New to Windstar and can't say enough good things about our Black Sea cruise

We returned from the Star Pride/Black Sea last week and were very pleased with our cruise.

First, let me say that this is our first time on a small boat and on Windstar. Our past cruises have been Princess, Celebrity, and HAL. We were unsure of the size, being used to larger boats. We found that the small size was so much more to our liking...no cattle call feel, on/off the boat quickly, etc. The staff seemed to know us quite well and was always greeting us by name...all the time and many of the staff. This was a nice change from the larger ships. One day I came back from the boat and they were not able to scan me in due to a power loss. I gave them my name and they wrote it down. My boyfriend came back at a different time and he was scanned. This caused them to think he was on the boat, but I was not. As it was very close to our departure, 3 employees came running up to me, as they were looking for me and knew where I was. What a nice change from if you were on a larger ship..you know you'd be left on the dock! They said they do not leave anyone behind without doing some investigating as to what might have happened.

We thoroughly enjoyed the large size of the room. We had had suites before on other lines, but this was much bigger...and a walk in closet..heaven!

Yes, I have seen complaints from others that the boats are older, they need maintenance, etc. I'll guess if you are used to Seaborn then yes, I can see where this would stand out to you. We were fine with it based on what we are used to :).

The itinerary for the trip was awesome...the Black Sea and it's ports are well worth the trip. I understand alot of cruise ships have canceled in various ports due to what's been going on...what a shame.

I highly recommend Windstar!

Thanks for sharing and glad you've joined those of us who love WS. I'd move from ship to ship year round if I could afford it. Your itinerary sounds wonderful. Hope we get to do that one soon.

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Thanks for the review, we are very interested in doing a Black Sea Cruise and like you, appreciate the smaller ships of Windstar. After reading your review we will definitely put a Black Sea Cruise near the top of our list.

Out of interest, was there any Black Sea port that stood out for you? I don't know anything about the area other than Istanbul, which is a favourite, but we love the Bosphorus and to sail up it all the way to the Black Sea would be special.

Each was different.

Bulgaria 2 ports had history, beaches, shopping, bars, abd cafes very close to the port..thoroughly enjoyed that.

In Romania we took the train to Bucharest. Unfortunately the day was miserable and there was no waking around. It looked beautiful as we ran dodging raindrops.

Odessa Ukraine is a beautiful port city with lots of history and cafes.

Asamara Turkey was a beautiful seaside town with spectacular views..very quaint.

I guess it depends on what you enjoy.

These countries are bargains too, compared to the rest of Europe.

Hi Grogers11,

Thank you for the information. We too took our first Windstar cruise in may. It was on StarBreeze and was wonderful. Curious if you have written a review on the CC review of WindStar. If not they could sure use another positive review. They have had quite a few negative ones. I just don't get it since we had such a great experience. I wonder what these folks expectation are...