Best Vacation I ever had!!!!!
Written: Dec 04 '00 (Updated Dec 04 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent, the best vacation ever..
Cons: None
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| Ladypegg's Full Review: Windjammer Mandalay |
I highly recommend going on the Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. The Fantome was the one we were on a couple of years ago.
Going on a Windjammer Barefoot Cruise was the best vacation I ever had. My fiance and I went, leaving the offsprings with Grandma. We enjoyed every second of it. As a matter of fact, I took over 20 rolls of film and have them to look back on. We went for only the 6 days. Wish it was the 13 day cruise, instead. There was lots to see and lots to photograph.
We went on the Caribbean Cruise back in late November, 1987. Instead of the Mandalay, we were on the Fantome, with Captain P.G."Jock" McGroarty. I came home with photos of Captain Jock wearing his kilts and his whole Scottish outfit. Captain Jock really made the passengers feel relaxed. He mingled some with the passengers. We had a relaxed vacation with a relaxed Captain. Captain Jock did his job well. I have pictures of him up on the deck of the tall ship, giving commands to his crew. He put on an excellent display for all of us to enjoy.
The history of the tall ship really didn't matter. It was a very joyful cruise. In looking up the present information at the Windjammar's Web Site, I noticed that the Fantome is no longer listed as being available for the present day cruises. What I did notice is, that it seems that the Mandalay seems to have taken over the Fantomes' run. No matter which tall ship, it was the idea of being on a tall ship, itself. With the raising and lowering of the sails ceremonies, the lessons from the first mate, describing all about the tall ships, explaining about the "bow" and with drawing diagrams on a blackboard for all of us to see.
There was activity every evening after dinnertime. One night, there was even a "Toga Party." The tall ship was docked at a different island every day and its passengers went ashore via the row boats because there were no docks at most of the islands. We went to Grenada, St Kitts, Antigua, and St. Martains, just to name a couple of the seven Carribean Islands. We boarded and departed from Antigua. Some of the islands passengers went scuba diving, another one of the islands, there was casinos, another island, there were stores galore to browse in and to go shopping in. Lunch could be had either on board the tall ship or on the island that we were docked at that day. It was the passengers choice.
Everyone was friendly. From the Captain to the crew to other passengers. We sort of got together for going ashore and eating dinner aboard the tall ship. There was all kinds of food, plenty of it, from the different islands. It was a joy not to have to cook supper and to sit down and being waited on by the crew. I enjoyed it so much. Even though it was back in 1987, I remember it as if it was yesterday.
Before I started to write this review, I looked at the other Windjammer tall ship sites where other reviews of other passengers were done up as well as the ones here. It seems that the people who went on any of the Windjammer's Barefoot Cruises recently, enjoyed their vacations as much as we did back in 1987.
I still have my Windjammer port-hole clock from way back then. I put some weight on and sort of outgrew my Windjammer long night shirts that I also purchased on-board. I passed the night shirts onto someone else that they fit.
We looked at the more well known cruise lines that cost a lot more, where one had to get dressed up all of the time for dinner and parties and we decided we wanted a vacation, one we could relax and be ourselves. That's why we decided on the Windjammer "Barefoot Cruise."
I see that the Windjammer Cruise Line has "Cyber Sailors." That's sort of what we did, pretty much the same thing that the "Cyber Sailors" do. If one waits about two weeks before departure time, one can save some money. A discounted price. Like being on "stand-by" for airplanes. The difference now a days, it's called the "Cyber Sailors." They put their names on a list and the Cruise Line lets those people know when there is an opening for the reduced rate, when the tall ship is not completely booked up.
I've also seen programs on television where prizes on game shows are the Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. Early today, Regis gave away a Windjammer Barefoot Cruise for two, to someone as the reward for having the correct answer on his talk show. Not the "Do you want to be a Millionaire?" Show, but, his other show, the one that is on in the morning hours.
NOW, TO GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTIES:
The Mandalay, the tall ship, is 236 foot long, with a 33 foot beam and a 15 foot draft. It can hold 72 passengers and 31 crew members. It was built in 1923 for the financier, E. F. Hutton. It's original name was "HUSSAR." George Vettlesen bought the Hussar in the 1930's and he changed the name to "VERMA." It seems tha Columbia University had use of the Verma, which traveled throughout the world. The University, it is said, to have put about 125 million miles on this tall ship. Later, in 1982, this same tall ship became a member of The Windjammer Barefoot Cruise. Another name change. This time, the "MANDALAY." Each time the name was changed, the tall ship was christened.
Before the Mandalay was put to use on the cruises, the Windjammer company invested money into it, giving it a "face-lift" you might say, to make it "sea-worthy" and "spruced-it-up" to meet their high standards of their tall ships for their cruises. The University had put a lot of miles on it. The Windjammer group must have been working on the Mandalay when I was aboard the Fantome. The Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, LTD., became the new owner of the Mandalay in 1982 and we were on the Fantome in 1987. It must have taken them at least five years to fix up the Mandalay. I'm guessing here.
