I'm so excited to finally be planning a trip to Europe this April, but am looking for help with where to stay and how to get around. Train? Bus? Rent a car for all or part of the time? Are there any tulip festival experts here?

Here is a possible list of what we would like to do:

Thurs April 21 - arrive into AMS, stay in which town? See float construction
Fri 22 - Kinderdjik (or would this be better from Amsterdam later on?)
Sat 23 - flower parade from grandstand, but which one?
Sun 24 - helicopter ride? Tour fields
Mon 25 - Keukenhof
Tues 26 - Amsterdam - where should we stay given that we will be taking a Viking cruise out in Thursday?

After a few years of not traveling, I feel like such a newbie at planning and all these events seem to take place in different areas. It's a bit overwhelming! Any help and tips would be sooo appreciated!

What do you mean by Tulip Festival? Is it the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek?

https://bloemencorso-bollenstreek.nl/en/

I would go to Noordwijkerhout on the 22nd to see the illuminated parade, on friday night https://bloemencorso-bollenstreek.nl...lichtjescorso/

On saturday, the route is from Noordwijk to Haarlem, through many villages that make up the Bollenstreek: you can join literally anywhere en route. On the site I see that this year's route is not yet published.
I'd do Kinderdijk on sunday. If you go by public transport, you need to travel to Rotterdam and take the fast ferry to Kinderdijk from there, or you can sign up for a bus tour. There are many leaving from Amsterdam

I think a helicopter ride of the bulb fields is overkill, but do visit Keukenhof! And let's hope the tulips are fully in bloom during the days you have available for seeing them. When they bloom early in april, the fields will be bare when you get to them.

use the Mövenpick hotel near the cruise terminal. I'm assuming your Viking cruise leaves from there.

We were there in April 2019. You will not need a car while in Amsterdam. It is very walkable and has excellent public transportation. If you have a smartphone download the 9292 app which is a great way to have a map of the city at your fingertips.

There are buses running from Amsterdam to Keukenhof several times a day during tulip season. One of the funnest things we did was rent one of the Renault Electric Twizy Vehicles located very near Keukenhof. They are tiny two person vehicles with GPS that have a tour programmed in. You go on a very long, FANTASTIC tour of tulip field after tulip field -- every color you can imagine! You can stop and take photos and the drive is absolutely beautiful! One mistake we made is this: The vehicle rented for two hours so we thought we had lots of time to see the fields, but our time started running out and we had to rush to get back. Be mindful of your time because there are so many fields to see -- each one more magnificent than the one before! We spent the morning at Keukenhof and the afternoon on the Twizy tour. Next time I will spend a full day at Keukenhof and spring for a longer tour on the Twizy on another day. If you wish to stay in the area near the tulip fields, Leiden is a lovely town located very nearby. We stayed there later in our trip after going to Bruges & Delft and I tried to re-trace the Twizy tour route in our rental car but couldn't remember the many turns. You can google them. I'm not allowed to post URLs because I'm a new poster on this forum.

I don't know much about the Flower Parade except that it is west of Amsterdam and runs south to north from the flower fields area of Noordwick to the town of Haarlem.

One last bit of information is that timing is everything. The blooming season is short. If you find that the flowers are wiped out south of Amsterdam you can go to tulip fields north of the city where they bloom a bit later. We didn't go up there but I was prepared to do so if we missed the flowers! Good luck and enjoy!!! It's like a little piece of heaven!

Thanks for all the tips Menachem and figgynewton. We booked the Movenpick. It looks nice.
We don't arrive until the 21st. I sure hope the tulips are still out.
I always wanted to rent a Twizy. Not sure I have enough time, but I'm going to see what I can do.
Thanks!