Introduction
Join me as I revisit my journey through the Aegean Sea aboard Windstar Cruises’ Star Legend, exploring destinations across Greece and Turkey. From the bustling streets of Athens to the tranquil beauty of Limnos, and the historical splendor of Ephesus, this cruise was a blend of cultural exploration and scenic landscapes. I’ll do my best to give an honest review of the good and not so good, hopefully providing some tips and inspiration for those planning their own cruise to Greece and Turkey.
Contents
- Introduction
- Itinerary Change – Corinth Canal Closed
- Athens, Greece
- Athens and joining Star Legend
- Nafplio, Greece
- Chania, Crete (Souda) – Greece
- Santorini – Greece
- Bodrum – Turkey
- Kusadasi (including Ephesus) – Turkey
- Mykonos – Greece
- Limnos Greece
- Disembarkation – Istanbul, Turkey
- Windstar Ship Experience
- Final Thoughts
Itinerary Change – Corinth Canal Closed
This cruise was originally called Aegean Sea Odyssey via the Corinth canal. However, just two weeks before the sailing date we received an email tell us that the canal was closed. Windstar is in some way to blame for this as they should not have scheduled a Corinth canal cruise so early in the season as the Corinth canal has been undergoing a lot of maintenance for the past few years and was closed to all traffic for the 23/24 winter. On the canal website they posted a news update saying the canal would open on the 2nd May 2024, the week after our scheduled call to the canal.
Windstar didn’t handle the situation particularly well. When we received our ‘Bon Voyage’ document a few days before the start of the cruise it still showed the old itinerary with us going through the canal. What was more unacceptable is that the onboard smart TV system showed the original itinerary for the entirety of the cruise. I’m sorry Windstar but what an appalling lack of attention to detail.
As we weren’t going through the canal it also meant we could not go to Delphi, one of the major archaeological sites of ancient Greece. The replacement ports for Corinth and Delphi were quite poor in comparison. Instead of having a sea day after cruising the Corinth Canal and visiting Delphi we were scheduled to visit Chania which we would access via tender. This was changed again, whereby we would now berth in the industrial port of Souda and have to take a 25 minute shuttle bus to Chania. For a small ship cruise line that supposedly prides itself on being able to access unique ports and being ‘180 degrees from ordinary’ this was a further disappointment. The itinerary had now changed substantially at this point, particularly as when the cruise was originally published the ship was meant to visit Canakkale instead of Limnos. For some of my fellow passengers they endured three itinerary changes prior to the start of the cruise.
Here you can see how the itinerary changed:
Athens, Greece
We started our trip with a mid-morning departure from Edinburgh and were fortunate enough that this was going to be a direct flight. The four hour flight time and two hour time zone different meant we didn’t land until around 2PM.
After landing we took a tax to our hotel, the NYX ESPERIA PALACE which is modern centrally located hotel that opened in 2023. In Athens the cost of a taxi from the airport to the city centre is a fixed €40 during the day or €55 at night (Midnight – 5 AM) which I think is quite reasonable. The journey does like quite a long time and from my experience the traffic in Athens is bad. It took 50 minutes from leaving the airport to reach the hotel.
I will be writing a full review of the hotel, but I picked the NYX Esperia Palace mainly because of its spectacular rooftop facilities. The hotel boasts a rooftop pool, bar, lounge and restaurant that all have an incredible view of the Acropolis.
We stayed in a Deluxe Double Space room which was modern and well appointed. The room featured modern control system where the lights, curtains, temperature and blackout curtains could all be controlled from several wall mounted panels, two of which were by the bed. There was also USB-A and USB-C charging and a very spacious modern bathroom. Our room also featured a nice sized balcony which we weren’t expecting.
Even though we’d had a direct flight we were still tired from travelling so didn’t have big plans for our first day in Athens. Instead we decided just to walk around the city centre and soak up our surroundings.
At this point I was pretty hungry so we walked to a restaurant I had looked up beforehand called Liondi. I had picked this restaurant as I wanted to have some authentic Greek dishes whilst in Greece and they has a Google rating of 4.7.
