Mediterranean Islands in the Fall
Written: Nov 06 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great cruise ports, excellent food, comfortable modern cabins.
Cons: Off season, closed stores, high-priced excursions.
The Bottom Line: No elbowing crowds like in summer, but off-season port towns could be dull. The price was right, if you get the discount offer.
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| obsoperator's Full Review: Windstar Wind Star |
During the summer of 2009, we received a postcard addressed to previous travelers with Windstar cruises. (You can read reviews of our trips with their steel sailing/motor ships to the Greek Islands and Tahiti;, and the Mayan Riviera.) The card mentioned an itinerary that appealed to us, from Rome to Barcelona, stopping at Italian, French, and Spanish islands. All of the islands have airports, but we like the idea of visiting several islands on a cruise, rather than the big cities of Europe, where you'd really like to spend several days.
The postcard (sent during the Great Recession...) offered fares of $999 per person, with less than $100 in additional fees. This was more or less half of the original price for the 7-night cruise. After asking our travel agent whether October 24 was too late to cruise the Mediterranean, we signed up. At the time I booked in July, the ship was only half-full. But when we departed on the ship, they announced that we had 129-passengers aboard the 148-passenger ship. They announced that there were 92 Windstar repeaters aboard.
The 440-foot/134-meter M.S.V. Wind Star (Motor Sailing Vessel, substantially identical to their ship Wind Spirit) was built in Le Havre, France, in 1986. It has been renovated once. The corporation was independent for our first trip, has been part of Holland America lines, and is now independent again. There's a good level of luxury, but 98% of the cabins are identical, except for location on the two sleeping decks. There is just one suite available, but there are more on their larger (617-foot/187-meter, 312-passenger) Wind Surf. Although Windstar attracts a relatively well-behaved, adult client, the passengers seemed a little older than on our high-season cruises, with only a single obvious honeymoon couple. Although this ship has no elevator, several passengers used canes or had to hold on whenever they could while walking.
The top deck has the always-open bridge, the (microscopic!) pool and pool bar, and the breakfast/lunch restaurant. About 1/3 of those tables are outdoors under a sun shade. The pool bar is the only part of the ship with a smoking section. Cigar hour is only after dinner, but some ex-CEOs on our cruise lighted up in the afternoon. The next deck down, to which the gangplanks lead, has the main lobby, the cocktail lounge, the small spa, and the dinner restaurant. The next two decks below each have about half of the cabins, as well as the infirmary and small exercise room. Each compact but comfortable stateroom has two portholes, which do not open. I'll guess that the lower deck portholes often get thoroughly splashed, based on how close they are to the waterline.
Every cabin can be either a queen-size bed or two twins, at your request to the cabin steward. Our empty suitcases fit easily under the bed. We had plenty of wardrobe and hanger space for each of us. Because the ships are so small, meals are one seating, with no reservations. It's common for people to tell the headwaiter they'll accept another couple of his choice, at a table for four. But it's not that hard to get a table for two if you really want one. We hadn't been aware ahead of time that Windstar offers three all-inclusive beverage plans, for soft drinks, wine and beer, and for all-beverages. I think wine and beer was $28 per-person a day, but we didn't take any of them. They also offered unlimited 24-hour-turnaround laundry, at $99 per cabin. This could dramatically reduce the amount you need to pack, if you know about it in advance. We spent about $22 on laundry, and about $14 a day on alcohol. Cocktails are around $6.50. 15% is added to bar tabs and spa bills, and $12 per person per day is added to your account for staff tips. You can adjust this amount either way, based on your actual experience and evaluation. Internet (dial-up speed) was $55.00 for 100 minutes. The ship has a cell phone repeater, but they warned that there'd be extra charges on your phone bill. We didn't use our phones.
We made our own air arrangements, but of course Windstar will do that if you like. We spent two nights in Rome and two nights in Madrid. It's worth noting that the Civitavecchia cruise port for Rome is over twice as far away as the airport (... also West of the city), and costs about 150 Euros for a car service. The internet pundits suggest taking a very cheap train, but we didn't have the inclination. (But we did take the 3 Euro subway trip to the Madrid airport, which made most US airport access look third-world.) On the other hand, the old Barcelona cruise terminal (which we used, I think because our ship was so small) is within walking distance of the Barcelona subway and bus system. We took a cab to the train station, for about 12 Euros. The slick, giant, new Barcelona cruise port is much farther from downtown.
You could check-in to the ship after 1PM for the 5:30PM departure from Rome/Civitavecchia. Because we were on our own, our luggage arrived at our cabin within about five minutes. We docked in Barcelona around 6:30AM (which is also luggage collection from your cabin time),and were allowed to leave the ship (after a full breakfast) around 8AM. People with Windstar-company post-cruise arrangements were paged for 8:00, 8:15, or 8:30 departures. Everyone had to be off the ship by 8:30AM. (I should have booked an earlier train from Barcelona to Madrid.) The ship holds your passport for the entire cruise, and you get a bar-coded ID card that you scan on and off of the ship, at the gangway. No one on shore asked for a passport during any of our outings, but the point is that your ID card substitutes for it.
The ports, as well as the price, were the reasons we chose this cruise. Although our trip was very smooth, the Captain said that wind at Ischia caused him to change our first port to Elba. We have no complaints about that change. We heard that the previous trip had had substantial weather and waves, but we didn't really need the generic Bonine they give out in the door bin of the infirmary.
