Star Pride

[Spanky My]

Anyone recently been on the Star Pride ? If so what condition is it in ? We just booked a  10 day cruise on November 27 th going thru the panama canal and ending in Puerto Caldera Cost rica. Anyone taken this cruise before and if so what should we expect.? The itinerary says something about WET LANDINGS... Any thoughts???

[CruiseOrLand]

I reviewed a similar, but shorter itinerary from January, 2019. But it was Star Breeze:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=649163

Unfortunately, the CruiseCritic web machinery did not allow me to review every shore excursion we took.

 

I think there is a link where you can ask to see all Star Pride reviews, and then sort them by date.

 

On the few occasions you have a wet landing, it is not as difficult as, say, landing on wet, slippery rocks on the Galapagos. But it is difficult for those with bad knees or disabilities. To pick one example, the private beach picnic is a wet landing, in calm, sunny (you hope) white sand beach water, perhaps 16" deep. The hard part is stepping over the side of the Zodiac. One of our wet landings was changed to a pier anyway. You do have to put on a life jacket, and sit on the edge of the Zodiac, facing in, shoulder to shoulder with others.

 

Our Motor Ship was not new-looking, and I found a few pieces of broken furniture. But we did not feel the ship was run-down or ready for the scrapyard. And the price was right.

 

Reading this newsboard, I have noticed that individual Winstar ships seem to have considerable autonomy, and you should not expect your experience to be absolutely identical to ours.

[milepig]

The other issue with the zodiacs is that they're slippery, so if you start off at the wrong angle you could well wind up flat on your back looking up at the sky. Do bring a pair of water socks, they're the berries.

 

There's one famous review of the Pride (IIRC) where someone must have gone around the entire ship with a camera documenting every tiny thing that was wrong with her. Honestly, we don't notice such things.

[Spanky My]

Thanks folks...If anyone else has an opinion please chime in ......

[Southern Girl 1963]

We were on Pride last November.  We had a great cruise and the staff was awesome.  We actually recognized a couple of staff from our prior cruise on Windsuf.  We didn't have the wet landings on our cruise so I can't comment on that. The ship is starting to show it's age but was always neat and clean. The bathrooms have marble bathtubs and that is where we noticed the most need for updates. But again, it was clean and the staff was great. So no complaints.  Also, I think it is scheduled for the "stretching" and refurbishment next year.

[sb44]

3 hours ago, Spanky My said:

Thanks folks...If anyone else has an opinion please chime in ......

We were on the Pride recently and she's in really fine shape. Of course there is a refurb coming but that will be after your cruise. As for the wet landings,  we are not young and had no problem with them. It's a slide off the side into shallow water. I do recommend water shoes as the sand is volcanic sticky sand and I don't like the feel of it. We washed our feet off with some extra bottled water and put on our shoes for our excursion. Getting back on the zodiac is more of a problem for me than getting off but there was a crew to help us. I would tell you not to bring an expensive camera as I did see one man lose his footing and his thousands of dollars of cameras went in the water. The cruise is fabulous. Enjoy. 

[Spanky My]

Thanks to all who have responded so far  🙂

Edited July 2, 2019 by Spanky My
Changed thoughts

[new_cruiser]

We did the same itinerary January 2019. In that case it was on Wind Star - the didn't do the 10-day on the motor yacht last season. Most of the ports are wet landings.

 

There is one port (Bahai Drake, IIRC) where they tender to a dock most of the time though if the tide is very low it can be a wet landing as the water gets to shallow to get to the dock. We used the dock the day we were there. Balboa and Quepos were tender to a dock.

 

All the wet landings were on sandy beaches in shallow water.  For a wet landing, it is helpful to have dive booties, water shoes or sandals. We had sandals and sometimes a lot of sand or little rocks washed into the sandals during the process so if I did it again I'd take water shoes or dive booties. Some people just went bare foot - the beaches are either sand or very small pebbles so that works. The wet landings aren't hard to do. If we were doing anything other than hanging out at a beach, we would take walking shoes to change into and something to dry our feet. 

 

We loved going through the canal. My favorite excursion was the Manuel Antonio National Park Nature Walk. We saw monkeys, sloths, blue morph butterflies, iguana, basilisk lizards, tent bats and other animals. 

 

 

 

[Spanky My]

 Thanks for your reply....Any one know how bad the mosquitoes are on the Panama/ Cost rica cruses are?

[ridethetide]

2 minutes ago, Spanky My said:

 Thanks for your reply....Any one know how bad the mosquitoes are on the Panama/ Cost rica cruses are?

I never got a bite and they love to attack me.

[new_cruiser]

21 minutes ago, Spanky My said:

 Thanks for your reply....Any one know how bad the mosquitoes are on the Panama/ Cost rica cruses are?

They weren't bad. I did wear mosquito repellent when in the rain forest. I was just there in June and mosquito's were worse then but in January I didn't see any. 

 

I use a Picardin based repellent by Sawyer. It is as effective as DEET but not greasy, doesn't smell (at least to humans) and doesn't harm plastics.

[FirstMateGilligan]

I just got off Pride on Monday.  I hope to write a review later, but here are the basics.  I was on Legend six years ago before the handover. Pride looks better now than Legend did then. Two of the elevators were out at least some of the time, with the forward elevator out the entirety of the cruise. There were occasional issues with the toilets flushing, but they were corrected quickly. If you go around taking pictures of cracks in the marble bathrooms and places where the fittings are not flush you will be very busy. If you take the "big picture" then I think you will enjoy the ship. The biggest real issue I saw was that the seats in the steam room had spots, which looked like mold or mildew. I went to the dry sauna instead.  Also, the beds are horrible. I had to get my steward to bring me an eggcrate topper. That helped, but the beds are not as comfy as  Seabourn.

