My first sailing ship - impressions of a short voyage on Star Flyer

[Mattsudds]

How do you end a big party? Why, with a sailaway of course. But if you want to make it special how about a sailaway parade - better still be on the lead ship, a sailing ship. Well, that is exactly what me and some friends did to round off our trip to the AidaMar naming, Harbour birthday. Our ship was the Star Flyer. Part of the Star Clippers fleet, the Star Flyer and her sister accommodate just 170 passengers and 72 crew within a 360ft, 2,298gt hull. Both the Flyer and Clipper are true clippers with 36,000sq ft of sail. The brochure says they are created for luxury loving passengers who love the traditions and romance of the sailing era.

 

The Star Flyer is operating an unusual season on Northern Europe for Star Clippers. As part of that she attended the Hafensgeburtstag and took part in several parades, being the lead ship in the final parade of sail. Its always a pleasure for me to try unusual ships, but despite my 70+ cruises, this was my first sailing ship. We boarded by tender, with the Uberseebrucke where she was berthed being inaccessible due to the festivities. BEfore you board, you are made to sign a lengthy waiver which covers tendering and all kinds of sports. Our tender driver appeared to have been trained by Captain Schettino of Costa since we crashed into things repeatedly whilst attempting to reach the ship, including impaling ourselves on a security fence, getting a naval ship's mooring wire stuck under our canopy and repeated collisions with pilings. Not perhaps the most auspicious start, but then we are here to sail and the tender might be the end of the motor powered sailing perhaps?

 

Onboard, more forms, this time signing for your key which is attached to a string and flotation ball, just in case. My cabin, 135 was in the stern section, with everything you need, superb wooden furniture. Everything is designed to be fully yacht like and there are special closing latches on the wardrobe doors. The ensuite bathroom has a serious slope for draining the shower at any angle. The cabin has a small seat/ luggage stand but is otherwise compact and functional. My favourite thing are the specially weighted lamps which stay upright at any angle of pitch or roll no matter what.

 

Throughout the ship, there are some wonderful touches. A stair bannister carved to look like a mooring rope for instance. Another is wandering down a corridor and being confronted with the mast climbing up through the ship. The ship's public rooms include a library, described as edwardian in style. And there is the Piano bar with a central atrium skylight down into the dining room. The atrium skylight contains the swimming pool so it is to be hoped there are no 'wardrobe malfunctions' amongst the bathers. I say bathers advisedly since the thing is about the size of a large bath. On star clippers, watersports are to be enjoyed principally over the side, not on the vessel. Final public space is the 'Tropical Bar' which is between the 2 deckhouses and has been partially enclosed by canvas awnings.

 

After boarding, we enjoyed the lunch buffet and perused the programme. The buffet, in common with most of the food, was not bad but certainly nothing special or memorable. A steward with a bell wanders the cabin decks to announce the start of dinner. Dinner is open seating, but with a full ship, and 98% german passengers (we were the 2%), everyone turns up precisely on time. The dining room is wood panelled, and adorned with pictures of significant sailing ships. Unfortunately the dining room was probably the inspiration for the MSC fleet, and is horribly, uncomfortably crowded. It is difficult to get in and out of seats, or past other guests unless you are lucky enough to secure the end seats. Of course the passengers soon cotton on to this, and by day 2 we see the equivalent of the towels on sunloungers, and people are seated in the dining room 15 minutes before dinner starts!. The Maitre D' and hotel manager stand at the bottom of the stairs from the Piano Bar and I had assumed they were there to greet and seat but in reality they only did this for some. The Maitre D's principle role seemed to be to shoo people along the benches for the booth seats emphasising that 'we are full' so every seat must be used. And there are really not enough waiters to offer decent service. There is also, due to the cramped room, some handing plates along the passengers, never the mark of a line that considers itself luxury. The Maitre D' and hotel manager's attitude characterises most of the staff I encountered, borderline indifference and certainly not friendly, and frequently not undertaking the roles their contemporaries on other ships do. Ask for something at the Pursers office and the chap there can't be bothered to reach into a drawer behind him and says 'come back later'. The kitchen must also be cramped since at dinner, the buffet station in the centre of the dining room is commandeered as a supplementary preparation area and the ship's nurse seems to be pressed into preparing salads and starters.

 

Evening entertainment is strictly limited with the resident pianist offering either tunes in the Piano bar or on his electronic keyboard outside in the tropical bar. The outside keyboard has a distinct 'Maplin's Holiday Camp' tone to it. In the Piano bar for pre-dinner drinks, it is difficult to tell whether table service is offered, in fact by the end of the trip I still haven't worked it out. At least the drink prices were reasonable.

 

Our itinerary has a sea day heading for Texel (dutch island). Unfortunately the wind is too strong in the wrong direction and we barely sail, but instead motor along. Star Flyer has a lively but not uncomfortable motion with none of the snap and shudder big ships can produce. With the outside decks being so windswept, the utter unsuitability of Star Flyer for a Northern European itinerary becomes clear. With 170 passengers, there are just 63 indoor seats in the Piano bar and about 25 in the library. The cabins also don't have much by the way of seating and the result is people huddled up in coats trying to find somewhere out of the worst of the wind for most of the day. With the ship sailing on engine power, my aft cabin is noisy, so noisy in fact I am convinced that the engine must be in the cupboard under the window.

 

On the sea day, there are about 8 things on the programme, 4 of which are meals. One is 'Captain's story time which is only offered in German. Fair enough I suppose given the passenger mix but not what was advertised. That night is Captain's dinner, and again the food is unmemorable. This 'welcome aboard' dinner also saw the Captain come along, but as with every other time I see him in the dining room, he stays for only 1 course and makes little visible effort with the passengers. With such a light programme, I don't know what the 'Cruise Director' actually does.

