CuriousTraveler10

I am very embarrassed by my post and I am sincerely sorry it sounded like I was blaming Windstar for my bad judgment. I agree my purchases are my responsibility. The only thing I wanted is help from Windstar since it was a Windstar-approved store and that specific store was part of the shore excursion. Fortunately, Windstar has contacted me and is investigating the situation. They are being helpful now.

Yes, I was a fool and gullible. I agree but it hurt to be criticized by so many Cruise Critic members especially since I was already so embarrassed. Again, just for the record, I take full responsibility and it was 100% my fault. When we were in Istanbul, I walked out of the store when we were pressured. I will never let myself be so stupid again. I have learned my lesson.

All I ask of my fellow Cruise Critic members is please try to be more kind when someone says something stupid they did on this forum. I have been sad for weeks about my mistake and then after my post, I felt ten times worse and even more stupid. I hope this forum will be a safe place for future OPs. We are only human and we all make mistakes and I am accepting full responsibility.

I do stand by the rest of my comments about Windstar's new ships being in need of better maintenance.

Yes, the chocolates were a huge trauma! I used to love their special evening chocolates and the surprise of not knowing what I would get. You can make fun of that too if you want. It's the little things in life that really make me happy.

Overall, I had an unforgettable vacation and I loved it. When anyone asks, I tell them it was wonderful. I loved our balcony stateroom - it was incredible to see the ocean from bed and feel the sea breeze. I loved the separate living room. The staterooms and ports of call were fabulous and unforgettable. We had almost a month's vacation total including time pre/post cruise. I had the time of my life in spite of the Turkish store snafu.

In the future, I think we will try other cruise lines because we've been on so many Windstar cruises, it's time for a change. I also am still sad and disappointed that Windstar is having growing pains. Before this cruise, I felt Windstar's sailing ships esp the Wind Surf were first class. Up until now, we were so loyal to Windstar and we'd always book our next Windstar cruise onboard. Now, for the amount we paid for this cruise plus all the onboard spending, jewelry purchases, rug purchase and costs for pre/post cruise hotels and meals, I think we may be ready to step up to Seabourn. And no more big ticket shopping in foreign countries - we will stick to refrigerator magnets in the future! (I think we wiped out my shopping budget for the next 2 years anyway.)

We are frequent travelers to many U.S. and international destinations and stay in high end hotels and resorts when we travel, usually 5 star properties and fly business class when possible. We have been on seven (7) Windstar cruises total with six (6) in the last nine (9) years. Until now, we were Windstar loyalists and had started taking Windstar cruises every year. We had such a great time on the Tahiti Windstar cruise last year that we booked two back-to-back cruises this year: one was from Istanbul to Athens and the other was from Athens to Venice. The itinerary and ports on both cruises were fantastic.

When we heard Windstar was purchasing the three ex-Seabourn ships, we were very excited and assumed the ships, after Windstar's renovations, would be a step above the sailing ships in quality. We were wrong. While we really enjoyed the balcony stateroom with floor-to-ceiling windows and the cabins were huge by cruise ship standards, the Star Breeze itself was a disappointing. Windstar is not maintaining the ship to luxury standards. There were dirty windows in the public rooms and staterooms as well as rust on the ship. Some of the carpets were worn out. The water platform was worn out and it had a couple inches of stale water in it. The spa is very small. It's hard to believe this was recently a Seabourn ship. Now I understand why they sold their three smaller cruise ships. They certainly are in need of more repair than Windstar has invested. Service was slow at times, especially at breakfast time on the Veranda. The shore excursions manager had a defensive attitude when I made suggestions. While the managers tried to sound concerned, they didn't take action on problems.

The special event at Ephesus was the highlight of the first cruise. It was spectacular to see the Celsus Library lit up at night. Overall, the food was good but not fantastic. The onboard barbecue has always been the highlight of the cruise. I wasn't as impressed with the quality of the barbecue on either cruise this time.

