High-end cruise to unusual ports in the Caribbean sun
Written: Jan 28 '05 (Updated Feb 14 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful, clean, luxurious ship. Great food, tours to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, gracious clientele.
Cons: Limited beach time, generic tropical islands, long ride to special destinations.
The Bottom Line: Make sure you like the destinations. A luxurious way to see Central America. Don't take this cruise if you want Broadway shows at night or European shopping in the daytime.
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| obsoperator's Full Review: Windstar Wind Surf |
On January 16, 2005, my wife and I took the M.S.V. Wind Surf's 7-day cruise from Cozumel, Mexico, "Mayan Riviera". That name is a hint that the main purpose (other than enjoying a luxury cruise) is to visit important Mayan ruin sites. In fact, the actual ports were either (four) flat, rainforest, tropical beach resorts, or (two) rather industrial ports chosen for access to the biggest Mayan sites of them all, Tikal and Copān.
The Wind Surf, originally built for Club Med, has been improved by Windstar Cruises (...a tiny little division of Holland America) to be a big sister to their 148-passenger Wind Star and Wind Spirit. At 308 passengers, it's still tiny by most standards. We found it less intimate than the 148-passenger Windstar ship we cruised on twice, but we've never been on a larger ship than the Wind Surf! It's Windstar's only ship with elevators, although you still have to climb the gangway steps in port, or to reach a tender when the ship anchors outside a port. It's a 530' or so steel Motor Sailing Vessel, with computer-controlled sails (no deckhands involved with the sails at all) that can allow the engines to be turned off. The outside decks are fully covered with teak floorboards and wooden-topped handrails.
The ship is stylish, luxurious, and immaculately clean. There are two decks of two-person cabins, and one deck that's mostly suites. The suites are in effect, two regular "double" cabins put together. They have two complete bathrooms with showers, and a sitting area with a sofa, two chairs, and a coffee table. The portholes do not open, and there are no balconies. Many people on the ship paid $1,503 per person with fees and taxes for a normal double room. We paid $2,103 per person for a suite, including fees and taxes. I received many discount offers (from Windstar) for this cruise, perhaps because it was only the second departure with this itinerary. It was also early in the "season". The Captain said that the ship was "full" for our cruise, and that it was 61% Windstar "repeaters". The repeaters ranged from their second cruises to their 17th. This is the cheapest 7-day Windstar cruise we've ever been on, so you can't rely on rates like this appearing again.
There's 24-hour room service, rather than 24-hour groaning boards of buffets. The food was excellent, with no hint of crowd-pleasing blandness. Breakfast was a huge hot and cold buffet, omelettes to order, or kitchen-prepared specials. Lunch was also a huge buffet, with an outdoor grill-station option. I'll estimate that 50 people (at once, the tables did turn over) could chose to eat under umbrellas on deck for those two meals. Tea included sandwiches and fruit, as well as a wide variety of cakes, pies, and pastries. Dinner was five courses, with the larger restaurant open-seating only, and a smaller restaurant "The Bistro" requiring reservations. The Bistro food was similar to the main restaurant, but different and fewer choices each night. In either restaurant, it was easy to get a table for two if you wanted one, or you could offer to share. Despite the hotel staff being mostly from Indonesia and The Philipines, only one meal, a lunch, was "Asian". (The staff was charming and friendly.)
We bought "bookend" nights at the Presidente Intercontinental Hotel (perhaps the best hotel in Cozumel) from Windstar, with pier transfers, for $190 per person, per night. This was not a good value, since taxis turned out to be cheap and honest in Cozumel, and the hotel could be had for $200 a night, more or less. The hotel has excellent walk-in snorkeling, and many dive boats picked up there every morning.
One reason we stayed overnight in Cozumel was that we bought our own air tickets. Windstar ran out of Cozumel air, and was sending people by bus and ferry from Cancun by the time we booked our trip. That would have cost slightly more than the $600 per person we paid Continental, and we got the once-a-week Non-Stop EWR to Cozumel for our outbound leg. That's an expensive airfare, but it's high season in the Caribbean.
The itinerary (as actually cruised) looked like this:
16 Jan 05 Sun 12:00Mid Depart Cozumel, MEXICO Boarding 2PM, no earlier
17 Jan 05 Mon At Sea
18 Jan 05 Tue 8:00AM Isla De Utila, HONDURAS Depart 5PM
19 Jan 05 Wed 6:00AM Puerto Cortez, HONDURAS Depart 7PM
20 Jan 05 Thu 7:00AM Coxen Hole, ROATAN, HONDURAS Depart 5PM
21 Jan 05 Fri 8:00AM Belize City, BELIZE Depart 6PM
22 Jan 05 Sat 8:00AM Costa Maya, MEXICO Depart 6PM
23 Jan 05 Sun 6:00AM Cozumel, MEXICO Immigration at 6:30AM, Disembark by 8:30AM
Note that (as can happen on any cruise, without notice or compensation) this is not precisely the advertised itinerary. At the second and third Honduras ports, the ship had planned to move a few miles around noon. For various reasons, including sea conditions, this didn't happen. That benefitted the people returning from Copān, because the return bus trip was shorter, but on Roatan island, it meant that the Thursday "Beach Barbecue" required a mini-bus ride.