I ordered a grilled pita bread with the tzatziki, eggplant and chickpea dips to start, along with the Greek stuffed vine leaves and a vegetarian moussaka for the main course.
The grilled pita, eggplant and tzatziki dips were lovely but the chickpea one was awful, it was like eating dried mashed potato. I also enjoyed the stuffed vine leaves but found the vegetarian moussaka to be very bland and flavourless. At the end of the meal we received a complimentary Greek dessert which was some kind of custard on a biscuit base, which I did enjoy. Perhaps because it was free! I found the service in Liondi to be very good and our waiter was very friendly but I had hoped more from the food, especially the Moussaka as I’ve had better Greek food in the UK.
By now it was 4PM and as Liondi was located near the Acropolis we took the opportunity to buy pre-purchased our Acropolis tickets for the next day from a conveniently located self service machine. After that we slowly headed back to our hotel for the evening, stopping to pet the many cats on our way or take pictures of some of the stunning buildings.
As we returned to our hotel we were treated to a spectacular golden orange sky created by sand in the atmosphere blown over from the Sahara.
We had dinner was on the 10th floor lounge. There were these very comfy outdoor booth table positioned to give the best possible view of the Acropolis. The hotel fully capitalises on the views their rooftop offers as the dinner menu is very expensive. For example a trio of Greek dips would set you back €30, three times more expensive than what we paid at lunch. As we’d had a late lunch we opted for a light sushi dinner which was good quality and well presented.
Athens and joining Star Legend
I began day two with a very hectic breakfast at our hotel but was fortunate enough to get a table on the terrace. Not only was the weather beautiful but once again I was able to enjoy the stunning view of the Acropolis. It certainly made up for the mediocre food and coffee.
The Acropolis tickets were for noon so there were still a couple of hours to enjoy the facilities of the hotel. As it was after 10am the rooftop pool was finally open! However I found the water to be freezing cold and not only that but someone started cleaning the pool! I then decided to head to the basement and enjoy the pool down there.
After a quick dip we headed out to go to the Acropolis, but made sure to stop at the wonderful gelato bar from the day before. This would be the third visit to Aggo in less than 24 hours, I opted for two scoops of the dark chocolate. Not only was the flavour rich and powerful but it was incredibly smooth. We walked past so many bad touristy ice-cream places so were fortunate to find Aggo.
Our scheduled time to visit the Acropolis was between 12 and 1, which according to the internet is the worst time of day to visit. I imagine during the middle of August, during peak-tourist season it is unbearable but I thought that during this visit the level of other tourists was fine and it wasn’t too hard to get good pictures. It is a bit of a trek to the top but there are interesting things to look at along the way. Before you reach the Acropolis you get to walk past a
Dinner – Candles
I had a quick look at that night’s Amphora menu and couldn’t find many dishes that were particularly interesting to me but was fortunate enough to find that Candle’s had room for a reservation at 8.00PM.
We arrived just after sunset and opted to sit outside and watch the beautiful Aegean slip by. The food was particularly excellent and was the best visit we’ve had to Candles so far on any Windstar cruise.
Nafplio, Greece
Nafplio is a pretty unremarkable Greek coastal resort town. When you get ashore there is a selection of small hotels, tourist shops, seafood restaurants and gelato shops. We had done some research beforehand and found that there was a well preserved ancient theatre in nearby Epidaurus. We got there by hailing a taxi from the port, the cost of which was 70 Euros for a round trip, which included the driver waiting one hour in Epidaurus. We found that one hour was more than enough time to see the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.
The journey time from Nafplio was around half an hour and it was very nice driving through the Greek countryside and passing by the olive groves.
Entry to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus costs 12 Euros per person and they accepted card payment. The theatre is named after the god of medicine, Asclepius and was constructed in the 4th century BC. It is very pleasant to walk around and admire, but this all that there really is to do here.
We then headed back to Nafplio where we caught the tender back to the Legend for lunch in the Star Grill. On the tender ride back the tender captain did a pass by the Ottoman water castle, the Bourtzi Castle which stands proudly in the middle of the harbour.
