camoeto

Excuse me, but according to the WS web site additional bottles of wine may be brought aboard at intermediate stops:

 

 

 

ALCOHOL ON BOARD POLICY

 

Passengers are allowed to bring aboard one (1) bottle of wine per person at embarkation and additional wine and beer purchased onshore during the Cruise, which can be consumed in public areas subject to the Ship’s prevailing corkage fee. Any hard alcohol purchased on shore during the Cruise and brought onboard must be placed in custody of crew for return to passengers on conclusion of the voyage.

You are correct, my TA seems to have neglected to mention this. In any case, if they allow you purchase additional wine in ports and bring it on board, it should not be a big deal to bring a couple extra with you on initial embarkation. Windstar certainly don't seem to mind too much, otherwise they would be removing it from luggage as do the likes of Carnival, RCI, etc.

The last time we were on Windstar, it was supposed to be two bottles of wine per person. They said it was two bottles per person for the entire cruise, but we bought wine ashore and brought it on board at numerous stops, and it was never an issue.

Why not just follow the Windstar rules? You are probably spending several thousand dollars for the cruise. How much are you saving by trying to break the rules?

There is no need for the negative comment. You were just talking earlier about bringing in extra wine from ports in your other post (against the rules), yet you pass judgement on someone else who brought a couple of extra bottles in their luggage. The two are no different.

We bought the full bev package, which was > $800 for the week including tips on our Windstar cruise (and made good use of it), but it certainly wasn't cheap. I wouldn't mind being a little creative next time myself.

We won't be spending 400 E.

 

 

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+1 on that. Not sure what the going rate is in Martinique/Anse Mitan since we didn't hire one there, but in St. Barts, where the prices are much higher in general, 6 of us hired a taxi van on the spot for a 1.5 hour ride/tour around the island for $90 US total.

Sorry, I was quoting the wrong web site. This appears to be accurate, from the Windstar site:

 

ALCOHOL ON BOARD POLICY

 

Passengers are allowed to bring aboard one (1) bottle of wine per person at embarkation and additional wine and beer purchased onshore during the Cruise, which can be consumed in public areas subject to the Ship’s prevailing corkage fee. Any hard alcohol purchased on shore during the Cruise and brought onboard must be placed in custody of crew for return to passengers on conclusion of the voyage.

That's what I was told by my TA. Windstar was very lax on our cruise though as others brought hard liquor and were pouring from small bottles into non-alc bevs through the day. That's what we will do next time.

That makes sense to me. Is the boat idling around, or do they stay at anchor during the BBQ?

 

On another San Juan topic: If you arrive early on the day of embarkation, is there a place to store your luggage so you don't have to drag it around until 1pm?

During the deck BBQ, we were not anchored, but slowly en-route to our next destination.

Regarding luggage, I would check with Windstar if you can keep your luggage there until 1. If not, there is a restaurant in OSJ that people use (forget the name), that will keep luggage for you if you eat/drink there.

Officially, it's two bottles of wine (up to 750ml) per cabin. In reality we've met people on board who brought scotch and rum in their luggage and did not have it confiscated. Apparently Windstar is lax in this area, or at least on our cruise they were.

Beach party was indeed on Pigeon Island (Tuesday on our cruise). The night deck barbecue was the day of the Montserrat stop (Thursday on our cruise).

We just came back from a Star Pride "Caribbean Treasures" cruise (was originally supposed to be a VBI centered cruise). Overall a great experience, but the ship itself has serious maintenance issues. The food was a solid, but not high for the most part. Ports were great. Staff and service was top notch. They instantly knew our names and bent over backwards to please. Entertainment was very low key, but fit the spirit of this cruise well.

The maintenance issues... The pool was out of commission for almost the entire trip (it never worked right even when it had water in it), and so was the Jacuzzi on the bow. The Jacuzzi by the pool was out of commission for a couple of days as well. Sure could have used a dip on the pool on that hot sea day...They had issues with burst plumbing on deck 4 which basically flooded a large part of the hallway and some cabins. People had to be moved and they spent 4 days fixing and cleaning it up with large noisy fans. Also, some of the wood on deck is starting to rot. This ship is showing it's age, and is in bad need of a refurb.

We just came off a cruise where Anse Mitan was a stop. There were taxis available right off the beach where the tender dropped us off. Also a ferry to Port-de-France.

When we asked for Visas for our cruise, Windstar reps were pretty clueless. We ended up doing our own checking with the consulate of each country visited.

It would not have been a similar cruise. Celebrity is a mass market mega ship line. The experience is NOTHING at all like being on Windstar.

 

It's hard when ports are missed and in this case, itineraries change. That's what insurance is for.

 

I've read this as well as some of your other posts and can tell you're very unhappy with the schedule changes and that Windstar won't return your fare.

