Star Pride Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We enjoyed this cruise and the itinerary. We have sailed previously on Wind Spirit, which was nice, but we really like the Star Pride class ships.

i would recommend windstar to anyone and everyone - right up there with silver seas!

Getting to Iceland and Greenland was fantastic! It was pretty chilly but we packed a ton of warm clothing. Didn't see the sun very much but it didn't change how much fun we had. Windstar is the best cruise line in our opinion

Same great people and service and was somewhat disappointed in the food quality at times. We'll be back. Many Thanks for all, Kurt

Great Itinerary, was expecting better food & service.

If you can find a better cruise line such as Seabourn at the same or slightly higher price point, I'd go for that because the experience is night-and-day.

Fun enjoyable trip to the Caribbean, with small boat, allowing us to stop at places the big boats can't go.

We had a very good cruise, along with friends who traveled with us. The only problem was one of the two AC plants kept crashing over several days making some public areas and some cabins very hot and humid. Sleeping some nights was very difficult in the affected cabins. Conditions were worse for the crew quarters. Windstar did it’s best to deal with the situation and even flew an expert technician to travel with the ship and get the AC up as quickly as possible whenever it crashed. The passengers were understanding and patient. Windstar provide some compensation to the affected guests.

First time in a smaller ship. Pro: great service and attention from the crew and staff, efficient and easy, getting on and off the ship is a breeze. Con: smaller ship bounces a lot in open seas. Every time we left the protected fjords it was really noticeable. One review I read before the trip was that it would be a mix of US, UK and Canadians and middle-aged. It was 90+% US. And if 70 is the new middle age then I am feeling really young. Great cruise though.

Only thing that went wrong was trying to get Taxi after disembarkation. REALLY BAD!!!

Such a great experience we had that we become a Windstar Cruises lovers!

We really enjoyed the cruise as the food was great , the room was spacious the crew was great and the port were fun to visit. Would highly recommend both a trip to Iceland and travel on a Windstar Cruise. We have cruised with Cunard, Princess, Holland America. Royal Caribbean and Ama-Waterways and plan to cruise with Windstar again.

The size of the ship is nice as you have no long lines and the service was wonderful. Food was well prepared and presented. Balconies to the rooms were very disappointing but the cabin size was good. Activities were poor and excursions excessively expensive but the ports of call were just fabulous.

The crew was friendly and attentive without being nosy. They began using our names early into the cruise.

The food was delicious and prepared to our satisfaction. Lots of different selections each day.

We enjoyed our cruise very immensely and will definitely cruise with Windstar again.

We absolutely loved this cruise!  The staterooms on the Star Pride are larger than a hotel room and beautifully appointed.  The food is excellent, the staff friendly and always willing to assist.  The ports are some of the best in the Caribbean. The only caution I have is that there is very limited entertainment on the ship so if you are looking for the big live shows found on the large cruise ships you will be disappointed.  

Windstar has spoiled us.  We are already planning our next cruise experience with Windstar!

This is my second review of the "Star Pride" --- my first was the maiden voyage in 2014, immediately after the ship was acquired from Seabourn.  I noticed several changes, almost all of which were positive.

Our cruise started in Colon, Panama and traversed the Panama Canal, with later stops in several small ports in Costa Rica.  The voyage through the Canal was interesting, but not particularly scenic. Some recent passengers have complained that the Costa Rican ports are relatively unknown, but I really liked seeing the smaller venues that feature local culture and wildlife.  Like us (13 previous cruises), over half of the passengers were Windstar alumni cruisers.   Also in attendance were the new Windstar President John Delaney, and several members of his executive team.  I had the opportunity to spend some “quality time” with John, and found him to be attentive, engaging, and passionate about small ship cruising, with many ideas for improving the Windstar brand. Prior to our embarkation, we flew into Panama City and stayed at the Bristol Hotel, located in the middle of the banking/financial district.  Panama City is located on the Pacific coast, so we took an hour-long bus ride over to Colon’ on the Atlantic coast before boarding the ship.  This might seem a bit odd, until you see that Panama City is a modern metropolis dominated by skyscraper hotels and high-rise office buildings, while Colon’ is mostly industrial, with little to offer tourists.

