CHECK THE LATEST WINDSTAR SCHEDULE

[Barrycat]

 

Windstar didn’t wait for Thursday this week to announce changes. “Up to” $1000 obc has been added to a number of cruises, and in my case a b2b I constructed was changed to a 18 day Twice the Tahiti Itinerary at a substantial savings. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Were you able to get the reduced price and OBC?

[Petoonya]

33 minutes ago, Barrycat said:

 

Windstar didn’t wait for Thursday this week to announce changes. “Up to” $1000 obc has been added to a number of cruises, and in my case a b2b I constructed was changed to a 18 day Twice the Tahiti Itinerary at a substantial savings. 

Barrycat,

My cruise for 5/24/2021 is GONE. There's April 29 18 day and July 15. I don't get it.

[Petoonya]

55 minutes ago, Barrycat said:

 

Windstar didn’t wait for Thursday this week to announce changes. “Up to” $1000 obc has been added to a number of cruises, and in my case a b2b I constructed was changed to a 18 day Twice the Tahiti Itinerary at a substantial savings. 

I guess I won't find out till tomorrow but going to be a long night. Was really counting on this and hoping at least they'll hold your price for a different cruise close to the date they originally gave you? Since there are now no cruises at all in mid to late May Tahiti including mine, I'm guessing there must be a big group?

[Barrycat]

My original hope was to get an extended itinerary in early May. Windstar didn’t have one so I put a b2b together combining a 4/29 and a 5/6 for a 18 day itinerary. Doing this was more expensive than Twice Tahiti offered on other dates but the dates worked for us. Magically after not hearing from our Windstar guy for a couple of days, yesterday I saw on line that my exact dates now offered a Twice Tahiti cruise saving me a couple of thousand $ over my b2b price. I’m happy. Later yesterday I got, without discussion, my email confirmation of our 4/29 Twice Tahiti itinerary.
Nancy, if your cruise is cancelled you might want to jump on this since t he only B cabins left are in the stern. It would be great to have a fellow Oregonian and Tahiti pro on board.

This  was not one of the $1000 obc cruises but It is some screaming deal at substantially less than $200 per day.

[Petoonya]

7 minutes ago, Barrycat said:

My original hope was to get an extended itinerary in early May. Windstar didn’t have one so I put a b2b together combining a 4/29 and a 5/6 for a 18 day itinerary. Doing this was more expensive than Twice Tahiti offered on other dates but the dates worked for us. Magically after not hearing from our Windstar guy for a couple of days, yesterday I saw on line that my exact dates now offered a Twice Tahiti cruise saving me a couple of thousand $ over my b2b price. I’m happy. Later yesterday I got, without discussion, my email confirmation of our 4/29 Twice Tahiti itinerary.
Nancy, if your cruise is cancelled you might want to jump on this since t he only B cabins left are in the stern. It would be great to have a fellow Oregonian and Tahiti pro on board.

This  was not one of the $1000 obc cruises but It is some screaming deal at substantially less than $200 per day.

Barry- I'm unable to reach my TA this morning and a little crazy so booked your 4/29 direct with WS. Yes, it would be great to cruise with a fellow Oregonian and we'd be able to reach minimums for some excursions. It is a darn screaming deal even better than May 24. If I find May 24 is still on I'll stick with it but otherwise you're stuck with me! I'm so glad you got such a fantastic deal. You did GREAT!

[Barrycat]

Btw, just this morning they added the $1000 obc perk to this cruise so make sure you get something, amount ?

[Petoonya]

Barry- I just did a Cat B and they gave me $200pp. Maybe if I book a higher cat?

[Petoonya]

16 minutes ago, Barrycat said:

Btw, just this morning they added the $1000 obc perk to this cruise so make sure you get something, amount ?

Barry- only $200pp for every category. It's the owners suite that gets the big bucks.

[Barrycat]

Petoonya. It sounds like your 5/24 is going to work for you. Happy for you, sorry that you won’t be on our 4/29 TwiceTahiti that looked like it might be your backup plan. I was looking forward to benefiting from your past experience in Tahiti as evidenced by the extensive posts you have made in the past. As things get closer I would like to check with you for some help, especially on excursions.

