Windstar Athens to Barcelona 10/15-10/29

Here's my impression after the cruise: Great ship, nice people, nice ambience, great service and food. Just perfect for us. The cabins were both actually fairly roomy compared to the French barge and Cruise West cabin.

The destinations were interesting. As far as Greece goes, I liked Siros the best, nice pretty quaint island. Gythion was my least favorite, the port town was dirty and uninteresting. The excursions did make up for that. We visited Mystras and Mycenae, both worthwhile but all excursions were too short. It seems they tried to get you back to the ship for lunch everyday, which I found unnecessary.

I didn’t think I’d like Monaco but that was one of our favorite ports. Monte Carlo is clean, beautiful and wealthy. We toured the palace and the aquarium, both first rate. We did not go into the casino but strolled around at night for a while and window shopped the designer boutiques.

Port Vendres/Couliorre was an interesting and clean port area that was quaint and interesting, in the middle of the hilly wine growing area on the France/Spain border. The local fish market, a little hard to find, was definitely worth a look and you can eat fresh catch at the lunch counter there if you are so inclined. The people seemed appreciative for the tourists and were very kind and accomodating.

Portofino was very pretty. Just like the pictures, although my husband was ignored in one of the local bakeries when he tried to make a purchase. Toured the church and the interesting “Castle Brown” with fascinating old movie star portraits from Portofino.

Taormina on the island of Sicily was very picturesque, definitely worth the excursion.

One night, the ship had a deck barbeque with crab, lobster, rack of lamb, roast pork, tenderloin, and numerous salads, sides and desserts. We enjoyed this on board with a view of Stromboli, an active volcano that lent fireworks to the night sky. Spectacular!

Neither of us got seasick but we took Bonine, which the ship also had available on board for the taking. There was a full time MD on board, and a small exercise facility that we used to work off the food. I loved the gentle rocking motion of the ship at night—I found that very conducive to good sleep. My husband had the opportunity to earn a resort scuba diving certification and went on two dives in Portoferraio and Monte Carlo. He was ecstatic--

Breakfast served in the restaurant and on the pool deck, lunch, afternoon tea, cocktail hour with appetizers, dinner and 24 hour room service if you wanted that. The quantity, quality and variety of food exceeded my expectation. About four entrees, appetizers, soups, desserts for dinner to choose from. Wine list was pretty decent, a little pricey but they also have a suggested wine pairing with chef's choice menu for $ 12 which is a very good deal. Three or four wines, paired with the courses.

The ship is older but constantly maintained, cabins and public areas very clean and the new hotel manager is instituting more improvements to make the Windstar a “5 diamond” experience. People remarked how much they liked the casual ambience, not having to really dress up for dinner. Mike did not take a coat and tie.

Crew to passenger ratio is very high and the service was excellent. Any comments or requests were acted upon immediately. The crew learned your names just like that and learned your preferences quickly. It was kind of uncanny--

My only complaint is I wish they had itineraries to additional interesting places. They do the Caribbean in winter, but so does everyone else. Alaska, South America and Galapagos Islands, Scandinavia and St. Petersburg would be great areas to explore by this cruise line.

Sorry about the duplicate message, itchy trigger finger, I guess.

Winegirl, glad to see that you enjoyed the cruise. I will be on the Windsurf next summer traveling from Barcelona to Rome. One port that that I am not familiar with is Port Vendres/Couliorre. You mentioned the fish market and the surrounding wine country. Do you suggest I leave the port and visit the countryside? It is our first stop and I want to do more than just visit some shops in town. Thanks.

Thanks for posting your review. It was great reading, and sure makes our trip seem a little bit closer.

Beth

The ship offers several excursions at this port, that go out of town. One that sounded good was the trip to a modern art museum. We did not use the excursions since we had enough to keep us busy, visiting town, having a Catalan inspired lunch, shopping, taking the local "tram" which does a short tour up into the countryside where you can view the vineyards. There are also a number of places in town where you can do wine tasting, if that's interesting to you. If you want to see some of the towns (they are separated by about ine mile and we used the "tram" to get between them, which cost about $6 each round trip and well worth the money just for the tour.

Between excursions and visiting town, your day should be filled. The ship usually leaves port by about 4 pm so you will need to be on board 30 minutes before then. So you don't have unlimited time at each port. The next stop should be Marseilles, which is an overnight sail and the sea can get rough on that end of the Mediterranean, so be sure to take the Bonine anti-sea sick meds that are available, and take them before the ship sails.

Have a great time--there is so much to see and do along this route.