netherlands. Exploring the city is something I would love to have more time to do, but I made the most of the four hours we had in the sunshine , visiting a few attractions around the Dam.

There are bikes available to hire but because of the tight schedule (and also because of how experienced the locals are on bikes – they will run you over before the move to make way for you! Seriously, you have been warned!) we decided not to rent one. There are plenty areas you can hire one from, from little bike rental stores situated on the canals or side streets, you will be sure to find one!

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There are also various canal tours available which is a great way to see the city and I would love to do that next year, as the hop-on, hop-off idea seems like the best option, unless you’d like to relax and have a leisurely sail! Especially if you’re a little bit delicate from Friday night partying, although I’m not too sure how your sea legs will cope back on another boat after spending the night on one! Of course, being Amsterdam there are canals for days so it wouldn’t have been millennial of me at all not to get a selfie with one of them…

We saw Anne Frank’s house which was queued out so the best thing to do if you’re going on Boogie on the Boat and you are restricted for time but really want to see the historic building is to book a slot in advance and go and see it as I’ve heard it really is worth visiting.

The Amsterdam Tulip Museum is something we passed on our adventures, which exhibits the history of the Netherlands unofficial national flower – unofficial, but gorgeous all the same and absolutely beautiful on a day like we saw on the Saturday! Tulips of all colours line the canals, streets and cafe’s brightening up the city and creating a friendly and happy vibe. You can even buy a tulip brolly!

Of course we passed a few cheeky cafe’s and the famous red light district… you know what goes on there – you need no explanation! But it was interesting to see… and I’ll leave it there!

Finally we reached the main goal of our expedition – the ‘I Amsterdam’ letters! They were so worth the wait although extremely busy because it was a very sunny Saturday! Of course, who doesn’t want a picture with the letters to show how oh-so-cultured you really are? I had basically forced Cat and Fiona who I was with to trek over an hour to find them but it was really worth it, I got a picture with the A – A for Amber!

We decided after the long walk in the sunshine we needed a drink and decided to meet up with the rest of the gang in Dam Square, a great meeting point in the city! When I put it in my Google Maps it was a 50 minute walk and our feet were agony so needless to say the best option was a taxi, and with no actual Euros in hard cash on us thank goodness for Uber! We popped our destination in Uber, managed to work out the registration (eventually), flagged him down and off we went! Getting an Uber in another city was fun even if we did get a wee bit lost (I thought that theme of the beer was the name of the pub… my bad)!

We found our friends and enjoyed some drinks in the Amsterdam sun!

We headed back for the last bus which leaves Amsterdam at the Victoria Hotel at 4pm so make sure you’re not late (which Boogie almost was, and it’s HIS boat!) or else the boat leaves without you!

We made it back to the bus!

The Saturday night on the boat is the famous fancy dress night! This year the theme was “when I was wee, I wanted to be!” and we saw every costume from medical staff, to fireman, to Santa and even Ronald McDonald (my boyfriend Callum!)

I decided to opt for something simple… a unicorn! Duh!

My DIY unicorn costume was a hit and I had so much fun dancing the night away in my comfy trainers! A lot of you have been asking how I did it, so in the next week I’m going to post a wee DIY unicorn costume blog!

It was hilarious seeing Ronald McDonald DJing and playing all of the party tunes, going on till 4am and continuing until we got back to Newcastle (where we all absolutely flopped!) just as well I never had to drive home!

Get your tickets for next year and come with us!!!!

Amber Zoe x