CruiseOrLand

In 2015, our Windstar Canary Islands/Morocco cruise left from Santa Apolonia Cruise Terminal Lisbon-Blue Subway or long walk. But it is important, with ANY cruise line, to check this again before you leave for a cruise that with a self-transfer. It's just not "engraved in stone." There are too many variables.

I would say that wanting to use OBC's is a reasonable strategic decision. But relying on one VAT policy or another is actually riskier than hoping they will continue to prioritize "selling" beverage packages upon boarding over "enforcing an advance-purchase" requirement.

I see a problem (as a consumer ... ) with the difference between an OBC credit for an actual expenditure (say, a cancelled excursion, or an inconvenience-remission of a charge-like our Panama City transfer when maintenance delayed boarding until 5PM ... ), with an incentive "credit" awarded with a certain cabin level. The first is "our own money", while the second is an "internal marketing expense" for Windstar. The degree of displeasure we feel for having to use-up the dollars for both cases should not be identical. Opinion.

cruising Omi, I just want to note that the term "Yacht" is not really right for the Windstar ships. Definitely "Small Ship cruising", but there are other lines with well under 100 guests on every boat, and that gets closer to the idea of "Yacht". We were on a non-luxury ship (in Croatia) with only about 32 cabins, and it was a remarkable experience. (That company went out of business in the Great Recession.) But I get "college travel" brochures all the time for really small, luxury ships.

You got good advice in the observation that rough seas are out of your control. Even at the Windstar size, we've had three or four really rough nights. You really need to ask your regular doctor to say what he thinks is the most appropriate pill. When we went to the Galapagos (100-guest ship) we each asked for an extra Scopalamine patch to try in advance, and I'm glad we did. We both had "bad trips" and would not consider using them on a boat, under any conditions.

This product is promoted and sold in the big lounge where you submit your passport and get your room key/id card. No problem to order any level of beverage package after boarding.

The Windstar pools will seem microscopic to you. Don’t count on a “swimming” experience.

I haven't been on a huge ship, so my reply is maybe not as useful to you. We use Windstar for itineraries that are more convenient by ship, like Islands of the West Med, Tahiti, Athens to Istanbul, and so on. We wouldn't do Barcelona to Lisbon or the French Riviera.

Of course there are small ports, but ports exist (like Dubrovnik) where all ships are required to use the main cruise port, which is not always convenient to town. I remember that we had a small pier in Venice, but that was some years ago. Things may have been tightened up by now in Venice. I don't have the information to promise fewer tender ports - Places like Capri and Belize City require the use of their tender boats, BTW.

You might want to read some random Mediterranean reviews on this website. Some posters agree that the Windstar ships are attractive, but they miss having a host of activities on board, especially a busy night life. It can be very quiet after dinner on Windstar, and I like it that way. There are fewer "restaurants" on the ship, but I'm happy with the main Amphora dining room. It is very easy to get a deuce to yourselves if that's what you want.

We've been on some very small group excursions, but I don't remember many being cancelled because of insufficient registrations.

Note that the term "near luxury" is often used on this newsboard. Setting aside the plans to renovate all the ships, some people would prefer a higher level of apparent luxury, or fewer a la carte charges. I would like fiercer air conditioning.

Previous replies about good staff and efforts to remember you and your preferences are correct.

I recall that some ports make Windstar pay for a local tender, like Capri and Belize City. AFAIR, the ship's own tenders are lifeboats that are designed to avoid shipping any water from waves. So they have a 95% covered construction, with a slot to enter, and you have to duck your head to move around. They are indeed warm and stuffy on a sunny day. I don't see any remedy for this problem, because they are so much "safer" for passengers.

You can't have it both ways. The only remedy may be to book a cruise which doesn't intend to use the ship's tenders. But since ports can change, mooring/anchoring/tie-up conditions can change. There will always be a "subject to change" tag on published expectations. I wonder if this is related to the use of (100% open) Zodiac's on our recent Panama Canal cruise. Be careful what you wish for ...

I don't agree that any WIndstar "gangplank" is old or in bad condition. It's a mechanical part of the ship, in an "industrial" area of the boat. It's not a party platform.

I am surprised to hear that Windstar is not selling you a transfer to their hotel in Panama City. Have you called their sales desk and made certain the transfer does not exist? (I got very good information about our Panama Canal cruise from the sales reps.) Perhaps you are not staying at the Bristol Panama, but if you are, we found their affiliated ground transport company to be excellent, and I would not hesitate to recommend that the hotel concierge book you a pickup in Colon.