Chania, Crete (Souda) – Greece
This day of the cruise was meant to be a sea day but because of the previously mentioned itinerary changes we now got to spend a day on the isle of Crete which is one of the largest Greek islands. Originally we were meant to anchor off of Chania and then tender into the beautiful old port, but apparently this wasn’t possible, so ‘for our convenience‘ the ship berthed in Souda which is an industrial port. We weren’t very pleased with this as it being an industrial meant you couldn’t just get off and go for a wonder, that is unless you had an interest in grain silos. Windstar arranged a complimentary shuttle bus to Chania which ran roughly every 45 minutes and took half an hour. This wasn’t Windstar’s fault but the town has a rule where tourist coaches must drop off and pick up passengers by the Old Clock square. The problem with this is this square is a good 15 minute walk from the Venetian harbour, so a round trip is 1.5 hours.
On our arrival to Souda there was a Greek warship that was taking part in naval exercises. It turns out there is a US navy base nearby and quite a lot of naval exercising took place during our visit, a lot of which could be viewed from the aft of the Legend.
I wanted to do a little scuba diving on this trip and whilst researching found there were a number of dive shops in Chania. I ended up booking a single tank dive and skills refresher with Omega Divers, who were extremely helpful. I told them I was on the Star Legend cruise ship and that we would be berthed in Souda, so they arranged a free pickup at 9am and took me to one of their dive shops. There I was introduced to Tom who was going to be my dive instructor and after kitting up we drove to a beautiful cove for a shore dive.
Stupidly I didn’t bring my GoPro but the water was beautiful and clear, there was also a lot of marine life. I saw my first ever octopus in the wild along with schools of trumpetfish and other kinds of small fish. It was well worth it and I was pleased with the service and equipment offered by Omega.
After heading back to the Legend, I enjoyed an alfresco lunch on the deck at the Verandah Cafe, where I watched a helicopter participate in a rescue drill, winching a person from the sea.
Shortly after lunch we decided to take the shuttle and take a look around Chania.
In the bottom right hand corner of the map of Chania there is a Municipal Garden and next to this is where the coach dropped us off and picked us up. We headed through the newer part of Chania to get to the old town and the ‘Venetian Port’ which is the most interesting part of the town to explore.
When you enter the old town you have to navigate a series of street lined with small shops selling all kinds of goods. Most of these are aimed at tourists selling souvenirs but others sell general goods and there are a few pharmacies, and ice cream sellers.
A large number of seafood restaurants line the water’s edge, creating a picturesque scene with traditional colored buildings, a harbor wall, and a lighthouse in the background.
As we ate lunch on board we decided to take a walk along the harbour wall to get a close-up look at the Chania lighthouse and on the way, we walked past numerous fishing boats and yachts, including one selling sea sponges and shells.
Views of from the harbour wall of the Venetian port
On this evening of the cruise we had been invited to dine at the Hotel Director’s table in Amphora along with some of our other fellow passengers. Having to walk back from the old town, wait for the shuttle bus and then take the 20 minute ride meant we really had to hurry back so as not to be late.
We had a wonderful meal and the great thing about these shared tables is meeting passengers you haven’t had the chance to talk to yet. I was seated next to a very interesting American lady called Wendy who lived on a sailing yacht in Spain and spent a lot of time cruising around the Western Mediterranean.
The highlight of this particular meal was the dessert, specifically the dark chocolate mousse dome which was the best dessert that I had on the entire cruise.
Santorini – Greece
Santorini is a volcanic Greek island in the southern part of the Aegean Sea, famed for its black sand beaches and steep cliffs has become very popular and can be incredibly busy with long queues for the most famous photo stops. Due to its terrain, cruise ships typically have to anchor and bring guests ashore by tender. The steep cliffs you have to take a cable car or endure a long trek to get out of the area where the cruise ship tenders berth.