Saturday: Boarding in Civitavecchia/Rome. 1PM-5PM.
Sunday: Portoferraio, Elba, Italy. 8AM-1:45PM (Tender in)
Monday:, Porto Vecchio, Corsica, France. 10AM-6:45PM.
Tuesday: Ajaccio, Corsica, France. 8AM-10:45PM.
Wednesday: Day at Sea, sailed about 100 miles.
Thursday: Port Mahon, Minorca, Spain. 8AM-6:45PM.
Friday: Palma de Majorca, Spain. 8AM-4:45PM (Tender in & short bus ride)
Saturday: Barcelona, Spain disembarkation 8AM.
(Unless "tender" is stated, the ship was tied up directly on shore.)
Every night at 7:15, there's a brief "port talk" about the next day's activities. We felt that these were not very insightful, and mainly repeated the printed handouts. The Cruise Directors were not as good as on some previous Windstar trips we've taken. The deadline for booking a local organized tour ($89-$129 per person, 3-5 hours, departing between 8 and 9 AM) is in fact 10:00AM the morning before the tour. So the port talk is no help in deciding whether to spend the money on a tour! The two tours we took, to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Calanques on Corsica, and sightseeing on the way to a small winery ("La Chiusa", tasting and substantial hors d'oeuvres, but it was 11AM!) in Elba, were very nice. We cheerfully bought four bottles of their dessert wines. Our third choice, to a monastery where Frederic Chopin and Georges Sand stayed on Majorca was canceled when no one else signed up for it. (This is not a complaint. Years ago, Windstar got us a private snorkeling tour in Bora Bora when we were the only ones who signed up!)
Keep in mind that this trip was well down the shoulder of the high season. It was hard to get a taxi in the smaller ports. People who had the Ajaccio TI (Tourist Information) office call for a cab even had every driver refuse to go to work for what was at least a 100 Euro trip. We stumbled upon a cheerful (French-speaking only, naturally...) driver while we were searching for a taxi. We spent two hours in his cab (on the meter, not a flat rate.) At our direction, he took us to see a world-class beach (we had no interest is actually swimming there), and then he took us to a nearby Stone Age site called "Tappa". He'd never heard of it, and called his wife for instructions. She couldn't help, so I used my "Rough Guide to Corsica" to direct him. We walked ten minutes across a pasture, and five minutes up a small hill to the site, which did have explanatory signs once you got there. It was worth the 97 Euros we spent with him, and he enjoyed learning about the site.
On the other hand, when we went ashore for a walk after dinner in Ajaccio, few of the lunch restaurants in town had stayed open, and very few families were strolling around as you might see on a summer evening. In this case, we hadn't been looking to skip the ship's meal we'd paid for, we were just going to enjoy the French equivalent of the Italian "passeggiata". We were also taking advantage of the late sailing-departure hour and the fact that our ship often (see schedule of ports) tied up right on a pier, rather than requiring a tender boat to take us in.
In Palma de Majorca, no one can tie up except in the immense and isolated cruise port, so two full-size, air conditioned busses shuttled us to the central cathedral every half-hour. Alas, they neglected to put "Wind Star" signs in the windows, so it was hard to find our bus in the line of 15. A Carnival Cruises bus kindly picked up a couple that missed our last shuttle, but they still needed a (shorter) cab ride because the Carnival ship was so far from ours in port! The shuttles in Porto Vecchio were shiny ten-passenger vans, but they ran continuously, had jolly French drivers, and eliminated a steep climb to the "old town", which was perfect. But much of the lovely "old town" was closed for the season. We didn't want to buy a bathing suit cover-up or a pizza, so this didn't bother us. It was great to have no competition for the scenic overlook railings. But some might say it was too quiet.
The food on the ship was extremely good, even better than we remember from our past Windstar sailings. There were many choices at every meal, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and a vegetarian appetizer and entree at every dinner. When I ordered the steamed vegetable side-dish as my dinner entree one night (to make up for overeating, that is) it was plated and served as an entree. Very impressive. I ordered a bowl of soup as a sauce for the vegetables. Every lunch has a different flavor of bread pudding with crème Anglaise for dessert. I'd been looking forward to this since our last cruise, and it didn't disappoint. One lunch, the Indonesian chef offered several of his favorite ethnic dishes. But the unadventurous always had plenty to choose from as well. You could always order steak, chicken, or grilled fish, even if they weren't on the menu. There were slight adjustments for each daily schedule of tour departures, but typical meal hours were: Continental Breakfast, 6-11AM, Breakfast 7:30-9:30, Lunch, Tea and Sandwiches 4-5 by the pool, Dinner 7:30PM
Much of the ship's hotel staff is from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippine Islands. They all spoke English, and were friendly and charming. The seamen you occasionally met on deck may not have spoken English as well, but they were also polite and smiled as they went about their duties. The senior managers were all introduced by the Captain at the second night's dinner. Each of them had many years of cruise experience, and often more than ten years with Windstar.
We had a nice time, especially considering the greatly reduced price. But while it was nice to avoid crowds and the hot sun, I hesitate to recommend this cruise off-season. In fact, Rome and Madrid were both crowded and jumping, but the islands were on the sleepy. Palma de Majorca, which is quite a big city, is the exception to that complaint. Sidewalks there were just as jammed as Rome had been. Quite a few people had lunch downtown in Palma, because the last shuttle bus back to the ship was at 3:45PM
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
obsoperator
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Location: Bergen County, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 0 members
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