I believe Windstar is going downhill.

Yesterday we finished our fourth Windstar cruise, an eight day cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona. The Windsurf, while aging, is in excellent condition. As in the past, service was excellent. Crew members knew our names even before we were introduced. Our issue was with the food. Breakfasts, as previously, were very good. We have always felt that the lunches were mediocre. We ate most of our lunches ashore this time, and the few lunches we did have on the ship were no better than in the past. The issue was with dinners. The menu aways sounded great, but the food was underwhelming. On several occasions, including the final evening, we could not find any appealing entre. Service was very slow on several occasions. We had the impression that WS was doing too much cost cutting. Nothing was terrible, but it seemed like things were not up to previous Windstar standards. We do not plan to sail with Windstar in the future.

Could be a couple of issues working here. First, Windstar is needing to staff 3 new ships - basically doubling the number of staff members. This is being done in a very short period of time. Whenever you need to increase staff to that extent, it will take time to sort out the "good" staff from the one's that just want a job and are not up to Windstar standards.

Second, I see that you have already booked 5 Crystal cruises. Since you have booked that many Crystal cruises (and none on Windstar), maybe you had already come to that conclusion before the cruise? Windstar is not in the same category as Crystal.

Lunch on WS has always been hit or miss, with more miss than hit. The burgers are usually OK, but many of the prepared dishes look sort of sad and uninspired. I've always felt the same about breakfast where your best bet is to skip the line and order off the menu. I've never understood either the horrid coffee served or the deep fried (to a crisp) bacon - it looks terrible and tastes rancid. I've even tried ordering fresh soft bacon and they still just fish the least crispy but still deep fried stuff from the big pan. One morning there were "hash browns" that were possibly the worst thing I've ever but into my mouth.

Dinner has been up and down over the years, but on our very recent cruise on the Pride was the best we've had. Well prepared and a nice variety from night to night.