Colon is a very unattractive place. I would make certain to have reliable transportation from that cruise port to Panama City. (The trip is on a very modern and safe highway. But the city of Colon is a dump.)

There is not reason to compare two different countries, but I was surprised to be told (about the Puerto Caldera, CR end of our cruise) that Windstar was not permitted to take anyone to the SJR airport who did NOT have a flight scheduled there! They did offer us a Windstar bus to their Marriott (?) downtown. We hired a private company for our Puerto Caldera pickup.

I don't really mean that it is not worth the money, but the Windstar Wifi I've paid for has been slow and intermittent. As another noted, my T-Mobile free data was often sufficient. But you do get annoying warnings from T-Mobile when you take advantage of it, and you have to avoid the OnWaves boat-cell which is not included in your plan.

To put that another way, if you are near a developed shore, the phone data is not significantly different (I mean in speed and frustration level ... ) from the WiFi option.

Because you are going to Tahiti, I want to mention that on our Tahiti trip in 2002, our Windstar snorkeling outing in Bora Bora turned out to be the best snorkeling we have ever done. In a sentence, everyone else signed up for "Shark's Breakfast", and our snorkel excursion WENT, despite having only ONE COUPLE booked for it. It was a private snorkel trip for the price of a group trip. However, it was quite vigorous coverage of ground. (I'm a weak swimmer, but because I wear a partial flotation vest for snorkeling, it wasn't a struggle for me. My wife is an excellent swimmer.)

When buying anything on the web, it is important to look around the webpage for Terms & Conditions. Having said that, I"m going to answer you by referring to the two-page, color handout we received upon boarding "Costa Rica & Panama Canal" in January, 2019. This is the "Shore Excursions and Booking Form" for booking on the ship.

All of the excursions offered for a given day (with departure times varying from 6:45AM to 10:15AM) have a "Cancellation Deadline" of 8:00AM on the day immediately preceding the day of the excursion. Note that the opening hours for the Shore Excursion Desk is an important factor. These hours are clearly posted on the daily schedules.

I am not able to say with absolute certainty that Web Purchases have the same deadline, but you could fairly argue for such consideration.

Without going into the details, it sounds like you may be an experienced cruiser who is "qualified" to book an independent excursion. In general, I found Windstar to be reasonable about cancellations. For example, when additional excursions were announced, or when the itinerary changed during the cruise (... other cruises than the one above) there was an opportunity to cancel. There were excursions that booked up in advance, but that was not often.

Because some of our excursions (in places like Asia, I mean) were one to two hours from the ship, I had no problem with the cost to have zero worries about being back to the ship in time. Besides not being left behind, Windstar did take mealtimes into consideration for those distant excursions. I had books like Lonely Planet that made it clear how hard it would have been to have done the same things independently.

It is essential to read the daily schedule religiously, and to listen to public address announcements. Just to pick one example, it is useful to come to the daily Port Talk to learn microscopic details, like the fact that it is (... somewhere) the Port Authority (and not Windstar) that is providing the local pier shuttle, and that they only guarantee to provide one coach for each departure. That turned out not to be a big problem for our independent days; my point is that Knowledge is Power!

I reviewed a similar, but shorter itinerary from January, 2019. But it was Star Breeze:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=649163

Unfortunately, the CruiseCritic web machinery did not allow me to review every shore excursion we took.

I think there is a link where you can ask to see all Star Pride reviews, and then sort them by date.

On the few occasions you have a wet landing, it is not as difficult as, say, landing on wet, slippery rocks on the Galapagos. But it is difficult for those with bad knees or disabilities. To pick one example, the private beach picnic is a wet landing, in calm, sunny (you hope) white sand beach water, perhaps 16" deep. The hard part is stepping over the side of the Zodiac. One of our wet landings was changed to a pier anyway. You do have to put on a life jacket, and sit on the edge of the Zodiac, facing in, shoulder to shoulder with others.

Our Motor Ship was not new-looking, and I found a few pieces of broken furniture. But we did not feel the ship was run-down or ready for the scrapyard. And the price was right.

Reading this newsboard, I have noticed that individual Winstar ships seem to have considerable autonomy, and you should not expect your experience to be absolutely identical to ours.

