Doh15

We were in PR recently and visited El Yunque twice (once inside the park boundaries to hike and once outside the park to swim in a river).  We enjoyed both experiences but I wonder a little what the excursion includes (seems like you should have a few hours in the park but not sure how they organize that, or not) and I don't know how to judge if it's worth organizing your trip home around.

On 4/25/2024 at 9:32 AM, Pudgesmom said:

In my opinion, Windstar has “missed the boat” on beer. There are so many wonderful IPAs, lagers and pale ales available today. The beers  on the ship are pretty much limited to the old American standbys. I like a good lager, not the watered down American beers. They used to have Grolsch sometimes, but it was not available on our cruise in March. I think this is an area for vast improvement.

I agree.  Once in a while it seems like they provision locally and those are usually good but it's still pretty limited.

On 5/2/2024 at 7:05 PM, rmalbers said:

As you have probably already know, just make sure you have the right shoes and layers and it will be great no matter what you get for weather.  We had 'mixed' weather but it was a great trip.  It really does vary, in line at the airport a couple that did a week in a rental driving around it had clouds and some rain the whole week, they were ready for it and had a ok time but you could tell they were a little disappointed.  The really big thing they will never forget is they saw the northern lights the night before fly out.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the layering thing is very true.  Particularly on excursions I might have had 3-4 layers on my torso at some points and I would keep taking them off and putting them back on based on whether the sun was out, or we were just sitting on the bus or what.

I would think you could also ask to sit by yourself in Amphora if you wanted.

We did this recently as a last minute thing and really liked it more than we expected even (we did not miss any ports).  

A cruise is not the same as a land tour but we didn't realize before we took the trip how difficult it would have been to see the places we saw by land.  We really liked the Westfjords and the Westmann Islands, for example, and those would take a lot of effort to see on your own.  We also got the chance to do some decent hikes to waterfalls and it felt reasonably active. So without diminishing the benefits of a land tour I think the cruise offers at least competing benefits.

The yacht club did get a little crowded at times but I don't recall ever really being frustrated.  We did sometimes bundle up outside.  Didn't mind the bus rides- a couple excursions had long rides to and fro through pretty countryside and a couple had 3 or 4 stops where you had to get on/off the bus to see multiple sites which lets you see a lot but also gets a little old I think.

On 4/12/2024 at 4:23 PM, new_cruiser said:

I'm wondering if the new engines are clean enough to meet the coming strict requirements for Norwegian fjords. I was booked on a Windstar cruise there that got canceled due to COVID and haven't managed to fit another into my schedule. 

 

Two additional ships might also give flexibility to go back to Asia or try some South American itineraries.

Tier III NOx is pretty clean-- about 1/4 the emissions of Tier II-- but I think the Norwegian fjords are now zero emissions areas, meaning only electrically powered boats are allowed.

We did AMA and aren't very social-- we like to be polite and it's nice to have the occasional conversation to find out where people are from, but for better or worse we are on the cruise to spend time with people we know, not try to make new friends.

Not sure if our cruise was particularly undersold but we had no problems eating by ourselves-- we generally took a booth which seats 4 and no one ever joined us. And yes, on excursions and in the lounge it was no issue to smile and nod and people and not really engage if you didn't feel like it.

We did this years ago and had a great trip-- it was just four of us on the boat with a captain (who was a wine expert) and his wife (who was an excellent chef).  I just looked and it seems like they have traded up in boats and it now costs $30-40k for a week (depending on how many of you there are-- it has 3 cabins so a max of 6 people), but I am sure it would be great if that's your budget.   https://www.charterbarge.com

Update for what it’s worth— our ship seemed to use an apple monitor as a screen for the cabin.
 

Maybe in theory it would have been possible to connect my iphone using a usb port but in practice it did not seem to be (although admittedly I did not spend much time investigating it). 

I was very impressed with the full sliding door/window on the Ama french balcony. Would have no problem booking that again. 

Ama on the Rhine has a nice mix of options including  some hikes (2-6 miles) and some bike tours (10-20 miles). 

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

It is Iffezheim to Germersheim.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you for for answering my question but also just generally for all of the information and updates!

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Maxau gauge is now at 752cm.

 

notamermaid

 

How far up and down the river is boat traffic banned based on that gauge?

10 hours ago, RobInMN said:

AmaMagna uses LG(I think) TVs and some Apple TV system of some sort (I don't do Apple). The TVs are also mounted into a decorative wall. Since I didn't use the Apple thing, I can't really say if it had a streaming option or not.

I always travel with my Firestick and a Universal Remote (so I can change the Source on the TV). I also bring a 10' HDMI cable.

While I probably could have done it myself, I didn't want to risk dropping the TV, so I asked the front desk if someone could pull the TV off the wall for a minute. That afternoon the engineer and 1 other guy came and did that. I plugged my HDMI cable in, routed it down through the access holes and hooked up my Firestick. I then was able to use my universal remote to change the TV source to my Firestick.

