amunhbuu

We got off a couple of weeks ago.  Wifi was fine.  We did have to re-authenticate quite a bit for some reason.  But the speed was fine for minor browsing and texting.  I tried to make a call at one point, and that immediately failed.  Not sure if something like what'sapp would have worked better for voice. 

Thank you!

We have not booked any excursions yet.  Tried reaching out to some third party scuba dives, but they said their boat wasn't going to be available that week.  Need to get that stuff done this week and then I think fly by the seat of our pants for a few of the islands. 

Is Motu Mahea the day of the beach day?

Thanks!

Followup question, is it walkable or best to take a taxi?

Is this Feb 22, 2024 sailing?  We will be on that one.

The insurance that was included was only medical evacuation insurance.  It was not comprehensive insurance.  I don't know if it is still included or not. 

Thanks!

Hello,

We have some FCC from a cancelled cruise a few weeks ago.  I was poking around looking at cruises out of Papeete.  What is the strategy for flying in and out?  It looks like the two options are from SFO or LAX.  I am having a hard time deciphering when you need to be in by, etc.

Thanks!

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be clarity around this.  It is also possible to get a PCR test in the Orlando Airport. 

Since we are flying in a day early, we are getting multiple tests done just in case.  Fortunately, in our area, we have a place that does them for free.  The kicker is getting the results back in time.  And since they are not open on a Sunday, we are having to do one at CVS.

I booked our Antarctica trip back in Feb 2021 right when they started selling.  I asked a specific question about the insurance and it was pretty specific that it was emergency evac only.

Having said that, there was so much miscommunication over simple things like the laundry, that I wouldn't be surprised if many people got their wires crossed. 

Saw that on another site.  Sad for those involved, but I would rather know before making the flight down to Argentina.

They are actually on their second cruise.  Apparently there was an issue with the flight, so the first cruise got an extra day on the ship and the second cruise lost a day.  I haven't heard anything about how they are going to make the Eclipse cruisers whole.

The first cruise left a day late due to weather over Drake's passage.  But they said they arrived right behind the NatGeo ship which left on time.  So they arrived at a similar time with a better passage.  Kudos to the captain!

We did one two weeks before shutdown but it was at Virgin Gorda.  Pigeon Island was on the alternative itinerary. 

Mayreau is not on our itinerary.

31 minutes ago, HuliHuli said:

On our July 31st sailing, Windstar upheld the beach party tradition at Pigeon Island.  It was great!

Thanks!

Does anyone know if Windstar is continuing their Caribbean tradition of a beach party day @ pigion island in St. Lucia?  There is no mention of it on our documentation that I could find.

Thanks!

Video from our cruise:

2 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

Thank you for one of the most comprehensive reviews on CC that I’ve read in a while. Makes me look very forward to my Antarctic sailing as well.  A few additional questions if you don’t mind:

 

- How was the internet speed?

- When was the bridge accessible to guests?

- How did you feel about storage space in the cabin?
- What nationalities were your cabin attendants? Thinking of getting some Asian foods to bring and give as extra tips to crew if their service is as stellar as your experience.

 

Thank you again for all the info you’ve provided!

 

 

Internet speed was fine for what it was in the middle of the Atlantic.  I forgot how fast 5G was until we hit Miami.  As I noted, the real issue was not knowing how much data you use.  I work in IT and had a general sense of what activities have more data utilization than others.  I imagine people were frustrated with not knowing good practices to minimize data.  I know some people were managing some business work via phone, so they were able to at least have a call.

They arranged for bridge tours 2-3 times throughout the crossing. Normally, it would be an open bridge policy.  But they want to control it due to COVID.

We had fine storage in the cabin.  I over packed and had plenty of space.  Now, we did not bring anything dressy due to the country club casual nature of the line.  So no suits, gowns, etc.

I believe that most of the service crew was Indonesian.  The officers were a variety including Russian and Portuguese.  The head chef was Portuguese, I believe and the pastry chef was Indian.  I think the hotel manager was Italian.  The entertainers were American and the CD was Canadian and his wife (FC) was American.

Couple of items I forgot:

A guest asked if we could do a drive by of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma.  The captain was able to oblige.  So we were able to get a once in a lifetime opportunity to cruise by a live volcano.  We did have an initial miscommunication on the day, so a bunch of us were wondering around Deck 7 forward in the dark at 6 in the morning.  But kudos to Atlas and the captain for making that happen!  That is the difference maker vs. a large cruise.

MyAtlas...  😄  The cabin preferences we put into MyAtlas were ignored.  But, they did contact us about celebrating my wife's birthday.  They baked a cake for her and came over to sing Happy Birthday.  Again, kudos to Atlas and the staff for helping us celebrate!

Final Thoughts:

There were only 60 passengers onboard with crew of 122.  So we had a 1:2 passenger, crew ratio which was amazing.  I did ask some people who had been aboard previously with larger passenger count if that had made a difference.  They did not feel like it had and that the level of service was high regardless of the passenger count.