Out of curiosity, I just checked the three month old Windstar Wizard for my cruise and yours as well. You will be pleased to know that your upgraded AX cabin, for two, with tax would have cost you $14,600 if you had booked pre Corona. Obviously a bit less than both of us are paying now. I thought this was interesting.

[Petoonya]

2 hours ago, Barrycat said:

Petoonya. It sounds like your 5/24 is going to work for you. Happy for you, sorry that you won’t be on our 4/29 TwiceTahiti that looked like it might be your backup plan. I was looking forward to benefiting from your past experience in Tahiti as evidenced by the extensive posts you have made in the past. As things get closer I would like to check with you for some help, especially on excursions.

Out of curiosity, I just checked the three month old Windstar Wizard for my cruise and yours as well. You will be pleased to know that your upgraded AX cabin, for two, with tax would have cost you $14,600 if you had booked pre Corona. Obviously a bit less than both of us are paying now. I thought this was interesting.

It flabbergasts me Barry. First that Wind Spirit 7 day cruise is being offered on the website for Sept 10. How can this be? I know Zukini is booked on a sailing later in September and must be tied in knots over it. I don't know that I'd want to go so soon, would you? Too many loose ends and risk.

 

And yes I really lucked out on the cruise. I thought about switching to April 29 but our cabin is so good couldn't bear to do it. That price for an AX is astounding- very interesting.  I'm already booking excursions. H2O Bora Bora and Lagoon Service so far. Drift snorkel Coral Gardens with the ship at Motu Mahaea. Can't control myself.

 

Are you in or near Portland? I'm in Seal Rock just south of Newport. We're yahoos down here and even gyms and hair salons are open. Husband and I are still stay-at-homers. How about you?

[Heartfelttraveler]

Petoonya - are you a T-A?  Just curious.

[Barrycat]

Petoonya
I wouldn’t even consider anything as early as September. The chances of there being a vaccine by then are nil and the availability of a tested vaccine is almost a requirement before I would consider a cruise. The horror stories about people being stuck for weeks on a floating Petri dish are still too vivid. I consider booking Tahiti even a year out a little sketchy but I think Tahiti is as safe a place as any and the Windstar cancellation policy makes making a last minute decision possible. We did a b2b in January in the Caribbean have a 21 day London to Barcelona booked in 2021 but we were anxious to do something in between and Windstar pricing made Tahiti very attractive.

I'm looking to you for guidance on excursions and I will reread your previous posts to start planning. If there are any holes that I need help on I may contact you if ok. It sounds like you are already booking some so I better get started.

I’m in the proverbial high risk group so we are still quarantined. We are doing some golfing and biking but no restaurants and only shopping when necessary.

We are in Bend in the summer and Southern California in the winter. We came back to Bend earlier last month since we thought that they were doing a better job with the virus than California was and they are here. Since Bend is such a tourist destination,  there is a lot of pressure here to open everything but so far the city and county are taking it slow. Hopefully they can continue to resist, at least for awhile.

I think you mentioned that you fly from SFO to Tahiti. We would go from LAX and I have been checking flights but with all of the uncertainty it’s going to be awhile before I book flights and hotels.

David

[Zukini]

13 hours ago, Petoonya said:

It flabbergasts me Barry. First that Wind Spirit 7 day cruise is being offered on the website for Sept 10. How can this be? I know Zukini is booked on a sailing later in September and must be tied in knots over it. I don't know that I'd want to go so soon, would you? Too many loose ends and risk.

 

Yes, "tied in knots" is about right.  Since final payment has been pushed out until August, I'm trying to be patient. We've got a lot of non-refundable money tied up in pre/post cruise hotels and airfare.  If neither Air Tahiti Nui nor Windstar cancel for September, we'll have to make a decision by the end of August as to whether we want to take the trip as originally planned, or push everything to September of 2021. I've already made a deposit on a cruise then, as a fallback.

