lastmate

We are booked on the Monarch Governess Aug 28 departure from Amsterdam to Budapest so I am opening this new forum topic for comments from past and future passengers on any of their river cruises.

Is she still captaining the Wind Star?  Anyone know who's currently captaining the Star Pride?

We did an UnCruise Wilderness Explorer cruise in Alaska that included alcohol (+ all excursions, which were led by their staff of Adventure Guides, with choices of kayaking, on shore hikes or skiff tours each day).  Really didn't notice anyone overindulging.  They used premium liquor brands and had a bartender's special each day of some creative drinks that were fun to try, but since we are moderate beer and occasional wine drinkers, we didn't get our money's worth and given a choice I'd have preferred to pay for our drinks rather than being expected to pay a $500 gratuity per cabin, for the 7 day cruise.  Of course those were shared not only by the ship's cabin stewards, dining and drink servers and other crew (except for officers and hotel and adventure managers), but also the Adventure guides, which would be separately employed tippable excursion guides on other ships. But I would have rather had the gratuity included in the cruise price than alcohol, or had those gratuities (except perhaps for ship's crew) more discretionary and paid to each guide individually.

Who is booked on this departure out of San Juan? Our Lovely Leewards 14 day cruise starts Nov 10 but returns to SJ on Nov 17, as apparently it combines two different Caribbean itineraries that are also sold separately.

Can you bring beer on board, and are there fridges in the cabins? What is the minimum package and is the savings enough to be worth it? We typically each drink 1 beer per day, usually with dinner, so that would be 26 for our two-week cruise.

How about recommendations for excursions for a late November Windstar cruise visiting the following ports:

San Juan; Gustavia St Barths; Little Bay Montserrat; Phillipsburg St Maarten; Jost Van Dyke, BVI; Virgin Gorda Prickly Pear Beach BVI; Les Saintes, Guadeloupe; Bequia, St Vincent; St George's Grenada; Pigeon Island, St Lucia.

Also do previous Windstar cruisers feel their excursion pricing and value is fair and competitive with what is available through Viator and other options in each port?

How about recommendations for excursions for a late November Windstar cruise visiting the following ports:

San Juan; Gustavia St Barths; Little Bay Montserrat; Phillipsburg St Maarten; Jost Van Dyke, BVI; Virgin Gorda Prickly Pear Beach BVI; Les Saintes, Guadeloupe; Bequia, St Vincent; St George's Grenada; Pigeon Island, St Lucia.

Are the excursions sold by Windstar fairly priced compared to private ones that are available?

What about beer?

Just an update on our Wilderness Explorer Trip later this week. Bags are out and packing is underway. We have been contacted a couple of times by Uncruise welcoming us, giving us updates on our ship, crew and captain. Provided an itinerary and outline of events. I have emailed them a few times and they have promptly responded, even once on a Sunday! We are leaving from Boston at 7 AM to Seattle with an 8 hour layover, then on to Juneau for a 930 PM arrival, night before cruise. More to come, I promise. 🚢⛴🚢⛴

Looking forward to your report, as we are booked on the same cruise June 22, after a 2 week land tour of Alaska with g-adventures. Hope you are having a fabulous time!

We are booked on the Star Pride for a 14-day Leeward Islands Windstar cruise out of San Juan,

at a great price for Nov 10 date. It will be our first Windstar cruise, we have avoided big cruise ships since a conference years ago on Carnival turned us off of the cattle-herd style of cruising, Any comments or recommendations welcome. I will be revisiting many of the islands I spent time in during several years of cruising by small private yacht back in the early 80's.