We flew a Mystic Cruises flag while in port.  Most of the crew had been on one of the sister ships previously.  While everyone wore Atlas branded apparel, that leads me to believe that they are contracted to Mystic and Atlas is basically a marketing and sales company targeting North America.

I really hope that Atlas can hit a groove and align what they are selling with what they are capable of providing.  The onboard product was great overall.  There still seems to be miscommunications and that the staff onboard are having to deal with issues that the Miami office created.  Unless you love small ship cruising, I am not sure why you would do the Caribbean with them.  I think that they will really shine with the more expedition orientated cruises.

From a competition perspective, I would not put them in the luxury line up of Seabourn, Silver Seas, Crystal, etc.  More mainstream, I think they are competing against Azamara, Windstar, and possible the R ships from Oceania. I think they are competing directly with expedition companies like Quark & Ponat and now Seanic.  It seems that they provide a good value against those lines.  

So essentially we had a private super yacht for 16 days while crossing the Atlantic.  It was a great experience.  We are really looking forward to our Antarctica trip aboard the World Navigator in Feburary.

Kerfuffles:

The biggest kerfuffle was the change in ports.  I can’t imagine all of the logistics involved right now with Covid protocols constantly changing.  But the decision to not go to Barbados really seemed to be last second with a lack of communication and planning on the new islands.  This was a known issue for a couple of months.

As such, they didn’t have excursions really planned for the newer ports.  And there were supposed to be included excursions on every port.  I will give the onboard staff props for setting up the beach day at the last second.  It was much appreciated.

They asked about our flight information for disembarkation.  I said, Atlas booked it, don’t you have it all? He just laughed and shook his head.  So, I had to go grab the information and send it to him via email.

Internet access was goofy. We received 1GB for the 16 days for the TA.  Unfortunately, there was no way to monitor how much you had used.  You had to take your code to the front desk and have them check it for you.  I did that on the second day and the person behind the desk said I used 975MB.  That really confused me as I had kept my wifi turned off and was just doing some basic stuff when I connected. I just shook my head and kept using it.  I think there was either a miscommunication from her or she misunderstood what the system was telling her.  My belief was that I had used 25MB at the time.

Laundry was a pre-cruise kerfuffle.  They resolved that to our satisfaction.  We received two bags of included laundry throughout the cruise.  I wish I would have known that before hand and could have packed less, but I was happy to be able to wash some of the dirty clothes, particularly work out clothes.  We received our clothes about four hours after they picked it up, which was amazing.

Disembarking:

Unfortunately, the third day at St. Martin was disembarkation day.  We had to be out of our room by 9AM.  We ate our breakfast and went to the Atlas lounge where we were disembarking from.  They packed boxed treat for everyone.  At 10:30 we left the ship 😞 and boarded a bus.  We were treated to a island tour.  It was interesting to Marigot on a day where everything was open.  We did get stuck in traffic due to them mowing the grass next to the street.  That cut our time in Marigot short.  We were then dropped off at the airport at 1PM.  Most people were on the same flight back to Miami.  Flights back were pretty seamless.

Ports:

We were often the first cruisers back to our ports.  So while they were excited to see us, I got the feeling that places were not necessarily ready for us.

Lisbon:

We didn’t get to see much of Lisbon.  We had a nice 20 minute drive from the airport to the seaport.  I did walk over to the train station which looked very nice.  We looked at going to the war museum, but it was closed on Monday.

Madeira:

We opted to do a pay excursion that included the cable car and toboggan ride.  We rode a bus to the cable car.  Then it was about a 15 minute ride up to the top.  After that we walked around and saw a small museum and a church.  Then we rode the “sledges” down the road.  This was not nearly as thrilling as I thought it would be.  That dumped us into a tourist trap where they tried to sell us our photos coming down.  After that, the bus picked us up and took us back to downtown and finally we walked over to a Madeira wine shop where we sampled the local wines.  We opted to walk back to the ship, which was a 15-20 minute walk.

Canary Islands:

We ended up taking an included excursion here. It was basically a bus and walking tour of the Canary Islands.  We went to a market and then walked through an older part of town.  We drove up and over to the other side of the island.  We ended up in a Bodega.  There we were able to sample some tapas and their wines. There was some great sauce and sea boiled potatoes. Then we rode back to the ship.

Atlantic Ocean:

We had eight straight days of crossing.  The weather for it was just about perfect.  We had a couple of days of glassy seas.  We quickly got into a routine.  Woke up and worked out.  Went to breakfast.  Then maybe do a 10 am stretching or meditation session.  At 11, one of the speakers gave a 40 minute presentation.  Then it was up to the pool and start thinking about lunch.  A couple of days, there was something around 2 PM.  Afternoon tea was from 4-5.  Trivia was at 4:30.  Canapes and predinner drinks started at 6:30 with dinner starting around 7.  Then there was nightly entertainment at 9.  Rinse and repeat!

St. Barts:

St. Barts was a substitute port.  We were provided a taxi to Shell Beach.  If you wanted to walk, it was about a 10 minute walk.  There were not many people there.  I think most people had sticker shock at the prices.  We just placed our towels up on a slight hill.  The water was wonderful, but there was quite a bit of seaweed.  At one point, I was the only person in the water.

