windsurf Barbados review/notes

[ejtpa]

We (two couples) sailed the Windsurf Jan 11, Barbados round trip. I'll try and give some helpful info based on our trip as I've found these boards very helpful.

We stayed 1 night pre-cruise at the Sweetfield Manor bed and breakfast-it was great! Including tax, approx $300 for the night. Great room, deck overlooking water in the distance and pool in front. Breakfast was fantastic, monkeys running around the property, owners present and very nice. They made dinner reservations for us at Josef's (very good food, on the water) and made taxi arrangements. We had the taxi driver pick us up the following day for a 4hr island tour. We really enjoyed Nicholas Abby and be sure to taste the rum. Our driver thought it was closed on sundays but it is open. We saved our taxi driver's phone number and made arrangements with him to pick us up at 6am the day we returned to get us to the airport. There were no other taxis available at that hour, so we would have had to pay $38pp for the cruise line's transfers.

Embarkations was easy, we were in cabin 154, very quiet despite being the last cabin before the crew quarters. Cabin nice as expected, though the fridge never got cold the whole week despite mentioning it daily.

We made our dinner reservations for the whole week that first day, just easier to get it done. The dinner at Le Marche (fixed menu of seafood) was rained out our first night but we went later in the week. Good, not great food. Dinner at Degrees (fixed menu, "gourmet") usually very good, some misses. Menu changes every other night and there's a book at reception that has the week's menus. The Restraunt menu changes nightly and not listed ahead of the day of, but fridays are surf and turf. Dinner at Candles (more casual, outside, steaks) also good, not great. Steaks were better in the Restraunt or Degrees. We typically found good wine at approx $40 a bottle.

There were several receptions in the evenings where drinks were complimentary. Most alcoholic drinks were around $7, soda around $4. We had asked about the beverage package that they now list in the brochures and were initially told we couldn't purchase it on the ship. We I had called pre-cruise, they said you had to purchase it 3 weeks in advance, but to ask on board. After they were able to talk to "corporate" on monday, they offered us the package, but the choice of wines was so limited, we chose to not do it. The all inclusive would have been $52 total per person per day, and even though we drink a fair amount, we didn't get to that amount paying per drink. The bottles of wine were limited to under $30-very few to choose from and many more just over that price. If they raised the price allowed to $40, it may be worth doing.

We did the Bequia catamaran trip-very disappointing. We left 30 min late as we waited on two people. It was too choppy to go their usual route, so they motored very slowly, never actually sailed, and got within site of Mustique and then turned back. Not what we were expecting. The beach they say you can walk to is really not walkable unless you want to hike on the narrow road for at least 45 min. We took a taxi and arranged for him to pick us up. There's a nice restraunt/bar there and we rented chairs and had some great drinks, very reasonable, very nice beach. We wished we had just spent the day there.

Mayreau was great b/c we walked from the port to the other side of the island and spent the day on a perfect beach. The only thing it lacked was chairs, but otherwise idyllic. There's a restraunt/small resort where we had a good lunch. The walk was about 35 min and we asked someone for a taxi back and the woman called her husband, who was also the island police officer. Very nice people, only 7 cars on the whole island!

The BBQ was done on Pigeon island. The beach was very small but nice chairs and pleasant views. I thought there must be better beaches to spend the day at. Our friends did a dive there and were disappointed.

Dominica was our biggest disappointment as the captain decided to change our port to a tender on a remote part of the island. We had to cancel our scheduled tour with Levi of Bumpiing tours that I had arranged. It would have been two hours of driving just to get to the sites and they told us we were sailing at 2:30 so there wasn't time. Those that did do ship excursions were an hour late getting back, so the boat didn't leave til 3:30. No one had any idea what we should visit or do other than their excursions, and the aerial tram excursion that was listed as 4.5 hr had become 6 hrs with the change in port. Most people cancelled their excursions, and spent the day on the boat. We took a taxi to what Frommers' calls the "best beach" on Dominica, but most of that was washed away this fall in a hurricane and it was so pitiful we just took the taxi back to the boat. We did some water sport off the platform instead and did have a nice day, but altogether a very disappointing stop.

