Star Breeze Review
AVOID Windstar Star Breeze like it was the Black Plague
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This is the WORST boat ever. There was no greeting. They would tell us to have a "magical day" on the PA... that would have been a real trick! The sliding doors on the balcony did not work. The wait staff in the restaurants couldn't get a job in a diner because they do not have a clue about getting the orders straight or on time. The restaurant at the stern suffers from engine noise, serious vibration and cooking oil smells so they add loud music to the clattering of plates and silverware. Since it is so confined you can look straight into the kitchen and see the dishes being washed.They would always apologize for how long the order was taking so I only ate there a few times before abandoning the idea.
As we would come aboard in the afternoon after being ashore and there would not be any food available until 7 PM unless you called room service. REALLY?!? Nothing?!? How is this possible? There was one dining room for dinner room and we went there one night starving at 6:30 and the staff was all there just sitting around waiting for 7 pm. We concluded they were cutting back the food to save money. After all if you ate at 5:30 then you might be hungry again later and that would cost more to feed us. And room service could screw up anything too! We ordered a Caesar salad and got three including a chicken. A scary tuna salad sandwich which was warm and inedible (over the side with it.) You never got ice with a soda... who drinks hot cokes? A glass of white wine had $1.78 tax on it so it was always $10. tax?!?
The HVAC was weird and would blow really loud if you adjusted it so we ended up leaving the sliding doors ajar so outside air would come in to keep the room fresher. I noticed the first night and confirmed the second night someone previously in the room had a meal like spaghetti and threw up because I could smell it without the sliding doors being open. So one night I discovered the deck washing was dripping down the side of the boat each night (It sounded like some one peeing over the side) streaking the glass balcony: it hit the wood railing and splashed into the room onto the carpet. Perhaps this is why I had a headache the whole week: mold in the room?
Cabin Review
Balcony Suite
smelled of vomit, the sliding doors did not work and they promised to send the ships "carpenter" to fix it but he never came. The doors howled when you moved them and were never fixed. the left door had to be shouldered to push it hard enough to move it. water would splash in from the deck above during the night from washing the deck. I suffered a lacerations on my head from stupidly placed hooks in the closet and they would not do anything about it. they sent a repair guy to super glue a panel that was stuck on with bandaids. they also kept coming to fix our phone cable despite nothing being wrong with it (that I ever knew of.) I suspect there is mildew or mold in the carpet since my nose ran from the moment I went into the room on day one until when we left the boat and it stopped that night in the hotel. I had a headache the entire time. Neighbor in 214 said they had black mold and algae in their shower and huge missing paints chips.
Port Reviews
Portofino
Nice place, but we did things on our own.
Rome (Civitavecchia)
We stayed in Rome for several days and hired private transportation to the ship. We did not go through Windstar.