Live from the Star Legend by a brand new to Windstar sailor. Menus, wine lists, bar menus included. Istanbul to Athens Oct

[CulverCityCruisers]

Following along.  Looking forward to our first Windstar sailing to Tahiti early next year.  thanks for the great info

Edited October 14, 2023 by CulverCityCruisers

[HaveDogWillTravel]

10/15

Some more impressions on the ship.  We haven’t heard any noise at all from the rooms on either side of us nor from the hallway.  The vent in bathroom is quite loud but keeping the door shut stops that noise.  However the ac vent in the room is a low constant white noise. The ac works great by the way as does the plumbing.  The tenders just under cabin 525 and we’ve had to limit keeping our balcony doors open when in tender ports due to the exhaust fumes. We are going to stay on the port side cabin on future bookings. 

 

Even though the room is only 277 sq ft it feels very spacious. The only exception is the choke point between the writing desk and bed. But we’ve adjusted to that nicely. 

 

I am very impressed with how comfortable the barrel chairs, couch and bed are. The hypoallergenic pillows are exactly as I like them…..big, fluffy, and moldable to whatever shape I want. The shower and sinks have excellent water pressure.  I really like that the hair dryer has an actual plug and a nice long cord so you aren’t fighting a short coil type cord.  I’ll post pictures of all the outlets in the room later. The one by the bed is loose and we not using it. We need to report it. We keep forgetting though. 

 

We ate in Cuadro 44 last night. This is more Adam’s style of food than mine. I will post a picture of the menu with what he ordered circled to save time from typing. We both had the lamb which had a delicious rub on it. The lamb was cooked to medium instead of medium rare like in Candles. The quality of the food, the preparation and presentation were excellent. 

 

We are in Kusadassi today from 8 am to 11 pm. Mykonos we were in port from 9 am to 9 pm. I love the long port days.  Here windstar has done much better than Oceania who has been cutting back the hours in port to the point that they are loosing our business over it. We do have 2 more O sailings in the next year and a half but with the decreases in port times we are looking elsewhere.  It seems Windstar is pulling ahead on many levels for us. 

 

We have a 7 hour private tour with Ephesus Shuttles starting at 8 today and then the Windstar dinner under the stars in Ephesus tonight. This sounds like it will amazing. All 269 passengers are invited. In fact if you want to stay on the ship you need to let them know so special arrangements can be made.
 

We ordered room service breakfast this morning and I will post pictures. We had an avocado, spinach, mushroom, cheese omelet, buttermilk pancakes, crispy bacon, fruit plates, cappuccino and a pot of coffee.  Everything was outstanding.  I can really taste the quality.  It’ll be a long day but I’ll try and post the Daily Planners, food pics, and other things. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

What ordered last night. Sorry only one food photo coming off for this meal. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Cuadro 44 lamb 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

The daily planners. Yesterday Joseph had sign ups for shopping with the chef that he’s doing today. I would have loved to have done that! 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Our tour today. We bought the Turkey Museum pass in Istanbul so our cost was reduced to $180. We will have to add the entrance fee for the Terrace houses. It’s not on the list but we will add it when we meet our guides. We brought tl for tips, lunch and incidentals. But we will charge the tour fee. 

Edited October 15, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Room service breakfast today. I love that room service always answers the phone!  Food has been coming in 20-30 minutes. 

Edited October 15, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

The outlets in the room. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I didn’t get my stargazing this morning as it was a little overcast. 

[oakridger]

2 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I love that room service always answers the phone!

 

It's sad that having service that "works" as it should seems to be becoming the exception on mainstream cruise lines.  It seems like the more folks accept less than the service levels of the past on cruise ships that it becomes the norm.  I try to set expectations in travel with the price of the service in mind, but it's often moving to the lowest common denominator.  That's why I'm trying Windstar! 🙂

 

~Nancy

[MNgardens]

@HaveDogWillTravel This has been an outstanding effort! I have only been on the sailing ships and I now have a better sense of how the motor ships look and function. I am very tempted by the larger staterooms and increased natural light.