As the ship’s tender service was running until around 8PM in the evening we decided to have a leisurely morning on the Legend and then head ashore in the early afternoon. With most passengers being ashore we decided to make use of the forward hot tub and admire the view of the steep cliffs. The forward hot tub is one of my favourite features of the Star-class ships.
After lunch we took the tender ashore and then opted to take the cable car as it is a very long and steep walk to the top. You can ride a donkey to the top but I think this is an incredibly cruel thing to do and a horrible way to unnecessarily exploit such wonderful animals.
Santorini Cable Car Prices
The Santorini cable car is the most popular way to travel between the port of Fira where the cruise ship tenders dock and the town of Thera. Here are the current cable car prices:
- One-way ticket: €6.00 per person
- Children’s ticket: €3.00 (for children under 6 year, it is free)
- Round-trip ticket: €9.00 per person
Some people absolutely love Santorini but for us it was the worst port on the entire cruise. I really wanted to like it but unfortunately it has fallen victim to overtourism. We visited in the shoulder-season and it wasn’t terribly crowded but even then there were very large numbers of tourists. Pretty much everything we saw was for tourists, hundreds of tourist shops, AIrbnbs as well as countless touristy bars and restaurants. It was the least authentic place we visited. I imagine forty years ago visiting Santorini was a unique experience but as I say tourism has ruined it. I understand the hypocrisy in what I am writing as I too visited as a tourist, contributing to the very problem I mention.
I wanted to visit the most iconic photo stop and take a picture of the Three Bells church so once we had done that I wasn’t to fussed about spending more time here. In the main town area it is very dense and impossible to get away from other tourists or the endless maze of tourist shops.
I wanted to make the most of the sun on this trip so I made the decision to walk the Karavolades Stairs to get back to the port. It was now mid-afternoon and the path was mostly free of people, with lots of opportunities to admire the view out across the harbour. On the way down I met many donkeys who were taking a break from their arduous work. It took me a good 20 minutes to walk down, I am certainly glad I took the cable car in the morning.
That evening the crew put on Windstar’s signature deck barbeque. For those of you reading who have never been on a Windstar cruise, the deck barbeque night is a popular outdoor dining event on Windstar cruise ships where a large buffet is set up on the pool deck. All of the other dining venues are closed on this night. There are a variety of grilled meats, fish and shrimps along with sides and a salad station.
After the barbeque the food stations are cleared away and there is an opportunity for everyone to take part in line dancing.
On this cruise we were quite annoyed as the food was cleared twenty minutes early ahead of time. That might not sound like a big deal but the food is only out for about an hour and a half, it is also held at 6.30 PM. We are late early eaters so found ourselves scrambling to get food before the food stations were packed away. There was a feeling the crew were trying to rush through the evening as quickly as possible as the line dancing was quite a bit shorter than usual.
Bodrum – Turkey
For the morning I signed us up to participate in the market tour with the Legend’s onboard executive chef Joseph Kalynuik. This is a complimentary activity and Windstar offer market tours on most cruises. They serve a practical purpose as the executive chef uses these trips to buy local ingredients for dishes and onboard events. On this cruise a belly dancing performance was planned during the evening so the chef was stocking up on local treats like Turkish Delight and Baklava which would be handed out to passengers during the event.
12 of us passengers met at reception just before 9am and proceeded with the chef to meet a local guide and get on a bus. We made a quick stop at the Greek style theatre, the Bodrum Antik Tiyatrosu where out guide, Daria gave us some brief history of Bodrum and its early history as a Greek trading port.
We then drove to what she described it as a Turkish Delight factory. It wasn’t a factory rather just a very big shop selling all kinds of Turkish foods and souvenirs. They had a huge selection of different flavours of Turkish delight, including pomegranate, rose, banana and orange, to name just a few. All of the different flavours could be sampled along with several varieties of chocolate covered dates.
The prices weren’t bad either, two large boxes of Turkish delight cost just 7 euros.
The market tour then got a little odd when we all climbed back onboard the bus and headed to a regular supermarket. It was a rather strange experience to be walking around a supermarket with a tour guide and 11 other passengers all wearing audio headsets. It was a big store, with some wholesale products for restaurants but nothing too different from a normal European supermarket.
