ranchojosh

sorry i was referring to the wine package.

I just returned from a Windstar Legend 14-day alleged star collection Cruise. From the beginning of this booking over a year-and-a-half ago until the completion of the trip there were countless issues with Windstar and how they handled this trip. There were very few excursions posted in advance when they were finally posted they were not listed correctly in the website. I brought it to their attention and weeks or month later they finally fixed the order of the excursions and thank me for pointing it out. They added pre and post excursions 3 to 4 months prior to departure when many people like myself book our plane reservations with award travel 11 months in advance. Then the worst thing that Windstar has done and will prevent me from every booking another star collection trip is that they divided the 14-day special trip into two seven day trips thus changing the whole dynamic of the star collection and moving the ship mid stay in the island of Phuket in order to be able to transfer luggage on and off for the 50 people who were leaving and 50 who were boarding the port they took us to have no taxis no services and was a two-hour ride in bumper to bumper traffic to get back to the beach side which is where we were originally booked. There was no security on board this ship only swiping our name cards but there was no x-ray machine at any of the ports to check people's bags as they reported the ship. There was very poor advance planning as some of the excursions were poorly planned were not of good quality and there were quite a few issues with these locations immigration long wait lines to get off the ship in Singapore and excursions that had eight or nine hours of bus travel time and 2 hours of tour time. The overall experience with Windstar Legend was of a greatly discounted trip that was reflected in all the many ways that Windstar has cut back to save money everything from the choice of three wines that are served at the reception which are very poor to very mediocre meals at dinner. The receptions for the repeat customers usually include very delicious foods there was none. We were told that the water platform hadn't been opened in 4 weeks. In many ways my opinion is that Windstar has diminished in every area of former luxury and planning. There were people who were left at their hotels and not picked up with their pre packages in Singapore. Many people like myself were given very wrong or different and conflicting information by the Seattle office and in some cases it impacted people's ability to do the things they wanted to do or they were told the wrong things about flight times. Although we really enjoyed our time with really great people and then nice staff, the overall experience was much less then all the previous Windstar experiences I've had for 25 years and the move that they made by diminishing the special star collection will prevent me from every booking such a cruise again be very wary of what they are doing in their pricing you get what you pay for. And that may be just fine for some people but for others who have experience with the more luxurious when star of the past they may be greatly disappointed.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

The Gaelic Explorers that departs Edinburgh Aug. 24.

Invergordon, Kirkwall, Portree, Tobermory, Portrush,Isle of Man, Dublin.

Thank you.

I took this trip 2 years ago it was actually one of my favorite Windstar experiences however if there were different owners of Windstar at the time. We really did enjoy all of our excursions and going to very small quiet very green places one of the highlights was going to a man's estate and having a tour of all of his ground livestock and beautiful bird watching as well as a little bit of a snack inside of the Salon of his house that was quite special. We totally enjoyed this experience and then we remained in Dublin for 4 days after and had an even better time than anyone could have imagined also booking a beautiful private tour on our own for a full day to the beautiful countryside and castles

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

Would love to hear from those of you who have experienced this cruise with Windstar. We're looking at this for summer 2018 and haven't seen much in reviews of ports, excursions, etc. Seas? Rain? Looking at either the 7 day or the Star Collector leaving from Edinburgh. Thanks for any info.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Forums mobile app

I took this trip last July it's a really remarkable beautiful place many things about the Windstar experience were excellent for this particular Cruise however Windstar has made many changes over the years with the new management especially in the last year and the luxurious experience of former Windstar Cruises was lacking on this trip. For instance I'm the day of embarking there was no waiting area there were no seats there was no cover from rain there was no bathroom you simply just get dropped off and one man in a little Guard Station checks your passport and you stand outside waiting for the one arrival time. On a number of the days that we had excursions a very huge ship was parallel next to us and often they had all of the tour groups causing ARS to be delayed on multiple occasions until something was available so there were some glitches with the tours I enjoyed all of the towards that I went on but there were some issues with timing. I don't want to Cajun we return so late that 60 or 70 of us got to the evening barbecue right towards the end of it they did delay the end of the barbecue but as we pulled out of the protective port and into the open ocean all of the dishes and glasses blew off the tables. While this was happening the staff was dancing and enjoying their weekly line dance show very surprised when everything started to fly off the tables when we get the wind. I would strongly suggest booking an independent company for several days post Cruise as we did through your perfect day in Iceland and that allowed us to see some of the Interior sites of Iceland that one cannot see on the periphery as well as booking all of our Blue Lagoon Adventure. The Blue Lagoon used to be extremely special it is now a big tourist trap still special but not as it used to be the truth is that there are many other similar smaller places that will be much more like what you might imagine a natural hot spring experience to be.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

Hello All -

 

Received an e-mail announcing one of those Windstar 7 on 7 sales in Tahiti for those that may be interested. March 15 departure. Must be booked by January 17.

 

I think this is the lowest price I've seen advertised for this cruise in the last six or more months.

 

So to those who may be interested, good luck. :)

So you need to be very careful about pricing with Windstar I have been on many Windstar Cruises and I've been on the Tahiti trip 3 times what is become commonplace now with Windstar is to lower the prices and yet offer much less than they used to there are no hors douvres any longer it is very hard sometimes to even find a peanut all the food portions are smaller there are no little dessert trays at dinner and many of the excursions include lunch which make the excursions more expensive so you get what you receive in value and also sometimes they diminish the services or they will have a photoshoot on board which makes it less possible to use some of the services and that is why they lower the price or they will have a large group on board that they don't tell you about and so therefore they lower the price to the other people as compensation there's a lot of things to investigate when booking a Windstar cruise and if you are a former passenger for many years you will notice all of the ways that they have cut back in order to fill the ships. You cannot take away the beauty of Tahiti but be wary of expecting anything that is a good deal to be as luxurious as you may imagine and I would also greatly avoid staying at the hotel that they use as it is very far from town and you cannot stay in an overwater Bungalow and go swimming at this hotel. Instead book independently at the Intercontinental Hotel and find a very good agency that has a connection to InterContinental Hotels and you will be upgraded with breakfast and Wifi included and if you want to spring for one of the over-water brand-new Bungalows you will have a very good experience if you book any of these to a cruise line you will likely get a Transit room which will smell from bug spray and you wait in the lobby in the heat for 4 to 5 or 6 hours until the room is ready everybody has a different experience it's all about how you plan it and who you plan it with

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

And am I correct that you cannot book a beverage package ahead of time, that it is booked at check in?

So I was recently on the Windstar Legend the beverage package includes some of the worst tasting wines one could ever drink so we cancelled it after two drinks the free wine and champagne served at the receptions is of the same quality you are best to purchase in advance and cancel or purchase when you're on board and try it and then cancel and determine what's best for you as there was no security on our cruise and no scanning machine many people just simply snuck their own booze in and mixed it with the cocktail mixes of their choices in their refrigerators

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app