Star Breeze Review

4.5 / 5.0
123 reviews

Star Breeze

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Star Breeze
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itsnowjoke
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2016
Cabin: Ocean View Suite

It's not my goal to tear Windstar to pieces, but my latest cruise on the Star Breeze was somewhat bizarre and disappointing, given the fact that I was expecting a higher-end cruise. I'm a Diamond on Royal Caribbean, and have cruised all three of their brands. Since Windstar calls the Star breeze a "Yacht," I was expecting a higher-end experience, though I'm about the easiest to please person imaginable. But I can't imagine booking on Windstar ever again. I'm somewhat torn in writing this review, because there are things on the ship that were pretty good, and in my ratings (below) I said as much. However, RCCL's brands -except Azamara- charge a fraction of the list price of this cruise, and don't have the issues I experienced. So rather than being a Windstar "hater," I guess I just didn't see the value, and didn't experience the high-end luxury yacht feeling that I thought I was going to have.

Having said that, most of the staff was excellent, the food was great, and we made friends that I think we'll be in touch with in the future. The Candles dinner on the aft deck was sublime, I loved eating breakfast out there every morning, too. The menu was great, my coffee never ran dry. The deck party on day 6 was awesome, the food delish and well presented. There seemed to always be enough deck chairs, the pads were good. The excursion that we did was great, the guide spoke excellent English and was thoroughly professional. So what is my problem? I'll try to keep it short:

We showed up in Puerto Caldera. Many have asked why the ship didn't dock in Puntarenas, because the town is close, and Puerto Caldera is a more industrial port. But a lot of cruise ship ports are industrial, right? It shouldn't be a problem. But it was. Immediately adjacent to the Star Breeze was a massive container ship unloading what I thought was sawdust. I later learned that it was corn, thus the rotten fermented / garbage dump smell. The wind was blowing the wrong direction, the ship was being blasted by this dry corn / sawdust mixture for hours and hours. And hours. When darkness fell, the dust was illuminated in the lights, no one could be outside. It was thick, and it was disgusting to see what we'd been breathing all day. Windstar's fault? Probably not. But choose your dock wisely, I suppose. If a plane hits turbulence the pilot apologizes, though we know it's not his / her fault. I think a little bit of explanation would have been in order.

Cabin Review

Ocean View Suite

Cabin S1

The cabin was great, roomy, and well-appointed. We enjoyed that L'Occitane was the toiletry brand, that you could check-out DVD's in the library, and room service was extremely prompt and would even bring popcorn for the movie. Our huge picture window's exterior was always filthy, I guess cleaning it once during the cruise was not a priority. But really, I was skeptical of staying in an outside cabin -what Windstar calls a "suite"- and was pleasantly surprised at how nice actually was.

Port Reviews

Puntarenas (Puerto Caldera)

The ship was blasted by corn dust for hours at this port. Inhaling corn dust can be harmful to your health.

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