First Windstar Trip Review

We are recently back from our first ever Windstar cruise aboard the Star Pride. We were on a 10-night Caribbean cruise roundtrip from San Juan. We have cruised on several lines including Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Cunard, Crystal and MSC. We have sailed more with Celebrity than any other line, but we like to try new experiences. And Windstar's small ship cruising was a new experience for us.

Our main take away was that we thoroughly enjoyed this cruise, and it exceeded our expectations. I am going to start off with a couple of things we were not so impressed with although I want to stress this did not have any great overall impact on our impression of the cruise.

The first, and perhaps biggest, issue was a difficulty of finding much structured entertainment in the evening. I have to say that going in to the cruise, I certainly understood that this was a part of small ship cruising. But there were a couple of things about the trip that I think made it bit more of an issue than I expected. One was that this was not the normal 7-night trip, but was alonger 10-night trip. Windstar does offer several things that were great and would tend to fill up a seven-night trip. For example, there was a Liar's Club show one evening, a marvelous deck buffet and line dance party on another evening, and an outstanding crew show on the last night of the trip. Over a 7-night trip, that fills in a lot, over ten nights, not quite as much. The other issue was that one of the two duos on the ship got into trouble and was fired. They had to get off at our first port of call. That left only one duo for the ship. I have to say we really loved the duo that remained and they did a marvelous job. But they were stretched pretty thin.

OK, so all that sounds negative, but really it was not that bad. The reason was all the wonderful people we met on the cruise. Every night we met friends for dinner, and we always found friends to chat with at the lounges and bars. This is a real strength for Windstar, to me. It was very easy to meet interesting and friendly people on such a small ship. For example,we met our next door neighbors one cabin over almost immediately upon boarding and hit it off well. We met them for dinner the first night and when we got there, they had a table for us with some other nice people that they had met. After a couple of days, we had lots of people with which we could enjoy the evening.

The only other thing that a couple of times was an issue was the tendering. Windstar always says that with smaller ships they can go to places that the large ships cannot go,and that is true. But in many ways the reason that is true is that they can tender 200 people so much easier and painlessly than a large ship can tender its passengers. Almost all the ports we called on required tendering. Most every time, it was no problem, but two times we had an issue. The first issue was that one of the two tenders broke down and required repairs. This slowed things down and we had to wait about an hour in the lounge before we could get ashore. They soon got the second boat back in operation and things ran well the rest of the day, but we just happened to time it a bit wrong that day. The second issue was a very bumpy sea day at our beach bar-b-que stop at Pigeon Island, St. Lucia. My wife almost refused to board when the tender soared a good five feet up in the air as she was about to board it. It could have been an awkward split if she had one foot one each vessel! But in reality, the nautical team is very good at getting people aboard, once she stepped back and got her breath,they ushered her straight on the tender, and we had a great day ashore.

A similar issue kept us from arriving in time in San Juan to depart, as the sea swells were heavy and the port pilots would not come out to board the Star Pride and take her intoport for our departure. We ended up cruising back and forth outside the mouth of the harbor for a couple of hours until they found a pilot willing to jump aboard the Pride and guide us into port.

But enough negatives, the things I really like about the cruise I will cover now.

First was the food. I really thought it was the best I had eaten on any cruise. Each night, the main dining room menu had things that really hit my wheelhouse of likes. Perhaps because of the smaller passenger numbers, every thing seemed to come out of the kitchen fresh and at the right temperature. The servers were excellent, and we really enjoyed the dine-whenever-and-with-whomever-you-choose aspect. We are not really that much of gourmets, but our next-door neighbor considered himself a foodie, and he also loved the food.

Also we loved our cabin. It was plenty large and had a great bathroom and closet. We had been bumped to a French Balcony, and we enjoyed that a good bit.

Also, the small size cruising does offer a lot of advantages. I have already mentioned the ease of meeting great people. Also the smaller number of passengers allowed Windstar employees to really shine. We soon knew many of the personnel by name and received wonderful service. We went to the open bridge on the first day and made good friends with some very nice crew members who we saw throughout the cruise. At Pigeon Island, Windstar carted a huge amount of equipment ashore and secured a private beach for the passengers. They then prepared a huge lunch at the beach for everyone there, complete with our own steel drum band. There is no way a mass cruise line can duplicate that. But to me, the most amazing event was the deck bar-b-que. I have never seen such a wonderful and amazing spread of food offered to a large group of people in my life. Do not miss this one! Also, the crew led line dancing afterward and it was a blast. Also, the sail-aways with flag raising ceremony was cool.

I found the company very easy to deal with and very competent during our booking and other changes hat occurred due to the hurricanes. Windstar did an excellent job of finding new ports to avoid those destroyed by those awful storms. They always respond very promptly and efficiently to any requests I had.

