Up next in 10
Windstar Cruises - 10 Things You Need to Know before cruising with them!
2K views
Jan 29, 2025
10 things you need to know about Windstar Cruises if you are thinking of cruising with them. Cruise expert and Author Gary Bembridge from http://www.tipsfortravellers.com, shares ten key things you need to understand about Windstar and their ships, on-board service and ambience, types of passengers, fares and more. Selecting the right cruise line is key to a successful cruise vacation and this video will help you navigate around that choice and understand if Windstar is right for you. Please leave a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel now: http://bit.ly/TFT_YouTube2 My travel with Windstar was arranged by the cruise booking agent Mundy Cruising: http://bit.ly/MundyWindstar Gary Bembridge of http://www.TipsForTravellers.com shares weekly travel inspiration, tips and advice to help you to make the most of your precious travel and vacation time and money. I’m Gary Bembridge, a travel blogger, writer, published author, podcaster and vlogger. My goal is to help you find and have amazing travel experiences on both land and at sea. Please follow Tips For Travellers via: - Instagram: http://instagram.com/tipsfortravellers - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge - Monthly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/AUTIX
View Video Transcript
0:00
the biggest mistake that people make
0:02
when going on cruising is going on the
0:04
wrong cruise line so this video is
0:06
designed to help you decide is wistar
0:08
the right cruise line for
0:10
[Music]
0:15
you hi I'm Gary benbridge I'm here on
0:18
board the Windstar star Breeze and in
0:20
this video I'm going to tell you a whole
0:22
bunch of reasons to get you thinking
0:25
about winst start and whether it's the
0:27
right Cruise Line if you're thinking of
0:28
going on a cruise first thing that I
0:30
thought I'd let you know is that WinStar
0:32
is not part of one of the big groups so
0:36
if you've got a group like Carnival
0:38
which control things like Carnival
0:40
Cunard Holland America Seaborn princess
0:44
piano they have they basically control
0:46
most of the cruise lines there's another
0:47
group called Royal Caribbean which uh
0:50
looks after Royal Caribbean it has
0:52
celebrity it has Azamara so those are
0:54
the two big giants in cruising wistar is
0:57
quite an independent group they only
0:59
have six ships in their Fleet it's a
1:01
much more independent group so if you're
1:03
looking for something that's a little
1:05
bit more independent then that's
1:07
something to certainly think about
1:08
rather than one of the big uh groups of
1:10
cruise lines the trend in cruising is to
1:12
bigger and bigger ships you know a lot
1:14
of the cruise lines have these big
1:16
monster ships what Windstar do is have
1:19
much smaller ships so their biggest ship
1:21
only has just over 300 passengers and it
1:23
goes down to about 140 so it's a small
1:26
ship experience so if you're looking for
1:28
something that's a little bit smaller a
1:29
little bit more into it and you don't
1:30
like the idea of going on really big
1:32
ships then definitely Windstar may be
1:34
something to think about so for example
1:36
on the star Breeze that I'm on it has a
1:39
maximum capacity of about 210 guest I
1:42
think it's about 212 and 150 crew so
1:45
it's quite small and quite personal so
1:47
inar have two basic types of ships so
1:50
there's six ships all together in the
1:51
fleet three of them are sailing ships
1:54
and three of them are sort of engine
1:57
driven ships and all the three engine
2:00
ships are old Seaborn ships again kind
2:02
of still yacht style so it's really a
2:04
yacht style service that win our promise
2:06
the other thing of course with being a
2:08
small ship is uh the crew get to know
2:09
you very well uh they know what you like
2:11
what you don't like there tend to be no
2:13
lines Excursion groups tend to be much
2:16
smaller in size so the ships within the
2:18
fleet are not brand spanking you so the
2:21
uh the sailing ships that they have the
2:22
sailing Yachts that they have they're
2:24
all um you know maybe 15 years old or
2:26
maybe even older than that and the three
2:29
newer ships are are old Seaborn ships so
2:31
they're also in their late teens they've
2:33
