Windstar Cruises - Star Breeze Reviews

All good

My wife and I had an amazing time with another couple on our 2 week Windstar adventure from Melbourne to Aukland. The crew was outstanding in every way possible - always helpful and cheerful and genuinely friendly. It is obvious that they all work very hard to attend to each guest. Also, the ship and our room were very clean and had many features to make our trip enjoyable. Our room attendant, Arifin, was excellent. He was quick and thorough cleaning our room every morning and evening while we were out and was available whenever we had a question. The food was exceptional and never seemed to stop coming. We looked forward to each night’s menu - not to take anything away from breakfast or lunch - and the staff did an excellent job preparing and serving the meals. We must specifically name Nurpuadi, Thalia, Rudi, Vijay, and Edwin who made our dining experience memorable. The same can be said for the bar service which was available all day with top shelf liquors. Again, we have to mention Nenita, Edgar, Jocelyn, Kenneth, Althea, Rose, and Tannie who kept us laughing and lubricated! The drinks/laundry/internet/gratuities package deal is a must have - no signing slips for each drink you order and being able to pack lighter made things much easier. At times, we had trouble reconnecting to the WiFi but once connected, the signal strength was very good. The one negative from this trip was the variety of entertainment. On most nights, there were 2 bands that alternately played several songs each per set. They both did a great job playing a variety of music and getting people to dance / engaging the crowd. Generally, however, that was the only ship activity option before and after dinner. The Activities Director did host a few afternoon trivia contests which were fun. There also were a couple of nights when the crew got involved and that was great - Officer Kuba was outstanding on the harmonica, and we will never forget Thalia’s and Tannie’s dances, Rudi as Elvis , and Edgar’s Sinatra!

We spent 50 days on Windstar's Breeze, and enjoyed every day of it. We got to see Japan from OK soccer to Yokohama all the way down the islands onto Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, the northern islands of Australia, and we finally get off in Canberra. The breeze is a small ship, so we got into a lot of the ports that large ships can't enter that made for really varied sightseeing and tours. It was a great way to get oriented to Asia now we know where we'd like to go back and spend some time.

The reason for 4 instead of 5 stars - the food and wine list . The food was at best 3.5 and the wine list 3 ish. The menu execution of several dishes missed on many counts . The wine list lacks sophistication, quality of its appellation's. The staff is superb, the small boat ambiance superb . Don’t miss all the glitz of the bigger boats and absolutely love the excellent itineraries of Windstar . While the ship has been nicely refurbished recently, these ships are are older than some of the slightly larger so called luxury cruise lines . The suites are spacious and window view rooms perfect for us- just a short walk to the bow of the ship. The gift shop is a bit sorry but … not a bid deal.

I would rate the land tour a 3 out of 5 and the cruise a 5/5. There were many things on the land tour that were disappointing; I am happy to discuss with MaryLinda Ramos, our agent, or another individual in more detail. The cruise was wonderful! Almost no suggestions for improvement. It exceeded our expectations and we will sail again with Windstar! Only a few issues with our excursions; that is on Windstar and primarily bc our ship had some engine trouble from 6/12-6/15. That caused us to get into ports later than planned in Sitka, Juneau and Haines, which in turn disrupted the excursions. They managed the changes well and communicated with us. However, they should've discounted the excursions more. We missed 1/3 and 1/2 of two excursions due to shortened time in port, only discounted one for 25% - should be 1/3 - and the other 0 discount, despite missing 1/2 of the excursion. I will close with one comment and a request. I would like Marylinda Ramos to call me. I have lots of feedback on the land tour (Fairbanks to Seward 6/7-6/11 with Windstar). Given our experience, we will NOT book a land tour with Windstar in the future. Comment: Marylinda Ramos was excellent! She was very helpful in choosing this vacation and communicating with Windstar and our family. I give her a 5/5 and we will be using her again! :)

I did end up with Covid at the end of the trip although I believe many precautions were taken by the cruise line

