new_cruiser

So I researched the smallest ships doing Alaska next season and came up with this: Silversea, Oceania, Seabourn, Regent, Crystal, and if you can wait a couple of years - rumor has it that Windstar will start doing the region.... and I will be on it for sure!!!

We want to go in 2017 so Windstar won't be there yet.

Those are the lines I found that are roughly comparable to Windstar size too. There is quite a spread of prices there. Oceania and Regent are a lot better on price. I'm not thrilled with the itineraries. Crystal, Seabourn, and Silversea may be too formal for us - don't they all do formal nights? Regent seems closest to Windstar in dress code (though I wonder if they are a bit more formal in practice - the pictures on their website seem more dressed up to me).

I'm also considering some of the even smaller ships - like Lindblat or Uncruise. I like the idea of a ship that can get up close to the sights and that carries kayaks and such. Their itineraries look good. The cabins are pretty small - I think we would be fine with that but I'm not quite sure.

We are planning on going with another couple and I need to get an idea of what price point they are comfortable with.

My husband and I are looking for an Alaska cruise. We have cruised once on Celebrity and twice on Windstar (the sail ones). We much prefer the small ship and casual atmosphere on Windstar to the megaships.

I'm trying to figure out which lines that cruise Alaska would be a good fit for us and thought it might help to ask here to see which lines other Windstar fans liked.

I will be doing research on Trip Advisor and in some guide books on what to see too, but I'd like to get our flights booked so some idea on how long and what to see helps.

We have traveled in Europe a fair amount - about 4 trips together. I've also had a lot of business trips with a day here or there, sometimes a weekend between meetings to see sights.

This will be our first trip to Spain and Portugal.

It will be April and we aren't really beach people anyway, so I'm not planning on any beach time or snorkeling. More interested in architecture, culture and how people live there than art. Some history would be good too - I feel that I know much more about English, French and German history than about Spain. Good food and wine are always welcome.

We like nature walks too, but probably for a first visit would concentrate more on city and town sights than country.

Sunprince, we originally booked directly with Windstar but found out about the room change when we transferred the booking to a TA (United's so that we get miles for the booking).

We already were booked in the upper category of balcony suite so an upgrade isn't possible, but our agent worked with them and Windstar offered us a decent amount of on-board credit (more than the difference in fair to the next lower category so kind of similar to giving an upgrade) to compensate for the error.

We wanted to be on the port side and Windstar is saying that all the port side balcony cabins are booked. That surprises me a bit since this is a spring cruise . Perhaps as sb44 suggests, that will change between now and sailing time. Our agent says they are still working on figuring out what happened and may be able to shift us to the port side. If not, we came up with about the same conclusion as milepig suggests. There is just one sea day and most of the time the ship is in port pretty much all day so we can live with starboard.

BTW, my husband had also gotten the Windstar cruise insurance. Apparently they lost track of that too because our booking doesn't have it now. No harm done because I prefer to get insurance independent of the line. Our agent set us up with that.

If anyone else has done bookings with Windstar recently, it might be a good idea to check that you are still booked for what you expect.

We have cruised on Windstar several times before but not recently. Those trips were wonderful so Windstar was high on our list when looking for a Spain cruise. The itinerary for Spanish Serenade was just what we wanted.

Yesterday, we booked cabin 318 on Star Legend. So far it's been a really inauspicious start. Apparently they have a new booking system and are really having trouble with it. They had difficulty getting the reservation into the system (apparently one of the first on their new system).

We received an invoice but it doesn't show the cabin number. Then we got another invoice showing the deposit made and then cancelled, but the last 4 digits of the credit card shown don't match the credit card we used. We called them immediately and they checked (after much delay and fussing with the new system again). The agent assured us that our deposit had been made and we were booked in 318.

Now we are being told that we are in cabin 311 and no other cabins in that class are available. We particularly wanted to be on the port side for a view of the cost cruising from Lisbon to Barcelona.

The whole thing is getting very frustrating.

Zoey, they are definitely switching over to a new system. We just booked a cruise for next April and the reservation agents were struggling with the new system (perhaps partly learning curve). It seems that the new system isn't terribly user friendly so it probably isn't a start on one where consumers book for themselves.

Our cruise finishes on May 1 in Barcelona. I'm trying to figure out how many days to spend there so I can book our flights. This will be our first trip to Spain.

Probably won't do more than 4 nights.

What sights should we see?

I wonder if we will be on the same cruise. DH and I just booked on Star Legend for April 23 sailing.

My husband wants to book the Deck 6 balcony cabin for the Spanish Serenade (Star Legend). That's $500 per person more than an ocean view cabin on the same deck and I'm wondering if it is worth it for French doors that open without a real balcony. One can get fresh air and see the view without windows in the way.

The cabin is 318.

If you stayed in one of the balcony cabins, did you feel it was worth it?