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Help.....Windstar vs. Crystal........


cruzilove
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Dress code: Windstar more casual and less stuffy than Crystal

Entertainment: If you need to see a show every night, Crystal is for you. No real sophisticated entertainment on Windstar, but hey this is why people come to this line.

Ship Size: hands down Windstar. Crystal ships are are 3 to 4 times bigger

Price: Windstar probably a bit cheaper even when factoring drinks and gratuities.

Service: Windstar service is tops. You cannot have the same level of personalized service on a ship with 1000 passengers than with 200

Cabins: Crystal has larger basic cabins than Windstar sail ships but smaller than Windstar yachts.

Food: both are comparable

 

On Windstar you feel as if you are on your own yacht while Crystal feels more like a cruise ship. This is why we always go with Windstar

 

Hope this helps

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I just can't decide. I know this is a Windstar thread but i would like your honest opinion....good, bad, and ugly.....thank you....

 

In selecting you chose The Viking Oceans thread so you might want to post again in the right location

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I just can't decide. I know this is a Windstar thread but i would like your honest opinion....good, bad, and ugly.....thank you....

We haven't been on Windstar in many years, but we enjoyed our 3 previous cruises with them and are returning for a 4th this summer. We took a Crystal cruise last year and were mostly underwhelmed. To us Crystal seemed slightly phony - designed to impress, but only superficially luxurious. The included wines were pretty mediocre, for instance, and the dining service felt rushed and noisy. The ship itself was very nice. I would rate our experience a B - nice way to spend a week, but we have no desire to return. I posted a review if you are interested in further details.

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Full disclosure: I am booked on a Windstar cruise that I am totally excited about and I have a good friend who just quit working for Crystal Cruises after many years because the management of the company has declined so much that it became unbearable for her to continue working for them. So my clear choice would obviously be Windstar.

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Nothing to decide - Windstar of course! However, we love small ships. If you are someone who must have lots of space and shows in the evenings then it may not be for you - but we prefer the personal touch and the service is second to none.

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Full disclosure...I've never been on a Crystal cruise but I have been on several other cruise lines. After our two most recent Wind Star cruises I don't see how I could ever cruise on another line again. My husband and I both loved the small ships. We really enjoy port intensive trips to out of the way places and Wind Star is a master at this. The crew is outstanding and the fact that on the first cruise they knew our names by day 2 and on our second cruise there were crew members from our first cruise on that ship and remembered us immediately really goes a long way in our book. We love no lines for food and drink and I'll go to Broadway or my local theatre scene if I want to see a show. I feel spoiled and let's face it, who doesn't like to feel spoiled? :)

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I see you have not posted on the Crystal Forum where you would have gotten much different opinions. I ran across this post today which echoes my sentiments exactly.

 

I am excited for you! When we first sailed on Crystal 7 years ago for 20th anniversary' date=' it was our first cruise other than a Windstar sailing cruise for our honeymoon (which was great!). Now, with 9 Crystal sailings under our belt, we have learned many nuances of the ships. I think we all come to discover the different spots onboard where we like to sit with a book, where we like to have a drink and socialize, the dining venues or items we look forward to, Etc.. We didn't know lunch was available on embarkation day on our first cruise...but now our routine is to embark early, get a glass of champagne and a copy of the 1st Reflections newsletter, and head to the Trident bar where we get a bite....but more important, we get a chance to see the special Lido crew we have come to know.

 

 

Some cruises we dine in the MDR often, on our last cruise we dined there only once because we enjoyed Tastes a number of evenings. Some cruises we are in a the Avenue Saloon almost every evening, this past cruise we hung out in the Cove more.

 

We find every cruise is a little different due to itinerary and passenger mix. But the constants are the wonderful crew, great food, and as much or little as you want to do activity wise.

 

I hope you and your husband have a memorable 1st experience with Crystal. And I hope you will share with us your experiences and insight if you have time!

Bon Voyage!

Caryn[/quote']

 

I now have 4 Windstar cruises and about 25 on Crystal. While both are excellent products I have really seen nothing even close to Crystal. While the ships are larger they are not that much bigger and I've found the service on Crystal even more personal than on Windstar. That personal service on a larger ship brings much more opportunities for entertainment and enrichment making a fantastic overall product.

 

Roy

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I am not sure you can compare Windstar to Crystal. They are completely different experiences. Both wonderful.

