Windsurf Lisbon to Dublin June 16 - Special Event Dropped

Windstar has eliminated the Special Event originally planned for Porto port stop (Spectacular Riverboat Cruising with Songs etc.) from the June 16 Itinerary. I booked in September 2016 when it was offered but was never notified that Windstar had dropped this experiance. I just noticed it had dissappeared from the website description in December so called on it. I was told that Windstar reserved the right to change their itinerary and, as the event was "complementary", there would be no replacement or compensation. Windstar determined the event was not valued by customers and is moving towards removing Special Events from all their cruises. In my opinion, this is just another way for Windstar to increase revenues by decreasing expenses at the detriment of the consumer. Even if portrayed as "complementary", we all know that the expense of these events is blended into the rate charged for the cruise so by eliminating this event, Windstar's profit margin on this cruise is improved.

It is disappointing when you book a cruise and you do not always receive what is promised. On our star clippers cruise they changed two ports and we missed the private beach with the bbq and we also could not use the water sports because of the weather.

The special events are one thing that helps separate Windstar from the mass market cruise lines. If they eliminate the special events then that then will help push us towards other cruise lines like Azamara, with their Azamazing Evenings. Seriously, if the new management starts eliminating the things that makes Windstar special, then why continue to sail with Windstar? What's next? Bigger ships?

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The special events are one thing that helps separate Windstar from the mass market cruise lines. If they eliminate the special events then that then will help push us towards other cruise lines like Azamara, with their Azamazing Evenings. Seriously, if the new management starts eliminating the things that makes Windstar special, then why continue to sail with Windstar? What's next? Bigger ships?

 

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I really dislike those larger ships. We stopped sailing on Rccl because they were getting to big.

Speculating: They are probably looking at the "used" ship market and figured that those events are not practical logistically for the 300-400 passenger class vessel.

They can pool their ressource to develop other things.

But yes, I agree, that is what makes WS special.

PS: They better not remove the Beach BBQ :mad:

I just randomly serched the WS site for different cruises for the summer of 2017 with different ships and the Special events are still,listed. My cruise on the Surf 5/17 Venice/Rome we still have the event in Dubrovnik, the Greece trips still have the Ephesus events, Iceland the Midnightsun event. Perhaps the event in Porto received poor reviews and they are trying to find a better one. Perhaps the event was canceled by the people in Porto. Perhaps the person on the phone at WS was not informed. Mysterious. Happy Sailing.