We had a wonderful time and the ship and staff were awesome. We would have liked more time at some of the towns we stopped at. We are too 'country' to like their food all that much. My husband enjoyed the seafood but I found little food to my taste, other than the wonderful fruit selection. By far, the food was 'too fancy' for us. We found the seasonings and preparation to be like eating at a fancy New York 5 star restaurant. In other words, we thought the chef was probably fantastic but his seasonings, etc., were just not "us". The add-on trip to Fairbanks was wonderful but again, there was very little time to enjoy each stop/excursion. The staff and guides for all of the trip were awesome.

Personal service, friendly staff and fabulous sights made this an awesome trip. Star Breeze got into places other ships could not and that made for a very special trip. The excursions were good, some better than others and the land portion was well coordinated and interesting. Overall a great trip.

Our cruise was wonderful. Beginning with an organized and efficient boarding to an organized and efficient final docking. Staff was friendly highly competent. Expedition were exciting and well managed with extraordinary knowledgeable, friendly, and patient. We really can’t say enough about how great the expedition staff treated us. Food was excellent, high quality, and readily available. Room was very comfortable. We can’t imagine taking a cruise in any other cruise line.

Wonderful Crew, delicious food, comfortable spacious stateroom, fun BBQ dinners off the ship, Great Band, Nice gift shop for Cruise Logo Shirts, 7 days was too short.

Our Star Breeze cruise to Tahiti exceeded expectations with great service, friendly staff and surprise events. One night staff set up tables on the pool deck and served a delicious bbq buffet with live music. Another treat was dinner on a Motu (small island) all to ourself with a fabulous buffet and Tahitian fire dancers to entertain us. We had a memorable cruise!

Great service on board compared to many MEGA SHIPS we took our cruises on. Loved the music band every night. Everyone on the band was a star. Dinning room staff and Chef were very attentive and courteous. Our stateroom was cleaned twice. CONS: Bathroom shampoo, conditioner and soap dispenser pumps needed a little longer nose. Zodiac operators needed more training to avoid accidents. People should be briefed before getting on zodiac and they should allow enough time for passengers to get on and settle in. They should be checking everyone is holding rope and feet are anchored in the straps below before releasing rope from loading dock to avoid accident which I have reported. Also they definitely needed a training in rescuing person from water. They struggled pulling me up for 7 long minutes because they were doing it wrong. Right way of pulling person from water is to make his legs pulled up with an ores and make his body horizontal to the zodiac, push forward a little if needed, then pull from both ends and roll him in the zodiac. This will cause no injury to a person and would be lot faster and easier. It was a very scary and traumatic experience for me which could have been avoided. Luckily I survived with some pain in my right chest area and neck due to pressure caused by belts on my life vest that zodiac operators have used to pull me up. My pain is going away little by little everyday. I am taking prescription pain medication Motrin 800mg three times daily as per my physician advice. No one should go through this horrible experience in future. Please take necessary measures to avoid this kind of situations.

Cancelled on 3rd day due to Covid. Windstar was very good about assisting travelers with change of plans. Have promised 100% FCC or cash refund. Beautiful area, amazing yacht and crew. We shall return.

Bonnie set up this cruise for us, our first on Windstar. She helped us with airline tickets, transfers shipboard decisions and picking our room. Everything was perfect. Bonnie is accurate, responsive, a pleasure to deal with and she brings a lot of fun to her service. The cruise itself was really great. We met lots of fun active passengers, and got to know most of the crew. Our excursions are personalized and top shelf. On boarding off boarding and transfers meals and services all five star. We have already booked our next Windstar cruise with Bonnie.

We loved our recent trip so much we just signed up to go again in January!

Cruise was well done and very fun. Entire itinerary had to be changed, but crew rolled with it and made it a fun cruise. Only negative mark was that they never opened the water sports platform — though that was advertised 5 of the 7 days on the original cruise.