Book your excursions and canal trip via great amsterdam excursions. You can recognize them by the cute typical dutch houses located around schiphol airport.
Security is efficient. No need to remove anything from your bags as they have very efficient scanning. Lines that would have taken 30 minutes in the States- not here.
I sleep better knowing that somewhere out there was a guy that thought "let's put some gates out of order like 9, 11 and 13 together. Just for shit and giggles!". Otherwise - great airport!