Wind Spirit - The Bean Counters have arrived!

[Pmaxx]

Wind Spirit: The beancounters have arrived.

 

We just returned from a trip on the Wind Spirit. We took our first Windstar cruise about 15 years ago and have since been on all their ships, either on our own or as part of whole ship group charters.

 

The most apparent change since earlier days is the food. In our view, the beancounters have arrived and substantially reduced the amount/day/passenger being spent on food.

 

Examples: Breakfast lacked quality fresh fruit. There were no berries; the papaya was virtually uneatable.

 

Lunch had numerous casseroles and rice dishes. There was little grilled meat; limited cold cuts.

 

Pre dinner hors d’oeuvres were mundane. Heavy on vegetables; low on meat and seafood.

 

The beef at dinner was airline gray. The fish was little better. Quality just wasn’t there.

 

We are not saying that the food was bad; it just wasn’t what the Windstar line used to deliver.

 

Wine, drinks, etc. were $5.00 - $6.00 PLUS a service charge. The "recommended" bottle of wine at dinner was sometimes in the $75.00 range... clearly, a major profit center.

 

 

Service overall was ok but seemed very cold. We remember the Windstar as a happy ship with a friendly crew and officers willing to interact with the passengers. That attitude was missing.

 

 

Finally, for the record, internet access – very expensive; very slow; very unreliable... and everybody in the office knew it.

 

Barring some major changes that we will read about, I don’t think we will seek out these ships again because they are no longer "special". Too bad.

[lovecruisingtoo]

Seems like we are getting very mixed messages on the quality of the Windstar ships. Seems like they were having real issues on the Surf but the Star and Spirit were still great. Now it sounds like the Surf has been better lately but the Spirit has suffered. Where will it really end up?

 

My wife and I are booked on the Surf this summer but we will not book another Windstar cruise until things settle out.

[Xoe]

Our cruise on Wind Spirit in January was wonderful in all respects, including the food, the crew, and an atmosphere of friendliness. Can all that have changed in so short a time?

 

As far as internet access goes, I've learned not to use this on cruise ships because it is always expensive and of questionable function. The one time I did use it was on Norwegian Star in Hawaii, to make alternate shore arrangements after a change in the ship's itinerary resulting from the ship's making a sea rescue of a disabled fishing boat's crew, and it was indeed SLOOOOOOW. I sometimes check email at an internet cafe in a ports of call, where the cost is always low.

 

I look forward to my next Windstar cruise!

[irc2100]

Had a great WindSpirit cuise last summer. Booked on the Surf in July. These boards have given me more anxiety than I've ever had on a trip.

[lovecruisingtoo]

Had a great WindSpirit cuise last summer. Booked on the Surf in July. These boards have given me more anxiety than I've ever had on a trip.

 

Which cruise are you on? We are on the Rome to Barcelona cruise departing 13 July.

[6rugrats]

OP- our first Windstar cruise was on the Wind Song in Tahiti, in 1988. I did not really enjoy our Wind Surf cruise last June, but it sounds as if the quality is really starting to go downhill.

 

You could always count on friendly and great service from the crew. Sad that that was gone for you.

 

It is a shame and we won't be booking Wind Star again. For the price, decided to charter a sailboat instead!

[irc2100]

Which cruise are you on? We are on the Rome to Barcelona cruise departing 13 July.

 

We're on Venice-Rome July 6. We'll make the bed and leave a light on for you.

[xsnowman99]

6rugrats: can you share any information of how to find out abut the sailboat charter? sounds fun to me!! thanks...

[6rugrats]

I just searched tripadvisor and the internet. Found someone highly recommended and I am very impressed with her quick response and very professional reply. http://www.yatesyachts.com or sherry@yatesyachts.

 

Hopefully, I was allowed to post this as it's not a travel agency!!

[milepig]

Wind Spirit: The beancounters have arrived.

 

We just returned from a trip on the Wind Spirit. We took our first Windstar cruise about 15 years ago and have since been on all their ships, either on our own or as part of whole ship group charters.

 

The most apparent change since earlier days is the food. In our view, the beancounters have arrived and substantially reduced the amount/day/passenger being spent on food.

 

Just back from Rome/Athens on the Wind Spirit, and what is described here was not our experience at all. See below.

 

Examples: Breakfast lacked quality fresh fruit. There were no berries; the papaya was virtually uneatable.

 

We had no problem with breakfast whatsoever. There were numerous fresh fruits on the buffet. In addition to the omelets and eggs that were cooked in from of you there were at least 5-6 items you could order each day - waffles, eggs benedict, etc. - and everything we had was delicious.

 

Lunch had numerous casseroles and rice dishes. There was little grilled meat; limited cold cuts.

 

There were certainly casseroles at lunch, but you could also order off a menu and we had no problem finding good lunch options. Actually, most people seem to eat lunch off ship at most ports in any case, so I don't see this as a big deal. The pizzas looked weird, so we just ignored them. The fajitas we had one day were utterly delicious, as was the moussaka. Mixed seafood, cooked in front of you, was also very tasty.

 

Pre dinner hors d’oeuvres were mundane. Heavy on vegetables; low on meat and seafood.

 

Tea on the pool deck was their worst effort. Dried out sandwiches and pre-fab sweets, but then how much can one person eat in the course of a day anyway. Just skip it. hors d-oeuveres in the lounge were significantly better than described here - always 3-4 things passed on trays, and I didn't see any veggies in the lot.

 

The beef at dinner was airline gray. The fish was little better. Quality just wasn’t there.

 

No "gray beef" on our cruise. Indeed, the beef was some of the best I've eaten and was prepared exactly as ordered. Prime rib one night was great, as were the filets. Lamb chops were so good we had seconds. The BBQ on the deck was amazing and included more that I could have possibly expected, the barbequed lobster was a real treat, as was the whole pig.

 

Wine, drinks, etc. were $5.00 - $6.00 PLUS a service charge. The "recommended" bottle of wine at dinner was sometimes in the $75.00 range... clearly, a major profit center.

 

Um -$5-6 for a mixed drink is very reasonable, and much less that you'd normally pay at a hotel. On our cruise, there were several "featured" Italian wines in the $25 - $35 range. They were very acceptable.

 

Service overall was ok but seemed very cold. We remember the Windstar as a happy ship with a friendly crew and officers willing to interact with the passengers. That attitude was missing.

 

With one or two exceptions we had great interactions with the staff. We loved our dinner server, the cabin guys were great, and the bartenders were also fine.

 

Finally, for the record, internet access – very expensive; very slow; very unreliable... and everybody in the office knew it.

 

No disagreement here.

 

Barring some major changes that we will read about, I don’t think we will seek out these ships again because they are no longer "special". Too bad.

 

We had a great time. The only thing that was consistently below par were the desserts. Uniformly bad and in need of a huge upgrade. I'd suggest that they lose the "activities director" as there were no planned activities we could find, and that they hire a pastry chef instead. But, either things have improved dramatically, or we just had different expectations that this reviewer. When we had the occasional bad dish (tasteless soup one night, for example) we just sent it back and got something else instead. The Wind Spirit has been recently redecorated, and people who'd been on previous cruises remarked about how nice the ship looked. Everything was spotless, and constantly being cleaned.