Windsurf Officer's Suite Review?

[bzv143]

Has anyone stayed or even seen this new suite on Windstar? Looking for reviews, pics, and any info! Thanx.

[Ski Mom 2]

So in September 2018 we cruised on a back2back2back on Wind Surf. Some friends of ours stayed in this suite back before it was renovated. It was nice and had lots of room. The bathtub was huge but they just threw all their extra luggage and stuff in it and didn’t use it. It only had one bathroom. 
 

I mention the bathroom because we were visited by the upgrade fairy and given a suite which was basically two rooms made into one big room. The best part of the suite was the fact that it had TWO bathrooms. For 25 days it saved my marriage! After the upgrade of Wind Surf they took away many of these suites but did keep some. I would take one of these in a heartbeat over the Officers Suite you are talking about. 

 

 

[Babr]

I have two complaints about what is now called the Officer’s Suite. I can’t say which is more bothersome. I guess it depends on what is important to you.

 

First is the lack of electrical outlets. They are located on a strip along the baseboard. Most were behind furniture and were in use for lamps, TV, video system, etc., making them inaccessible for anything else like charging your iPad or phone. There was one visible near the night stand. I think the cabin steward used it for the vacuum cleaner so when we charged something we had to leave it on the floor overnight and be sure to pick up everything in the morning.

 

Just as bad was the dressing area. It was a cubbyhole built into the closet in the corner. The only lighting was a make-up mirror plugged into an outlet in the kneehole of the dressing table. To use a hair dryer or styling tool required getting on one’s hands and knees to crawl under the table to use the plug. The engineer brought me a huge heavy duty extension cord which coiled into a rat’s nest at my feet for the duration of the trip. I ended up making many trips back and forth to the bathroom to check my progress for hair and make-up every time I got dressed. No, there are no plugs in the bathroom that will accommodate styling tools.

 

I was extremely disappointed in the suite as far as functionality. I would not have booked it had I known. I don’t know if those things were addressed in the recent renovations. It is my understanding from my conversations with the engineer that it was impossible to change because of the vintage of the ship and the wiring arrangements/ requirements for that deck.

 

if those limitations would bother you, be sure to ask before you book.

[bzv143]

@babr Wow. Thanks! Just a question or two, tho. How was the location? Privacy factor?  Were the captain and crew peering in at you every time you came in and out of the cabin? Noisy? Cramped? Was the bathroom small with shower only or was there a tub? And you said closet was minuscule? 

[Babr]

The location was fine. It had a private entrance from the deck with a hallway leading to the suite door. We never saw anyone else in that area. The bridge is further forward down the hallway. Officers and crew accessed the bridge by way of internal crew-only stairs so we never saw or heard them; however, the windows of the suite look out onto the deck so you can see people walking by, but I never did see anyone trying to look in.

 

We did have one rainy day and had to use the crew stairway in order to avoid walking on the open deck in the rain. The doorway at the bottom of the stairs opens directly into the dining room. Even if you don’t book the suite, look for the door when you are in the dining room. Now you know where it goes.
 

There was no noise. The room felt spacious. It was purpose-built as a suite rather than being converted from smaller cabins like the suites on Deck 3. There was a large room adjoining the bedroom with nothing In it but a huge bath tub and a couple of cabinets - wasted space as far as I’m concerned unless you enjoy soaking in a big tub. The actual bathroom, which is small like the bathrooms in regular cabins, is entered through the “tub room.”

 

The closets actually are adequate. It was the tiny dressing table, really no more than a cubbyhole, that was built into the wall in a corner of the closet that I found useless. It never occurred to me that I would not have a place to do make-up and hair other than the bathroom. Even that was problematic since there  is only one small bathroom with no outlets for a dryer or flat iron. I expected  better than that in a suite.