St. Martin:

This was also a substitute port. The first day of St. Martin we were tendered into Marigot. Unfortunately, it was Sunday.  In addition, we were really early in the season.  So nothing was open.  My wife and I walked up to Ft. St. Louis, which gave a pretty cool view of the bay and city.  Unfortunately, you can still see all of the destruction from hurricane Irma. Others did catch a taxi to another part of the island to be on a beach. We headed back to the ship and did our normal routine.

The second day of St. Martin was in Simpson Bay.  Except that we woke up off the coast of St. Kitts and Nevis.  Surprise!  The staff arranged for a private beach day.  So we were able to use the zodiacs and do a wet landing at a local beach club.  It was a nice experience.  The beach club staff said we were the first cruise visitors in a year and a half.  So we did buy some stuff just to inject a couple of dollars into the island.  I do wish we were able to break out the toys from the ship, sea doos & kayaks.

Drinks:

There are two main lounges.  The Atlas Lounge is forward on Deck 4.  The theatre sits just forward of it.  The Dome is forward on Deck 7.  You can walk out to the pool deck from here and forward for views.  They both have full service bars.  We generally had pre dinner drinks with canapes in Atlas.  Afternoon tea and nightly entertainment was in The Dome.

Liquor selection was fine.  There was a limited variety of what was there.  But what they had was around the $30 / bottle retail where I live.  If you have to have your special liquor, you will need to bring it.  The cocktail menus were mostly the same between the bars.  They had some interesting cocktails and we were able to try some new things.

But here is where the staff and bartenders shined.  If they had the ingredients, they were more than happy to make you whatever you wanted.  There was a selection of upcharge liquors as well.  I did get one dram of scotch one night because I was in the mood for something different.

We had one afternoon where the four bartenders were able to provide a drink that they had created.  So they went through the presentations and were able to taste each of their creations.  They were all of different varieties, so it was a fun experience.  One bartender went through his Tom Cruise Cocktail routine, which was entertaining.

I felt the wine selection was somewhat disappointing.  But wine may be more subjective than food. Most people seemed to find one bottle of something they liked.  I mostly drank the champagne as it was a decent sparkling wine.  We have cruised Celebrity quite a bit and feel that the wine selection on the premium package is superior.

Food:

My experience with the food was that it was very good overall.  I only had one meal that I didn’t like.  My spouse ordered the same thing and loved hers, so it was more of a personal preference.

My opinion is that there are 1 and two half dining venues.  Porto is the man dining menu on Deck 4.  Paula’s Pantry is a coffee spot with some light items on Deck 4.  7 Aft is surprising on Deck 7, aft.  😉 7 Aft and Porto had full bar service.

Breakfast was in Porto.  It was the same buffet every morning.  The buffet had amazing fresh fruit, dried fruit, meats & cheeses, sausages, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, cereal, nuts, milk, a variety of fresh juices, pastries, and donuts.  You could also order made to order eggs and omelets.  Then I discovered you could order french toast as well. Mimosas were also ready to be prepared, just ask! Again, it was the same thing every morning, but there was a huge variety of food.  Quite honestly, I ended up settling down into the same thing every morning after working out. If you are looking for the traditional cruise full breakfast, you might be disappointed.

7 Aft essentially served the same thing as Porto did during lunch.  It was just in a buffet form instead of sit down.  You could also order burgers and hotdogs here.  Generally all of us pool people ate lunch here every day.  They also had a flatbread pizza thing that I thought was not up to the quality as their other offerings.  A lot of people liked their Impossible Burger option.  For dinner, 7 Aft turned into a reservation only steakhouse.  I enjoyed the one time we ate up there.  I ordered too much food with two side items.  It is one of the few meals I had where I felt I over indulged.  

Porto is where dinner was held for most people. For a 16 day cruise, I don’t think we repeated a single dinner menu.  We basically had a theme night in Porto each night.  Periodically, they provided the Alma menu.  I always ordered off of the left side of the menu (theme) and not off the Alma or the “standard” menu on the right hand side.  Presentation was very good with high quality dinnerware and glasses.  Portion sizes were appropriate.

I really have no complaints about the food.  I certainly did not lose any weight.  😉 I did speak with the head chef about his vision which was more about providing variety throughout the cruise vs. having a smaller set of menus with more items. I think this may have frustrated some cruisers who were used to more variety within the menus themselves.  If you are the type who likes to experiment with their food, it was a very enjoyable experience.  If you want the same cruise food over and over, I think you will be disappointed.  Oh, and the focaccia was amazing and light!

We did have two theme nights at 7 Aft which was the entire pool deck, one was a BBQ  theme near the beginning of the cruise and an island theme near the end of the cruise.  The regular dining options were closed for those nights.

There were two cooking demonstrations.  It was the first time they had done anything like that, so it was not as slick as some demonstrations where they have been done 100s of times.  We got the recipes for both of the options they made.  But quite frankly, if you wanted a recipe for anything they made, they were more than happy to provide it to you.

We often ate dinner with someone who had some dietary restrictions.  She was blown away by the accommodations and the quality of the substitutions.