obviously been revamped and remodeled
2:35
and updated but there are older ships
2:37
although the ships are small it doesn't
2:39
mean that there are no choice of
2:41
facilities but there won't be as many as
2:43
on the big more Resort style ships so
2:46
you will have uh a couple of choices of
2:48
lounges so for example on the star Brees
2:51
that I'm on you've got the yacht club
2:52
you've got compass rose you've got the
2:55
the lounge where Port talks are you've
2:57
got the Star Bar outside it's a very
2:59
small Casino so there is less choice of
3:01
amenities obviously because the ships
3:02
are smaller so there's not as much uh
3:05
onboard activity so if you're looking
3:06
for lots of onboard activities lots of
3:09
activities lots of events lots of
3:10
entertainment lots of quizzes lots of
3:12
Production shows guest artists big
3:15
casinos uh rock climbing walls all those
3:18
kind of things that are much more linked
3:20
to Resort Styles ships then Windstar is
3:22
not going to be the right cruise line
3:23
for you however if you if you're quite
3:25
happy to have a much uh quieter less
3:29
laid on ENT entainment and you're quite
3:31
happy just to chat and meet people and
3:33
really focus on the destinations which
3:35
is a different time of experience the
3:36
wind star is probably going to be much
3:38
more suited to to you and your way of
3:40
traveling one of the features that
3:42
Windstar ships have which is a real plus
3:45
and the big Cruise uh ships don't have
3:47
is the water sports platform so at the
3:49
back of the ship when the ship is um
3:52
docked in a harbor and of course the sea
3:54
conditions are suitable and the water's
3:55
warm enough they can open the water
3:57
sports platform at the back of the ship
3:59
and that's a great experience because
4:01
you can then basically go kaying you can
4:03
go on an RB boat or you can just swim
4:06
and splash around and have fun on the
4:07
various water uh to toys and things that
4:10
they put out there they can only do that
4:12
when the ship is uh you know anchored
4:14
out in a bay they can't do when the ship
4:15
is actually within a port and docked the
4:18
other thing on Windstar is choice of
4:20
cabern types so generally speaking
4:22
there's four cabern types there's the
4:23
owner Suites which there's not very many
4:25
of them which are the very big sweets
4:27
then you would have classic sweet which
4:29
which are also quite big and then you
4:30
would tend to have cabins similar to the
4:32
one that I'm in which is a balcony Suite
4:34
or the ocean view Suites are the same so
4:36
all of the Suites will have ocean you
4:38
don't have inside cabins so if you're
4:39
looking for a cruise line and you want
4:41
something that's you know really good
4:42
value and you you're quite happy to have
4:44
an inside cabin then wind start are not
4:46
going to be able to accommodate you now
4:48
because the ships are smaller the other
4:50
thing that they can do is call on
4:52
slightly more diverse ports because
4:54
they're smaller they're more Nimble they
4:56
can get into smaller ports also because
4:59
they're smaller
5:00
often they will dock either right in the
5:01
heart of town or they're more just
5:03
outside and tender people in so the next
5:06
thing to think about is the overall
5:08
experience on wistar is much more casual
5:10
so some of the cruise lines you know
5:12
which really focus on a much more formal
5:14
cruising experience so they might have
5:16
formal nights dressing up you know
5:18
tuxedo nights that kind of thing wistar
5:20
is a much more informal approach so uh
5:23
the crew will often call you by your
5:24
first name the dress code is fairly uh
5:27
casual so the the strictest code is in
5:30
the evenings where they ask you to be
5:32
elegantly casual so you can't wear jeans
5:34
for example you can't wear shorts to
5:36
dinner but you can wear slacks you can
5:37
just wear a polo shirt something like
5:39
that so there's no formal nights there's
5:41
no themed nights or anything like that
5:43
so if you're looking for a cruise line
5:44
where you do actually get dressed up if
5:46
you like the idea of putting on nice
5:48
gowns putting on cocktail dresses
5:49
wearing a tuxedo wearing a jacket and
5:51
tie then you'll probably be disappointed
5:53
with WinStar other examples of the line
5:56
