Disturbing review of Windsurf

[yogagal47]

This was posted recently and is rather disturbing:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=245889

[stcruise]

Have never been on the Wind Surf, so I'm not really sure what to make of this review.

 

I believe dandee2 may have been on this cruise - would be interesting to hear other opinions from someone else on this particular cruise.

[acruisefan]

Any time that you are on a ship (or resort) with a big group and you are not part of a group, I think it is problematic. The staff will tend to cater to the large group and that leaves others feeling left out. Certainly is not a cruise that I would want to be on. In fact I thought about travelling on Sea Dream Yachts last year, but this was mentioned as a frequent problem so it was one of the reasons that I looked at other options.

 

I think it is really odd that the staff was using the trampoline, etc - other than one or two people to monitor it, I find this quite surprising and not something I've seen before.

 

As far as the smoking situation, I don't smoke and don't like the smell of it, but in previous cruises, the number of smokers were few, so it was not a big deal for me. Infact on one cruise, I overheard a man cancelling his trip because he and his wife were furious that they could not smoke in their room and were restricted to a small area outside for smoking - they left the ship at the next port.

 

I'm sorry for the guests who went on this trip, it is unfortunate that they did not have a good experience. If that were my first experience, I certainly would not be interested in being on Windstar again.

[landj999]

We were on it. For the most part , I concur, though some of it doesn't matter to us. The free loading travel agents and the corporate incentive people were annoying. And the smoking was not monitored at all. They would sit right next to the pool

Food was great and crew were greater!

[yogagal47]

We were on it. For the most part , I concur, though some of it doesn't matter to us. The free loading travel agents and the corporate incentive people were annoying. And the smoking was not monitored at all. They would sit right next to the pool

Food was great and crew were greater!

Hopefully that will not happen to us-glad to hear you enjoyed the food and crew though.

How were the seas crossing from Antigua to Tortola?

Happy New Year!

[landj999]

Rockin and Rollin. Wore wrist bands, no problem!

Introduce yourself to the crew. They're a little shy but then they really open up.

John, Ace, Ron, Sunu, great guys

[dandee2]

Hi guys,

 

Yes, I remember the free-loader. They were also on board last year, same time period when the unveiled the renovation during Flavour of the Caribbean.

 

Why is that, that I have to pay big buck to get aboard and these media/travel related people pays less than 1/2 price* to get entertained all week? I do believe that my cruise satisfaction gather probably more positive attention than all their writing in their newspaper (Lots of NBC type media). I guess the CEO and the Marketing Director aboard did weight the importance of the comments that they might received about this.

 

As for the cruise itself, we enjoyed it immensely and did not notice slower than usual diner time. However, now that you mention it, we did notice more smokers than last year at the rear of the ship and the usual party atmosphere within that group.

 

The crew was friendly (saw familiar face and new one) and had no problem whatsoever. The crew did go ashore in Jost Van Dyke (Foxy's) and Virgin Gorda (Bitter End and BBQ) but I figured that was probably the first or second time they could go ashore after the transatlantic crossing so was glad to see that they had fun too. As for the trampoline, I can't say.

 

As for the guests, my wife and I and another couple we met on the ship were the only 4 French-Canadian on-board (good or bad thing:D). There was also a few other Canadian. We had to remind guest relation to put some printed Canadian news in the display rack. They had UK and US news.

 

Windstar does a very bad job promoting in Canada and it seems that nobody knows what I'm talking about when I mention Windstar. I guess I'm doing a better job doing it on some French language travel forum I'm using.

 

*Found a PDF for last year media/travel agent price on the web ($400 for the Greece cruise)

 

**My photos:http://s303.photobucket.com/user/danield007/slideshow/Windstar%202013%20Public%20Album?sort=6

 

 

Cheers to all and Happy New Year

 

Daniel

[yogagal47]

Nice photos Daniel! Thanks for sharing. Did you ear at La Plage on St. Barts?

[dandee2]

Yes we did! First timer there (or St-Barths for that matter). Would return anytime:D. We took a taxi there (20 euro) but walk back to town being careful on the road (no sidewalk). Not long.

 

The world is indeed very small. I met a guy from my hometown on the beach near the runway. He was a retired Air Canada pilot who happen to know some of our flying instructor at our flying club. He was also the Spitfire and Mustang pilot at Vintage Wings Canada Museum.

 

BTW, I used a too strong word (free-loader) on my previous post. I should not generalized as most of the convention/media/travel guests (paid or not) were quite civilized.

 

dandee2

[yogagal47]

I thought the distance from port to La Plage was walkable. We ported there on a Seadream cruise few years ago. We took a taxi to a lovely hotel on Flamands Beach- had lunch and used their chaises on the beach for the day.

What a cool story about meeting your pilot friend by the runway! I would definitely like to watch the planes land this trip. I see you did the same on St. maarten. Was it at the end of the cruise? We have to kill the day when we get off the ship- our flight departs at 5.