Windstar does not restrict footwear other than flip-flops in their dinner-dining dress guidlines. (I am aware that flip-flops are considered formalwear by indulged American teenagers, and that some will be worn to volcanic landscape tours ...   .... once.) If you are also asking, "What will I see others wearing at dinner?", I'm sure there will be some casual footwear at dinner. It's really tee shirts and shorts that they are trying to discourage. You might wish to read (although there are some passionate replies) the nearby thread about Casual And Elegant Not So Much Anymore!

It's a very extreme example, but we took the Windstar ship tour from Puerto Cortes, Honduras to the ancient city of Copan. Departure was 6:15AM, so you can imagine how far it was to the site. The tour (with hot lunch) was great, and worth the high expense and time. But we had a lot of problems getting back to the ship. We were over two hours late, and the ship had been forced to move to another marina (20 minutes away) because their time at the original place was up. Of course, Wind Surf had to wait for us, and they even had some kind of food for us when we boarded.

Just last January, we went on a Windstar ship excursion in Panama City. But because there was an embarrassing "fish kill" at the marina involved, the Panamanian military closed half the marina for clean up. In this case, I fault the official tour organizer for failing to find out exactly where the new tender pickup point was, and for failing to escort us to that pickup point! (It turned out to be BEHIND the kind of buzzer-lock gangway gate you find at even modest private marinas in the U.S.) We walked the land-width of the marina three times before happening on the right information. Luckily, there were still two hours before the ship's departure, so we weren't frantic.

It was Viking River, not Windstar, but in Moscow, we asked the Cruise Director (a second-generation Russian-American, with superb Russian language skills) to arrange an (unlisted!) White Nights Opera trip to the Maryinsky Theater for us. When (his selected ... ) cab driver took us back to the ship after the opera (Queen of Spades), he pulled over because he said the ship had moved. He pulled out his cellphone to learn that it was on the other side of the river, at a different dock! We had no cell phones back then, but the cab driver took care of everything, no extra charge. It was worth the peace of mind to have booked an (expensive) but 100% legit "custom" excursion.

So before you book independently, evaluate your local travel skills, and ask yourself Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" question!

I'm sure Cometman is right, but that is just over the "good" side of the line from the tedious buffoons who delay each "On the bus at 2:20" command by 2 to 5 minutes. Naturally, people book private excursions (for among other good reasons) so they don't have to deal with late-ish fellow guests. I am afraid that, because of cell phones, lateness is becoming simply a personal choice.

We have also been on the last tender for a Windstar departure, but that is very clearly within the letter of the law. And we made sure to eat in a restaurant within walking distance of the tender. (But you can imagine how hard it is to get even a Michelin-star restaurant to "please bring me the check before we finish" in Europe!)

Because it turned out that the port-authority bus in Civitavecchia was going to serve three different boats, and because they would not leave (or turn on the air conditioning) until it was over half-full, we came very close to missing the Embarcation of one of our Windstar cruises. I'm not pleading for indulgence, we should have allowed more time. And it was our first time using the train to Civitavecchia. But they pulled up the gangplank as soon as we entered the ship.

We really liked Monemvasia, which is entirely do-able without the ship's walking-excursion. Maybe it was because the ship couldn't get into Mykonos in a storm (and many passengers were seasick), but the last minute substitution of Monemvasia turned out to be a lovely day in a not very crowded, and almost unspoiled "old town". Fitness is required to get up the steps to the upper level, but even just the lower level is very nice. The tendering was very close and not time consuming. This town is visually comparable to Pèrouges, France, but of course has a sea view. I think I had the Patrick O'Brian novel that spends time there with me, by accident.

It's far too late to make arrangements, but we were sorry to miss the VERY limited capacity (and independent, only) visit to one of the WHS sites on Valetta, the Hypogeum. This has such limited capacity that it books up the day they put a day of admissions on sale. The ship's tour included the Megalithic Temples WHS. And of course the town is easy to make a wonderful day of, without any tour bookings at all. Many restaurants require reservations, although of course you can sit down at a modest cafe without a reservation. I think our port day was Sunday, which made it harder to see the Cathedral. But we did see a wedding at a neighborhood church. And later, it turned out the same wedding had booked the big green lawn just below the tourist plaza that overlooks the cruise mooring zone with the elevator up to the town, for their reception.

In my limited experience, all cruise companies provide poor docking information. That is by design. They want to hedge the (astonishingly likely) possibility that they will be forced (or choose, for maintenance reasons) to change their original plans. It's tough enough to get everyone to read the "Terms and Conditions" before they pay their money. How can they be sure a change made the day before Embarcation will reach all the passengers?

