medskis

Just a mention that a few weeks ago we picked up a rental car at FCO (Hertz) and dropped it at Hertz civitavecchia ( about a ten minute walk from port) we had time to kill and toured some old hill towns en route.

Thank you. Re Marseille, we are looking forward to “actually seeing” Marseille this time. In sept 2021 when we did our 3 week self drive tour, we landed in Marseille, picked up our rental car and headed east one hour to La Ciotat. We had wanted to base in Cassis but I could not find the right lodging at the time. We did visit Cassis one day - we also did a great boat tour of the Calanques, one day we headed further east to a beautiful beach club. So, both times we were around Marseille we had a car full of luggage and did not trust leaving a car parked somewhere in marseille to go touring. This time we can, although other temptations prevail eg North to somewhere in Provence. Our 2021 itinerary did have 5 nights in Provence split between Aix-en-Provence (ok but would not return) and the lovely town if L’sle sur la Sorgue from which we had a brief visit to Avignon (exceeded my expectations), Les Baux & St. Remy, and a fantastic day doing a circle tour of 5 Luberon area towns, in general, our 21 days were a counter clockwise route from the Marseille area 5 hours west/ north to the 12th century walled town of Carcassone, then 3 hours north to Dordogne River Valley for 4 days (magnificent), east 6 hours for the 5 nights in Provence, then a final 6 nights at a nice timeshare apartment just north of Cannes. We’ve spent time along the Cote D’Azur previously visiting Eze, Monaco, Villefranche, Antibes, Cannes, St. Paul de Vence and more (but not Nice proper…just our friends condo closer to the airport). Currently struggling with packing for our departure 2/29. The 2 weeks in Switzerland have widely varying forecasts ….we will be in the mountains, skiing much of that time. We found how to DHL our biggest suitcase and up to 50 pounds of mostly ski stuff home from Zurich airport. Need to focus on packing for 60 degree weather sightseeing, and looking presentable on Windstar evenings. Any chance a tall, very nice waiter named Alljohn (?) is on Legend now? When we boarded Legend in Miami last Easter, he recognized us from Pride the prior November. Thanks again. maryellen

St. Pete Cruiser, Hope your second week is going well. I was wondering, where does the ship dock for the port of Nice? Does it dock in Nice or over in Villefranche? We have a friend we will be meeting up with in Nice and wanted to double check locations. Thank you.

Thanks again. I love Compass Rose. We certainly never expected to be on the legend or other this winter but when I saw the move of the ship from the Middle East to the Med at that price and knowing we were in Switzerland already, I just had to do it. It will certainly make packing quite the challenge with two weeks of skiing and then some spring time Nice clothes for the cruise itinerary. We will be skipping Rome that’s for sure. We spent a few days there in 2018 and I had been there previously so no need to return. We will land at Rome airport Saturday night March 16 and stay at the Hilton nearby. We are going to rent a car the next morning and keep it until Monday late afternoon so we can make little side journeys with the car on the way up to the ship on Sunday and then also head for some lesser known Hill towns while still in Port on Monday. We have a friend in Nice. She visited in Philly at Christmas and she knows we’re going to be there for an overnight so we should have some nice experiences there . Once again we’ve been to a good many of the Côte d’Azur towns previously but always look forward to a return there. I would like to hear what you did in Livorno ? We’ve been a few times in the last 10 years to Tuscany, Sienna , the Cinque Terre, the various wine towns, San Gimignano etc. so we have done it all but we have not been in Florence proper since 2009. Oh Lucc was the more recent discovery and I love it because it is authentic and not as touristy as Pisa. When we end in Barcelona we will add two more nights there. We’ve spent about a week in Barcelona previously all told in the last 10 years. I would like to try to get to Girona one day this time . Enjoy week 2!!

YAY. I just told my husband. We are both happy about that. There was a marked difference between what sin added during our November 2022 Caribbean cruise versus a British singer gent on legend in April. We should warn Sin that one of his star Music trivia contest players is about to return. my husband really loves the rock genre music and when Sin hosted that session he said only one time prior had he seen someone have a perfect score. My hubby not only had the titles of the songs but he wrote down who the performers were and then he asked sin “would you like me to add the years too”. 😁😁 Sin also conducted dance lessons on board and we did not do too badly learning the merengue from him. Time for a refresher. I know you are ending your cruise but should you see him when you disembark and your device is handy, I am not sure if he would remember us if he sees our photo here.

We’ve been on Star Pride and Star Legend in the last 18 months, and are booked on Legend March 17-24, Rome to Barcelona. Since we were already going to be in Europe skiing, it was a No Brainer at the great price to fly Zurich to Rome for this sailing…. And with the cabins priced the same /first come basis, we will be mid-ship in a “balcony” cabin this time vs on deck 4 which we very much enjoyed too (big picture window and ledge wide enough to sit in). We LOVE the Star Motor Yachts huge cabins…yes, like suites. We agree and prefer the living area to be near the window. I treat the closet like my own dressing room with its terrific size, drawer storage etc. Yes, counter space in the otherwise great bathroom is a bit tight with the his and hers sinks. We had been on Wind Spirit in Greece many years ago and that was too small for me even from a common areas/lounge space let alone the 188’ vs 277’ cabin size compared to the Motor Yachts. Can you please advise who the cruise/entertainment director is on Legend now? We really loved Sin when he was our director on Star Pride in late 2022.