[charlottegirl]

We too were on this cruise. While it was disappointing to be on cruise that we thought would not have the large group/crowd feeling we try to avoid on larger boats, we had a great time anyway. This group did indeed take over areas of the boat and were quite loud to the point you couldn't hear your own conversations. Lesson learned, next time I make reservations on Windstar, I will inquire as to whether there is an organized group on those dates and will avoid at all costs.

 

That said, we had a wonderful time with the staff and found the service to be excellent--in line with the Seabourn cruises we have been on. A little appreciation goes a long way with these guys and found them very conscientious and eager to please.

[dandee2]

I don't know if you can get a day room at the Sonesta Maho. Worth a try just so you can drop off your luggage and walk over the Sunset Bar & Grill. Or you can get a peronnalized tour of St-Maarten and stop at the Sunset for Lunch (you can bring the luggage into the bar). They have taxis all the time there to bring you back to the airport (7$)

 

We stayed 2 extra day in St-Maarten just so we could go to Marigot (everything was closed on Sunday:() and spend a day at Mullet Beach (quite nice).

 

Another great moment of the cruise is when I called my mother on Skype from the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke and she was able to see us on the webcam. She was sooo pleased:)!

 

Looking into another Windstar next Dec. but with Bequia and the Grenadine in sights.

[drewdie]

You can get a day room at the Sonesta Maho- just take a cab to the hotel and check with the front desk. The rate was $65 pp and included breakfast and lunch and all alcohol. We were also given a hotel room to shower and change in. They stored our luggage for us. It was easy and convenient- our flight did not leave until 5:00 so it was a nice way to spend the day.

[yogagal47]

You can get a day room at the Sonesta Maho- just take a cab to the hotel and check with the front desk. The rate was $65 pp and included breakfast and lunch and all alcohol. We were also given a hotel room to shower and change in. They stored our luggage for us. It was easy and convenient- our flight did not leave until 5:00 so it was a nice way to spend the day.

Sounds good-we are at the Radisson for a few days pre- cruise. It is fantastic to finally be here!

[Katbird93]

I think I would also be upset by this large group on board if I had not been informed. We are soon traveling with my nephew and wife upon our recommendation. I don't think you would get the same type of cruise. We are sailing on the Wind Surf this time, last time being the Wind Spirit. That in it self will be a change. Just my two cents!!

[landj999]

Yeah, it's like high school with the little cliques all bonded together. Wasn't a good vibe , but we just ignored them and had a good time with some other

" nerds" on board

[stcruise]

That is probably one of the drawbacks of being on a small ship - the "vibe" can definitely be changed by a group.

 

landj999 - Interesting that you compare it to high school. That's how we felt on our very first cruise with Windstar on the Wind Spirit. Smallish group of around a dozen kind of took over. The women in the group all purchased some of those long t-shirts with a bikini-clad woman and would parade around the ship together wearing them. Then in St. Barts they all purchased black t's with St. Bart Babes on them in rhinestones - then proceeded to wear them to dinner that evening as their group pushed their way to the front of the dining room line since they already had their special table awaiting and didn't need to wait to be seated. On that particular cruise, no one seemed to mingle much and I always wondered how much the group influenced that.

 

Fortunately, Tom and I are fine mingling with others or just spending time alone, so it really didn't change anything for us going forward with other Windstar cruises since we really enjoyed our cruise anyway. And, I'm very happy that it didn't. On our next two cruises we met some absolutely great people and had some wonderful adventures both on and off the ship with them.

 

So, while it does seem that a group can influence things, hopefully it is isolated and not the norm. I've also made sure on subsequent sailings that if I see someone who appears to be hoping for interaction with others that I make it a point to just walk up and say hi. Sometimes it leads to further conversations, sometimes not - but at least I know that I tried.

[Strenz]

Hi, We love the Windstar Cruises and have cruised 13 times with them however, on the last cruise Istanbul to Athens there was a pushy group of 12, literally took our table from us and I felt so badly for the crew about it I did nothing. We were also 12 people however not tied to the hip with each other but we did want to eat together the first night. I arranged this with the dining room whenI first got on the ship around 2 pm. When we gathered for dinner this group said to the crew we were first in the dining room and just sat down and would not move! The crew was so distraught we just sat at different tables. They also tried to steal our table for the barbecue but were told we had the table plus we were recommended to put sweaters on the chairs which is what we did and when people to that to the lounge chairs I find rude. This was the first time something like this happened on all our WS cruises. Also, there was a cigar smoker on board and he smoked anywhere which was troublesome. In those cases because the crews are so nice I think it is up to an officer to enforce the rules. We are doing the Trans-pacific and the first cruise to Tahiti and I hope no pushy groups are with us. I do think the smaller ships are a problem with the smoking, something I have noticed. Enforcement by an officer I think is very important but Windstar did not seem to do that last time. However, it was a terrific cruise and we still can not think of another cruise line. Have great journeys everyone. Susanne

[landj999]

Good idea, having an officer handle it. We're on Surf in April. Will definitely

Try that