My wife and I just completed a week on Xanterra Windstar's MV Star Breeze from Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica to Colón, Panama. Superb ship, superb food service, and the Canal transit alone was worth the trip.
Windstar is a small ship line, with vessels carrying 148-212 passengers. Cabins on the sailing ships are around 188 sq ft, on the motor vessels 277 sq feet.
We caught a sale, our price was 1500 pp marked down from 4500 pp. We used Southwest to fly to Costa Rica, our flight cost down was 258 pp...BUT, we travelled on a Wednesday for a Saturday sailing
On the backhaul, we flew first class on Avianca from Oanama City to Chicago at 900pp, saving 300 at least pp over THE COACH RATE on Delta, United, or American.
It was a fantastic late winter warm up.
Those who know me can find my photo albums on Bookface.
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
Sounds like a great trip, Mr. Pullman. Avianca was not on my radar screen - will check them out.
Next year is our 50th anniversary and we plan on some significant outings. A sailing ship cruise is on the list. Windstar sounds very luxe but I am intrigued by the Star Clipper Cruise line as their ships seem more like a true sailing ship. We’ll probably settle for the 2 hour ferry to the Outer Banks!
Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :
We have flown on Avianca once in Business Class. The seats were very comfortable but the service minimal. We prefer COPA if there is a choice. The seats are more like domestic F/C but the service and meals are wonderful. We have done all of that flying using United Mileage Plus miles usually at a rate half what a similar flight on United would be.