 

On the final night before Amsterdam there is special entertainment with the 'crew talent show'. The most aimiable crew, the sports team, dress up as Abba for a cheesy rendition followed by the usual talent. The night before we were treated to a 'fashion show' for which read crew dragooned into wearing items from the ship sloop shop. I didn't expect much, if any, entertainment, but quite honestly I had expected that if there was any it would be slightly upmarket from the mass market tacky crap I can get elsewhere. Needless to say there was a baked Alaska parade and 'we are the world' singalong in the dining room followed by the heart rending speech about how we loved having you here and here are the tip envelopes....

 

Overall, the Star Flyer is a vessel utterly unsuited to Northern Europe itineraries, the food was unmemorable, the staff mostly indifferent and I can only conclude that one is essentially paying for the novelty of sailing on a Clipper ship. And a lovely ship she is indeed, but she has far too many passengers to be comfortable especially in the dining room. I wouldn't rule out a go on the Royal Clipper if the price, climate and itinerary were right, but that price needs to be about 60% less than those on the website to represent value for money. Star Clippers fares were almost Seabourn level, but ship apart, closer to an MSC experience.

[SailorJM]

Wow, nothing like our two trips on Star Clippers' namesake ship....one trip in the Caribbean, the other off Costa Rica. I have to admit we prefer casual-comfort and resort-comfort to high-luxury and prefer sailing ships to cruisers, and we sail primarily for the joy of sailing, discovering different locales and meeting new people. But we aren't rowboat sailors, either. We consider Star Clipper to be resort-casual and a wonderful sailing cruise ship. Loved the ambience, enjoyed the food, found the crew to be fun, personable and professional, and enjoyed meeting passengers from many European locales. We have often recommended the Star Clipper. So sorry you were disappointed.

[JOBAKE]

Wow. (new type of greeting from "repeaters"?). We have been on the Royal Clipper 9 times and on the Star Clipper 3 times and our "stories" are at the other end of the spectrum to yours with new friends found and lots of wonderful stories to tell including with several fellow German passengers. (If you are reading this H. look in to my eyes and what was that we were saying about German jokes?). It seems that the underlying problem for you was the weather - undoubtedly a risk at that time of year. We are booked on the Flyer (Baltic) in August and even for then we are not taking the weather for granted. Perhaps your "giveaway" is your possible willingness to go on the Royal Clipper - perhaps the Royal in the Caribbean might suit you better - certainly more space on the Royal. There is a way to turn adverse things to one's advantage and that is to adopt the New Zealand tourist's motto which is "expect the unexpected" which we did many years ago when we first heard of it and that is now how we always travel. With that even the poorest of experiences can be turned in to a laugh. I do hope that your future holidays come out on the plus side.

[Mattsudds]

Thanks Jobake and SailorJM - I was really hoping you would say those things because Star Clippers is something I really want to like. Something different from a mainstream cruise. Certainly this time the weather played a part.

 

I would argue that a ship with less than 90 indoor seats for 170 passengers really isn't best deployed where there is a strong chance the weather would not be good. My party enjoyed ourselves anyway but given what Star Clippers advertise - they talk about luxury and never feeling confined, etc - we just expected both the staff, food and what entertainment there would be (we didn't expect much) to be quite a bit better. I can imagine that if the ship is under sail with a caribbean breeze, and everyone wants to be outside then the experience is quite different.

[muskatnuss]

I can't match with your 70+ cruises because I'm only 62, but I've done so many cruise trips and sailing trips. I love them all. Did the Clippers in the Caribbean, Tahiti, West Europe, Greek Isles and Baltic is on it's way. The atmosphere is fantastic. Never had moody crews. Loved all my captains. I'm am not sure what the cruise director does all day, but if I had a question, I got an answer. Ha, ha!!! Try tendering in Canakkale, Turkey!!! Great fun. No really. You got off to a bad start. I was on the AIDAmar at that time.....I know what the weather was like....I would never have booked a sailing trip at this time. I also think you compare too much to cruise ships. For sailing vessels....the Clipper ships are luxury of their art. QE2??? QM2??? Yes, luxury but cruising. On the Royal, you will problably complain about the dead-end Buffet set-up. No I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just trying to prepare you. You can't "go around" as you can on the Clipper and the Flyer (Twin sisters). The Buffet set-up on the Clipper and Flyer at Dinner is part of an art of "show cooking". The Nurse is on all ships helpful at Meals. And will be in 3 Minutes in your Cabin if necessary - I know. Oh! and yes...The ship's engine WAS in the cupboard under your window. Did you go to the Engine Room??? We informed ourselves about the ships before we booked the Clipper about 4 years ago. Forums, Newsletters, Emails. We knew what to expect. I seldom read advertising.

I wish you all the best. Please read this forum and others before you book again. Then you might not be so disappointed.

 

Toni, the Clipper-Lover (Royal Clipper, Star Clipper, Star Flyer) - Can't wait for the next!!!

 

Oh!!! MSC??? N-E-V-E-R!!!!! NCL, Norwegian, AIDA, Deutschland , yes!!!

[Charlotte girl]

Sorry to be a dolt, but what is MSC? Does the Star Clipper dining room really have bench seats for communal dining? Sounds unlikely? Booths and tables were the rule on Royal Clipper. Not that I think that's such a torture anyway.

[muskatnuss]

No benches, sweety - booths, etc and tables and chairs in the middle. can be tight, but no problem

[muskatnuss]

MSC is a cruise company that does not sail.

[Charlotte girl]

I didn't think that could be true. Crazy poster somewhere on the Star Clippers board. Hated most everything it seemed. LOL I knew MSC was a cruise line, but couldn't think which one!!:D