Jump to content

CruiseOrLand

Members
  • Posts

    107
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Northern New Jersey
  • Interests
    Theater, Dance, Museums
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Windstar
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Any island

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

CruiseOrLand's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. We had Star Legend #527 for Around Iceland in July, 2023. We prefer the bed near the bathroom, but the bed is startlingly close to the bathroom door. I agree that the built-in drawers seemed older, but worked fine. We find the cabins spacious and comfortable. As a practical matter, the new dual sinks in the bathroom don't have enough floor area enough to make dual occupancy of the bathroom practical! Our nicely huge shower stall, was pretty enough, but the floor was laid wrong, accumulating water at the end opposite the (perfectly good) drain end. Our steward must have squeegeed it out every day. A few tiles near one end were cracked, presumably leaking into the wall (?) I was surprised that there still was only a single 120V outlet. (We have plenty of Shuco adapters for our multi-voltage chargers, I'm only trying to speak for the less electrically sophisticated ... ) I am glad that I can put a micro-current nightlight in the shaver outlet and it still works with the bathroom light OFF. Our air conditioning could not cope with direct sun on the wide-view fixed cabin window.
  2. It's tricky to make Caribbean recommendations for someone from the Pacific Coast. Our Windstar cruise ended in Costa Rica, where we had (once) spent a winter week's vacation. But Costa Rica is such a varied place that one trip would not be much like another trip there. Personal opinion: OTOH, we found that Aruba was the most "Americanized" island we'd ever been to in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico and Turks and Caicos, for example. We did not dislike Aruba, and did some nice (big group) snorkeling trips. But the main reason we chose Aruba (besides not having been there before) was that it was a single nonstop for us from NYC. It is fair to point out that Costa Rica has cultivated its connections with the U.S. into a robust economy, with drug plants as well as high tourism. But it remains a rugged natural place, which is not a fair description of Aruba (or St. Maarten, or ... ). Although we flew to Panama City a day early, it's important to note that Panama City is not crime-free, although the area around the Windstar hotel is perfectly safe. Our Embarcation was from the other end of the canal, so Windstar (as arranged) bussed everyone to Colon, which is an otherwise unsafe city. Only talking about your local options, not bad-mouthing the Windstar trip at all.
  3. Regarding euro-style plugs: I presume you mean that the voltage was 240 volts, although there are some 120 volt plugs in Tahiti. The vast majority of cell phone chargers and laptop "bricks" (power supplies) say on their molded (black on black) nameplates that they are "100-240 volts 50/60 Hz." But a tiny number of devices (like the cheapest electric toothbrush charges, for example) are NOT dual-voltage. (Windstar motor yachts have a bunch of 240V receptacles, and a single 120V receptacle in the cabins, not counting the electric razor, current-limited one in the bathroom.) The pictured adapter makes it possible to plug an American 120 volt device into 240 volts. Although I use similar adaptors (not "converters"), it requires vigilance not to make a mistake. I perceive in the same photo that the pins are smaller diameter than an actual "Shuco" euro-plug, and may not fit as tightly as real Shuco adapter. Since a phone or camera "wall-wart" is not grounded anyway, we don't have to ask if the pictured device actually makes the ground pin connection.
  4. You have to make your own decision, but I've been on 3 Windstar excursions in 9 cruises (admittedly, they were all ambitious outings ... ) that were late coming back. I don't subscribe to the idea that only losers book the ship's pricey excursions. In one case, the ship had to free up its pier for the next ship, so the guides on the three busses were told by phone where to deliver us. I think it's important to consider the actual location of the cruise port, and what the next port is. For example, we once chose to be on the very last Tender ride from Sorrento. But we were only having a high-end dinner with relatives, at the top of the long flight of steps down to the marina where the tender was.
  5. We've never noticed it either. Have not been on one of the sail ships in a dozen years, due to itinerary choices. They do make an effort to run under sail as much as possible/convenient, since it both saves money and pleases the customers. I have NOT been on a wooden "windjammer" cruise, but these 400' and over, steel, computer trimmed ships are not the same kind of experience as that, I'm sure.
  6. Because it's a relatively small company, with small ships, both company-sponsored and web-user-experience reporting is limited. It may also change too much from year to year. (For example, last month we used two different cruise ports in Reykjavik, one right downtown, and one on the outskirts.) On a Japan cruise, we were told several times that "The shuttle is provided by the port authorities." That was mainly in the context of the possibility that no extra bus would be provided if the scheduled bus filled up. I suppose it's a special case, but when our cruise excursion was over an hour late returning, in Central America once, they had moved the ship some distance, to free up a berth promised to another ship. Of course the tour contractor brought the bus to the new location. It's also important to specify that some cities are some distance from the associated port, like Seoul, Korea, or Beijing, China. I was astonished that people on our cruise took an excursion from Busan to Seoul, which involved many hours on a high-speed train. Sorry if this is not news to you, just trying to provide some response on a rather quiet newsboard! We tend to use Windstar for island destinations and similar, where the shuttle may not be so important. It was easy enough to walk into town from the Corsica port, which looked more like a marina. But because it was late October, or a weekend, even the TI lady was unable to find any taxi driver willing to take a half- or full-day hire away from his family! Maybe you're asking about Athens and Istanbul, for example. I can say that the Hong Kong pier was right downtown, if requiring an exit through a luxury shopping mall!