The Barefoot cruises aboard the Mandalay are for either 6 days or 13 days. I believe I said that earlier, when talking about when we went on the Fantome. That hasn't changed. The passengers seem to do pretty much the same thing, with island hopping daily, and with activities aboard the tall ship in the evenings plus passengers going shopping in the villages, going sun bathing, exploring the historical sites on the islands, scuba diving, seeing waterfalls and the tropical rain forests.
The winter and spring schedule, the 13 day trips, the Mandalay leaves Grenada at noontime on the first Monday of the month and docks at Antigua on the second Saturday, the last day at 1pm.
The third Monday, the Mandalay leaves Antigua at noontime and returns on its 13th day, Saturday, at 1pm in Grenada. That's where we left from, Antigua, but, we also returned to Antigua for our 6 day trip. Here, the tall ship was able to dock. We had seen some of the other cruise line ships docked there, too, at Antigua.
I'm not sure of the location for the pick up of passengers or the drop off sites for the 6 day cruises, now-a-days. That one, potential passengers would have to check out themselves.
For the summer and fall schedule, the Mandalay's 6 day Venezuela Cruise alternates weekly between Grenada and Puerto La Cruz.
Passengers have choices of locations for their cabins, which are two person occupancy or the singles area which sleeps about 5 or 6 persons. For the two person occupancy, on the main deck, there is the Admiral Suites, the Deck Cabins, or the Captain Cabins. Below the main deck, there are the standard cabins. The prices are a little different as to which one of these the passengers choose for their own vacations and cruise. If going on the cruise for New Years, the price is a little higher.
The standard cabins have bunk beds. The lower one was a three quarter one that we occupied on the Fantome. All of them have bathrooms with showers in them. On the Fantome, the shower was located almost right above the toilet. I got a kick out of that. One could go to the bathroom and take a shower at the same time. Of course, I took a picture of that. It was unoccupied, of course, when I took my pictures. Seeing was believing on that one. My fiance thought I was crazy for taking that picture. But, I was able to explain it to people when we arrived home, showing the pictures of it. I did it from different angles. Yes, he did eventually change his mind and opinion on that, for he used my photos to explain it to others, too.
I think I just about covered everything. We used travelers checks, as they suggested. We didn't bring any jewlery, because it wasn't needed on the casual barefoot cruise. We had mostly summer shirts and shorts to wear. We both brought sweaters for the possibility of the evening time it cooling down some. The tip for the crew was discussed in advanced, before we went on our trip. A certain amount is usually given on the last day of the trip and is divided up amongst the crew members. There is a "Port Charge" that was also taken care of in advanced, too. There was no problem with sea-sickness problems. I'm one who has that problem. I brought something for it and didn't need it at all. There was no "rough-sailing." I'm one who usually puts on a life saver jacket even before I get in any sea-fearing vessels. I didn't do it here, for I felt safe, when I saw how large the tall ships are.
Oh, one thing I forgot, we really enjoyed the "rum swizzlers" drinks that were served on board, at certain times throughout the cruise. That is optional for the passengers. We liked them so much, we tried to duplicate them at home. It was a fruit punch that contained coconut and rum, is the best way I can describe it. We really aren't drinkers, but, we didn't have to drive and we were honeymooning.
For early risers, they also had "sticky-buns" that was available with coffee or tea before breakfast was served. When we found out about that, we tried to be early-risers because those buns were delicious. We found all of the food to be good and we had plenty to eat and enjoyed all of it.
We sure slept good, too. Never even realized that the ship had a motor that was running on a very slow speed. We found out about that after we were on the Fantome for a couple of days, when the first mate gave us his speel, all about the ship, when he was doing one of his diagrams. We were sleeping at that time. It didn't even feel like the ship was moving at all.
After reading all of this, if you decide to go on any one of the Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did and those other people who wrote their own opinions on their own vacation cruises. When we didn't feel like going ashore, or got back early, we found others who also did the same. We played card games, 500 rum and the like.
For additional information, a brochure or the like, the Windjammer phone number is 305-672-6453, fax is 305-674-1219. Their address is Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, LTD., PO Box 190120, Miami, Florida 33119-0120. I'm not sure if I should give this information in this last paragraph. If I'm not supposed to, I'd appreciate someone either e-mailing me or leaving me a note under the "comments" section. I'm new at doing this. I hope I didn't make it too long, either. Sorry about that, if I broke that rule, too. I did this from my own experience and looking for the updated information, for we went on the Windjammer Barefoot Cruise back in 1987 and making a comparison of the two.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Ladypegg
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Member: Pegg C. Durr
Location: Toms River, New Jersey
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 2 members
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