We were glad we went, as this gave us the onboard zodiacs, the highlight for us of the week.
We have been on many river cruises (with Vantage and Scenic) and mid-sized Oceania voyages (on Oceania, almost always planning our own tours, often joining with fellow cruisers through Cruisecritic roll calls). This was our first Windstar experience. In balance, we would choose both Scenic and Oceania again, unless there was a specific desire, as there was with the zodiacs.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
This was completely disorganized. No one from the ship was there at the dock, so we got instructions from the longshore union workers that it was okay to leave luggage and head out (which fortunately did turn out okay). Everyone was ushered into the dining room to wait for health screening. Drinks and snacks were provided, which was nice. But the poor woman who started the health questionnaire with us got chewed out by an officer for starting too early. She did not have a QR scanner to read our Covid test results. The whole process took way longer than it should have.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The servers were uniformly very nice. The menus changed very little and seemed to rely very little on the abundant fresh fish in Alaska. I realize that it is probably hard to get great produce in Alaska, but surely that is available in Vancouver. Bottom line: don't push a special James Beard watermelon and tomato salad if you only have unripe tomatoes. The choices for vegans would have been completely non-existent.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The various naturalists' talks were excellent.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I thought these were surprisingly good, for a small ship.
Children's Programs
We had no kids aboard. I did hear the captain offering a bridge tour to some kids. The bridge was closed otherwise on this trip, and the ads all tout that being available.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone was great! Waiter Robert and our room steward Hakim were especially appreciated.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
This is an older ship that has beautifully redone bathrooms and nice public areas. While hand sanitizer stations were around, there were no staff people or signs around them reminding guests to use them before entry to public areas, as we saw on other ships even before Covid. I tried to careful with using those and wearing masks at least some of the time, and I did come home with Covid--to my surprise.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Note: we were switched to 605 before the trip. The big closet and new bath were lovely. There were more drawers than we could use! Our huge window was great. The heating and air system was not very responsive, though. The "all suites" is a bit misleading. We had a curtain that pulled to separate the seating area from the bed area. That was fine with us, but honestly was a typical cruise cabin layout. Be aware that the "balconies" are French balconies without any seating area. It would have been nice to have one, though, in order to access outside air at least.
Ship tip
If you are considering upping your cabin to one with a balcony, know that they are French balconies and have no seating areas outside, except on the highest level suites.
We loved our local guide who knew everything about the area. Our forest walk and river stops were all valuable and informative, and our group was small.
Skip the crowded boat on the otter tour. Maybe in nice weather it would not have been so bad. The crew tried really hard to make it good. Also, there is no point going into the cute town on Sundays--virtually everything was closed.
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