 

On the Hotel side, this was the friendliest staff I have ever encountered on a cruise ship. The food was good, but not exceptional. I will give Seabourn the edge there, though the food is certainly better than mass market lines. We were blessed with very un-Scottish weather and were able to eat out on the veranda several times and even use the whirlpool! Breakfasts, btw, were excellent, both roomservice and in the Veranda.

 

It is a 31 year old ship. It does need a refurb (and is going to get a big one!), but if you go with realistic expectations I don't think you would be disappointed. My friends and I put down a deposit on another cruise, and we would not hesitate to sail the little sisters again.

[Spanky My]

Lots of good insight and Information has been provided . It is much appreciated. Hopefully others will chime in as well......

[sb44]

Never saw a mosquito and they love me. Brought Ultrathron Insect Repellent and used it. A friend came back from Costa Rica years ago with dengue fever so I was extra vigilant. The thing I used the most was an O2Cool fan to hang around my neck.  When we did the chocolate plantation tour I used it and everyone wanted to know where they could get one! I am from Florida but it was a different kind of hot inland. On the water it was lovely. The Canal scan extraordinary experience. Read McCullough's Land Between Seas if you have not already done so. It is epic but so worth the time. It gave me an appreciation for the people and circumstances that built this phenomenal piece of engineering. 

[Spanky My]

The 02 cool fan... Sounds nice when hiking in the costa rica  walking tours which we plan. As to Mosquito repellent lots to chose from.

 

This cruise unlike others we have been on is so different.

 

Very few docks more ,water landings and finding non ship tours.

 

Is their a section on cruise critics for folks to discuss our itinerary tours not ship related?   

[wripro]

19 hours ago, Spanky My said:

The 02 cool fan... Sounds nice when hiking in the costa rica  walking tours which we plan. As to Mosquito repellent lots to chose from.

 

This cruise unlike others we have been on is so different.

 

Very few docks more ,water landings and finding non ship tours.

 

Is their a section on cruise critics for folks to discuss our itinerary tours not ship related?   

Yes, the Ports of Call board. Find your  region and see if your sailing is already listed. If not, start a thread.

[Host Jazzbeau]

12 minutes ago, wripro said:

Yes, the Ports of Call board. Find your  region and see if your sailing is already listed. If not, start a thread.

 

I think you are referring to two separate parts of Cruise Critic.  There are boards for Ports of Call, with threads about individual ports [not limited to any particular cruise lines or sailings]:

 

and there are also Roll Calls, with threads for each individual sailing:

 

[wripro]

2 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

I think you are referring to two separate parts of Cruise Critic.  There are boards for Ports of Call, with threads about individual ports [not limited to any particular cruise lines or sailings]:

 

and there are also Roll Calls, with threads for each individual sailing:

 

You're right. I meant the Roll Call Board. Sorry.

[Host Jazzbeau]

The Ports of Call boards are a great source of information about what to do and how to do it (tour providers, public transportation, car rentals, etc.).  Then the Roll Call can be a great place to find fellow passengers on your sailing who might want to share a private tour with you.

[Spanky My]

Should be an interesting trip.

 

WRIPRO or anyone else, did most folks get off the boat on wet landings? Or did several stay on board ? Also how long did it take to get off  the ship with only using zodiacs ? Thanks in advance for your response  🙂

Edited July 17, 2019 by Spanky My
spelling errors

[wripro]

1 hour ago, Spanky My said:

Should be an interesting trip.

 

WRIPRO or anyone else, did most folks get off the boat on wet landings? Or did several stay on board ? Also how long did it take to get off  the ship with only using zodiacs ? Thanks in advance for your response  🙂

Sorry, there were no wet landings  or zodiacs on my sailing. But do remember even when completely full there are only 200 passengers so it should move quickly.

[new_cruiser]

I didn't take a census, but I as far as I know just about everyone got off the ship in wet landings. No one I spoke to had stayed on the ship. 

 

I suppose there may have been times people had to wait when they were off-loading groups for tours, but I never had to wait long. When going back to the ship, most times I was able to take the next zodiac that came. There was one time that there was a line and I had to wait for the second one. It wasn't a long wait as they were running at least two zodiacs and the trip is short.

 

I was on Wind Star so that's not quite as many passengers, but they may compensate for the larger ship by running more zodiacs.

[Spanky My]

Thanks for your comments. We have taken 3 windstar cruises mainly on the star breeze but never had any "wet landings" on any of our trips.Looking forward to a different type of trip and to Costa rica .

 

Did you have the same Itinerary as we will have ?   https://www.windstarcruises.com/cruise/itinerary-ports/costa-rica-and-panama-canal/adventures-in-panama-and-costa-rica/?id=344&sid=3133

 

Just curious......

[new_cruiser]

Yes, assuming that you are also in Balboa on Friday. The itinerary shows arriving there on Thursday and being there for the day on Saturday but it leaves out Friday.

[Host Jazzbeau]

38 minutes ago, new_cruiser said:

Yes, assuming that you are also in Balboa on Friday. The itinerary shows arriving there on Thursday and being there for the day on Saturday but it leaves out Friday.

 

Is that the 'Harry Potter Time Travel Cruise' ?