 

Your comment about the tenders and the exhaust is an important note. Would you be willing to leave a remark about this on the thread discussing the staterooms on the motor ships? It is a pinned thread.

[SailingSteve77]

Thanks for the good write up HaveDogWillTravel.  After 50+ cruises (NCL, RCCL, Celebrity, Princess, Azamara, Atlas) over the years, our TA suggested that we watch on Youtube, National Geographic's Amazing Ships particular episode on Wind Surf (approximately 45 minutes).  We watched it and called our TA and told her - Book it Dano!  We fell in love with Windstar Cruises back in 2019 and we are Four Star now.  Windstar is truly 180 degrees from Ordinary - starting with the Captain (Yes, he asked us if he could join us for lunch one day) to all of the ships company.  And all of our fellow passengers are well traveled and fun to engage with.  We hope to see you two on another Windstar cruise again someday soon.

 

Cheers!

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Yesterday was amazing. There are cruise companies that excel in certain regions…(of course this is only our opinion) Princess excels  in Alaska, Queen Mary 2 is the only way to do a TA and I will now add that Windstar is the best way to visit Kusadasi. 
 

The dinner in Ephesus was truly incredible. And only Windstar does this. It was extremely well organized. The lovely wine flowed freely and the food was very good. We enjoyed our table mates and the chamber orchestra was a really special treat. 
 

We are doing the culinary experience tour thru Windstar today so I will just let some pictures from yesterday tell the story. 
 

A note regarding the ship: when we returned from our private tour yesterday our cabin was freezing and the fan was going full blast. I really needed a nap so I just took it and told guest services on our way to dinner about the issue. It was all fixed by the time we got back. I know it seems like a small thing and it really shouldn’t be so impressive that Windstar simply delivers consistently on all things one should reasonably expect (as a poster earlier pointed out), but there you are….I am impressed.  

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Todays planner and the dinner flyer 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Ephesus by day 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Where we would have dinner at night 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Ephesus at night 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Our welcome home!  My wonderful Barista, Cindy was a bit hoarse this morning. She said the Azamara passengers were going thru our line for the fun of it. 
 

There were 2 chocolates but sooooomebody ate one before I could get a photo. I really liked the note Joseph wrote. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[oakridger]

28 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Azamara passengers were going thru our line for the fun of it. 

 

Sounds like the Azamara folks were having a bit of Windstar Envy!  Azamara did have a live band at their gangway so your Windstar guests could enjoy that too!!  What a fun night!

 

~Nancy

[HaveDogWillTravel]

21 minutes ago, oakridger said:

 

Sounds like the Azamara folks were having a bit of Windstar Envy!  Azamara did have a live band at their gangway so your Windstar guests could enjoy that too!!  What a fun night!

 

~Nancy

Yes we did really enjoy the Azamara’s live band. Cindy said that it was unusual for another ship to be in port so late with them and that it really added to the festive atmosphere. The Maitre d’Hotel threw open his arms and hugged me to welcome me back. I know Windstar is 180 degrees different but I had no idea what that meant explicitly until this sailing. I am excited for our fall sailing on 2025 on the Legend we already had booked and will be booking a 17 day Tahiti sailing this afternoon when we get back. Or as soon as we can get a break in all the fun activities. 
 

We have a local performance coming on board tonight for a Turkish Belly Dance show at 5:30. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[marinaro44]

5 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

Sounds like the Azamara folks were having a bit of Windstar Envy!  Azamara did have a live band at their gangway so your Windstar guests could enjoy that too!!  What a fun night!

 

~Nancy

On our Azamara visit to Ephesus we had an evening chamber music concert in the Ephesus amphitheatre.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

We are driving back to the port after a lovely day on the culinary excursion. I didn’t take a ton of pictures but I’ll post a few. 
the food and wine were all delicious. I found these wooden spatulas that I love at the market where we met chef and shopped for lunch. My originals were from Finland 20 years ago and I’ve destroyed all but my last one. So happy I was able to replace them. Six for 100 tl

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

[HaveDogWillTravel]