No, not at all. The sailing was wonderful. A tiny bit rough on the Tasmanian sea. My post were meant to be informative about the ports we visited on a New Zealand and Australia voyage

I SO hope he will be onboard in March. My hubby loved doing his music trivia contests (and somehow I got him to take Sin’s Merengue dance class). My hubby is a 61 yr old music aficionado especially from the ROCK era. He had a perfect score for Rock genre trivia…… adding the artists as well as name of tune. Sin could not believe it, said he only saw that once prior…to which my husband said “would you like me to add in the year”? So Rob is looking to add the keychain prize next time since we took the fridge magnet last time (Nov 2022, 9 nt SJU ) if anyone is on LEGEND soon and SIN is there, could you ask if he will be there for March 17 voyage? Thanks.

We recently returned from there. Did an overall 40 day trip, Tahiti- Australia-NZ-Fiji. It was a combo lands stays and a 14 days H*L cruise from Sydney to Auckland. Fantastic overall experience. First time in that area. Not sure what your Breeze itinerary is (maybe ours in reverse) but I did a lot of FB posts with descriptions and pics of each of our port stops which you might find interesting . On FB I am Maryellen Doyle Irvine

We will be doing the 3/17 Rome to Barcelona itinerary. We’ve cruised both Pride (Caribbean 11/22) and Legend (Central America 4/23) and did not have anything else booked for a while. Then I saw the notice about Legend going to the Med. We have done most of the ports before but could not pass up the deal. By coincidence we will already be in Switzerland in March with our ski club so easy to fly from Zurich to Rome. Packing will be complicated ….never saw apres ski boots in Compass Rose. Who is the Entertainment/Cruise director on Legend now? We were super impressed with Sin on Pride ….he set the bar very high for fun and passenger engagement. We missed him when in Legend in April. Enjoy and thanks for sharing your experiences.

Hi. Just found your thread today. By coincidence we are booked for Cabin 525 on the Legend in Mid March for its Rome to Barcelona 7 nt itinerary. Dont think we’ll want the balcony door open too often so the tender mention should not be an issue. We first cruised Windstar on Wind Spirit, for our honeymoon in Sept 2009 - YOUR itinerary. I found the very small size a bit too boring to book for future voyages. Well we more recently discovered the Motor Yachts and cruised Caribbean on Pride in Nov. 22, then Miami to Central America Easter week 2023. Was a bit let down on Legend vs Pride ….perhaps the difference between last cruise of a season vs 1st. We had a very tired Cabin attendant who was lacking but I did not want to report him to friendly Wilhelm (with whom I enjoyed some friendly German conversations), even when we found a pair of red lacy panties under a cushion on an arm chair. Also, our cruise director on Pride, Sin, set the bar so high and was so much fun that the one on Legend just could not compare for interest / engagement with passengers. I am not sure I caught who your Cruise/Entertainment director was? I don't think ours from April was going to continue once the ship was back in Europe. He was a “star” vocalist who prefered performing 🥴 vs hosting. I sure would love to know who to expect in March, But those Motor Yachts and Windstar in general will spoil you. When I saw the unfortunate, but wise, notice that Legend’s scheduled mid-east season was being replaced by 7 night very well priced Med itineraries it was a No Brainer for us because we will already be in Europe. We are skiing in Switzerland the first 2 weeks in March and the 3/17 sailing was perfectly timed to fly from Zurich to Rome. Packing will be tricky …we’ll be the ones wearing apres ski clothes …talk about APRES Ski fun….. add a Windstar cruise!!

Hi there, We are renting a car at FCO in mid-March and will do a little touring on the way to Civitavecchia. We’ll have arrived at FCO the prior evening and staying at the Hilton closest to terminals. No need to tour Rome again. While we can board our Windstar ship same day we pick up the car, the ship remains in port until the evening of the following day. We’d like to leave/park the rental car on day 1 and use it day 2 to go north to tour some of the inland hill towns /have lunch as we did in 2018 (on the way to Siena). Looks like Hertz or Budget coming up as primary choices (in 2018 we had Europcar). Just wondering if anyone has parked a car overnight near the port/or at the local rental company property and continued their rental the following day. While I like Hertz as a rental source, I believe their property is not as walkable to the port as Budget/Europcar are. I’d like to get the rental all set soon. Thank you!

As a past Windstar cruiser, I get their promotional emails. We were on the Legend for 10 days Central America/Mexico this past April. We jumped on the $1899 for any cabin (not suite) and got a Balcony 525 for the March 17 sailing. The only reason this worked for us is because we are skiing in Switzerland for 2 weeks ending March 16 so perfect timing to fly Zurich to Rome for next day boarding. The only problem is we’ll have suitcases with lots of ski wear in them!

We did a 2 week land stay in Croatia several years ago. One day we rented a car and traveled tot Krka, maybe 1.5 hours from Trogir (close to Split) passing so many pretty places. We visited KRKA for the full walk, up and down stairs, swimming was allowed back then. We got back in the car and drove to Skradin and had the BEST time there….. cute little town on its own and we found a mom-pop place that sells oils and wine and offers food….. a real experience, even grandmom got into the act with serving and pouring. MATE VINO is the name of the place and if you click on it in Google Maps you’ll see photos/ videos. If one of the excursions offers boat to Skradin that might be best /easiest option hopefully eliminating big stair climb back up to parking lot, PS. If anyone driving at some point, be sure to stop in PRIMOSTEN on your way back to or from Split/Trogir direction.

We left Pride Nov 12. My CC refund was dated 12/30. The amount was only partial, ie $155 of $267. I only noticed this recently and called Windstar. They told me the balance had been issued on an FCC dated 12/18…. But neither I nor my travel agent was aware of that. It may have to do with Who / What source initiated your OBC on front end. Ship vs agent vs some FCC or “good will money”; difference between FCC and fare you booked on new cruise if slightly cheaper. Stay on top of this.