Considering a luxury cruise

[schmeg]

Hello to all,

 

My wife and I are considering a Luxery cruise this coming fall/winter and need a little advice. We have never been on a cruise before, so we are starting from scratch. I We are both early fifties and are not looking for a party crowd. We love fine dining. I don't fare very well with large crowds so big floating shopping malls are out. We want a nice relaxing cruise where we can do our own thing, be catered to, and see some nice places. I do want a nice room, and not a shoe box. We want to sail in the carribean or the Med. We are currently looking into Seabourn, Silversea, and Windstar. Also my wife has recently been diagnosed with M.S. She gets around with a cane, but wears down quickly, so hiking or strenuous activities on shore exursions are out. This is also a reason not to sail on a large crowded boat. Lots of people can be inconsiderate and bump into her while she is trying to get around. I get the feeling Winstar or Seabourn will fill our requirements. Any suggestions? Thanks Jay

[rafinmd]

You will want to ask a lot of questions. As a starting point, the only Windstar ship with elevators is the Wind Surf, so you probably will want to restrict your Windstar search to that ship.

 

I would suggest that you at least consider Seabourn, Windstar, and Crystal. I have sailed Silversea and was not impressed, but your experience may be different. I've done one Transatlantic on Windstar and have a Med voyage booked. I haven't yet sailed Seabourn but am seriously looking at them, and have 7 Crystal voyages with 2 more booked. A few of the the differences between the lines are:

 

Crystal's ships are larger than the others but they have a lot of space per passenger and the ships are never at all crowded.

 

Formality: Windstar is very casual. There is never a need for Suits or other formal wear. The other 3 mostly have several dressy nights per voyage, although Seabourn seems to be loosening that requirement.

 

Dining: Crystal is the only one of these lines using fixed table assignments and seating times, usually 6:15 and 8:30. This is actually my favorite and provides a bit of a small ship feel with having a table of people we see every day. The others offer a flexible dining time, with service starting at 7 or 7:30. For breakfast and lunch, both Silversea and Windstar use alternate restaurants with buffet type service for breakfast and lunch; at least on Windstar the service is superb and you can readily just take a seat and the crew will bring you whatever you want and provide full waiter service. On Crystal, the main dining room is open for all three meals with full service, and there is a ledo with indoor and on-deck tables for breakfast and lunch, and a legendary service crew who will provide superb service.

 

Activities: Windstar ships are very laid back with activities, with very few programmed activities. If you do not take advantage of the shore excursions, you will be pretty much on your own for entertainment throughout the voyage. This is very much a personal preference; I found the level of activity on the transatlantic too low, but there are people who do them every year and just love the chance to relax for 2 whole weeks.

 

Crystal is the most active but it does not need to be tiring. On my upcoming (2/28) voyage there are 8 lecturers, daily movies, a daily tea time with a live quartet, as well as more active possibilities. All of these activities are purely optional. When I was on Silversea, I almost felt like I had to attend the shows because with the small size of the ship the audiences for the performers were often embarrassingly small.

 

I suggest you pose your question on the boards of all the lines you are considering and be ready to come back with a lot of questions.

[schmeg]

Thanks for the info. I'm also considering Seadream. I don't need lots of activities. I get those everyday as it is.

[merrilyanne]

Briefly, I had great difficulty on the Windstar Surf because of all of the tenders. Very difficult to get on and off the small tender boats when the boats are rocking, and the handrails on the stairs moved all of the time. Also, the elevators were out of order for two days, making us all climb numerous flights of stairs to get to the dining rooms. Also, (I don't fully understand it), when leaving or arriving at port they close off the hallways completely, on the lower two decks (where most passengers had cabins) and you have to use the stairs at the other end of the ship during those times.

 

And remember, small ships rock more than larger ships do, which might be a consideration for someone with a balance problem. And to be honest, I felt the Surf was more crowded than alot of the larger ships having thousands of passengers - simply because they have much less space than the larger ships do. There were not enough chairs in the Lounge for the passengers to sit to hear the daily port talks or Captain's welcome or the entertainment before dinner, so many of us ended up standing most of the time, or people stood and blocked other people's view, that were seated. Sometimes there was a wait to get on or off the tender, sometimes up to half an hour, so I prefer a larger ship here you can get off on a pier and not have to wait in line to get on the tender. Also, I literally stayed in my room on our day at sea, as there were absolutely no chairs available anywhere on any deck. Also, during sail aways, there were never any seats available on the back decks and many of us had to stand.

 

Just my humble opinion/experience. I know many people say they like the smaller ships, but most of those people never tried a larger ship. I have done both, on many cruise lines, and probably will go back to the larger ships. I cannot justify the price of a small ship, as I didn't find the food any better than say, Celebrity or Holland America.

 

I also found that other than at the designated meal times, there was very few options to get something to eat. You could not get a full breakfast through room service, and there were no buffets to snack at between meal times. Dinner was at 7:30 p.m. and often we were not finished til close to 10 p.m., which was just too late for me to finish eating a big meal, and too long a time to be at a table waiting for the various courses. I have never experienced this type of delay at dinner on the larger cruise ships, even with 3500 passengers.

 

M