Windstar cancels all Star Pride Itineraries through April 9

I don't know what state you're in but I would certainly contact the insurance company once more and let them know that you intend to file a complaint with the insurance department or insurance commissioner. You paid for the insurance and they need to be held accountable. Good luck. This should have been resolved already.

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Coincidentally I had sent yet another email re missing luggage to Windstar. Today I received a response stating, inter alia, 'This letter is to confirm that the following articles you have claimed as unrecovered as a result of Star Pride’s grounding incident have not been located by Windstar Cruises'. This should enable my insurance claim to proceed. On the other hand there is still no sign of our onboard account refund. I do wish we could move on now.

We too were scheduled on a different cancelled cruise & found ourselves in a similar situation. The problem is the way Windstar has chosen to deal with the situation & really making all of us feel bad about Windstar instead of good. We were traveling with 2 other couples & all of us of course had to re-work all our plans, & also finding new flights cost us considerably more. Although they offered up to $500 per person only for cancellation fees, that does nothing for those of us who booked early & now find ourselves doubling our airfares & other expenses involved. They also offered a free cabin upgrade which they could not provide us because of some ridiculous policy of needing to have the original cabin level available in order to upgrade us & apparently they couldn't find that for us so none of us were able to take advantage of that. A letter or email stating their sincere apologies for the situation & offering a free excursion, bottle of wine or the like to at least make us feel appreciated for OUR efforts...especially if they would be smart enough to realize most of us will be cruising again & we do have many choices. We are retiring very soon & have many other cruises in our future & you can bet they will NOT be on Windstar. It is a customer service opportunity & we will take our business where it is appreciated!

The staff onboard the Breeze report that the Pride is out of dry dock and into wet dock, so progress!

Thanks for the update.

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Still is at Grand Bahamas shipyard as of April 16th.

http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/data/510/CF415.JPG

Just curious, is there ANY information from ANY source as to what is being done to the Pride? Just the hull repair? Additional 'refurb' items which were scheduled for later in the year? Any news? Again, just curious.

Just curious, is there ANY information from ANY source as to what is being done to the Pride? Just the hull repair? Additional 'refurb' items which were scheduled for later in the year? Any news? Again, just curious.

Not that I've seen. There was early speculation that WS would go ahead and do the work to further reconfigure along the lines of the Breeze/Legend - increasing the size of the Veranda, etc. But I've seen nothing official.

Just curious, is there ANY information from ANY source as to what is being done to the Pride? Just the hull repair? Additional 'refurb' items which were scheduled for later in the year? Any news? Again, just curious.

I haven't seen anything either. My guess is that Wind Star is making no announcements at all because of all of the higher management changes that are happening. That said, I would think that someone will have to say something rather quickly because every day the ship is out of service, Wind Star is losing 1/6 of its revenue base for that day.

it's still in the Bahamas

A week ago. looks like a fresh coat of paint

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEhURFxO8zj/?taken-at=250503907

3 weeks ago.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDyhPEdp4Hd/?taken-at=250503907

FYI, Star Pride can be seen in the latest image from Google Earth in the Satellite view, taken sometime in the last month or 2.

We are onboard the Surf. Word is she has been refurbished, pool area moved, etc. as well as all the other work that needed to be done.That is the latest.

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Another little zinger from WS via our TA. We can only apply part of our credit to our cruise coming up later this summer. While the amount due after our deposit, was a bit more than the credit, WS has declared that we can't apply it to Port Fees or Taxes, so we have about $500 left that we'll need to use for a later cruise.

We were already previously not allowed to use to the credit toward our deposit since you can't book a cruise without a deposit and you can't apply a credit until the cruise is booked. Anyone spot a little Catch-22 here?

Another little zinger from WS via our TA. We can only apply part of our credit to our cruise coming up later this summer. While the amount due after our deposit, was a bit more than the credit, WS has declared that we can't apply it to Port Fees or Taxes, so we have about $500 left that we'll need to use for a later cruise.

 

We were already previously not allowed to use to the credit toward our deposit since you can't book a cruise without a deposit and you can't apply a credit until the cruise is booked. Anyone spot a little Catch-22 here?

Have you read the terms and conditions on the credit? I remember the part about the deposit, but don't recall any language in there about taxes and port fees. Since the credit amount we received included the amount paid in taxes and port fees, I would full well expect to be able to use it to cover taxes and port fees on a subsequent cruise.

