This post continues the series of posts on the flights, lounges, safaris, and hotels from the trip to Kenya in May 2022. I arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) after a relaxing flight from Atlanta, Georgia. Check out the previous post for a look at the stylish Delta One suite, a business class seat with a door.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, a Delta SkyTeam partner, would provide my ride to Nairobi. But I had a couple of hours to kill at Schiphol before that flight. KLM’s Crown Lounge 52 was the ideal place.

Long time readers know I’ve reviewed this lounge previously. Those posts are here and here and tell the story of this lounge in detail. This lounge replaces and surpasses the former KLM lounge that was hopelessly overcrowded and becoming outdated. It can accommodate 1,500 customers and has everything you could ask for in a business class lounge and more.

First, some basics.  KLM Crown Room 52 is the lounge for non-Schengen flights (destinations outside the EU). It is located on the main pedestrian walkway, Holland Boulevard, between Concourses E and F. 

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Every passenger on a KLM flight or an international flight operated by a SkyTeam airline has access. Business class passengers, Flying Blue Platinum and Gold members, and SkyTeam Elite Plus passengers and one guest can visit for free. Others must pay €65 (about $68 at today’s exchange rate). Flying Blue Silver and Explorer members get a slight discount. In part due to the liberal access policy, this lounge has always been crowded when I’ve visited.

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Delft Blue Amsterdam canal houses filled with Bols gin are gifts for KLM business class passengers.

Lounge features include:

  • WiFi access,
  • showers,
  • lockers,
  • sleep cabins,
  • a quiet area,
  • work areas,
  • an entertainment area,
  • an outside terrace (sky deck),
  • and a large buffet 

The lounge occupies two floors. 

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A bar and restaurant occupy the top floor.

A Michelin-starred chef is in charge of the a la carte restaurant, blue.  The restaurant was closed due to Covid but should reopen soon.

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This photo and the one below are from a visit in 2019.

 

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Access the outside terrace from the bar on the second level.

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The most impressive architectural feature is the stairway.

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The stairs evoke memories of Fallingwater, a house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania in 1935.

Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence,
Fallingwater. A resemblance? Carol M. Highsmith photo

The buffet is free.  It offers a wide variety of dishes to supply accommodate just about all tastes and dietary restrictions.  Click on photos to enlarge.

KLM gives customers multiple options for finding a suitable place for work or relaxation.

 

KLM’s Crown Lounge has one a feature that I’ve never seen in a lounge — a virtual reality room. 

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Sensiks virtual reality pods.

The booths are made by Sensiks, an Amsterdam-based company that created sensory reality pods that add wind, smell, sound effects, vibration, and heat fluctuations to virtual reality videos.  The pods were not operating because of Covid.  I tried them on other visits and they are worthy of the term “virtual reality.”

KLM provides 20 shower rooms for its guests.  The rooms have no toilets but are more than adequate in all other respects.  Having showered in Atlanta, I didn’t take time from enjoyment of the lounge to shower.  

Overall Impression

KLM Crown Lounge 52 is one of the best business-class lounges going.  Stunning architecture, an a la carte restaurant with a starred chef, buffet service that is much improved in quality and variety, a plethora of comfortable seating arrangements, modern workstations and worktables, ramp and runway views, and a hip Sensiks virtual reality room elevate what used to be a hopelessly overcrowded and outdated lounge to the top of the class.  

Belated best wishes for Father’s Day and Juneteenth and happy first day of summer for readers in the northern hemisphere and first day of winter for people in the southern hemisphere.