 

If we voluntarily push into 2021, we'll wind up with a 7 day cruise instead of an 11, and pay some substantial  change fees for our air. Manava Suites Tahiti has already indicated that they'll allow us to use our 3 non-refundable prepaid days in 2021, but we'll undoubtedly lose at least one of them since it would be our intent to spend some time in an OWB on Moorea to make up for the shorter cruise. If the change is involuntary, we'll be able to recoup either through direct refunds or through our travel insurance, which was purchased well before COVID became an issue and doesn't have any restrictions related to that.

 

It's wait and see at this point.  I just have to be patient until final payment is due, and make a decision then.   My gut feeling is that we won't feel comfortable travelling at that time, especially since our trip would take us through congested airports like JFK and LAX. It will also be the beginning of flu season here in the US, so I imagine there will be plenty of confusion to go around.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Zukini

[Petoonya]

12 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

Petoonya - are you a T-A?  Just curious.

 

12 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

Petoonya - are you a T-A?  Just curious.

Heartfelt, in another lifetime like 1987-1999 I owned an agency and specialized in cruises Hawaii and Tahiti. Sold the agency and poured all my efforts into my nursing career to be able to afford what we wanted to do.😉

 

12 hours ago, Barrycat said:

 

I think you mentioned that you fly from SFO to Tahiti. We would go from LAX and I have been checking flights but with all of the uncertainty it’s going to be awhile before I book flights and hotels.

We're with you on keeping as safe as possible with the virus. Do you have kids, grandkids? I have one set of kids in Portland,

one in SF and the other in Irvine. That's the most painful part of dealing with all this to me, not seeing them. You certainly have the best of both words between SoCal and Bend. We always fly out of LAX (really like Air Tahiti Nui despite the critique it sometimes gets. Have a lot of UAL credit so this time going SFO. Ugh I hate United.

Here's a link to the excursion ideas I've already started working on in my roll call. The members are going to get bored quickly of me droning on. There's no reason to start booking this early. I'm just hyper!

Best wishes to you!

[Petoonya]

1 hour ago, Zukini said:

 

Yes, "tied in knots" is about right.  Since final payment has been pushed out until August, I'm trying to be patient. We've got a lot of non-refundable money tied up in pre/post cruise hotels and airfare.  If neither Air Tahiti Nui nor Windstar cancel for September, we'll have to make a decision by the end of August as to whether we want to take the trip as originally planned, or push everything to September of 2021. I've already made a deposit on a cruise then, as a fallback.

 

If we voluntarily push into 2021, we'll wind up with a 7 day cruise instead of an 11, and pay some substantial  change fees for our air. Manava Suites Tahiti has already indicated that they'll allow us to use our 3 non-refundable prepaid days in 2021, but we'll undoubtedly lose at least one of them since it would be our intent to spend some time in an OWB on Moorea to make up for the shorter cruise. If the change is involuntary, we'll be able to recoup either through direct refunds or through our travel insurance, which was purchased well before COVID became an issue and doesn't have any restrictions related to that.

 

It's wait and see at this point.  I just have to be patient until final payment is due, and make a decision then.   My gut feeling is that we won't feel comfortable travelling at that time, especially since our trip would take us through congested airports like JFK and LAX. It will also be the beginning of flu season here in the US, so I imagine there will be plenty of confusion to go around.

Augggggh. Zukini my heart goes out to you. There are just no good options here for you- a real tangled mess. There's one bright spot. The airlines are being amazingly understanding about all this. I was told at first "non-refundable", then a year travel voucher, then a complete refund. This was Alaska airlines connecting flight and Air Tahiti Nui. I think they might go for it even if you cancel. Yes, unless something drastic happens I probably wouldn't feel comfortable traveling in Sept either. Absolutely no way you can adjust your travel dates to do a 10 or 11 day WS next year?

You hear some real doozy fixes on this board with regard to cruising and COVID but yours takes the cake. One other on the PG board. PG expects to start cruising as early as July. There's couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary July 4 and the cruise hasn't canceled. They really don't want to go and be the first guinea pigs- another mess.

 

Keep in touch.