Windspirit 07-12-2008 - Another great cruise

[wam4]

Just returned from a trip on the Wind Spirit (Athens to Istanbul) and we all loved it. It may be under a new ownership, but it was the same old, wonderful Windstar experience we had before, and I didn't have anything worth complaining about despite the negative remarks of some people (I can't help wondering if they aren't just people with negative attitudes OR the kind of people with that demeanor that makes people NOT want to help you...).

 

Due to winds, we weren't able to stop at Mykonos, which initially was quite a disappointment, but in the end I was glad we changed and LOVED Monemvasia - if you stop there, DO make the climb to the very top of the ancient city to see the amazing views...it's worth the trek and very memorable. The only negative remark I would make is that they should not have stopped the boat at Didim, Turkey. The original itinerary had Bodrum, but new rules at their port forced them to switch to Didim. Bad choice. They should have skipped that stop and given the passengers an overnight at Rhodes (which is lovely) and then just stopped somewhere pretty for a while on the way to Istanbul to allow water activities.

 

Other than that, great time was had by all - food still excellent, service still personal and attentive and the boat was looking fresh and up to date. All of our group of 9 still love Windstar.

[whatnot]

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Istanbul is awesome. For future reference, what was the issue with Didim? We have been to Ephephsus but not Didim or Bodrum.

 

We sailed on Windstar last Jan in Costa Rica and loved it!

[wam4]

Didim was really an unattractive, slum-ish place, in our opinion. It was sort of a cross between Coney Island and post-war Beirut. At the suggestion of the cruise director, we all walked up to the Temple of Apollo, which was a great ruin, but she had never made the walk herself and didn't realize it was (1) a lot farther than she thought and (2) a really ugly, dusty, horrible walk. For a long stretch there weren't even any sidewalks...just dusty roadsides and flea-bitten stray dogs (we referred to them as the "feral dogs of Didim"). The beachfront was crowded and ugly - it was just a poor option for a stop. There was a ship's tour to a few nearby ancient cities, and I heard people say they enjoyed that, but I don't think that's enough to warrant this stop.

 

We LOVED this cruise, though - Windstar is such a great line!

[HawkeyeCruisr]

Wam4, I concur with your assessment of Didim. We were there in May on the Wind Spirit and had the same impression. Our friends enjoyed Didim but I think they just found a nice bar and chatted up the locals. We did the stroll up and down the beachfront area and then had a nice afternoon back on the ship on a relatively uncrowded deck. I think ours was the first US ship to ever stop at this port so we were something of a novelty for the store owners. The people who took the ship's tour to nearby ruins said that it was very worthwhile, but we felt a bit toured-out after 4 days in Istanbul and a full day at Ephesus.

 

We had a chat with the navigator on board the ship and he told us that the city of Bodrum had built a new pier and was now requiring that all ships dock there (and pay the associated fees of docking and having a tug) and not allowing them to tender. Windstar wanted a tender port in order to roll out the sports deck and make those activities available at least once during the cruise. He also mentioned that the new Bodrum pier was quite a distance from the town - unwalkable due to the bad road - and would require shuttle buses. My impression was that the switch from Bodrum to Didim came kind of late in the spring. Maybe Windstar didn't have enough time to find a better substitute port for this year's sailings. Now that they're getting negative feedback on Didim, maybe they can change that port for future years sailings.

 

Nancy

[irc2100]

We did that trip last year on Wind Spirit an loved it. Too bad you missed Bodrum, Mykinos, and Rhodes, all great. We liked the Wind Star, but felt the mini-pool and fitness cubicle were virtually useless. We did the Wind Surf a few weeks ago and preferred it's larger size, dining options, pool(s), and gym.

[wam4]

Well, we did make it to Rhodes, which we loved...just would have prefered to stay longer in lieu of going to Didim. We saw a lot on Rhodes - we got a couple of cars and guides for the day and covered a good bit of ground. That's somewhere I'd love to visit again. The stop we made in Monemvasia (which was the substitute for Mykonos) was great - it reminded me of a similar place in Southern France that I loved and we really enjoyed our day there. It wasn't crowded, which also suited us very well. I had friends who were staying on Mykonos that week who said it was just a madhouse, so I didn't look back on the change with regret.

 

It's interesting to hear other people's comparisons between the Windsurf and the smaller ships. Most of my travel group also did a cruise together on the Windsurf a couple of years ago. For our group, we decided we liked the smaller ship just a little better than the Windsurf, although we loved the other cruise, too.