On the last day, the engineer team came around again and I unplugged my HDMI cable.

They were honestly super nice about it. And we were on for 2 weeks, so maybe it was slightly less of a hassle.

As long as it's not built into a wall, and not some ancient TV with no HDMI ports, I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to simply plug into an HDMI port on the TV. But you may need a universal remote to change the input.

 

Interesting, thanks! (It would have never occurred to me either to ask them for help taking the tv off the wall or to bring a universal remote.)

We do have iphones, although aircast doesn’t always work for us even at home, but if anyone has experience using those would be interested to hear. 

Does anyone know if it's possible to connect a phone to a tv on Amawaterways (via a HDMI cable or even casting)?  

Not a big deal either way but we might download some movies to a phone if we could.

thanks

We have decided last minute to do this cruise in December— any advice on choosing among the excursions? Are the hikes nice in winter? 

So I assume this is nothing to actively be concerned about if we are leaving from Basel in December (that is, it is all so unpredictable there’s no point in worrying) or do you think the situation is likely to be better or worse in another month?

So our family of 3 was thinking of taking a Windstar cruise and possibly bringing an older parent.  However we may not know if the parent is feeling up to it until closer in time to the cruise so I wondered if we could either book two cabins with two pax each and change the name on one if we needed to (and found someone else to come), or if we could book one cabin with 2 pax and one cabin with one person (paying the single supplement) and then adding a second passenger later and getting a refund of the single supplement or a discount to offset it off the 4th passenger's fare.

Does anyone know if either of those approaches would work, or if there's another way to be flexible on a fourth passenger?  (and if these would be more likely to work if booking directly with Windstar or through a travel agent?)

thanks

We did this cruise a few years ago and for Curacao we actually rented a car and drove to one of the beaches up the coast. We had a lovely day there (and I recall it still left us enough time to walk around the town and the fort). 
 

On 7/11/2023 at 3:07 PM, CruiseOrLand said:

Just returned 2023 from "Around Iceland" on Star Legend, Cabin 527. Seemed the same cabin as before the stretch, even to having only one 120 volt outlet. (I travel with plenty of Shuco adapters, but I know this is a problem for others.) Large bed very comfortable, no perceptible ridge in the middle. The bed does come close to the bathroom door, but we prefer having the living area by the panoramic fixed window. Nice enough pillows. Duvet with two sheets. Very good cabin care.

 

Air conditioning could not keep up with sunshine on our window side. Acceptable on other days. Huge rectangular shower stall with rain and handheld options, loads of pressure and hot water. The shower floor was laid wrong in the shipyard, so the steward has to squeegee 1.5 cm of water from the end without the drain when he cleaned the room. No problem with the drain itself. (Round drain, centered under faucet, not linear like American mini-mansions.)

 

Minibar refrigerator is so full that I could barely fit a single tetrapack of soymilk (but the ship has plenty of soymilk anyway.) Life Jackets were not required to be worn during the safety drill. Facial masking 2% or less of passengers. No captain's dinner on our run (not complaining, just reporting. But I brought a tie.) Deck Barbecue was Wednesday LUNCH, had to be moved to Amphora because of Iceland rain. Perfectly nice there.

 

It seemed like the vacant cabin (198 passengers on ship) beside us (common hallway niche) was perhaps offered to meritorious crew members (???). We heard the door slamming ten times a day, but never at night. Looked unoccupied every time the door happened to be left open.

Interesting AC had problems on sunny days— do they have that problem in the Caribbean too?

It looks like Windstar is moving the Star Legend from the Caribbean to the Persian Gulf this winter.  Maybe part of it is being based in North America, and having gay travel companions who may not be comfortable in those countries, but I have absolutely no interest in these itineraries and I am disappointed there will be fewer Caribbean options.  

On 6/27/2023 at 5:31 PM, ontheweb said:

We booked a private tour before this was a known issue. The tour provider did say that if the ship does not make the port, we will get a refund. IIRC, it may be less 5% for her handling fee. But that is such a small amount that the loss of it would not bother me. Losing the tour, which both DW and I feel sounds very interesting, would bother me.

Can you share the tour provider?

1 hour ago, kitkat343 said:

Do you have trip insurance or does your credit card offer any protection?  

We are relying on credit card insurance this trip (knock wood) but it didn’t really occur to me that it would cover this. Interesting. 

We were interested in maybe doing a private excursion here, especially since our first choice for the ship's excursions seems sold out, but I am very hesitant to book one if there is decent chance we will miss the port because most companies do not seem to have a refund for a missed port.  

Anyone have suggestions?

Does anyone have an updated list of spa offerings (and prices), especially for the motor yachts post-furbishment, they could share?

thanks!