There was a counter at the exit of the supermarket selling fresh Baklava and the chef Joseph purchased a piece for us to sample, delicious!
Finally we were taken to the open air market in the heart of Bodrum city. This was a traditional market with lots of vendors selling fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs, oils and different kinds of olives.
After returning to the ship and having lunch we decided to head ashore once again as there was a nice little beach (Giritli Beach) just a few minutes walk from the cruise terminal. There were a few very friendly street dogs to pet along the way!
I made the smart decision to bring my snorkel and mask, just in case. Just a few metres from the shore there are large patches of sea grass and all kinds of fish. At one point I was swimming through a school of thousands of little fish. The water whilst still chilly was incredibly clear with a nice sandy bottom. I unfortunately didn’t take my GoPro as I didn’t expect to see much, but I really wish I had as I saw some absolutely beautiful fish – shimmering and rainbow coloured. It was well worth the effort and a very enjoyable hour spent.
Kusadasi (including Ephesus) – Turkey
Kusadasi is a large modern resort town in Aydin Province of Turkey, but human activity dates back to 3000 BC and it was part of Ancient Greece. The main point of interest in Kusadasi is not the town itself but the nearby ruins of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Kusadasi is a very popular cruise port and has a large cruise terminal that can accommodate several ships at once. I wasn’t a fan of Kusadasi it self as it was somewhat tacky.
Visiting Ephesus was one of the two big advertised highlights of the cruise, the other being the canal transit. Windstar organise what they describe as being a ‘Windstar Destination Discovery Event’ where guests get to dine either under the Library of Celsus or on the ancient Harbor Road in Ephesus. This is a complementary event included in the cruise fare.
I had made the decision that we should visit Ephesus during the day as it is a very large archaeological site and there wouldn’t be time to explore much of it during the evening as the focus would be on the dinner and musical performance, not exploring Ephesus.
I would also advise against booking the official Windstar excursion to Ephesus as there are better third party options. I found a private tour on Viator which included a guide and driver who picked us up from Kusadasi cruise terminal in a comfortable Mercedes minivan. The cost of the tour was a bargain £25 per person ($30 USD) but did not include the entry fee to Ephesus which costs €40 per person. The cost of our private tour was under half of what a group tour would have cost with Windstar. As it was a private tour (just my wife and I) it was completely tailored to our interests and we had the guide all to ourselves. Here is a link to the Ephesus from Kusadasi tour we booked on Viator. Our guide Yesra who was incredibly knowledgeable and full of insights about what we were seeing as she guided us around the complex.
Here are a few pictures from the day trip to Ephesus.
After returning to the ship and having lunch I took a stroll along the shoreline of Kusadasi, as I say it was very touristy and my least favourite place to have visited during the cruise. I would say simply see Kusadasi as a convenient way to see and get and from Ephesus!
Windstar Signature Event in Ephesus
After relaxing on the Legend for a few hours it was no time to get ready for the Destination Signature Event, an evening in Ephesus. This was the highlight of the entire cruise and something that made it a special trip.
We were incredibly lucky that the Legend wasn’t full so we were able to dine under the Library of Celsus. In fact if there had been just one more passenger onboard we would have dined along the Harbor Road instead which is still an experience but in a less impressive setting with a different ambience. Being able to dine under the Library of Celsus went a long way to making up for missing the transit of the Corinth canal.
It was a once in a lifetime evening and it deserved its own post, Windstar Cruises Evening in Ephesus covers every aspect of the evening, including the menu and music.
Mykonos – Greece
After the wonderful evening in Ephesus the Legend sailed to Mykonos which is part of the Cyclades island group, just southeast of the Greek mainland. This was another destination where the ship anchored and we had to tender in, although there was a large MSC ship in port that was berthed in the port so maybe on a different day the ship would have been alongside. The port is about a 5 minute drive to Mykonos town and Windstar laid on a shuttle bus that ran a few times an hour.