We took others' advice and went to Magazine Beach on Grenada-great decision-very nice and seemed to be the best way to spend the afternoon (we didn't get in til noon).

Tobago was also disappointing as the best parts of the island are in the south and we were in the north. We took a taxi to a resort (Blue Water, I think it was called) and rented chairs and had lunch. A fair beach but lots of bug bites. The area where we tendered was VERY run down, nothing to visit at all.

On the whole we had a great week in the sunshine and had paid a reasonable fair as repeat guests. I would have been sorry if I'd paid more or if I'd tried to do more of the shore excursions the ship arranged.

[schmidlapp]

Thanks for the review, we were on the Jan 4th Windsurf sailing and I have to agree with you 100% regarding food. Mostly good, nothing great and a number of "misses". Breakfast and lunch were always good, dinners ranged from some very good to some pretty poorn nothing excellent. The food budget definately was cut. It's too bad as when we were on the Windsurf last May for the Monaco Grand Prix, the

food was exceptional. I suspect since we paid quite a bit more for the trip and they had a different chef aboard this was the difference. Windstar should take note that they need to keep their product consistent no matter where the sailing is.

Our experience with service on the Jan 4th sailing was as always excellent. We did have the full beverage package and found it easy and convenient. My liver finally recovered from the week aboard and then the 4 days at the Almond Beach Casaurina all inclusive after the cruise. We have done the southbound and northbound route now and definately like the northbound better. We had a similar catamaran experience in Bequia, Tobago was just as you described. I felt the beach barbque was one of the highlights in St Lucia. Hats off to the excellent

Windsurf crew. So many of the same smiling and happy faces made us feel very welcome....

[Xoe]

I'll be doing a review of our Wind Surf Jan. 11 in the next couple of weeks -- I want to get my photos organized into an album first. However, I thought I'd put in a few words to report my experience, which was more positive in some respects.

 

We arrived on Barbados on January 9 and had 2 nights at Sandy Ground Holiday Accommodation in the St. Lawrence Gap area, and another overnight there on January 18 after disembarking Wind Surf. A very good choice: immaculate, well designed, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Owned by a local couple who live on the ground floor of their small hotel, it is superbly managed, and a short block's walk to Dover Beach, also within easy walking of many restaurants.

 

I traveled with a friend; it was my 4th Windstar cruise, her first. We found the ship and the crew delightful, and were happy with the dining choices. Our cabin, #146, was conveniently located. My former Windstar experiences were on their smaller ships, and although I prefer the smaller size (their 140 passengers seems ideal to me), the additional dining venues were nice and the elevators were used and appreciated due to the larger size of the ship.

 

I agree that the catamaran excursion out of Bequia was disappointing. The winds were high and we could not do what we'd expected to do. The next day's catamaran out of Mayreau was lovely, including a good snorkeling stop.

 

Our experience was good at Cabrits. I thoroughly enjoyed a tour of the agricultural part of Dominica, with glimpses into how locals live and a lot of stories about that part of the island told by our driver, Wayne McLawrence, who has lived his entire life right there. Also, we greatly enjoyed Tobago, where we took the glass bottom boat snorkel (kind of funky and fun, and included some rainshowers), then after returning to Charlottesville, we walked up the rough trail and down the MANY stairs (muddy, wet, no handrail) to Pirate's Bay Beach, which was peaceful and offered some reasonably good snorkeling.

 

Grenada was a good day for us, with a private tour guide arranged by Sunsation Tours. We saw most of the important sites, and ended up being taken to a beach for a refreshing swim, then back to the ship.

 

Although this itinerary was not as splendid as my others on Windstar ships (Costa Rica on Wind Star, Virgin Islands & St. Maarten & St. Barths on Wind Spirit, and Spain/Portugal on Wind Spirit), I am glad to have seen this part of the world and found many aspects of it charming, saw much beautiful scenery, and learned history I had not known before. It was also a treat to experience the elation exhibited by the locals about the change of the government in the USA; our cruise ended Jan. 18, so inauguration day was on everyone's mind.