Jump to content

Lets Be Honest here


Spanky My
 Share

Recommended Posts

In our view " WINDSTAR HAD the best reasonably priced SMALL cruise line available"  That said many things have changed of late. They miscalculated ship refit dates and many folks will suffer greatly  due to cancellations. They have once again raised their housekeeping mandatory charges. . 

 

They have completely put  a number of past passengers on the hooks to recall their previous cruises for the loyalty program. Will they SOON get their act together? At this point it is clearly questionable. 

 

We will likely book other lines until they get their collective act together. If others feel all of those issues we mentioned is no big deal have fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$1.00 a day more to the crew will certainly not break anyone's wallet. We enjoy what is always an excellent product so we will continue to sail with Windstar. Yes, the refit schedule was overly optimistic. Fortunately it did not impact us personally but it seems as if they are doing their best to accommodate passengers. They were very accommodating when our cruise was cancelled due to a hurricane. As for their attempt to get years of records up to date to give something to loyal passengers, they certainly were not required to do this, were they? Your decision of whether or not to continue as a customer is yours alone.  We look forward to an upcoming 23 days on the Surf. The 7 for 7's have some great pricing so we extended our annual 14 day Caribbean and are really looking forward to seeing our "crew friends" as well as old passenger friends.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

SB44 to your points you stated. YES i think a legitimate business should keep accurate records of WHO and when folks have chosen to cruise on their line don't you ? Why should the customer have to remind them that you spent money doing their cruise?

 

Next point no an increase to house keeping is NOT a big issue but it did happen. If service is good we always give the room attendant MORE if they did a good job . 

 

So it looks like you choose to give them a pass. We do not. If you were  with the group of folks got hung out to dry with cancellations and cannot recoup your money paid out you might feel different.

 

As I said have fun if you at this point chose booking with Windstar of which we use to be have fun and happy sailing  We will not until they get their act together. 🙂

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am one of the folks affected by the Legend refit delay.  It looks like Windstar will pay my airfare change fees, but the guided land tour that I am booking to replace this cruise will cost me considerably more.  Nevertheless, none of the issues you raise have turned me off Windstar.  When another itinerary fits my bucket list and timetable, I still hope to try them.  If I wrote off every cruise line that 'doesn't have its act together' I would never be able to cruise at all!!!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today 2 people on two different posts mentioned the increase in service fees, 1 dollar pp a day more. I do not think a dollar fee increase should be any problem for people sailing on WS cruises. All the work they do above and beyond and we all write about that on these posts. We believe they are worth their weight in gold. It is not simply " housekeeping". It is everything they do for us on the ship that makes for consistent enjoyability on the cruises. Honest, hard working, kind, considerate, at all times all the while not seeing their familles for months.  ( I can not get the underline to disappeare, excuse, no meaning here)
I have been sailing with WS since 1999. Seattle has never been on the same level of service as the ships. Thankfully the ships win out, do they ever. I have to say Seattle keeps trying. So they take the ships apart and find asbestose, I for one, am glad they found it and will get rid of it. Right , my cruises are not affected, , my travel plans have not been ruined, but, I know this will anger some, I would not put one dollar on a cruise without travel insurance, that being said I would be really disappointed and I have empathy for those folks in this situation. My feeling I can afford my WS trips/vacations what can not afford is to lose  the money.

The alumni problem, yip Christmas bad timing, took me 4 hours to compile my cruises, i hope, fingers crossed, they get it right this time. I have  a complicated name and I have been asking for years for WS  to fix it, my cruises completely different than my husband's. I know when I get on the ship they know my name for I am grateful and simultaneously think it is a small  miracle. 
We have found a cruise experience that fits us very well. Perhaps we simply go with the flow . In life's big picture not all that awful.I look forward to my future cruises and hope Seattle can, in time get it more together. Happy Sailing

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Strenz said:

Today 2 people on two different posts mentioned the increase in service fees, 1 dollar pp a day more. I do not think a dollar fee increase should be any problem for people sailing on WS cruises. All the work they do above and beyond and we all write about that on these posts. We believe they are worth their weight in gold. It is not simply " housekeeping". It is everything they do for us on the ship that makes for consistent enjoyability on the cruises. Honest, hard working, kind, considerate, at all times all the while not seeing their familles for months.  ( I can not get the underline to disappeare, excuse, no meaning here)
I have been sailing with WS since 1999. Seattle has never been on the same level of service as the ships. Thankfully the ships win out, do they ever. I have to say Seattle keeps trying. So they take the ships apart and find asbestose, I for one, am glad they found it and will get rid of it. Right , my cruises are not affected, , my travel plans have not been ruined, but, I know this will anger some, I would not put one dollar on a cruise without travel insurance, that being said I would be really disappointed and I have empathy for those folks in this situation. My feeling I can afford my WS trips/vacations what can not afford is to lose  the money.