All in all, I would say the small ship cruise on Windstar is a relaxing and very fun experience. You will be spoiled, pampered, and well fed on Windstar. I can definitely see why many people are so much a fan of this type of trip!

Thanks for your review!

Thanks for your review as we are primarily large ship cruisers from Celebrity taking our first Windstar cruise over new years eve of this year. Very much looking forward to it! We just got off of the Equinox and we are ready to experience less crowds and more personal interactions with the crew and fellow guests.

I hear the sea conditions were extraordinarily bad even as far as St. Maarten the past two weeks due to the noreaster.

A thank you for taking the time for writing a very nice review. We have been on many WS cruises the majority in the Caribbean and all with the exception of once on the sailing ships. We adore the sails. This past January we missed Montserrat due to rough seas, that was the first time since 2004. I think the weather everywhere in N. America has been challenging. ( we live in the NE ) I do admire the crew because safety is really first. So happy you enjoyed yourself. Happy Sailing

Thank you for sharing your experience. We have cruised with Windstar many times and our next adventure is this July. We can't wait!

Cheers!

Thanks for your review as we are primarily large ship cruisers from Celebrity taking our first Windstar cruise over new years eve of this year. Very much looking forward to it! We just got off of the Equinox and we are ready to experience less crowds and more personal interactions with the crew and fellow guests.

 

I hear the sea conditions were extraordinarily bad even as far as St. Maarten the past two weeks due to the noreaster.

I bet you have a wonderful time. I found the lack of crowds to be very relaxing. Also it was nice to have most of the ports of call as new places to which we had never been before. I still like Celebrity, in fact my next two cruises are with them. Those trips were booked before my Windstar trip. In the future, I imagine we will add Windstar to our short list and continue to seek opportunities to try other lines new to us on occasion.

Most of our trip the weather was very good, in fact the Captain said we had the best weather of any of the Caribbean cruises they sailed so far this season. But the sea days were a bit bouncy. I noticed the Captain took us on a route primarily inside the shelter of St. Thomas during the last dinner and crew show so that everyone could enjoy the evening. That plan worked out great.

A thank you for taking the time for writing a very nice review. We have been on many WS cruises the majority in the Caribbean and all with the exception of once on the sailing ships. We adore the sails. This past January we missed Montserrat due to rough seas, that was the first time since 2004. I think the weather everywhere in N. America has been challenging. ( we live in the NE ) I do admire the crew because safety is really first. So happy you enjoyed yourself. Happy Sailing

Most all of the Windstar veterans we met on our trip told us they preferred the sailing ships. I have to admit I was a bit wary of the smaller cabin size and so we picked the Star Pride for our first trip with Windstar. But I hope to try a sailing ship the next time.

We just had our first cruise on Wind Surf and enjoyed it very much, just several points

Front desk personnel were difficult to deal with, I don't think they meant to be but there was a bit of a language problem and lack of comprehension of several issues, they gave us totally incorrect information and the other problem was mostly about entries on the shipboard account, and we were not the only passengers with errors on their account, there was a line of passengers getting them corrected. They eventually called us at 10.15pm in our cabin about it, we were sound asleep by then, not impressed.

Unexpectedly there was a little nickel and diming, but not as much as other lines we have been on.

Sometimes the crew were a little too eager to help us when we told them we were fine and didn't need help.

Its not helping if you force it on someone who doesn't want or need it.

The bacon in the buffet could be better, and the selection of cheese was very poor. The food generally was excellent.

And why oh why do they not have toilet brushes on this ship in passenger cabins, they have them in the public bathrooms?

Its all very well saying the steward will do it but what about the other person in the cabin? Not very nice for them.

Otherwise it was great, just what we expected, and we will go back in a heartbeat. These were minor issues.

Thank you for your review. It is always refreshing to hear from folks who have cruised for the first time on the Windstar ships. We have loved Windstar for over 20 cruises since 2000, both sailing and motor yachts. They only get better. The food is probably the best in the industry, especially since their affiliation with the James Beard Foundation. The crew are exceptional in their attention to customer needs and wants. They are probably the main reason people return again and again. And you do meet lots of wonderful guests aboard. Hope to meet you on a future cruise.

Thank you for your review. It is always refreshing to hear from folks who have cruised for the first time on the Windstar ships. We have loved Windstar for over 20 cruises since 2000, both sailing and motor yachts. They only get better. The food is probably the best in the industry, especially since their affiliation with the James Beard Foundation. The crew are exceptional in their attention to customer needs and wants. They are probably the main reason people return again and again. And you do meet lots of wonderful guests aboard. Hope to meet you on a future cruise.

Thanks 2LoveToTravel, I hope to see you on a future cruise,as well. Till then, happy sailing!

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