My husband and I had previously done a Windstar cruise embarking in Lisbon and ending in Barcelona. I believe it was on the Windspirit. Our friends had never cruised on Windstar nor had they been to Spain/Portugal so they decided on the Barcelona/Lisbon cruise. We said what the heck. We’ll go, too. The first time we went we visited Minorca, Tangier, Ibiza, some small port in Portugal, Malaga and then another small port in Spain and into Barcelona. This trip had a totally different itinerary and a different focus. This trip’s shore excursions were mostly into the interior of Spain. I’ve been to Spain a number of times and have pretty well been to most of the big tourist attractions. Therefore I told my girlfriends you decide what you want to do and we’ll tag along. After I looked at the shore excursions, there was one excursion I really wanted to do and relayed this to the other girls. They looked at it and said, OK, we want to do that too! I’ll discuss that later. First up…how to get there and back again (Tolkien). We live in the southeast and would fly out of Atlanta. My friends also had numerous Sky Miles on Delta so we booked six seats into Barcelona. But Delta only flies out of Madrid not Lisbon. So, we booked a TAP (Air Portugal) flight from Lisbon to Madrid to make the Delta flight. That is a story for much later. We’ve all traveled enough on cruises to know that a late flight or missed flight or cancelled flight can put a big ouch in your cruise i.e. missing the cruise. We decided to fly in the day before and have a night in old Barcelona. Not a bad place to overnight. Since our friends had Marriott points and we used Delta Sky Miles, we booked rooms at the Renaissance Barcelona. It is located right in the heart of the city. But it really wasn’t our cup of tea. It was too stark and too modern. For Lisbon, we chose another layover and stayed at the Hotel Avenida Palace. It has an excellent location and is more traditional European with a great staff. The itinerary for the cruise was: Soller (a village on Majorca), Valencia, Cartegena, Almeria, Malaga and Cadiz. There is a benefit in traveling in a group. Cruise lines do have group discounts plus give a free berth for so many cabins booked. But many times their deals are so good that it beats a group rate. Or, even if you’re a group of six, like us, it doesn’t meet the group qualifications. What it did do for us was allow us to book our own shore excursions at a nicely reduced rate. Meaning, we did not book through the cruise line. We mainly booked through Tours By Locals, http://www.toursbylocals.com/. We booked three tours this way which got us from the port of call to Seville and Granada and a city tour of Valencia. We had our own van and guide and in once instance, two guides. My husband and I are used to not taking the cruise line’s ship excursions. On our previous trips, we just hopped off the ship and went to a taxi driver and asked him how much for the day. But, in this case, since Seville and Granada are so far from the coast, hiring a guide and van upfront was a must.
I guess if you’re reading this you A: are interested in sailing on Windstar B: Interested in the itinerary or C: Sailed on Windstar and want to relive the trip. Wellllll, I hope you will find this post to meet your expectations. Let’s talk about Windstar. My husband and I started sailing on Windstar in ’87 or ’88. At the time it had just been purchased by Carnival Corporation, the largest cruise company in the world. Our first trip was from Rome to Venice. We fell in love with the small ship aspect which includes a very laid back atmosphere. Not a Windjammer type experience but one of country club casual or as Windstar used to say, casual elegance. We loved the idea of the sails without actually having to hoist them. They originally had three ships, the Windsong, the Windspirit and the Windstar. They then added the Windsurf. The Windsong met her demise with an engine fire in French Polynesia but the other three are still going strong. The Spirit and The Star both hold 140 passengers. The Surf holds 310. We, meaning my husband and I, actually prefer the 140 passenger ships because of the intimacy. BUT, the Surf is still a better option than a 1500 passenger ship. Why? More personalized service. And a few more options from the Star and Spirit like a great coffee bar and more dining options. All of those features you can find online at http://www.windstarcruises.com/. All of the wait staff is Filipino. I still remember our first waiter, Manu. He remembered exactly our drinks of choice and synchronized a wonderful anniversary party for us. That was in ’88. And I still remember his name…
Next up, ports of call…
http://www.toursbylocals.com/
http://www.windstarcruises.com/
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