I flew AMS-MSP yesterday, December 21. The flight was delayed from 2:30pm until 6pm. It had been clear until then, but a few ominous snowflakes started to appear when boarding started at about 6pm. Then a series of delays but we pushed back at 7:15 pm with by now a quite heavy, though small flakes, snow falling. Couldn't see out of my window anymore, for example. We got de-iced at about 7:45pm and by then it was really coming down, but somehow they cleared our take-off and we were in the air at 8pm. Thank God! Later during the flight, they came on to announce that we were 5 minutes from getting canceled due to weather, low fuel (?) and something else I forgot. Later the buzz was they closed AMS airport a few minutes after we took off. Not surprising really. So I made it home, even if my bags didn't! (they blamed the weather for not loading bags for about 40 people...d'oh!)

About the de-icing in AMS... what a rinky dink operation. They have a bunch of little trucks with guys in raisable cabins (not sure of the name, but similar to the trucks that fix power lines, but enclosed) that shoot a stream of de-icer about the size of a garden hose with a shower head connected. Very odd and slow. I seam to remember a place like MSP has a real operation where going through de-icing was like going through a carwash....in AMS it is like a guy with a flashlight and a squirt gun. Worked though.