Just back from 5-28 Istanbul to Athens on Spirit

[Marylebone37]

Could not have been better! Any questions welcome. I am a Celebrity-regular, and while I was expecting a somewhat higher quality experience on Windstar (over Celebrity) - just about everything on Windstar was **multiple** times better than on Celebrity. The food of Chef Henri was amazing! Diet before you go on the Spirit.

[katj323]

I am glad you had a great time. What is the dress for dinner for women?

[Austin_Texas]

What ports did you take in and any "don't miss" recommendations?

[Marylebone37]

Dress for dinner (men and women) was very casual. **Casual** & cool slacks and skirts/dresses - and for men, polo shirts were the norm. For the fantastic BBQ evening, shorts and bright shirts (hawaiian-types) are most common. One night, we even ordered pizza via room service and took it up to the deck to eat under the stars (vs. eating in the dining room).

 

All ports are not be missed, with the highlight (of the whole trip) being Kusadasi and the excursion to Ephesus. Yes, Santorini was beautiful, but so infested with tourists that it felt like St. Thomas at times, only with much more impressive views, scenery, and ambience. Loved Bodrum and Mykonos too. Be sure to spend a few days in Istanbul if you can... it was intriguing and wonderful.

[new_cruiser]

Definately stay a few days ahead in Istanbul. We loved it. We stayed in the old city at Hotel Sari Konak. It was great to be able to just walk out of the hotel and start taking in the sites. The small hotel was very friendly - a comfortable mix of charming old details and very up-to-date bathrooms. We arrived on a 1 PM flight and by 3 we were settled, changed and armed with recommendations on what to see for the rest of the day.

 

From Kusadasi, Ephesus is not to be missed. We did it with Wind Star since I got to busy to set up a private guide before the trip. The guide was great. I think the tour that only does Ephesus and includes the terrace houses is better than the longer one that does other sites. We enjoyed the terrace houses and some people who took the other one found it too long. I wouldn't do the Turkish bath excursion here. Better (and cheaper) to do it in Istanbul before the trip starts. Some on our cruise were surprised to find the Turkish bath on the excursion was co-ed (not very authentic and not comfortable for some of them).

 

I loved Rhodes. I walked about on my own, my husband took the walking tour.

 

I would have preferred to have a different port than Mykonos. It was too much like Santorini the day before except a little less dramatic. Both offered mainly shopping, beaches, and ruins on a fairly arid island. (The main ruins for Mykonos are on Delos with a 20-30 minute ferry run.) If you are into shopping, especially jewelery, you may like it.

 

In the evenings on deck, it was somewhat cool. For the evening in Rhodes where we had Greek dancers on deck a jacket or sweater was very welcome. Some who didn't bring one were huddled with a deck towel for a wrap. Also useful for the barbeque evening which we did below Santorini.

[ZAMOST]

Am looking into this exact cruise next year either June 3 on WindSpirit or June 4 on WindStar for our 30th wedding anniversary. Have heard variable reviews of this cruiseline and although it's not a big deal, somehow a balcony would be nice.

Certainly like the open seating, casual dress, small number of passengers...just haven't personally met a lot of people who have taken WindStar to get a good sense of it.

If you had a choice, would you rather start in Athens, end in Istanbul, or vice versa?

[Marylebone37]

I would not even hesitate to book it - nor do I think the direction matters all that much. The only drawback - if it's important to you - is that there is little in the way of organized activities in the evenings. But I found that to be a nice change from the "regular" cruise ship experiences. Any other questions about the ship, just let me know.

[new_cruiser]

Zamost,

We chose the Istanbul-Athens direction because we wanted to spend more time in Istanbul than Athens. It was more convenient to have the city where we wanted to spend more time be the starting point so that we were totally time adjusted before the cruise started. We did 3 nights pre cruise in Istanbul (which meant we had 3 full days sight seeing between the time we arrived at our hotel and the time we showed up at the ship). I could happily have spent two more days there. We really enjoyed the city and the people.

 

We did 2 nights post cruise in Athens (almost 2 days of sight seeing) and that was enough. One can only absorb so many ruins and statues. We enjoyed the Benaki museum - smaller but more varied content than the National Archeological museum - I especially like the costumes and the room displays. The National Archeological museum of course is also very good. Unfortunately the section with the frescos is currently closed.

 

We were very happy with the cruise. I think some of the negative comments come from people who take it expecting things it isn't - like big ship entertainment or activities (or elevators). Another source of negative comments was that at one point the ships were allowed to get a little too worn looking. In 2004 the did refurbishing on all of them and my cruises on Wind Surf and Wind Star were after that. The other passengers who take Windstar have been great on both my cruises - friendly and welcoming - no chair hog behavior in this environment.

 

You don't have a choice of 6 different places to eat like you would on a bigger ship, but the food quality was excellent. I like the small quality details like fresh squeezed orange juice.

 

We had a balcony on Celebrity but we didn't mind not having it on this cruise. It is very port intensive and in the evenings, the deck isn't far away.

 

The one negative I had with the Wind Star is that almost no lounge chairs have shade. There are tables and chairs in the shaded areas but not lounges. The larger Wind Surf has more external deck space relative to passenger capacity and always had a variety of lounge chair exposures available.

[ZAMOST]

Thanks for the advice. It confirms what I have heard from others. Extra days in Istanbul are better than extra days in Athens.

Also, it does appear that recent refurbishing of the ships seems to have resulted in more positive reviews. You spend a lot of money, you want it to be nice.