  7. We won't consider any of these cruises, but simply because we once stopped a few nights in Dubai, on the way to East Africa. It was such a disappointing tourism experience that we have no interest in the other Emirates. Oversimplification, besides the crushing heat, a building that is over 40 years old in Dubai is just about "historic." I wonder if there is some sort of "subsidy" from the Emirate governments, to promote tourism and increase awareness of these destinations. I also wonder about air conditioning on the ships that I've been on!
  8. Just returned 2023 from "Around Iceland" on Star Legend, Cabin 527. Seemed the same cabin as before the stretch, even to having only one 120 volt outlet. (I travel with plenty of Shuco adapters, but I know this is a problem for others.) Large bed very comfortable, no perceptible ridge in the middle. The bed does come close to the bathroom door, but we prefer having the living area by the panoramic fixed window. Nice enough pillows. Duvet with two sheets. Very good cabin care. Air conditioning could not keep up with sunshine on our window side. Acceptable on other days. Huge rectangular shower stall with rain and handheld options, loads of pressure and hot water. The shower floor was laid wrong in the shipyard, so the steward has to squeegee 1.5 cm of water from the end without the drain when he cleaned the room. No problem with the drain itself. (Round drain, centered under faucet, not linear like American mini-mansions.) Minibar refrigerator is so full that I could barely fit a single tetrapack of soymilk (but the ship has plenty of soymilk anyway.) Life Jackets were not required to be worn during the safety drill. Facial masking 2% or less of passengers. No captain's dinner on our run (not complaining, just reporting. But I brought a tie.) Deck Barbecue was Wednesday LUNCH, had to be moved to Amphora because of Iceland rain. Perfectly nice there. It seemed like the vacant cabin (198 passengers on ship) beside us (common hallway niche) was perhaps offered to meritorious crew members (???). We heard the door slamming ten times a day, but never at night. Looked unoccupied every time the door happened to be left open.
  9. I would expect most excursions from Colon to be associated with the canal itself, or with Panama City's area. So what you are (?) doing at the Panama City end of the canal is a factor. We happened to Embark from Colon, and the bus ride (from the "Windstar" hotel in Panama City) made it quite clear that there is nothing safe to do in Colon. In other words, we were bussed to the other end of the canal to start our cruise. i.e., You report to Panama City to embark in Colon.
  10. Isn't there a symbol or color on the official deck plans in the large Windstar catalog that says "twin beds possible", for certain cabins? That's the kind of thing a well trained phone associate should have close at hand when you call to book.
  11. I smiled when I read this because we had the same experience. I actually packed a battery book-light on our 8th WS cruise for exactly this purpose. It is a lot quieter on the upper deck, but of course much farther to go for refills. It can also be windy up there. Theoretically we are talking about the food itself, but I'd add that it's harder at the BBQ to strike up a conversation with someone you don't know. But that may also be because dining groups have already formed by the time the BBQ comes up. This must happen on other cruise lines, but it's annoying when people don't follow the food safety rules, like getting a clean plate or glass before getting more food. There aren't always enough employees around to catch every offender. And of course, some people who don't understand the rules take offense, or plead "water conservation." Which of course is not the point. I think the food is quite good. We usually skip soup or appetizer at dinner to reduce our food consumption. And sometimes skip dessert. But if you are dining with others, this does not speed up the meal. (We would prefer to eat earlier, simply for elderly stomach issues.) We always look forward to the rotation of Bread Puddings at lunch. The complaint about breakfast variety interests me. Over a lifetime, I've noticed that most middle-class Americans "want" to eat precisely the same breakfast every day of their lives. They won't settle for an empty omelette if there are no scrambled eggs.
  12. My experience is a few years out of date, but when we did back-to-back cruises from Tokyo to Hong Kong, many ports had shuttles. in some cases they were run by the port company, in some cases they were busses hired by Windstar. When the Port provided them, Windstar always said that the Port set the schedule, not Windstar. It was disconcerting to be told that there were not backup busses, so that if the first bus of the day was full, you'd have to wait an hour to get the next one. But we didn't have any trouble. In Hiroshima, I think we took the shuttle downtown and took a taxi back to the ship. I forget if they gave us a card with the port location or what we showed to a non-English speaking driver. But it went fine, not a negative experience. Some ports, like the one "for Beijing" are two hours from Beijing. So the "city" you visit if you're not embarking/disembarking, is not the same as the advertising name of the port. (That is, our two back-to-back cruises met in "Tianjin, for Beijing.") Again, I'm not whining, just reporting. Tianjin was simply, "satisfactory" for a part-day tour that may even have been "free", I forget. It was kind of like docking in Sandwich, MA, and being taken to Plymouth, instead of Boston, if that's any help. Obviously there are exceptions, like (actual offer) visiting Seoul from an overnight port in Busan, which is like visiting New York from a Boston port stop! Luckily or unluckily, one of our China ports was cancelled, and we went to Incheon instead, which is a reasonable port for Seoul, our unscheduled second stop in South Korea.
  13. I don't have a CPAP, but I'm surprised that the manufacturers don't find it cheaper to make only 100-240 volt units for worldwide sale - like most computer and phone manufacturers. It depends on how much traveling you do, but I would mention that I have a small transformer for 240->120 use with small devices that aren't 100-240. I use it mostly for my Phillips toothbrush charger (some Phillips units are dual-voltage, but I think the cheapest models are not.) It's only rated for 50 Watts, so it would not run most CPAPs. I used bigger transformers at home (in the reverse direction) for traveling musicians, but they get VERY heavy above 100 watts. I mean like toy train transformer heavy, if you remember them. My 50w transformer weighs 10.5 oz., and is about as big as a child's fist. I should also say that it's so old (I started traveling in 1987) that it's the old slim bi-pin configuration (I call that, inaccurately, Italian), not the Shuco (northern Europe) style on Windstar. I remember the same pre-refit wall configuration, under the big bureau mirror. That single 120 volt parallel-blade outlet was roughly opposite the feet of the bed occupant closer to the bathrooms.
×
×
  • Create New...