Wind Surf Review

4.0 / 5.0
259 reviews

surfs up, just dont miss the ship

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Wind Surf
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schmidlapp
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: May 2008
Cabin: Oceanview Stateroom

This was our third trip on the Windsurf, the first 2 were in the caribbean. We arrived in Nice on the 8th of May and travelled thru Italy by train for 10 days prior to the cruise. We had wonderful food, met many interesting and kind people and saw some pretty awesome sights. The day of our embarkation on the Windsurf we took an earlier train from Manarola (than we thought we needed). We arrived a little after 4pm went to the airport to collect a stored bag and took a taxi to the ship for our 10pm departure. We were pulling into the port only to our dismay to see the Windsurf leaving. I pulled out my documents and checked them and of course they said all aboard 10pm. We then flagged down the harbormaster, he radioed the ship and were told that the ship's agent would have to come and try to help us. I spoke by cellphone to the purser and she was aware that some documents were "misprinted". We waited about a half hour for the ships agent to arrive, he said we could stay in Nice overnight or go to St Tropez by taxi and spent the night for embarkation the next morning. We had the nicest taxi driver from the airport who was so kind to stay with us and try to help us thru our ordeal. I asked him if he wanted a good fare for a run to St Tropez (on the cruise line of course). He called his wife and she agreed to let him work a few extra hours so off we went. Meanwhile the ship's agent was arranging hotel for us in St Tropez. We had about a 2 hr ride and the driver who spoke fair english filled us in on some of the sights and history of the area. He earned a 340 euro fare for his effort. We arrived in St Tropez and were very pleased with the hotel they put us up at. It was the Byblos. They also arranged dinner for us at "Spoon" which is a famous restaurant at the Byblos hotel. They even had a bottle of champagne in our room for us Crystal was the brand. The next morning they had a taxi waiting to take us to the ship. We tendered to the ship, waited for the ships fire drill to end and were settled in our cabin by about 11:30. We went up for lunch thinking well we had all the good food on our trip prior and were not expecting what we were about to experience. What we experienced was the best food for the entire trip of any cruise ever. We've been on Regent, Windstar, Sea Dream, Celebrity and others. The staff is the same friendly, helping, fun and efficient people we had on our previous 2 Windsurf trips. I will single out some names hopefully for the good recognition they deserve. Dani, Putu, Yogi, Sammy, and many others made the trip exceptional. We consistently had excellent service and food in all the dining venues. I credit the food to the head chef ERWIN who was everywhere making sure things were right. This trip was all about the Cannes film festival and the Monaco Grand Prix. We anchored overnight in Cannes but since it was crowded and we are not the celebrity seekers, we took the train to EZE where we spent a great afternoon on our own. Next port was Santa Margarita. This is a gem that they added as a last minute change. We had a wonderful day just exploring all the villas, shops and restaurants. We found a local place on the water had a morning espresso. The owner was so kind and friendly and we told him we would come back for lunch. About 3 hours later we returned and he was so pleased he gave us the best table in the house. On to Monaco for the Grand Prix. We opted not to buy the ships package but I bought tickets on line from a local restaurant that had bleachers about 200 meters past the start finish line. I'm a bit of a motor-head and I was in heaven for 2 days on earth. It was all I expected and more. (My wife even became an F1 fan on this trip) I bought a Massa shirt and proudly wore it to dinner after he was the top qualifier for the race. The ship went all out for the Grand Prix, even making a life size cake model of one of the F1 cars. The Med was pretty rough for the 2 days we were in Monaco, tendering was very difficult. The day of the race we were told we would be tendered ashore but the ship was moving early to Nice so there would be a couple ferries hired to take all the passengers there. It was a smart move as we saw some other ships tenders having major trouble loading and unloading.

My final comments on the trip are as follows, The ships staff, food quality, fellow passengers and the Monaco experience made this the best cruise ever for my wife and myself. The fact that our documents were printed wrong (by the cruise line) is totally inexcusable. All our arrangements for the transfer and hotel in St Tropez were done by the staff of the Windsurf (purser) and the ships agent. After we returned we contacted Majestic lines (the owners of the Windsurf) and feel the offer they made us was very poor and insufficient for what we went thru. I commend the crew and staff of the ship for salvaging a wonderful trip for us. The only reason we will return and we will return is the outstanding crew this ship has. A bit of advice to the Management, the ships staff is the main reason so many people repeat. You cannot ever pay them too much.

Cabin Review

Oceanview Stateroom

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