I don't think they really make so much on the optional (for people who don't buy their air from Windstar) transfer. They would just rather be the ones in control of it. When our Embarkation in Panama City was changed (at the quite distant port of Colon), the transfer (and a delay-covering lunch buffet at the official hotel) ended up being free, because there had been so many changes and minor annoyances. In a way, that's why we booked (independently) the "Windstar" hotel on our one-night-early air arrival. We didn't know how confused it would be. But we had nothing to stress about. (Like the time the Athens taxi driver let us off a mile from the "right" pier in Piraeus!)

I'm not "defending Windstar." I'm just accepting some realities of the sub-luxury cruise business!

I don't have a problem with a vendor seeking to maximize their income from "wasting assets". It's simply important for US to learn how the price moves before you make an irrevocable decision.

We know that airline tickets virtually never go down as the departure date approaches. (In fact, there are reports of involuntary moves to middle seats for low-price early purchasers with seat assignments ...  It even happened to us in Business Class on Emirates!) But there are cases in the secondary market (I mean, Stubhub and the like, where someone other than the original vendor now owns the asset) where event tickets are much cheaper the day or night of the event, as "speculators" (or sports subscribers who plan from the moment of purchase, to sell half their subscription to "pay" for their own desired nights ... ) have to unload their product before its value evaporates.

After a year of getting Windstar emails and random visits to the website, you can get an idea of how their prices move. And as you age from working to retirement, your flexibility on time-decisions can increase. You can even get to the point where cancellation insurance is unimportant because the travel is so close-in. (You still need health and delay coverage, typically.)

On the Windstar motor vessels, it has seemed to me, when going to sit and read on the foredeck, that those premium suites may have extra foot traffic outside their doors, and some noise from the jacuzzi.

Never having stayed in one, can someone who has, comment on my speculation?

Milepig is very right that “change is tough.” But some of us believe that our personal preferences and desires don’t have a basic human right to be satisfied. If your CEO is over 25, maybe you don’t get to bring your dog to work. If you work for a law firm, maybe you don’t get to wear shorts on Friday. Dropping off your children at the YMCA so that you block the driveway for 5 other cars is not adult behavior. It’s selfish. It’s not “all about you” just because you paid for the cruise.

Also, the Windstar ships are made of steel. Many cruisers report long periods of time with the Windstar engines shut off. (Not saying they are noisy, I’m referring to time under sail.)

On May 3, 2019 at 9:57 AM, milepig said:

 

You mean the chits you sign when purchasing drinks on board? With the plan you do that the first day or so and then they go away.

I wonder if this varies from ship to ship? I'm sure I saw Unlimited Beverage customers signing for drinks on Star Legend in Asia, October 2018. 

It's a slight minus that you have to sign paper checks even if there is no payment required.

I realize that this is not an exclusively Windstar topic. But the single mention of T-Mobile in the nearby thread titled "On board Wind Spirit now...I am SOLD on Windstar" brought this up. I thought it should be asked separately.

On our last two Windstar cruises, Tokyo-Hong Kong and Panama Canal & Costa Rica, we used our T-Mobile 55+ plan, mostly for data. We used it so much that we got a nasty automated warning after our return from Asia, when we had already resumed domestic USA service. At one point, while on board Star Legend near both continents, we each received text messages:

"Caution- Cruise Ship is NOT covered in your T-Mobile plan! Data is $15/MB+ tax, Talk $5.99/min, $.50/text. It adds up quickly- dial #763# to disable data and switch to Wi-Fi to browse the internet or check emails"

I noticed that my Carrier (listed on the Home screen) now ended with the word "OnWaves", which seemed like a cruise-ship reference. So I avoided that carrier for the rest of the trip. I suspect that it was not an on-board product of the Star Legend, but I'm not sure. I think it was either a nearby large cruise ship, or a money-earning shore antenna station. Does anyone have any details on this issue? Since the message included the term "T-Mobile", it was customized for our phones, whoever sent it.

Thanks for that image link. I never found Windstar facilities too crowded, but a glance at the .PDF suggests that there is little or no increase in the Lounge, Amphora, or Veranda seating. I would worry if they are planning to continue to offer all open-seating with some lame tourism-engineering calculation, that seats will be available on request 93.5283% of the time. Service is poorer when dining areas a fuller, even now. (That's an observation, not a substantive complaint - today.)

Presumably, they will hire more people to do the "turnarounds" in the same amount of time. But they can't make the hallways or service passages wider, to pass more people or more luggage or more cleaning teams, in the same amount of time.