We had no real plan for Mykonos, it is a typical old Greek town comprised of narrow streets and white-washed stone buildings. It is just enjoyable to take in the surroundings and explore the many boutiques and quaint streets.
There are also a number of pretty churches to look at, here are. a few of the ones we came across.
If you are looking for a gelato spot, I would highly recommend Snow Gelato which is located a couple of minutes walk away from the Agia Anna Church. It was a little pricey but the quality was excellent and I had a very flavourful dark chocolate gelato.
After purchasing the gelato we encountered a beautiful pink pelican, something we were not expecting at all! The pelicans of Mykonos are one of the island’s most cherished symbols, a tradition that began with a pelican named Petros. In 1958, a local fisherman found Petros injured after a storm and nursed him back to health. Petros chose to stay on the island, becoming its unofficial mascot and a beloved figure among both residents and tourists. After Petros’ death, the islanders missed him so much that they decided to continue the tradition by adopting more pelicans, each named Petros in his honor.
Mykonos is famed for its traditional windmills, most of which were built in the 16th century by the Venetians and were used to mill wheat. The windmills are probably the most popular photo stop in Mykonos.
Limnos Greece
Limnos, which can also be spelt Lemnos is a sleepy Greek island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. It is actually one of the largest Greek islands, being the 8th largest but having one of the lowest populations of just 16,000. It is very much off the beaten track and cruise ships seldom call here.
This was another port where we had to anchor in and the ship’s tenders dock in the main town of Myrina. Unfortunately for this particular port call the ship arrived at 7am and departed at midday with the last tender heading back to the ship at 11:30, so there was very little time to explore the island. This was a shame as it is such a wonderful island and I really wish we had been able to spend a full day here.
As we were preparing for the cruise we did some research and found there is a large salt lake on the island, along with some beautiful beaches, but being the 8th largest island there just wasn’t the time to get there and back before the ship departed.
We headed ashore at around 8am after having another wonderful room service breakfast and as we were heading in on the ship’s tender noticed there was a castle perched above the town. My wife does not like castles, but it turned out there was no entry fee to get in and pretty much everything else was closed. The town was very serene and quiet.
The entrance to the fort was a short ten minute walk through the town, where just like every other place in Greece we had to stop several times to pet the various cats we encountered.
The Castle of Myrina, which is one of the largest in the Aegean dates back to the Byzantine and was constructed in the 12th century. As you approach the castle, you do not fully appreciate just how large the castle complex is. Comfortable shoes are recommended as there are no paved paths on the interior of the castle walls and there is a lot of uneven terrain and ruins to scramble over.
The Castle of Myrina is perched on volcanic crags that rise approximately 120 meters (394 feet) above sea level, so it is quite a walk from the port, but one that is definitely worth it. Being so high, the castle affords visitors excellent views over Myrina and beyond.
There is no entry fee, you just walk in, there are no staff or any kind of facilities.
There were a surprising number of animals inside the castle, we saw sheep, goats and even a herd of small deer. The castle as I mentioned before is very large, we explored a small portion of it and spent three hours doing so. There are lots of hidden tunnels and structures to explore, we really could have spent a whole day here.
As the stop in Myrina was so short visiting the castle was the only thing we had time for, but to be honest this really is the main attraction.
Visiting the castle and being in the nature of the castle grounds was incredibly fun and when I woke up that day I had no idea I was going to have such an enjoyable day. I am incredibly glad Windstar altered the itinerary and took us to this wonderful Aegean island.
After heading back to the Legend and having one last lunch I had a nice massage in the onboard spa. My massage was somewhat ruined, though, as the ship was sailing past the Gallipoli peninsula (now Gelibolu) where the destination manage used the PA system to give a commentary about the Gallipoli campaign as part of ANZAC remembrance. I am sure this information was very interesting and poignant for my fellow passengers, but when one is having a massage, you do not wish to hear about the 500,000 men who lost their lives and what a bloody campaign it was. it just wasn’t appropriate that this information was being broadcast into the spa.
Disembarkation – Istanbul, Turkey
I’d already been to Istanbul and we aren’t big fans of post-cruise stays. In our minds the holiday is over at this point and we just want to get home and see our beloved Jack Russell, Dudley.
