Windstar Pride San Juan 21 Day Round Trip Feb/Mar 2018
Feb 21, 2018 We returned to San Juan from St Barts via Tradewinds Aviation and checked into the Old San Juan Sheraton for three nights. The hotel is across the street from the cruise docks, and was a convenient location to get ready for our Caribbean cruise on the Windstar Pride. We were pleasantly surprised by the restaurant at the hotel and ended up eating dinner there on two evenings.
Feb 24 to March 17th Our last cruise with Windstar was in the spring of 2009 on the Surf from Lisbon to Barcelona. We met a couple in Lisbon who were on a Seabourn cruise with a similar itinerary and decided we would try a Seabourn cruise that fall. We enjoyed the larger Seabourn ship and with a couple of exceptions cruised with them for the next 8 years.
Windstar purchased Seabourn's three small ships, including the Pride,in 2013. She was completely refurbished and was in perfect shape. We know some of the Windstar top Corporate officials who they hired away from Seabourn and they made sure we were received on board as important passengers.
We both felt that this was one of the most relaxing cruises we had ever been on. For most of the cruise there was a significant ocean swell and we were glad we had a mid-ship suite on a lower level which is the most stable area of the ship. We had previously been to most of the ports we stopped at and did not venture ashore at most. Further, almost all the ports were at anchorages and getting on and off the tenders was not our "cup of tea".
Here is a list of the ports we visited with links to photos I took:
As already mentioned the ship is extremely comfortable. It does not have walk out balconies, but does have sliding glass doors which we much prefer to the hinged doors on the Seabourn ships which are difficult to keep open and turn outward onto the balcony. While the suites are smaller than on the larger Seabourn and Silversea ships, they are very well laid out with more usable storage, etc.
The dress code is strictly casual, but no one abused the dress code at dinner. The passengers were overwhelmingly American, rather than a large portion of Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders on the Seabourn ships.
The biggest drawback for us is the fact that Windstar seems to avoid docking and is normally at anchor. This is great for passengers who enjoy water sports off the stern of the ship, but the tenders are old and are difficult to get on and off, especially if there is any swell as was the case for most of this cruise.
The wait staff and room attendants are mainly Indonesian and Philippian long term employees. Very pleasant and attentive. We thought the food was of higher quality than on Seabourn or Sllversea. Because this cruise was port intensive there was not much in the way of entertainment which was a shame because the theater is very comfortable without support pole blocking the view of the stage.