Just back from a 2 week Caribbean cruise on Windstar. This was our 3rd Windstar cruise, and I continue to be impressed by this small ship line. The ships hold 300 passengers, but we only had 130 the first week, and 200 the second. With 200 crew. As you can imagine, the service was amazing. The crew really gets to know you, and you get to know them. We found that just about every crew member to whom we spoke had worked for years on other, larger, cruise ships, and therefore came to Windstar with a lot of experience. Many told us how much more they enjoyed working on a small ship.
Windstar has both sailing ships and motor yachts in their fleet. I haven’t sailed on one of the sailing ships yet, but hear they are lovely. The three motor yachts are quite nice. They were recently completely renovated and “stretched” by cutting them in half and inserting a new middle section (really!), and are lovely. Cabins are large - we book the second-from-bottom tier, and our cabin was still 277 sq ft with a huge walk-in closet, large bathroom, separate sitting area with a couch and two chairs, and a large window.
Recreational amenities are limited - no exotic stuff like climbing walls, slides, basketball courts, or casinos. There’s a small pool, a couple of hot tubs, a fitness center, and a spa facility. It’s an adult-oriented ship - no children under 8 permitted, and there are no special activities for older kids and teens. That’s just fine by us, but this is not the cruise line for a multi-generational extended family vacation.
We flew IAD-SJU nonstop both ways on United. Flights were on time both ways.
The only issue upon our return home was that our bathroom scale somehow broke while we were gone. For some reason it’s reading 5 pounds higher than before we left. Guess we need to get it recalibrated or something.