After having one last room service breakfast, we packed up the last of our things and said goodbye to out room steward Raul and disembarked the Legend. The captain, hotel director and other crew members were waiting to say goodbye.
Istanbul has a very large purpose built cruise terminal and disembarkation was relatively smooth. We opted to get a taxi from the terminal to the airport and I have to say we had an awful experience. My advice to anyone getting a taxi to or from Istanbul cruise terminal is to arrange a private transfer instead.
When you get to the taxi rank there is a man guiding passengers to individual taxis. Usually there is a fixed price set by the local government or the taxi runs on the metre. Here however the taxi drivers were doing their best to exploit us and our fellow passengers. Firstly they wanted to charge everyone in Euros and not the Turkish Lira. The Turkish Lira has declined in value greatly compared to the USD, GBP and Euro, giving foreign visitors a lot of purchasing power. In mind in Athens the taxi ride which took almost an hour cost €40, here the taxi drivers were looking for €90! It was disgraceful to be honest and I am very surprised the Turkish authorities are allowing this practice to take place. Both me and my wife said no and decided we would exit the terminal and try and get a taxi somewhere else.
We walked for a couple of minutes inside the parking garage of the terminal and came across another set of taxis waiting. This time we were able to haggle with a different taxi organiser to €50 Euros! So we saved €40 Euros just by refusing to be ripped off.
Unfortunately we ended up with one of the worst taxi drivers I have ever had. His car smelled, he was a harsh accelerator and braker but bizarrely he bemoaned that we had picked the wrong airport. Basically, Istanbul has two major airports and he complained that we should have booked a flight that departed from Istanbul Airport as opposed to Sabiha Gökçen airport because it would have been more important for him!
We then had a one hour journey from hell. Our taxi driver was continuously swerving between lanes on the highway, never indicating of course, took every possible opportunity to look at stuff on his phone and decided to light up a cigarette. I genuinely thought we were going to end up in a nasty accident. At one point he was staring at a pie chart on his phone as we were hurtling along the highway towards the airport at speed!
Sabiha airport is a very large airport built in 2001. I had hoped to use the lounge before our flight with Pegasus but we didn’t have time as we had to go through three security checks. As soon as you enter the airport you have to put all of your bags through a scanner and take out laptops and tablets. The check in hall was total chaos until Alice managed to find a very helpful man who directed us to some self service bag drop machines.
We were incredibly to get on the plane and relax! It had been a hectic and somewhat unpleasant morning. After changing planes at Stansted Airport, one of several airports serving London and South East England we arrived back in Edinburgh.
We visited some wonderful places on this cruise, met some lovely people and overall had a fantastic cruise but it was good to be home.
Windstar Ship Experience
Cabin
On this voyage I stayed in a porthole cabin on deck 3, something I’ve not done before. I have stayed in multiple different grades of cabin before and whilst I like the juliet-balconies aboard the Star-class yachts I regard them as a nice to have, but certainly not when they cost thousands of dollars extra.
The cabin is the same size and the majority of the cabins on higher decks and the portholes were surprisingly large. I however wasn’t a fan of the location in the ship, there is quite a bit more engine noise and vibration on deck 3. A word of caution to anyone booking a deck 3 cabin, do not book cabins 308 or 309, if tender operations are taking place you will literally have people queuing outside of your cabin.
One thing I love about the Star-class yachts is just how big the bathrooms are. I found that on deck 3 the water pressure was better than on deck 5.
Service
Overall the service was very good and to be honest there isn’t too much to right about here. Windstar crews are always very hardworking and do their best to serve guests. My only criticism is that the cabin could have been cleaner around the edges, our room steward was very personable but his attention to detail with the cleaning wasn’t as good as it could have been. I’m not trying to nitpick, but I know how clean the cabins can be when you have a steward on the top of their cleaning game. He also wasn’t the best at keeping the mini fridge stocked up which mean us having to make extra calls to room service for beverages. First world problem I know!