The alumni problem, yip Christmas bad timing, took me 4 hours to compile my cruises, i hope, fingers crossed, they get it right this time. I have  a complicated name and I have been asking for years for WS  to fix it, my cruises completely different than my husband's. I know when I get on the ship they know my name for I am grateful and simultaneously think it is a small  miracle. 
We have found a cruise experience that fits us very well. Perhaps we simply go with the flow . In life's big picture not all that awful.I look forward to my future cruises and hope Seattle can, in time get it more together. Happy Sailing

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   


So, you have no affected cruises and thus no skin this the game, yet you dare to say that those of us who’ve spent untold hours trying to pull together plans with zero help from Seattle are just whining. It isn’t just about the insurance or not, Seattle has no clue about customer service. It’s always been this way and shows no sign of any improvement. I’ve got at least 12 hours into this and am only maybe half way theough canceling and rebooking various plans. Yes. Your cavalier statements do anger me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think parent of the problem with inaccuracies of cruise histories may because they have had so many owners.  My first WS Cruise was in 1988, and my cruise history was short by at least four cruises.  Hard to know exactly because it covers such a long time period.  That said, I am not sure it makes any difference.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6rugrats nailed it.  Windstar has had multiple ownership changes, and with that will ALWAYS come discrepancies.  Read more about that in forums dedicated to frequent flyers in regard to the CO/UAL merger and worse the AA and US merger.  

 

I don't see the added $1 a day as being a problem, and even bringing it up is nit-picky.  Frankly they work hard enough that Windstar should increase it $5 a day.

 

As to the cancelled cruises, it has happened to many lines, including some of Windstars biggest competitors.  Should they have been somewhat less aggressive in their timeline?  Probably, however they are relying on the word of the shipyard and weren't expecting to find a hazardous issue that needs to be remediated.  I'm guessing a performance bond was involved, and the bean counters at one or more insurance carriers are cringing at the potential payout. 

 

I believe their offer was more than fair--choose a different cruise (within the length and region parameters) and get the same price as the one you were originally booked on or get a refund of the difference.  Get a 20% future cruise credit which can be applied to the re-booked cruise or a future cruise, your choice.  Get all of your non-refundable items (AirBnB in my case) refunded and get your airfare change fees refunded.  Plus a $100 pp on board credit. 

 

We chose to make lemonade out of the lemons and just move our plans for a Baltic cruise up a couple of years.  We are chuckling as we were in Poland and Finland in the past month and didn't expect to be back to either so soon.  It will be nice to see it in a different season where we don't need to dress like the Michelin Man and bring 6 pounds of hand and foot warmers in our luggage to avoid frostbite.  

 

That said, there were 57 cancelled cruises between the two ships.  A reasonable guess of an average of 75 cabins sold per cruise had to be re-booked or refunded, which comes out to 4275 bookings for them to handle, over a holiday period and with a fairly fast turnaround. 

 

I feel like they are very strained and probably should have had a better plan rather than keeping people on hold for over 30 minutes just to get a person on the phone and giving a rather tight deadline for changing and filing claims for refunds when they are too short staffed to give adequate information to facilitate these changes. 

 

I don't want to change my airfare and cancel the Air BnBs until I have confirmation of the new cruise AND the pricing for it and cabin assignment in writing which I've been told could take a week (and I'm guessing will be longer).  All along their arbitrary clock is ticking, and I'm potentially losing out on finding the best deals on accommodation pre and post and new airfare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love people who make lemonade! There is nothing to be gained by being angry other than a likely shortened life span which means fewer cruises. Windstar IS a small company which means all phones will be tied up for several weeks, and a small staff for cabin assignments which means not everyone can be rebooked in a week. And each person or couple are dealing with their own needs as far as vacation time, family plans, etc., but a good attitude will make it all the easier. The airfares are, of course, the biggest problem because most airlines are basically inflexible unless they are the ones causing chaos, and even then they are not very accommodating.  As I see it with airfare and Windstar, the inflexibility of the airlines is the biggest out of pocket expense that is at risk. That's probably where I would take the offer of rebooking in order to get nonrefundable money reimbursed.  And yes, time to do it all is a real pain. All travel is totally skewed to the benefit of the common carrier. It would be nice to have it on a "friendlier" basis so when we, the traveling public, need to change our plans, we are not penalized. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our first (and honeymoon) cruise was the Society Islands on the Wind Song, and I'm not sure Windstar will ever live up to our memory of that.  The Wind Surf is too large for our tastes, and despite just being refurbished parts of it still feel really tired.  I must say the food was very good.  The shipboard experience is definitely better than that with the home office.

Edited by Chipshot from Michigan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally agree with you, Chipshot.  My first two cruises, beginning in in 1988, were on the Wind Song, and this was my favorite ship. Don’t know when I will be back on a cruise again, life has changed a lot for me, but would definitely favor the Wind Star now over any other ship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...