Windsurf vs. smaller Windstar/Spirit ships?

[22Mermaid]

Help! Cruisers who are familiar with BOTH the larger Windsurf and either of the two smaller Windstar ships, please advise. Would you book on the Windsurf again with their current product? We've sailed their smaller ships to Tahiti and Caribbean, and are booked on Windsurf to Med in Sept. I have concerns from the posts that the Windsurf experience will not be comparable to the smaller ships. Or, might the entire line be disappointing when comparing it to the past? We are experienced cruisers and have reasonable expectations for service, food, etc. It's the relative 'experience' I am asking about. Thanks in advance for your keen insights!

[commander courageous]

:(

 

If you carefully read some of the latest posts, including one by bl314, I think you will sense

a significant difference between Windsurf and their smaller sister ships.

 

We were on the Windspirit in '07 and the Windsurf in January of this year. It was like night

and day. The service was quite disjointed and the food disappointing. Some reviews of

Windsurf, however, have been more than positive (see the englishtraveler). This might be

for a lack of comparison. Don't believe they had been on any of the Windstar ships before.

 

Suffice to say, from our experience, I would probably sail on the smaller ships again, but

avoid Windsurf until we have a sense the product has drastically improved. We also sailed

aboard SeaDreamI from San Juan three weeks ago (our fourth) and found it to be as rated...

the best small ship afloat. You pay more, but it was worth it!

 

Not trying to make you feel uncomfortable about your choice, simply providing an opinion.

 

Good sailing.

 

[22Mermaid]

Commander Courageous, you absolutely nailed the essence of what I was after. Thank you so very much! :)

[lovecruisingtoo]

My current concern is that if Windstar is having issues with the Surf, they will soon have issues with the Star and Spirit. Remember, the crews tend to rotate between the ships - so if you have a crew that can not do things right on one of the ships you may soon find the problem on the other ships.

 

My wife and I have sailed on the Star and Spirit many times and are booked on the Surf this summer. I have sent notes to Windstar management expressing my concern and they have said that they are familiar with the threads here and they are working the issues. Hope this is true and our experience on the Surf this summer will be up to the experience we have had on the Star and Spirit. We will not book again on Windstar until we have seen that they have the same service that we have come to expect from the Windstar line.

[22Mermaid]

You have an interesting point about rotating the 'problems' around to all of the ships. I have a theory (guess!) on what may be happening. My thought is that problems would be more pronounced on the smaller ships, i.e., one bad crew member affects a higher percentage of passengers on the ship, so management is more likely to correct the problems. On the larger Windsurf, the problems are, presumably, better 'absorbed.' Perhaps the less-skilled staff and crew are rotated more often to the Windsurf?!? I don't know if this passes the logic test, but it seems as though it could be one explanation as to the 'night and day' difference between the Windsurf and the smaller ships.

[commander courageous]

Whoops!

 

Think you have missed something here.

 

The "problems" are with Windsurf (the larger ship) and not, apparently, as

prevalent aboard the smaller Windsîrit and Windstar.

 

Was this not your original question?

 

 

[lovecruisingtoo]

One other thing is that you need to really look at some of the reviews. For example, one recent passenger complained about the hotel they stayed at before the cruise (which was recommended by Windstar). However, if you look at Yahoo Travel or other travel sites, the hotel, for the same time period, was rated very good. The same person said the food in Degrees was barely eatable. Yet they ate in Degrees every night. If the food in Degrees was so bad, why not try the other restaurants (even if you did not like the atmosphere)????

 

Right now there are conflicting reviews on the Surf. One of two things will happen. The Surf will get better rapidly or the Star and Spirit will get worse and the strong alumni alliance will dissipate.

 

In the meantime we have booked our 2009 cruise on Oceania and have the option to cancel and rebook on Windstar in '09 if our cruise this summer on the Surf is up to our previous experience on Windstar.

[22Mermaid]

My logic may be still be off, but what I was trying to say is that the problem crew/staff have been identified and moved to the Windstar. These problems are more apparent now that they are in a higher concentration, with a larger number of passengers being exposed to them. I had used the word 'presumably' in a previous post to suggest that the company thought that they could bury the problems, but have only concentrated the problems aboard one ship.