Dining
Compare to previous Windstar cruises the food was somewhat ‘hit and miss’. We have been on the Legend in March where there was a different executive chef and it made a real difference. The quality of food across the board was a step down from our ‘Legendary Winter in the Mediterranean’ cruise. The biggest issue was the menus, they were like a ’80s throwback and on most nights in Amphora we were struggling to find something that we wanted to order. In Cuadro, where the menu never really changes the dishes just weren’t prepared as well when I compare the food to previous cruises.
I really did not like the executive chef on this cruise, he was incredibly arrogant, for example on the market tour he said it was because of him that the food “on the Legend was legendary”. On another occasion he came up to our table in Amphora and asked my wife how her dish was, before my wife could finish her sentence explaining how she wasn’t keen on a particular element of the main she was eating he just walked off and said “I’m glad you are loving the food”. I think he created a negative atmosphere amongst the other chefs which was reflected in the decline in the quality of the food compared to our previous cruise.
Something Windstar needs to work on is changing up the menus more regularly. There are some dishes that are very much ‘Windstar classics’ but to be honest I want to try new things and see dishes that more closely reflect the local cuisine of cruise destinations.
One positive was that the Star Grill was open on this voyage and there were some tasty offerings for lunch and dinner. This is my first Windstar cruise after the stretch project where the Star Grill was reliably open so it was nice to be able to make use of the extra dining venue and site outside by the bar.
Overall the food and dining experience was still good though and much better than you would find on a mass market line.
Dining Menus
Amphora Menus
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Star Grill Menus
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Click images to view the menu full size
Candles Menu
Cuadro Menu
Entertainment
Entertainment has been one of the weakest aspects of a Windstar cruise for some time and it was certainly the case on this cruise. Now I appreciate that every single Windstar ship is small so I am not expecting broadway shows like you find on big cruise ships. I do however expect lots of trivias, basic entertainment shows like ‘Liars Club’ or ‘Couples Game’, hosted UNO and cruise staples like towel folding. I had hoped that after Windstar introduced the entertainment director position that the entertainment would get better but it hasn’t, it has got worse.
On this voyage the entertainment director Zoltina-J did a very poor job, just like her predecessor on the Star Legend Sin. This might sound harsh but in my opinion she is stealing a living and it isn’t clear what she actually does all day.
I absolutely love a cruise ship trivia, but every single trivia Zoltina-J hosted was a ‘name that tune’ trivia. There were no general knowledge or geography trivias meaning there was not sufficient variety for those of us with different interests, practically every single piece of entertainment revolved around music. One of the ‘name that tune’ trivias was solely about the Beatles. We scored four out of twenty, unless you have a great love of the Beatles you just don’t stand a chance and it makes playing boring.
On previous Windstar cruises where there wasn’t an entertainment director the crew organised entertainment activities for the passengers which were very well received and were great fun for both crew and passengers alike. How has the entertainment offering got worse now they have created a dedicated entertainment role?
Turning my attention to the live music the duo and band were good and better than some of the musicians on previous cruises. In the past however you would have one group performing outside at the Star Bar with the other group performing in the Compass Rose, this has now changed with there only being live music in the Compass Rose with the groups alternating every hour. I used to very much like having a drink at the Star Bar and having some live music in the background.
The Daily Program showed just how weak the onboard activities have become, most of the items are simply an opportunity for Windstar to sell you something, for example one of the few items in the evening was “Maui Jim: Polarized2 Lens technology. Learn how to keep your vision clear and sharp in the most harsh and demanding light conditions.”
The entertainment situation could be easily resolved, Windstar get the entertainment directors to put a shift in and actually do some work! They should be taking an initiative and hosting different activities each day.
Final Thoughts
This cruise was somewhat of mixed-bag but on the whole still very enjoyable and I am very glad to have done it. I got to experience new places and have some wonderful new memories. It is just a shame about the itinerary changes and that the onboard experience was weaker than on the cruise I had taken with Windstar just six weeks prior. Dining in the Ephesus Library was a once in a lifetime experience and something I will never forget, it was a privilege.