 

We LOVE Windstar, having sailed with them 18 times most recently b2b in February. We love the casual atmosphere, size of the ships, the open bridge, lack of big entertainment, ability to get into ports that the larger ships cannot access, and most importantly, the friendliness and accessibility of the crew. They remember you from cruise to cruise and you remember them as well.

We especially love the Windsurf in the caribbean, and will again be looking forward to 1-2 weeks next winter.

 

Now....about Crystal. We just returned last week from Crystal Symphony, NYC to Reykjavik (our third Crystal cruise) It was wonderful. Larger ship, but the space ratio to passenger is huge, and you never feel like there are 900 people on board. The food is amazing and the shows are as well. The fare is all inclusive, so we had trouble spending our shipboard credit. There is so much to do on board, that you could literally never leave the ship. Classes, lectures and more. Yes, there are dress up evenings, but not tuxedos. Again, a totally different experience, but delightful.

 

So, can you compare Windstar with Crystal? We have enjoyed both, but for different reasons. Both are terrific! But you can see we have been on Windstar many more times.

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Dress code: Windstar more casual and less stuffy than Crystal

We haven't sailed Crystal yet. We have an Alaska cruise booked with then for this summer. I'm wondering what the basis is for this comment. On paper, the Crystal dress for Casual Evenings seems pretty similar to the Windstar evening dress suggestions and, since our cruise is 7 days, there is no Black Tie Optional evening.

Entertainment: If you need to see a show every night, Crystal is for you. No real sophisticated entertainment on Windstar, but hey this is why people come to this line.

Crystal also has quite a bit of enrichment activities. I'm looking forward to trying some of them - e.g. having a speaker on World Affairs and one on the Natural History of the area. Starting the comment with "If you need to ..." sounds like you are looking down on people who like a cruise with a show. We've been very happy with the Windstar low key environment, but I think we may also enjoy having some additional options.

Ship Size: hands down Windstar. Crystal ships are are 3 to 4 times bigger

One of our favorite things about Windstar. And the small ship size allows the ships to get into ports that bigger ships can't. It was great to dock in Seville.

Price: Windstar probably a bit cheaper even when factoring drinks and gratuities.

Depending on the cruise, they seem pretty close in price. Our 7-day Crystal Northern Wonders Crystal cruise is less than $200 more than our 7-day Windstar Spanish Serenade cruise and that didn't count the gratuity on Windstar. It is hard to compare prices as itineraries and date differ but the range of both seems pretty similar. That was for a Star Legend balcony room (the balcony is about one foot deep) and a Crystal balcony guarantee (a real balcony that you can go out and sit on).

The one big difference I've noticed is on Trans Ocean trips. I'm thinking about taking one after I retire. So far, the prices on Windstar for ocean crossings is much lower. On the other hand, the bigger ship and enrichment activities might be worth paying extra on a cruise that is all sea days.

Service: Windstar service is tops. You cannot have the same level of personalized service on a ship with 1000 passengers than with 200

Cabins: Crystal has larger basic cabins than Windstar sail ships but smaller than Windstar yachts.

Food: both are comparable

 

On Windstar you feel as if you are on your own yacht while Crystal feels more like a cruise ship. This is why we always go with Windstar

 

Hope this helps

 

I guess we will find out about the level of personalized service and the food. I'm looking forward to sushi at Silk Road on our Crystal Cruise. As long as the layout is good and there is enough space, I can take or leave having a bigger room.

 

We enjoyed the space on Star Legend but didn't feel cramped on Windsurf. I enjoyed having the balcony door open on Star Legend and when not having that, big windows are nice, but the Windstar ships are small enough that I didn't mind having just portals. It's easy to go up to a quiet public space to have big windows or be on deck.

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I just can't decide. I know this is a Windstar thread but i would like your honest opinion....good, bad, and ugly.....thank you....

 

How do the itineraries differ? Better port times or ports that interest you more on one than the other?

How does the price compare on the cruises that interest you?

 

Looking at the Crystal itineraries, I notice that since they only have two ships, they sometimes don't have the cruise I want at all or on dates that work for me. They have one Barcelona to Lisbon cruise in 2018. Windstar has a choice of dates throughout the season. On the other hand, Windstar hasn't been doing Alaska at all. They will in 2018 for the first time. Crystal has a more standard itinerary and visits Glacier Bay (which was important to us on our first Alaska cruise). Windstars Alaska itineraries are slated to go places that you have to take an excursion to get to on other cruises like Misty Fjord, Tracy Arm and Kenai Fjords. That sounds quite intriguing.

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