The boarding in Bridgetown is amazingly effortless. The taxi basically drops you off at the door of the terminal; and Windstar folks are nearby to take your luggage.You can take their shuttle bus the 2 min. ride to the ship, or just walk around the pier looking at all the other ships in port. Then...just walk up the gangway into reception. As the ship is so small, there is very little ceremony to registering. The ship is so small that even midship, you will hear the engine, especially when it starts or stops. For more than a full day,we were under sail only; that was pretty different. As others have noted, you can feel the ship roll more than on large ships. It seemed to us that they tried to be at anchor a fair bit so the engine was less objectionable. We found the cabin a very reasonable size for such a small ship; with a good bathroom, with the possible exception of the toilet 'round cublcle' which is not a particularly good design. There was lots of room for stuff; and the suitcases fit under the bed. Robes and slippers are supplied; as are soft drinks and water; both commercially bottled and some kind of reusable bottle with supplied drinking water. Our A/C was good; in fact we had to turn it down to not chill the room. Nice touch to have French toiletries (citronella soap). The only slight problem is that the water was so soft, you feel like Lady Macbeth trying to wash her hands.....it feels like the soap will never come off.

The food was good, but not exceptional. Service was usually good; although sometimes things were forgotten. As someone else mentioned, the port talk in the lounge just before the dinner start means lots of people will go to dinner at the same time. On one such occasion, we were one of the first to go in and get seated, and were not served until many other later arrivals had their dinners. The wine list was reasonable and varied.

They serve very nice appetizers during the pre-dinner cocktail hour in the lounge, during the port talk.. One day, they have a champagne reception.....really...champagne from Champagne...and they roam with bottles to refill freely! Quite a surprise. They also serve lattes, cappuccinos, etc any time. Unfortunately,these are from a 'one-touch' machine; and they were erratic in quality. Sometimes, it seemed that the grinder had not used any coffee; it got stuck in the chute. Staff said they had problems with it. Coffees were cheerfully replaced until we were satisfied. The morning breakfast and lunch are served only in The Verandah, with indoor or outdoor seating. There are good a la carte and buffet selections. You quickly meet people on such a small ship; as you will see them often. The 'pool' I put in quotation marks; it is about 8 feet long, and was rarely full. Apparently,there was a leak problem with it which we were never told about; a fellow cruiser heard from staff. The small ports were a delight; especially Mayreau and Bequia which large ships would not go to. You can snorkel just off the beach in Mayreau, and Leo the cruise director came to lead a group snorkel. The Tobago Cays were a slight disappointment; the catamaran excursion did not use its' sail at all; and the snorkeling was not particularly great. Seeing turtles forage on the ocean floor was really interesting and different. Read more