The Yacht Club public room was the nicest room on the ship. It had spectacular views and they seemed to clean the windows in that room. However, the sandwiches in the Yacht Club tasted stale. You had to go out to the bat to order drinks. In addition, on other Windstar cruises they offer a 4 pm tea time with snacks. They didn't offer it on this cruise.

Windstar no longer offers high quality, unique chocolates for turn down. Each night, we got cheap chocolate mints, which we did not eat. I used to look forward to the nightly chocolates.

While our stateroom attendant tried his best, he seemed to be overburdened so our room was not cleaned as promptly as I was accustomed to.

Another disappointment was the pool deck. The view is blocked by the life boats. The jacuzzi on the pool deck was not maintained at a hot enough temperature. The jacuzzi in the front of the ship was hot but there are no umbrellas out there to shield you from the sun so we didn't use it.

Surprisingly, the ships were not full. In the past, all the cruises we've been on with Windstar have been sold out. They have lowered the prices considerably at the last minute to try to fill the ships, which might explain the downgrade in quality. The ship seemed to be 70-80% full. First cruise had about 150 guests out of 212 and the second had about 170 guests out of 212. This was good for us in that Windstar was able to upgrade our cabin at no charge but we overpaid for the cruises because we booked early and prices went down after the 60 days window had closed.

I noticed there were many first time Windstar cruisers. I think we were probably the most experienced Windstar cruisers on both itineraries. In the past, Windstar cruises tended to have many Windstar repeaters. I suspect the repeaters were loyal because they like the sailing ships. I am not sure traditional cruise ships will be as successful for Windstar. The sailing ships felt luxurious because the quality is well above what one would expect for a sailing ship. However, the standard for traditional cruise ships are much higher and Windstar will need to invest a lot more in its new ships to compete with other luxury cruise lines. By the way, the only sailing ship Windstar owns that I like is the 300 passenger Wind Surf. The two smaller ships don't have enough guest space by the pool and they also are in need to more maintenance.

Overall, I rated the cruises a 3 because of the spacious stateroom with balcony (not a real balcony but you can open the sliding glass door and peak out as well as get the sea breeze) and the great ports of call. In spite of the above issues in quality and service, I would have rated the cruises a 4 if it weren't for the problem we had in Kusadasi. At the end of the shore excursion, the guide left us at a Windstar approved store in Kusadasi named Heirloom. They were very aggressive and oversold us a Turkish rug and lots of jewelry. They kept giving us wine and frankly we weren't clear headed when we purchased the items. We went way over what we could afford and didn't even realize it until later when we added up the bill. The reason is because they sell you one item at a time and convince you that you can't live without the item, they stress how unique it is and what a good deal they are giving you. We actually didn't even know how much we had spent until we added up the bill the next day. When I reported this to Windstar, the Captain and Hotel Manager acted concerned and told us to speak to the Shore Excursions Manager. He was not at all helpful and said there was nothing he could do. I asked for help in returning the items and getting a refund. He said that was not possible. He said he would get us authentication certificates to verify the quality of the jewelry but he never followed up. In my opinion, if Windstar recommends a store on a shore excursion and puts their name on a sign outside the store, then Windstar should take responsibility for helping its guests when they have a problem. The management at Windstar was very hands off about our problem. For this reason, we will never go on a Windstar cruise again. This is a shame because we were Windstar fanatics until now. I plan to write a letter to the CEO and see if the corporate headquarters can help us.

Given what I have heard about Xanterra (the new owners of Windstar), I have low expectations for Windstar offering any help. I think Xanterra is lowering Windstar's quality and they don't know how to run luxury cruise ships. Xanterra's expertise is in national parks and land-based vacations. They do not seem to have experience in high end properties. It's a shame because Windstar was so fantastic in the past. I heard Xanterra plans to purchase and renovate 4 more ships. I think they are growing too fast and need to get it right with what they have right now. In fact, I hope someone else buys Windstar and restores it to its former glory.

In the future, we will consider "real" luxury cruise lines because Windstar is now overpriced for what they offer. While the other luxury cruise lines may seem more expensive, they include more items in the price than Windstar does and they offer a true luxury experience on well-maintained ships.