 

I'm going to suggest that even if you don't have insurance that will pay, cancel. The only other thing you can change is your attitude; without that you're not going to enjoy it anyway.

You sound like you have more experience with this, I have only been on a couple of cruises (large ships). It sounds like the kind of insurance we were being offered wouldn't have paid for port changes in any case, only travel issues. We live an active lifestyle and the reason we picked this cruise is because every single day there was a stop. Also, when I was on the larger ships, I did not really enjoy the whole embarkation/disembarkation experience at ports. It sounded like a great opportunity to visit some places where the large ships don't stop and are not crowded.

Now, the replacement ports seem like ones that are visited by large cruise ships, so much of the uniqueness of this cruise and the reason of why we decided to pay a premium price of this cruise is gone. I don't mind a sea day on a large ship, but on this kind of ship it doesn't seem like there is much to do.

If you are happy with the changes, I am genuinely happy that it worked out for you and respect your opinion. As for me, I realize that it isn't Windstar's fault that the original itinerary is not longer possible, but neither is it ours. It sounds like there are people in both camps here. I am sure the cruise is still going to be enjoyable, and will have a good time either way, but if the current itinerary was the original itinerary, we would have never purchased this cruise in the first place. To me it's like pre-paying for a Corvette, but having Chevy deliver me an Impala instead because the Corvette factory got flooded. I should be happy it's still a Chevy, right?

I called Windstar today to try and cancel my Christmas/NYE sailing for similar reasons as yours and they told me they were not changing the cancelation policy. I could either pay the penalty ($699 per person) or suck it up and go. Very unhappy with that decision as I booked the cruise specifically for the overnight on JVD over New Years Eve and now I'm just "at sea". Pretty surprised at Windstar's decision to stay firm despite the changes in itineraries. I work in the travel industry and when land-based resort vacations were effected by the hurricanes, those companies allowed either cancelations at no penalty or to move the booking to a different date. Its disheartening that Windstar wouldn't allow either.

Yep. My TA called them up, and they are not offering any on-board credit either to make up for the negative itinerary changes. They are hiding behind their T&C that allows them to basically do anything to the itinerary at any point in time.

Lessons learned:

1. Our first and last cruise with Windstar.

2. Always book at the last second.

Not happy with this one. The only reason we got this cruise is because there were no sea days and going to BVI. Now there is a sea day and that last stop in St. Barth's is only until 1:30, doesn't give you much time at all. We could have booked a similar cruise for < 1/2 the price on Celebrity.

Of course no mention of an updated cancellation policy...

The map for Saints of the Caribbean now shows stops in Grenada and Anse Matin in Martinique, however the printed itinerary stills shows Dominica and Grande Anse d'Arlet in Martinique. I think things are still very chaotic at Windstar.

At least they are updating this itinerary. The Star Pride - San Juan and the Virgin Islands itinerary has not been updated at all and still has all the islands that were in Irma's direct path.

I spoke to WS today- we are booked on the Dec 2 sailing out of SJU- and they said that they will know more about changes on Monday. With the exception of Montserrat, the entire itinerary will probably change. Virgin Gorda, St Bart's and Jost Van Dyke are surely off the schedule and I would assume that Vieques is also out. We are hoping to cancel and are happy to just get credit towards a future cruise but at this point WS is telling us to wait a bit longer.

 

 

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Any updates from Windstar today?

I know RCCL and Carnival both have a ship using San Juan as their home port. I also believe Disney has a ship.

In November 2017 - 2 RCCL, 1 Carnival, 1 Celebrity, 1 Norwegian, 1 Viking, and 1 Windstar ships will be home porting out of San Juan.

I spoke to WS today- we are booked on the Dec 2 sailing out of SJU- and they said that they will know more about changes on Monday. With the exception of Montserrat, the entire itinerary will probably change. Virgin Gorda, St Bart's and Jost Van Dyke are surely off the schedule and I would assume that Vieques is also out. We are hoping to cancel and are happy to just get credit towards a future cruise but at this point WS is telling us to wait a bit longer.

I'm not so sure St. Bart's is a scratch this point. They are planning to be ready for tourists in the beginning of November:

http://stbarth.com/hurricane-irma

There is also info in the St. Maarten forum on this site that they are planning to accept their first cruise ships in the beginning of November.

There is a statement from Windstar here:

https://www.windstarcruises.com/caribbean-updates/

 

It says that they expect San Juan to be ready by the time of their cruises and they are still planning to use it.

The page says that itinerary changes have been emailed and posted, but it also says that additional changes are possible.

The only cruises that they already made changes to and emailed the passengers are the cruises that were based in St. Maarten and are now based in Barbados. Regarding San Juan based cruises, they are keeping us in the dark. No changes posted or emailed. Called them last night and got the run-around.