We are at 4 1/2 months since Star Pride ran aground, and while we were finally told that our belongings were never going to be returned, we still have not received the promised compensation. I hope the new executives are able to turn some things around with their guest relations, but we don't plan on giving them another penny to find out. So if what was supposed to be a complimentary cruise to make amends for the accident would turn into hundreds per person in deposits and taxes and port fees, you can count us out.

Another little zinger from WS via our TA. We can only apply part of our credit to our cruise coming up later this summer. While the amount due after our deposit, was a bit more than the credit, WS has declared that we can't apply it to Port Fees or Taxes, so we have about $500 left that we'll need to use for a later cruise.

 

We were already previously not allowed to use to the credit toward our deposit since you can't book a cruise without a deposit and you can't apply a credit until the cruise is booked. Anyone spot a little Catch-22 here?

My FCC also stated 'deposit must be made before certificate can be applied'. We tend to book late and often pay 100% upfront (deposit?) so I asked Windstar what would happen. Their response was 'For this we would allow the payments to be split up, so that you would pay the NDA’s, Taxes, and Gratuities plus any fare difference between the Future Cruise Credit and the cruise fare on the sailing of your choice where that applies, and then we would be able to add on the Future Cruise Credit to your account afterwards.' I'm not sure I fully understand the last bit but it seems that they would require cash for NDAs, Taxes and Gratuities, the FCC would then be applied and finally any balance would be paid with new money. Clear as mud to me.

I have finally received a refund for the onboard account. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount. Windstar have chosen not to advise me that the refund was being made so I do not know what was included.

Have you read the terms and conditions on the credit? I remember the part about the deposit, but don't recall any language in there about taxes and port fees. Since the credit amount we received included the amount paid in taxes and port fees, I would full well expect to be able to use it to cover taxes and port fees on a subsequent cruise.

 

We are at 4 1/2 months since Star Pride ran aground, and while we were finally told that our belongings were never going to be returned, we still have not received the promised compensation. I hope the new executives are able to turn some things around with their guest relations, but we don't plan on giving them another penny to find out. So if what was supposed to be a complimentary cruise to make amends for the accident would turn into hundreds per person in deposits and taxes and port fees, you can count us out.

The credit says:

This certificate entitles you to a credit against you cruise fare [not to include NDAs or taxes] for travel on any Windstar Cruises.

It goes on to say that the credit will be applied as a post-deposit cruise fare discount.

All this came up only since our replacement was a fair bit less expensive that the original so the credit we received combined with our deposit was larger than the costs they could/would apply it toward.

We are at 4 1/2 months since Star Pride ran aground, and while we were finally told that our belongings were never going to be returned...

Did WS give you any reason for why the belongings won't be returned?

Just guessing.

Ship was towed to Bilbao, Panama. You probably can't leave people on board (security or otherwise) while there are flooded compartment (photo of SP listing gives some clues). Ship cabins were probably cleaned by uninvited guests. Nobody got proof so WS can't say what happened (and I can't really either)

I know it can be frustrating and distressful knowing your personal items and valuables are lost. Hope everything will eventually be solved to your satisfaction.

This is exactly what happened to us on our European tour...not even a nice bottle of wine sent compliments for our troubles. They obviously don't value their customers or realize they are losing repeat business. I Unsubscribed from their emails & intend to spend our cruising dollars at those cruise lines that show they value our business.

P.S. The new ship we chose as a substitute was far from full...guess lots of people are discovering the fact That Windstar doesn't value their customers!

Did WS give you any reason for why the belongings won't be returned?

None, but we did finally receive a check from them for the full amount we had claimed.

Pride about 60 miles from the Spain. ETA tomorrow morning as predicted.

Star Pride on its way to Athens. ETA 25 May, 2016. Looking good!

Windstar's website shows first Star Pride sailing is June 9th, week-long r/t Athens. All June/July/August sailings on sale starting at $1399 pp. Obviously trying to get people to book the Pride this summer with sales under $200/day.

Downhill they go...understandable as the don't value their customers.

I've never felt not valued by Windstar. Everyone I have dealt with has been nothing but nice to me from the sales department to the crew on the ships. We can all learn from mistakes and there have been some missteps along the way but I personally have always been treated with respect and kindly. I was brought up believing we reap what we sow or, in modern lingo, karma.

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