The best part of this cruise was the transit through the Canal, it truly is an engineering marvel and I am so glad to have experienced it.  The small ship is nice but beyond that I was disappointed with Windstar.  The staff is very friendly but they are all very young and lack training regarding how to deliver good service. Dining on a cruise is usually special but their menus were limited and very ordinary, a big disappointment.  Being only offered a deck BBQ on cheap plastic chairs is not what I expected, I am not a fan of buffet lines.  This is really an itinerary of nature ports with opportunity for only the scheduled tours as options for daily activities, little if anything to do in port otherwise, beach visits only.  It may be good to know prior to arrival. All of this contributed to my disappointment as I was left to more free time than I had expected.  The star of this trip is the Canal transit and that was something I will always remember as spectacular! 

What a wonderful cruise. This is my 1st time on Windstar, and it's won't be my last. Everything was wonderful....and I MEAN EVERYTHING.I think the best part was that the ship is small, and so easy to get around, no long walks along endless hallways, you could get from any part of the ship or yacht as it is called to your suite in less the 5 minutes. The suites are well appointed, bathroom huge with 2 sinks & a full tub. Food wise was also A+, with the only exception of a pasta dish I had at lunch.The cookout on the top deck 1 night was not to believed....amazing....the staff is very friendly, always with a smile & a hello. I can't wait to sail on Windstar again.    

Some years back, my wife and I went on a Mexican cruise with one of the "big" cruise lines. Although we saw some nice things, my overall perception was, cruising is not for me. The ship was too crowded, noisy, and there seemed to be lines for everything. When Denise suggested this WindStar cruise, to tell you the truth, I was not all that excited.

Well, upon boarding the Star Pride in Rome my perceptions started to change! This was not a ship with thousands of passengers. It was a luxury yacht with only about 170 of us on board. From moment one, we were treated as real guests, not just ticket holders. This staff cannot be complimented enough on how they treated us. The ship was absolutely beautiful. Our cabin was to die for. The food and service at mealtime was top notch. Allen, the restaurant manager was the greatest and paid special attention to each guest to make sure we received nothing but the best of food and service. 

Our ports of call were well thought out and there were lots of choices for tours or if you wished to explore on your own, nightly presentations were made to point out the history and points of interest in each port. 

To sum it all up, there is nothing negative I cay say about WindStar, the Star Pride, the accommodations, or staff. You all have changed this old mans mind about cruising! Id go again in a second. But only with WindStar! 

best part was food and service; although uneven, it was apparent the crew's job was to be pleasing. Special kudos to Chef Darrin who made every encounter special (demonstration, market tour) and created a lovely presentation for our table when we asked for a special appetizer. With one exception (we were yelled at by a waiter because 'we took too long' - he said 'I have other tables!' - we noticed he had one other table), the crew in most cases makes an effort to please.  Having said that, poached eggs should not come out under cooked and then over cooked, the bathtub should not be blocked, sinks should not be leaking and air conditioning and Jacuzzi tubs should be in working order. We advised staff but the Jacuzzi was never fixed.  The cruise ports were not exceptional; some of the ports consisted of a small town (all stores were closed but they were ordinary shops, what might be found in any lower middle class area for local shopping), this might have been the Montenegro and Corfu stops.  In other words, you would never hop into a car and decide to visit these places. Windstar boasts that its small ships enable visits to interesting ports that larger ships cannot dock at but that SHOULD NOT MEAN NO OTHER SHIP WOULD WANT TO DOCK AT THE SELECTED PORTS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SIGNIFICANCE! We did the HIGHLIGHTS OF MONTENEGRO; a complete waste of time, we were driven around for hours, there were two 5-minute stops off the side of the road (!) for the view, then a stop at a restaurant (located next to an abandoned building) where plates with a few pieces ham had already been laid out on table (who know how long?).  I can guarantee that no one asked for seconds! The only part interesting was the short walk to old town at end, where the tour guide spoke a few minutes.  The rest of the commentary by this guide, OMG terrible, uninteresting, repetitive, no interest/ability to connect with tour passengers.  We along with a few other participants made Windstar staff (Richard) aware - don't you think Windstar should have reimbursed us for this (we spent $200) disastrous waste of time? We decided not to take any other excursions based on this awful experience!  I know Windstar takes an interest in improving its service, please feel free to contact for additional details.