As I noted, the ports themselves weren't of great interest. Costa Maya (the Saturday port) is a commercial cruise pier and shopping mall (with sand beach and swimming pool) in the middle of nowhere, Yucatan. Belize City and Puerto Cortez were gritty commercial ports. The other ports were attractive, low-traffic beach resorts on the Bay Islands of Honduras. These are very important low-priced diving destinations, for both sides of the Atlantic. They have great diving and snorkeling, low-priced accommodations, and low-cost SCUBA certification. There are no high-rise hotels, as there are on the Mexican coast. The ship staff (which had all our passports) had some port clearance delays, holding back excursions. This may be due to the new itinerary. The pier in Cozumel is called "Puerta Maya", and is as plastic and new as the airport. It's about 1/4 mile from the taxi stand to the ship. There were pedicabs beside the ship when we returned, but not on embarkation.
Certainly, specific destinations are reviewed elsewhere on Epinions. But I want to mention the two optional shore excursions that seemed to be the main "reason" for this cruise itinerary. Copān, Honduras ($124 per person), and Tikal, Guatemala ($424 per person) are "UNESCO World Heritage Sites". They are huge, completely different, complementary Mayan city ruins. Each excursion took 12 to 14 hours, with about 3 hours at the site. They were grueling days, but we're glad we went. Copān is 3 to 4 hours by bus from Puerto Cortez. Tikal is a 45-minute flight from the Belize City airport, followed by a 1-hour bus ride. All the busses were air-conditioned European-style tour busses, with 45 to 50 seats. Our cruise had two bus-fulls to Copān, and 28 people for Tikal. Both sites require steep stair climbing, but Tikal is much larger, with more uneven packed-dirt trails. We probably walked two miles at Tikal, some of it at a brisk pace. After Copān, a local hotel provided an excellent hot buffet lunch in a lovely picnic grove at the site. After Tikal, a hotel in Flores had provided box lunches we ate on the bus. These were very special trips to very special places.
These tours were so good that we took the last day off, skipping the Chacchoben ruins on the Mexican mainland. The other tours were snorkeling, dolphin encounters, zip-line jungle slides, beach buggies, kayaking, and rafting. There were also a few sit-back-and-watch tours, for the less energetic. Most excursions were between $80 and $100. But one snorkel trip, on Utila was only $22. The Captain said we were the first cruise ship to call there in two years, so don't count on that bargain lasting long! We don't dive, but I was aware of numerous dive excursions arranged by the ship during the cruise. I don't know how much those cost.
Everyone who plans a trip has to consider whether possible health hazards at the destination are a problem for them. The Honduran Bay Islands are major resort destinations. We met well-off American college students working for our snorkel trip. But the agency where I occasionally donate blood told me I have to wait a year to donate again: Those islands, technically, have a Malaria risk. We wore insect repellent, and after all, were never ashore at dawn or dusk, the most dangerous times. But you have to make your own decision.
The ship has two very small pools, and two hot tubs, which were popular. But there were not a lot of organized events on board. This ship is too small to have rock climbing walls, musical revues, or even shuffleboard. We didn't miss them, but others might want to know that you can't depend on having something to do every minute if you stay on board. The chaises were well padded and comfortable, in the shade or out in the sun! On a drizzly day at sea, all the game tables were filled with bridge and backgammon. There was a DVD library, and live music (heavy on the synthesizers) in the Compass Rose bar and the Main Lounge. The Casino (two employees) is closed by law while in port.
Because the shore excursions are such a significant part of the trip, you should check on the Windstar website ( http://www.windstarcruises.com/ ) to make sure they appeal to you, and that you budget for them. The only "free" excursion we had was the beach barbecue on Roatan. They had intended to anchor off the beach, and tender us into the barbecue. But because of sea currents, we remained tied up to the pier in Coxen Hole, and Windstar hired every (I made that up, but it's a small island!) 10-passenger van on the island to drive us the length of the single road. I don't mean that as a complaint, but it was a 25-minute ride each way. The beach was lovely, with the catering provided by the ship's hotel staff, in the facilities of Tabyana Beach Club. Alcohol was charged directly to your ship account, as if you were aboard. The food was elaborate and good, including lobster tails and grilled fish, as well as the usual barbecue items. Dessert was pastries or ice cream. The beach club had good bathroom facilities. A benefit of hiring small busses was that service was continuous and almost on-demand. Lunch was available on the ship for the tiny number who didn't care to go to the beach.
We've been to many Caribean islands. While they have much in common, each has special attractions: Barbados has caves and botanical gardens, St. Thomas has some of the best beaches in the world, Antigua has naval history and rocky scenery, St. Martin has top restaurants and gambling. The ports on this cruise just didn't have that level of scenery and interest. There are cheaper ways to see Central America. But returning to your own room, with unlimited hot showers and safe food and water has its' attractions after a long day in a developing country. And everything is arranged for you. Also note that the cruise cost (in the Epinions heading of this review) was only about half of our total expenses for the 10-day vacation. That said, we had a wonderful time.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
obsoperator
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Location: Bergen County, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 0 members
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