being fairly casual is because it's a
5:58
smaller ship they are things like they
6:00
have an open Bridge policy so for
6:02
example other than when you're coming
6:04
into port or going out of port when
6:05
Pilots are on board and they can't it
6:07
you onto the bridge you can actually go
6:09
onto the bridge chat chat to whoever's
6:10
on the bridge which obviously on bigger
6:12
ships you can't do because there's much
6:14
more people and there's much more kind
6:15
of structure and formality around it
6:17
it's a much more relaxed uh overall
6:19
experience because they can be because
6:20
there's much few passengers on board the
6:22
other thing I noticed a lot on winsty is
6:24
about the type of passengers so a lot of
6:27
the passengers that I've come across and
6:29
and spoken to they are well traveled
6:31
they travel quite a lot they're mostly
6:34
um Americans Australians uh some brids
6:37
not many but it tends to be much more
6:38
sort of North America Australians a
6:40
couple of kiwis that kind of stuff they
6:42
tend to be very well traveled uh and
6:44
travel frequently and so they're looking
6:46
for a smaller more intimate experience
6:49
uh they're not looking as much to
6:51
perhaps dress up they're not looking for
6:52
it to be as much of a special occasion
6:54
and they're very much focused on the
6:57
destinations and pretty much everyone I
6:59
spoke to the real reason they chosen the
7:00
Windstar cruise was around the itinery
7:03
and the ports of coal rather than the
7:04
ship because the ships being smaller
7:06
they don't have like some of the bigger
7:08
Resort style ships they don't have lots
7:11
of facilities and lots of uh onboard
7:13
entertainment and attractions and things
7:15
so therefore the shift in emphasis is
7:18
much more towards the ports and the
7:20
destinations the other thing that I
7:22
think Windstar does really well and if
7:23
it's very important to you is food and
7:26
dining so there's a buffet breakfast
7:28
there is a buff buffet lunch and then in
7:30
the main dining room the aora restaurant
7:33
which is a beautiful uh restaurants
7:35
there is a huge menu every evening with
7:39
lots of starters uh soups main courses
7:42
lots of desserts a lot of choice and
7:44
every single day the chef will have a
7:46
daily special because the ships are
7:48
smaller they will often have bought
7:50
either fish in the local market or you
7:52
know we'd got certain pastas that were
7:54
bought uh in the places who were in
7:55
Italy on my particular Cruise so they're
7:58
able to do that much more the food is
8:00
great it's very high quality lots of it
8:02
and a lot of choice one of the things
8:04
that I've been asked about is is it an
8:07
all inclusive Cruise experience and the
8:09
answer is no not really it basically is
8:12
very similar to other cruise lines so it
8:14
has the usual inclusion obviously your
8:16
cabin or your food is included um soft
8:20
drinks are included though so if you
8:22
have you know Diet Cokes or Cokes or
8:24
fruit juices or teas and coffees that's
8:26
all included but your usual things are
8:28
excluded so excursions are not included
8:31
although there is one event included in
8:33
every Cruise which is a special
8:34
destination immersion experience uh
8:36
which is included which might be out
8:38
going out to um Elites and local
8:41
families and have uh you know lunch or
8:43
tour a farm or something like that so
8:44
the things that are not included are
8:46
excursions are not included gratuities
8:48
are not included Wi-Fi is not included
8:51
so the usual things that you would
8:53
expect with many other cruise lines are
8:55
not included so there you have it
8:57
there's a whole bunch of things about
8:58
winstall which hopefully helped you
8:59
decide if WinStar is a cruise line that
9:02
you should be considering and I do think
9:04
it's really really important when you go
9:05
cruising to make sure you choose the
9:07
right cruise line so hopefully that's
9:09
giv you some things to think about about
9:11
what WinStar is and what WinStar isn't
9:13
to help you make up your mind now if you
9:15
enjoyed the video I'd love it if you
9:17
gave it a thumbs up I'd also love if you
9:19
subscribed to the channel
9:24
[Music]
9:30
h
#Boats & Watercraft
#Cruises & Charters
#Specialty Travel
#Transportation
#Travel Guides & Travelogues