Sounds like most hotels will be up and running in SJ by the end of October, so this is good news.

It's more than likely driven by the following: based upon your departure date you're now less than 60 days out....

* 20-90 days before commencing travel – 15% of gross fare (deposit);

* 89-60 days before commencing travel – 35% of gross fare;

* 59-30 days before commencing travel – 50% of gross fare;

* 29-0 days before commencing travel – 100% of gross fare.

My thought as well. Many seem to choose Windstar because of the unique itinerary, but whatever changes they make will most likely make the itinerary much more pedestrian. Stalling as long as possible will prevent cancellations.

At least your cruise already received a revised itinerary. Our Star Pride sailing out of San Juan on Nov 25th has not received any changes in itinerary at all. We're still supposedly sailing to St. Maarten, St. Barts, Jost Van Dyke, and Virgin Gorda. All destroyed by Irma. Vieques as well, which was equally destroyed by Maria. When I called up Windstar, I was told they plan to sail this itinerary until they decide otherwise. No timeline given.

Have they announced the new San Juan itineraries for the Star Pride? I'm looking at the Dec 23rd cruise, but it's still showing all the old ports.

3 days in San Juan???

 

Thanks!

They did not announce anything yet. My TA talked to them and there is nothing official about any port replacements. Nothing on the site either. The 3 days in San Juan is because we got non-changeable airfare to spend some a few days there. Probably wasn't the best choice in retrospect.

WindStar's website says the Pride will be sailing roundtrip out of San Juan as planned this season. However, they are evaluating ports on the itinerary, and it says there will be changes.

 

The only port we really hope stays is Montserrat...that is primarily why we booked the cruise. Of course, that will be the one that gets dropped. And that will be okay, we will still be on a ship, and we will go somewhere else.

 

I hope some of these ports open sooner than expected, mainly because I know how much they depend on tourism. We are doing what we can to help and support the islanders, but the biggest help will be bringing back tourist dollars.

Really hoping Montserrat doesn't get dropped. From what I understand it is the only port out of the itinerary that didn't get severely damaged. Still not sure about what to do with the 3 extra days we have in San Juan. I guess the hope is most of it will be up and running in two months.

Yes we are booked on the Pride January 27 and the Surf February 10.

Sounds like you're in a better situation than we are. For us the refund will pro-rated because we sail on Nov 25th and WS is sticking their cancellation policy.

Hello all. My deepest sympathies to everyone that has suffered loss during these natural disasters. First of all, we're all appalled by the catastrophic property losses, economic devastation, injuries, and deaths that happened on these Caribbean islands. My heart aches for those people. The native citizens that live there year-around have pain and suffering we can't even imagine.

 

I'm also mindful that may of you fellow Windstar travelers have incurred lots of headaches and financial losses of your own. Some of us can take hits like this better than others. (We aren't so well-heeled, and save up for a cruise over the course of several seasons. Anything not covered by trip insurance would be a real blow.)

 

SB44 said something that I found useful: "Lesson learned for us is that we will start booking only last minute sales instead of paying a year in advance and then not be able to get our cash back". I've always been leery of sailing in the Caribbean in November and December, and for me I always had nagging concerns about how fragile these islands are, and what could happen to a large swath of the region if a monster hurricane swept through. And now my worst nightmare came to pass, twice. For me, it underscored the wisdom of looking for late-booking bargains. Previously, we have always waited until the end of any storm season before booking a cruise (even if that limits the selection). Now, we will surely avoid the temptation of an early booking. Last minute works for us.

 

So, now we've seen two Cat 5 hurricanes in one season. Who could have imagined that? Windstar is having to re-group after seeing several of their itineraries completely ruined. As Strenz put it, "....WS has made lemonade from those horrible lemons, 2 hurricanes". So as annoyed as we might be with their customer service at times, I can't imagine the stress for all concerned at Windstar headquarters. We want our beloved favorite cruise line to survive, so I hope they recover their own financial losses soon enough. Rest assured, they are reeling from all this, having to make customers "whole again", reassuring those that have already booked and are on the verge of bailing out, and trying to fill up empty cabins for the long recovery months ahead.

 

For those of you that are disappointed with the re-vamped itineraries, especially when they are so different from what you imagined, hopefully you'll get enough offsetting credits or perks to make up for it -- or the chance to re-book later when the itineraries are completely restored. Complete money-back refunds? I think you're expecting too much from the cruise line for things that are beyond their control.

I understand having to change a couple of ports on the itinerary not being grounds for a refund, however changing all the ports as well as what country the cruise sails out of is a different story. It makes this cruise a completely different product than what was advertised and sold. I understand it's due to cirucumstances beyond their control, yet they make their money based on selling a certain product. WS should have just canceled the impacted cruises out of SXM or at least offered full refunds. That would be the right thing to do.