Any Wind Spirit Reviews?

[cheezwhiz]

Thinking about a March 25 cruise. We were on Star Clipper last year and loved it. Read the reviews on Cruise Critic and read some very bad reviews but they were from 2003. Anyone have any reviews they could share from Wind Spirit. Also, does anyone have a comparison to Star Clipper?

[shipnshore114]

hi cheezwhiz,

My wife and I just finished the Wind Spirit New Year's trip. We loved it. Great ship, great food and wonderful service by the ship's crew. They went out of their way to make sure you have a great experience. Let me know your itinerary and I will give you any tips I can.

Rich

[lovecruisingtoo]

We have been on the Spirit and Star 4 times - latest was summer 2004 (Barcelona to Lisbon). Always have had a great time. In fact we are booked on the Star in August from Athens to Venice. In the next few days will book for next January the St. Thomas cruise.

 

Needless to say, we enjoy everything about the Windstar ships.

[cheezwhiz]

Thanks for the feedback! We are going to make our plans next week for the March 25 Windspirit sailing. My family loves to Scuba dive so this should be a great trip.

[shipnshore114]

If you scuba dive, Charlie and Jo (couple who run the diving and watersports on Wind Spirit) are terrific. I did the dives on Ile de Saintes and on Bequia and it was great. Those islands may not be on the 7 day itinerary. Have fun.

[MizzouMary]

hi cheezwhiz,

My wife and I just finished the Wind Spirit New Year's trip. We loved it. Great ship, great food and wonderful service by the ship's crew. They went out of their way to make sure you have a great experience. Let me know your itinerary and I will give you any tips I can.

Rich

 

 

Hi Rich! Looks like we are neighbors. Small world!

 

We are going on the Windspirit in Jan. and can't wait. We love to snorkel. Do you know if one can snorkel off of the platform when the ship is docked?

 

Thanks!

 

Mary in OP, KS

[Lisa616]

Hi Mary! When will you be on the Spirit?? We'll be sailing Jan. 28th with 2 other couples. We're very excited!!

[shipnshore114]

Hi Mary,

You'll have a great trip. As far as snorkeling, I will share where we were and what we did. On St. John, try to rent a car. Most of the rental companies usually like to rent for several days so it may be tough to find one. We found one at the last minute at Hospitality car rental right in the middle of Cruz bay. For incredible snorkeling, you can park near the Annaberg sugar mill ruins (national park parking lot) and hike about a half mile to Leinster Bay. It's a turtle nesting area and there are always great things to see. The area around Maho Bay is also good and Trunk Bay is the old reliable underwater park. On St. Martin, I would stay on the French side. We docked in the port of Marigot. I did rent a car there (no problem when you get off the tender). We went up to Orient Beach-good beach bars but there wasn't any snorkeling to speak of. On St. Barts, we took a cab to St. Jean beach-good swimming but not much snorkeling (anywhere on St. Barts for that matter). On jost Van Dyke, foxy's is fun to see but the best snorkeling is just down the beach from the Soggy Dollar (I think that's called White Bay). The Baths on Virgin Gorda with great snorkeling at Devil's Bay next to the Baths. Windstar puts on a great island BBQ (not quite like KC) at Prickly Pear Island and the bay area is great for swimming. Have a great trip!!

Rich

[MizzouMary]

Thanks so much for all of the information, Rich. We are getting ready to sail on the Caribbean Princess on 2/4, so we will be visiting St. Thomas, St. John and St. Martin again. We are taking my husband's parents this time, so we won't be doing a lot of snorkeling on this cruise. However, we are taking a sailing excursion in St. Thomas over to St. John and then will be snorkeling there for a bit.

 

We can't wait for the Windstar cruises since they seem to be much more intimate. We love the fact that we will be staying overnight at a few of our favorite places and places we have never been like Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and St. Barts.

 

Thanks again!

[sandbag7]

Cheezwhiz, we were on the Wind Spirit this past March and loved it. It's a beautiful ship, and the cabins are very nice- a little larger than on Star Clipper which we were on this past December. But I very much enjoyed both ships, and Star Clipper is more of a real sailing ship. Wait till you hear the song they play when they raise the sail (singular); I think you will find that it is "familiar".

[cheezwhiz]

Sandbag7

 

Thanks for the review between the two. How would you compare the:

 

Food between the two and if you were booking and they went to the same places....which would you choose Star Clipper or Windstar

[cheezwhiz]

Sandbag7

I see we are from the same area Chicago.

[sandbag7]

Cheesewhiz:

Sorry for not responding sooner; I expected the food to be better on Wind Spirit than it was, and I expected the food on Star Clipper to be worse than it was; the food on Wind Spirit was all in all slightly better, but not by that much.

As to the overall experience, I would say that there is a real nautical feel to the StarClipper as a real sailing ship.; HOWEVER, I really enjoyed the evenings on the WindSpirit, when the ship was dark and the stars were out, you can visit the officer in charge, go over the maps, or just look up at the awesome stars and the beautifully designed sail. Met numerous interesting people on both cruises, Wind Star may attract a slightly more wealthy crowd, more Doctors, but that may just be the people I met.

We are sailing next on Oceania, then on Sea Dream next winter. We will probably be back on Star Clipper before Wind Star, but it will depend on numerous factors including itinerary. I would not hesitate to travel on either line.

We live in Northbrook and work in Chicago (me) and Highland Park (my wife). How about you?

[cheezwhiz]

Sounds like you love to cruise as much as we do. We live in Inverness and I work in Northfield and my husband works in Elk Grove. Let us know how your Oceania Cruise is and enjoy your Sea Dream Cruise.

 

Thanks for the comparison......I'll let you know what we decide. We are checking on the ports for both due to the family Scuba Dives. So I think that we finalize our decision process.

[cedarholm]

Friends,

We love Windstar cruises. Will be on smaller Wind Spirit for first time.

Can't wait. We're from Birmingham, Michigan. Any Cruise Critc Members on this sailing? Cedarholm:rolleyes: :cool: