Report on our Windspirit St. Thomas to St. Thomas cruise-1/19 to 1/26

[winegirl]

We just returned from our second Windstar Cruise, on the Windspirit, St. Thomas to St. Thomas.

Overall impression: In our opinion, the ship operations and value for money is even better than ever. The ship renovations are nice, food was excellent, ship was clean and well maintained and the staff continued with their very personal brand of service. Our captain and hotel director were frequently seen mingling and soliciting input from guests. European cruise directors (always a couple we discovered,) as well as a couple running water sports. Cruise directors were friendly, informative, available and ran their programs smoothly. Crew is Phillipino and Indonesian, who speak passable to very good English and are of varying levels of experience. We received a mid cruise survey to ask if anything needed attention. We felt they are working very hard to maintain and improve the Windstar brand name.

Not to be missed: the "sail away" ceremony when available. Everyone is at the pool deck for the unfurling of the sails and playing of the musical theme that all passengers and staff love. The sails are up when the ship is moving, as much as possible, since using the sails saves on fuel and the captain is no doubt rewarded for economies while operating the ship.

Cabins:

The cabins are all identical with the exception of the owners suite, at 190 square feet I believe. There is a king size bed (two twins locked together that can be separated when needed.) Chair and an ottoman for in cabin dining plus a stow away table. Plenty of storage space for clothing in the two closets, the large bureau, suitcases go under the bed. There is a Sharp Aquos TV and DVD player plus Bose I Pod station in every room, minibar, small fridge. Two pillows for each sleeper provided: hard and soft, plus a comforter that is covered in high thread count sheets outside and inside. Black out drapes in windows, portholes only in all cabins (this is a large sailing yacht, not a ocean liner with balconies.) Bathroom with granite counters, storage areas and hooks, clothes line in the shower stall (no tub.) Plenty of fresh towels.

There are no cabins that are "noisier" than others. I never heard anyone in the hallways or above or below our cabin. Cabins toward the middle of the boat, and in the lowest level (B cabins) have the least motion while sailing. If you are prone to motion sickness, pick a B cabin (which are less expensive.) Individual temperature controls in the room. Clock/weather stations provided in each cabin and automatic wakeup calls can be programmed into your phone.

Robes and slippers are provided, no need to drag those along. Laundry service is available and is low cost. No self laundry. No irons in cabins ( fire hazard.) L'Occitane toiletries provided, generous sizes and replenished regularly without asking.

Fresh fruit basket and flowers in each cabin at embarkation. That should answer all questions about the cabins.

Spouse's Blackberry phone worked everywhere, but no wireless internet on board.

Embarkation/disembarkation:

Embarkation at Crown Bay dock St Thomas, starting 1 pm. They have a welcome drink ready when you embark, the process is smooth and quick. Muster is at 5 pm or so. The boat sails to St John early Sunday morning, so if you wanted to leave the boat on Saturday night for dinner on land, you could do so.

Disembarkation : Get up about 5-6 am since luggage is collected from INSIDE your cabin starting at 6 am, and taken ashore to be claimed by you as you leave the boat. It is very well organized by color tags. Full breakfast operation is also available from 6 am to 7:30 am. They did an excellent job of making sure no one left without the opportunity to have breakfast, unlike my last experience on Holland America. Customs/Immigration comes on board about 7 am to clear ship. All passengers must individually meet the customs/immigration officers before anyone is allowed to leave the ship. Last group off the ship at 8 am. You cannot wait on board or in your cabin after that time--they need to get the ship ready for the next group starting at 1 pm. Some people had very early morning flights back, which I would not recommend since customs was probably finished by about 7:30 to 8 am. Airport is about 10 minutes away by a taxi. The airport was well staffed by people who were efficient and friendly/professional (even TSA.) Scheduling a return flight prior to 10 am is really cutting it too close, in my opinion.

Dining:

Early morning continental breakfast on pool deck starting at 6 am. Full menu and buffet breakfast in the Veranda Dining room starting about 7:30 or so . Room service continental breakfast also available.

Lunch starts about 12 and goes until 1:30 or 2 pm (schedules vary daily depending on when excursions are scheduled.) Full menu plus buffet, usually a different "theme" daily. Water, iced teal, coffee, cappucinos free. Soft drinks/alcohol are a charge to your tab. Just like on Holland America cruises.

Afternoon "tea" (sandwiches/sweets) at pool bar from 4-5 pm.

Appetizers in the Lounge around 6-7:30 pm (to encourage you to come and hear the next day schedule from the cruise director.)

Dinner is open seating in the Dining Room starting at 7:30 pm and goes until 9:30, but many diners linger until 10 pm or later. You can dine by yourself every day, or join others at tables of 4-8. Your choice entirely. Menu has 5 courses: appetizer, soup, salad, entree dessert plus an amuse bouche before every meal. Always a red meat entree, poultry, several pasta/vegetarian entrees and a fish entree to choose from. The problem was choosing! Wine list is available, priced comparably to big city restaurants. Nice stemware. Beautiful table settings/china. Very creative presentations. European chef on board who had taken the food service to an even higher level than when we sailed in Europe.

There is also 24 hour room service with a good menu, in the event that you miss a meal in the dining rooms for some reason. This is no extra charge, included with your cruise. You can order and eat in your cabin or take your tray to the deck if you wish. No one goes without meals, unless they choose to do so--and anyone complaining that they "missed lunch," is dead wrong. Just pick up the phone and a great meal will be delivered to you. Another nice feature is that you can choose to dine on the deck during breakfast and lunch if you wish.

There is a "deck barbeque" once a week, Wednesday, where they try to dine on the pool deck in good weather. There is a large variety of foods including all the lobster you can eat if you wish, steak, chicken, crab, shrimp, roast pig, etc. etc. It was fabulous!

They also do a "beach barbeque" on Virgin Gorda, via tender off the boat to a nice local beach near the Bitter End Yacht Club area. Ship staff cooks picnic foods, provides a beach bar, and you dine alfresco, enjoy the beach and lounge chairs. Water sports were put ashore if you wished to paddle a kayak. I don't recall what other "toys" they had there, since we did not use them.

They also offered several nights to dine on deck with 5 courses of matched food and wine for a $ 35 per person extra charge. We did not do this since the weather could be "iffy" with some rain in the evening, and since the menu was so good in the dining room that I didn't want to miss that.

Booze/soft drinks:

You can bring wine onboard to be opened for lunch or dinner for a $15 corkage fee. There are a number of events where a complimentaty cocktail or glass of champagne is offered, and daily drink specials. ar offered. The mixed drinks seemed to run about $6-7, wine by the glass starting in that range. Coffee, tap water and iced tea were free. Bottled water was a charge, except that bottled water was included in all excursions and we found we had a plethora of bottled water in our cabin as a result. There is a 15% service fee automatically added to your tab for all booze purchases, so no need to add extra tips. Prices again in the range of large city fine dining prices (actually less than in our area.) I felt all the prices were very fair. You can also bring booze aboard to drink in your cabin--no one checked what you brought on board when you returned.

Services:

There is an MD on board and free motion sickness medications available 24/7 outside the door to the office. Take a pill once you board if you are prone to seasickness, since the boat does rock more than on a large ship. I like the rocking motion, find it very relaxing while sleeping.

Small hot tub and tiny pool at the pool deck area--was enjoyed by many. No regular size swimming pool. This is a sailing yacht, not a huge oceanliner with tons of deck space. No problem finding deck chairs and a number of places to lounge around the ship, both in the sun or under a shade screen.

New spa area, with a couple cosmetologists, who offered full salon services, facials, massages, body wraps. During the week, specials were offered so wait a bit before scheduling your services--you might get a package deal after a day or two. I did not use the spa.

Exercise room: small with health club type bikes, treadmill, stair stepper, weight bench, TV, fan, sani-wipes to wipe down your equipment. We used this often on our Europe cruise but not at all in the Carribean since we were out swimming and snorkeling so often.

Library with internet access for a fee (don't know other details,) books, card tables, and a video library for checkout to your room.

Small casino, didn't use it personally.

Small gift shop with some nice, well chosen clothing, jewelry and sundry items.

Water sports: There was a couple in charge of this but I did not see the water sports platform open (but then we didn't seek it out.) We were docked offshore in many places where the water was rough or where the port did not allow the use of it at that location.

Sea Dream Yacht Club ship had their water sports platform open at Virgin Gorda (we saw this ship in several of the ports that Windstar uses.) The passenger mix on our cruise tended to the older side than in Europe (perhaps 1/2 in their 60's or older) with the rest primarily in late 40's to 50's. It did not look like a crowd that demanded banana boat rides. If you must have water sports activities off the boat itself, looks like Sea Dream would have more to offer. There was snokeling gear available for use, but most people brought their own. Scuba excursions were offered though on shore outfits, not conducted by Windstar staff like in the Mediterranean. That's ok since the ability of the Windstar staff to take you to the best dive areas would be limited by the range of their small power boat.

Dress:

This is a very casual cruise so you will be in shorts/capris/sundresses and t shirts during the day. The Dining Room requires long pants in the evening but otherwise, I saw t shirts, sport shirts, jeans and casual resort wear including sandals in the evening. No coats, ties, formal dresses. Just look presentable and stash the shorts for dinner.

Ports of Call/Getting around/Money details:

All ports required a tender. The only actual dock that Windstar used was at St Thomas. You have to plan your trips to shore carefully. getting aboard the tender required walking up and down a long metal stairway hung off the side of the ship, which was rocking. The water could be quite rough at times and it was a challenge for people who are infirm, injured or require walking devices to use the tender.

Just a warning--this is not a cruise for handicapped persons--no elevators and you have to be relatively mobile to take advantage of all off ship excursions. Also, 5 flights of stairs from B deck to the top deck at the pool area.

With the exception of Jost Van Dyk, we were in port for full days so ample opportunity to dine ashore if you wished. Check the cruise schedule on the Windstar site for details.

It appeared that taxi service of some type or a car rental would be possible at every port, but you might have to arrange to have the car brought to where you dock. Some of the rental places were quite a distance away from where the tender dock. These islands all have steep hills and winding, narrow roads in variable state of repair. What looks like a short distance from the dock to a beach can actually be miles of switchbacks over steep hills.

We tendered ashore at Cruz Bay (St John's,) Marigot (St. Martin,) Gustavia (St. Barth's,) Soper's Hole (Tortola,) White Bay (Jost van Dyk,) and North Sound (Virgin Gorda.) The only actual "dock" was at St. Thomas--Crown Bay--a 15 minute ride in a taxi to the shopping area of town.

Other than in Marigot and Gustavia, there were no big shopping or tourist areas to explore where you docked. There were some small settlements with a couple bars or shops in most. You will need to get on an excursion, rent a car or take a taxi to get anywhere. Bring lots of US dollars cash for taxis since they are not cheap--and no credit cards accepted.

We also found that a number of merchants did not accept credit cards except for minimum purchases, which could be quite high in some cases. This is a violation of their credit card merchant agreement but the CC companies don't enforce it unless you complain.

St Martin and St Barth's use Euros and the exchange rate is not good right now so everything in those ports will be very expensive for you in US dollars. Dollars are accepted everywhere, and merchants will translate the exchange rate for you from euros to dollars. Just remember that 1 Euro costs about $1.50 US right now.

Excursions/ Things to do:

Our favorite excursion was the Baths in Virgin Gorda. That area was a long way from the ship docking area (see above.) The snorkeling at the Baths was the best all week.

We took a couple other “highlight” tours, one in St. Marten, one in Tortola, one in St Thomas on the day of disembarkation, mostly to have a place for our luggage and kill some time. These tours allowed you to see some of the islands if you did not have a car, and were OK. There were a wide range of prices for the excursions and some of the very expensive ones did not give you that much more value. I heard people like the America’s Cup Regatta outing, which we did not do. Of course, the scuba divers loved their outings. But you can find on shore diving services all over by booking directly with a shore outfit and save a lot of money.

The St Thomas post cruise tour, open to those with airline departures after 3 pm, did have a nice stop at a place up high in the hills called “The Great House.” I would highly recommend that anyone visiting St Thomas see this compound—it’s used for weddings, corporate events and is open for tours. It is a beautiful island home overlooking Magen’s Bay, with a boardwalk through the woods and a botanical garden. We could have easily spent a half day there alone. St Thomas also has great shopping, with jewelry in particular at discounts up to half what you’d pay in the mainland US.

There was no nearby beach or anything to do near where we docked in Tortola, so other than a tour, nothing to do there. We were not near a town that we could investigate. This was our least favorite port and I would not advise stopping there unless you have a keen interest in that island for some reason. I mentioned that in the comment card to Windstar.

St John’s has the Virgin Islands National Park and a lot of beaches. We tried to use the beach at Leister Bay and found it to be rocky and unappealing. So we hitched a ride on an island tour bus heading back to Trunk Bay, which has an underwater snorkeling trail. The ocean was sort of rough that day, but it was decent for snorkeling and swimming. I saw a lot of other beaches that were much nicer than Trunk Bay on our ride back to there—I would recommend taking one of the island open air taxis to Cinnamon Bay or Hawks nest Bay, which seemed a lot less crowded. This would be the place to rent a car and drive around the park since there are lots of interesting sights. That would be less expensive and more flexible than a taxi if you wanted to see more than one area of the park.

Our favorite island in terms of overall ambience was probably St Barth’s, which is very high end. We tendered to Gustavia, did not shop or anything there but did snorkel and swim at a very nice beach within walking distance called Shell Beach. Nice looking town, lots of high end boutiques and restaurants, very expensive. We also visited a nice small local museum and talked for a long time to the curator about American politics. We had the same discussion on other islands—people down there are watching the elections here closely.

St Martin (French side) had a number of good restaurants, and if you wanted to dine in Grand Case (restaurant row,) you’d need a car. However, the port of Marigot also had lots of shopping and we had lunch at a very good French restaurant there. We did not care for Phillipsburg—that’s the Dutch side where the supposed cheap shopping is. It was not particularly clean and seemed more “3rd world” than did Marigot. St Martin (French side) and St Barth’s both use Euros and prices are expensive there. Lunch ran at least $ 100 US.

Jost Van Dyck had the nicest beach we encountered—White Bay Beach—we took a taxi from the dock for about $ 10. This is a small island which is not overdeveloped.

Tipping:

$ 11 per person per day automatically added to your ship account, divided among all service staff. You can add to or reduce this fee by seeing the purser at the end of the cruise. We tipped our cabin steward additional in cash since he did a fabulous job. We felt the tipping fee was very fair and reasonable for all the service you were provided throughout the cruise. The staff/passenger ratio is about 100/150 so there are a lot of hard working folks who you don't see:)

[NJBluesTraveler]

Wow, Winegirl, what a fabulous trip report!! You obviously spent a great deal of time on this and it was wonderful to read. I leave to sail on the Wind Spirit this Saturday 2/2 and now I am more excited than ever. I am delighted to hear that your experience did not match those on a recent Wind Surf voyage.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience aboard the Wind Spirit with us. I am so happy for you that you had a great week.

 

Four days and counting...

[Xoe]

to read your report -- and I am so IMPRESSED at how quickly you posted it!

 

My sister and I shared this splendid journey a week before you (Jan. 12-19 -- our annual "Sisters Week" [our husbands dislike flying]). I am almost finished putting my photos into an album which I'll post when finished, as well as a cruise report.

 

I absolutely share your high praise for Wind Spirit, its staff, crew, food, and on and on. This message is mainly, "I SECOND THAT -- YES -- YOU'RE EXACTLY RIGHT!", with comment on only a few things that were different in our experience.

 

On our cruise the deck BBQ (the BEST of all of the week's marvelous meals) was on Tuesday evening (not Wed.), as we sailed away from St. Barths.

 

Our favorite ports were St. Barths (Gustavia is an interesting inviting town for walking) and Jost Van Dyke (unspoiled and beautiful); our favorite beaches were Shell Beach and White Bay Beach. Tortola was the island that appeared least appealing to explore on our own, especially since there were big ships in Roadtown which would have resulted in popular beaches being crowded, so I opted for the ship's snorkel excursion to Norman Island, and it was a fine adventure and a great way to spend that day. (Note: fellow passengers taxied to Long Bay on Tortola and reported it was wonderful -- no crowds, services available, and inexpensive to get there by taxi since it is one of the nearest beaches to Soper's Hole.)

 

A "luck of the draw" difference between our experience and yours was on Virgin Gorda. Friday Jan. 18 was beautiful weather-wise, but windy with surf breaking; snorkeling at The Baths would not have been safe and no one was in the water, other than wading. Beautiful weather for photos however! Another difference seems to be that on our day there, after a wonderful first half hour upon arrival walking among the amazing boulders and gorgeous scenery at The Baths, this popular place was descended upon by hordes of tourists -- hundreds of them -- who just kept coming down the trail from the parking area at the top. From then on it was more like being in a jam-packed theme park rather than a magical mystical place in nature in the Caribbean! No idea where they all came from, other than one woman who mentioned she was off Crown Princess (of course docked at a nearby island, not on Virgin Gorda). We got trapped behind a tour group of 80+ being ordered about in military fashion by a harried leader who was over her quota, for sure. My advice to anyone going to The Baths is to GET THERE EARLY -- 7:00 would be good -- but of course on Wind Spirit's excursion that is not possible, and likely not possible on your own either from Wind Spirit's Bitter End anchoring. I'm still glad I got to see The Baths and the island on our way there -- it's an amazing place -- but the crowded conditions as the morning progressed were awful. The ship's excursion is well done and reasonably priced (unlike some), so this is not a criticism of Wind Spirit's program -- just a report on what could happen if you're not lucky!

 

Overall, a WONDERFUL week, for you and for us. I'll post photos, including maps and detailed descriptions, by the end of the week, to supplement the information here.

[winegirl]

I may be mistaken about the day of the deck BBQ, but one can always ask when embarking. They actually had to move it indoors at the very last minute due to a cloudburst. The ship crew did a phenomenal job on that night.

 

Our weather was overcast for much of the week, and we had some sprinkles. Weather was warm and humid, in the upper 70's and low 80's.

 

We had no crowds at the Baths, just our ship's excursion. We must have hit a day that no other large cruise was in port that day--it was overcast again, but the water was fairly calm and the snorkeling was great, lots of tropical fish, corals, anemones and a sea turtle. Other snorkeling was less good due to choppy seas which churned up the water in a number of places. Still, better than Wisconsin in January!

[Finzup1]

Thanks for the GREAT trip report!! We are leaving on 2-2! 3 MORE DAYS!

Do you think if we are not on the ships excursion to the Baths we can get a ride to Gun Creek? I want to have Hertz meet me there. What time?:D

[winegirl]

From what other posters have said, it seems you would have to tender to Bitter End and get a water taxi to Gunn Creek unless you were able to get on the tender taking the ship's excursion to Gunn Creek first thing in the AM, around 8:30 as I recall. Look at the "shore excursion" link on the Windstar website to see when the excursions leave the ship, and then arrange your car rental from there. As I recall, there MAY have been a Hertz office a short walk from Gunn Creek, but don't quote me on it since we didn't rent a car or look into that in any way. Maybe you can check this out directly with the rental place. If it's just a short walk from the dock, then you can pick up your car at your convenience.

[Xoe]

Winegirl, it seems you had good fortune on your day at The Baths, to be there on a day with no other tourists -- and it seems we had good fortune in our overall weather, which included only a few quick showers. Most of the time we had brilliant blue skies with fluffy clouds, nice sunrises & sunsets, temperatures in the 72-81 degree range.

 

If either of you (Finzup1 or NJBlues Traveler -- or anyone else interested) who are starting your cruise on Feb. 2 would like me to email you my almost-finished photo album (waiting for a couple photos on a disk from my sister), send me an email at XoeDanner@yahoo.com. The photo collection includes maps of islands visited and descriptions of places seen.

 

There were passengers on our cruise doing back-to-backs, others who have taken this cruise every winter for several years -- this attests to the appeal of this itinerary, and to the allure of Wind Spirit!

[Xoe]

Winegirl, it seems you had good fortune on your day at The Baths, to be there on a day with no other tourists -- and it seems we had good fortune in our overall weather, which included only a few quick showers. Most of the time we had brilliant blue skies with fluffy clouds, nice sunrises & sunsets, temperatures in the 72-81 degree range.

 

If either of you (Finzup1 or NJBlues Traveler -- or anyone else interested) who are starting your cruise on Feb. 2 would like me to email you my almost-finished photo album (waiting for a couple photos on a disk from my sister), send me an email at XoeDanner@yahoo.com. The photo collection includes maps of islands visited and descriptions of places seen.

 

There were passengers on our cruise doing back-to-backs, others who have taken this cruise every winter for several years -- this attests to the appeal of this itinerary, and to the allure of Wind Spirit!

[KathyA]

Thank you Winegirl. WE were on the same itinerary January 5-12. Very similar experience. A couple of differences--the officer staff were not very social. We noted this on our exit surveys, so apparently they paid attention! Staff was wonderful. We did not have big crowds at the Baths, and I agree that it was the best excursion. Our BBQ was also the day we left St. Barths. A great cruise.

 

One note for others--on St. Martin if you go to the Dutch side (St. Maarten), you do not pay in Euros and it is therefore much cheaper. Also by far the best buys in jewelry are in Philipsburg (Dutch side), but you do have to rent a car or take a cab.

 

Again, Winegirl, thanks for the report!

[englishtraveller]

Thank you for an excellent objective report on your exerience. It was useful to read a full account of all services/activities in a fair and measured way to enable others to make up their own mind.

 

Can anyone provide the same quality report for Windsurf? Most reports I have read so far have focused on issues that have disappointed/delighted authors rather than a broad factual account.......come on Windsurfers, the standard has been set! Thanks again Winegirl.

[Xoe]

YES please -- it would be great to have a Wind Surf report written in the same complete, detailed, clearheaded way. (Thanks again for that, Winegirl.)

 

I've loved my adventures on Wind Star's Costa Rica itinerary, and Wind Spirit's Caribbean itinerary, and am very interested in Wind Surf's itineraries but feel a lack of knowlege and confidence as to what the Wind Surf experience would be.

 

Maybe we should post a separate thread asking for this?