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We will be on board in a couple of weeks, so I should be able to answer your questions then. I believe my husband also took some photos of the drink list on our cruise last May, so I'll see if I can find those and give you an idea of pricing.

Water and soda/soft drinks are free.

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Here is a very detailed review by Love.II.Cruise on their cruise in January 2013 that covers both the Yachtman's and Flavors itineraries:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1791485

Like you, we spend very little time in our cabin. Sounds like you enjoyed the new layout, though. I'll get to see it for myself in February!

Have never been on the Wind Surf, so I'm not really sure what to make of this review.

I believe dandee2 may have been on this cruise - would be interesting to hear other opinions from someone else on this particular cruise.

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Like Sunprince, I'm curious about what you thought of the new room design?

The laundry package might be worth it if you have extended stays before and/or after your cruise. If you think you would only have a few items per person you might want laundered, their individual piece prices are quite reasonable.

I have always felt that the drink package would not make sense for us.

On the Wind Spirit deck plans, the medical facility is located on Deck 2 next to Cabin 203. It is the white area with no indication of what it is. We were in 203 on one of our cruises. It looks like it is in the same location on the Wind Star.

Not sure where it is on the Wind Surf, since we have never cruised on her.

Gail, regarding roll calls - no you are not missing anything nor looking in the wrong place. The roll calls for Windstar are usually somewhat quiet compared to other cruise lines. I feel this is primarily due to the fact that the ships are small.

Not sure what the statistics are for cruisers who participate here on Cruise Critic roll calls, but it would seem to be around 2% of people on any given cruise. So, for instance, if you were on the smallest Oceania ship (684), that means there would be about 13 people on the roll call. On the larger Oceania ships, it would be more like 20.

Compare that to Windstar ships - Wind Surf (6) and Wind Spirit/Wind Star (3). So, while I absolutely love the "smallness" , the flip side is that it doesn't always lend itself to the ability to plan independent group tours in advance through the roll call. Of my three cruises (all on Wind Spirit), our roll call numbers have been 2, 3 and 2 (which includes me). Even with these small numbers, we have had some wonderful tours with others - we even were able to meet up in Istanbul for dinner with one couple the night before our cruise. So, it is not totally impossible!

My current roll call for Wind Star next April is just me so far :(.

Mrs. RobertPierre1 - There is a reason that there are many different lines with varying cruise experiences and price points. Obviously, Windstar was not a good match for you. I hope that your next cruise on whatever line you choose meets your expectations better.

We used Private Greece Tours on our recent cruise - early port pick-up, day-long tour w/lunch stop and drop off at airport.

Our itinerary was a little different because we had spent considerable time in Athens in the past, so after visiting the new Acropolis Museum we headed out into the countryside and visited Marathon and Vavrona. Nikos was able to customize a tour that was exactly what we wanted. Our driver was Manos (Nikos was already booked). Manos was a very knowledgeable driver with great English and we enjoyed every minute of our day. He even went out of his way to find a little Greek Orthodox Chapel for us to visit.

Based on our experience, I would highly recommend Private Greece Tours.

I think you'll be happy that you booked with them. We used them several weeks ago, our driver was Manos. We had a wonderful day and I would not hesitate to use Private Greece Tours again in the future.

I also just received a request this morning from Nikos Loukos for our tour on Rhodes. Of course, the first thing I did was come here to CC to post the question and saw this thread.

In my email, Nikos stated that "the Greek government has now made this data mandatory for the service industry. The Government’s aim is to make sure that every income is declared. As a visitor from another country your passport is the only proof of identity as the person who reserved the service."

Evidently, since we are all receiving the same request at the same time from different companies, it must be a new requirement. Not sure how comfortable I am with that!

Great review and wonderful photos. I think reviews such as this are really helpful for someone who has never experienced a small ship cruise. Thank you for taking the time to do this - I always say I will do a review and just never seem to get around to it!

Movies from my Capers (Oct 25 - Oct 31).

Oct 25 - Pink Panther II

Oct 26 - Gooby

Oct 27 - Confessions of a Shopholic

Oct 28 - Duplicity

Oct 29 - Madea Goes to Jail

Oct 30 - Beetlejuice

Oct 31 - Paul Blart-Mall Cop

Because they were showing the World Series on a number of nights, the movie showings were very late.