 

Again, this is just flapping of gums on my part, as I have had no experience with the Windsurf, other than seeing her as one of the Club Med ships years ago in Tahiti. What do you think are some other possible reasons that it could be so different from the Surf or Spirit? It can't just be sheer size, can it, or perhaps the Peter Principle applies... ?

[22Mermaid]

I miswrote in my last post. I meant to say that perhaps the problems have been identified and moved to the Windsurf, where they are all concentrated now.

[Lair Bear]

Personally I think you are all making a big issue out of a relatively small matter. Sure, you may encounter an individual crew member who is not up to the high standards of the rest. If so, just ignore that like you do with passengers you don't care for. But I think overall they do an excellent job and the food is certainly very good on both the small and larger ships.

 

We have sailed on the Wind Song (Tahiti), Spirit (Panama Canal) and the Star (Greek Isles) and found that the smaller ships are our preference not because of the service but because of the way you meet people and enjoy the company of most of the passengers, rather than a select few.

 

In fact, rather than complain about the crew, I think there are more passengers who can be obnoxious or unfriendly. But you have that on any ship.

[Lair Bear]

I should add that we also spent two weeks on the Windsurf in the Med. So we know how to compare all the ships.

 

I thought I would add this before Captain Courageous had more negative comments to make about this post.

[commander courageous]

 

 

:eek: Well, Mermaid, asked for an opinion and I attempted to provide one. By her response, and others, there seems to be agreement that WINDSURF, at least in the past 7 months, has not measured up in service and

food. Even Windstar management has acknowledged this.

 

My critique was not meant to be mean spirited, nor did I find fault with a previous trip aboard Windspirit.

 

As Windsong burned and sunk some time ago, when were you on the Winstar lines last? Could there

have been some noticeable differences in the interim?

 

Perhaps it is just best to let future cruisers make their own choices without these threads. Okay by me!

[Lair Bear]

By her response, and others, there seems to be agreement that WINDSURF, at least in the past 7 months, has not measured up in service and

food.

 

I am sure that you have read the post a bit further down "Windsurf Review". I hope you are not saying that all those people are all wrong.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion and so are others. I, for one, don't agree that all is as bad as you make out to be.

Furthermore, I have not seen any comments by the Windstar company agreeing with what you wrote. Is it possible you misinterpreted their comments to your inquiry?

[schmidlapp]

A bit of clarification is needed here,

The cruise line is named "Windstar"

They used to be run by Holland America, which is owned by the

Carnival corp.

They are now owned by Majestic which runs a number of riverboat cruises.

Windstar currently has 3 ships, The largest is the Windsurf (the subject of

much criticism lately)

They also have 2 smaller ships, the Windstar (hence the confusion) and the Windspirit. They had an additional ship (Windsong) but it burned up in

Tahiti.

I will be on the May 18th sailing of the Windsurf from Nice to Nice for the

Monaco grand prix and the Cannes film festival. As I have had 2 previous

cruises on the Windsurf, it will be interesting as to how the new ownership

will affect the experience. My 2 previous Windsurf trips had major differences in food quality. First one excellent, second one poor to fair at best. Service on both was very consistently excellent. Since I do have something to compare to, I will give a very objective report when I return.

As I have previously stated in earlier posts, I am certainly hoping for the best...

[commander courageous]

Are you serious, lair bear?

 

Are you reading these posts or just skimming?

 

Take a look 10 posts down "To Windstar Management". Most every review.

where the cruiser was able to make a comparison with previous sailings on

Windstar lines, finds the WINDSURF product has deterioted in the past few months. The reasons offered are many, but there is certainly a coomon thread of dissatisfaction. The glowing report of englishtraveler cannot be

dismissed, of course, but she never mentioned previous sailings for a point of comparison.

 

No one is trying to indict Windstar, simply attempting to call attention to

changes, year over year.

[KarlS]

I will be on the May 18th sailing of the Windsurf from Nice to Nice,... As I have had 2 previous

cruises on the Windsurf, it will be interesting as to how the new ownership

will affect the experience.

We, too, have sailed on Wind Surf (three times, in fact), but our last cruise on her was a long four years ago. (Since then, we've sailed Oceania once, and then got hooked on Uniworld European river cruises twice (and then again in another month)). We always hoped to eventually return to Wind Surf, so we'll anxiously await your observations when you get back in May. Have a terrific sailing!! :)