advice/info on Star Breeze Panama cruise

DH and I are looking at the Dec 12 Panama Costa Rica cruise on Star Breeze. Seems this is a new ship to Windstar but appreciate any input and have a few questions.

Looking at pricing, is it worth $2000 more for the week to have a French door? The balcony is not a real balcony. Should we do any or all of the sponsored excursions?

From others who may have done Panama on other Windstar ships, any comments on the ports of call?

Our only previous cruising experience is 4 days on the Yangtze and two weeks on the Irrawaddy, so you can see we're not really "cruisers" - but Panama Canal has always been on our list!

thanks for any info!

I can comment on the Star Breeze but not the itinerary. We took Star Breeze from Monaco to Rome in May. Loved it. The ship is clearly not new but renovated. The rooms are very spacious. We booked deck 4 mid ship and were very happy with the large window. We opted not to pay an extra $1000 for balcony because it is only a french balcony. So basically good for letting fresh air in only. We spent a lot of time on the upper deck for fresh air.

We did not book excursions through Windstar as they seemed over priced. I researched quite a bit about the ports on Tripadvisor and CC. Then booked my own excursion. however I do wish we had booked the Olive tasting tour in Cannes. Everyone said it was fantastic.

We thought the whole experience was fantastic. Crew, ship and ports. Food was enjoyable but not over the top. We did tender in a few ports which was fine and allowed for the sports platform to be down.

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did :-)

Going through the Panama Canal on a small ship is an amazing experience. We saw the huge ships and we were so happy to be on the Wind Star. The optical illusions while going under the Bridge of Americas which is when the canal enters the Pacific was thrilling. Out of the 17 WS cruises this was one of the best.

Our ports were different and wonderful. Costa Rica is a wonderful country so if you have some extra time stay a bit. Happy Sailing. Susanne

We did a slightly different itinerary last December. I'm out of town for the weekend but I'll try to post what we did next week. It was a wonderful cruise!

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We are also doing the Windstar Costa Rica TO Panama on the Sea Breeze Dec. 12. We just returned from a trip on the Star Legend... our first time on one of their new ships. The suites are very spacious! We enjoyed the room. As for a balcony... I don't think it is worth it. We saw them from the outside and they don't even look like you can put a chair on them... so it would only be to open a slider and see outside. Maybe others who had a balcony can chime in here but from my perspective there was simply no advantage. We have now taken 4 Windstar cruises and have never booked their excursions. We always book our own experiences and have had great times while others we talked to who did the excursions had mixed reviews. Having said that, we have only done European trips where it is easy to find excellent private guides. I am just starting to look at what we will plan for this trip. Our son and his girlfriend, early 30s will be joining us so we will be doing more active things... but that is what this itinerary is about... activities rather than historical sites. The big surprise on the Legend was the quality of the dinners in the dining room. We don't expect much on the ships and this was a very pleasant surprise. The best food we have had... and... the chef and head of dining are both scheduled to be on the Breeze in DEC. So, we are LUCKY. Hope their assignments don't change. Any other questions... let me know and I'll answer what I can.

Can you tell us what type of activity there is from the sports platform? Did I hear some chatter about there being a cage for swimmers? Kayaks, etc? We will be on Star Pride 11/28 - Panama Canal.

Thank you.