Windstar Cruises are completing their "The Difference is in the Details" revamp, to be finished by the Spring cruise season, according to Windstar's newest supplemental brochure.

Outside, hammocks for two are available on deck, and apparently the scuba program will now allow for private lessons.

Inside, new menu additions from Joachim Splichal promise to liven up the menu, an expanded collection of Private Reserve wines, and if you like, private course-by-course dinners served in your cabin.

In the cabins, amenities from L'Occitane will now be the standard, as will new Euro-Top mattress with upgraded linens. Entertainment options now include a flat-panel television and DVD player - and the Bose in-room SoundDock with a custom-loaded iPod Nano.

Even the website is due for some additions for Foremast Club members. "Coming Soon! Our past guests will have a Foremast� Club number ID look up and a display of up to five most recent cruise history along with the ability to change and modify your contact preferences." (Meantime, you can still access the Foremast Club information and pricing with the usual password.)

(And, yes, Jerry still figures prominently in the brochure - many who have cruised Windstar have fond memories of bar director Jerry. We last saw him on the Wind Surf, and Wind Star, in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, respectively, in 2005.)

Windstar Cruises was sold by mega-cruise company Carnival to California-based Ambassadors International for $100 million earlier this year (February 2007,) and all three "MSY" ships (Wind Surf, ex-Club Med 1, 312 passengers; sisterships Wind Star and Wind Spirit, 148 pax each) are part of the deal.

Ambassadors is the parent company of Majestic America Line, mostly small ship USA river and coastal cruising, including the central US riverboats Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen and American Queen, and Columbia Queen, Queen of the West, Empress of the North, plus some other Pacific Northwest boats. Advocating for continuity and good governance is the fact that David Giersdorf, former VP of Windstar Cruises and a former Exec VP of Marketing and Sales with Windstar and with Holland America Lines, is now the President of Ambassador Cruise Group, LLC (Majestic America Line and Windstar Cruises.) He named Windstars' Diana Moore Senior VP for Marketing and Sales for both Ambassador and Windstar lines.

Majestic America and Windstar have been headquartered in Seattle, and Windstar will add a huge direction and focus to Majestic, whilst barely making a blip in Carnival's plans - Windstar was kind of an anomaly in the Carnival stable anyway, IMO. Ambassadors has committed to retaining all Windstar crew members (this doesn't always happen,) and to keeping to their originally published itineraries.

It will be interesting to see if any differences who up on the water, so to speak; we will be on the 'Star for its Bridgetown, Barbados to Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica December repositioning cruise.

In the meantime, the Wind Surf (late 2006) and Wind Spirit have been extensively refurbished (March 2007,) and Wind Star is expected to enter wet dock in October for the same refit. The refurbishment includes, according to Windstar, WiFi throughout all ships,

"Bose SoundDock speakers in all staterooms, Apple iPod Nanos pre-loaded with music for complimentary check-out and laptops for rent. Plush Euro-Top mattresses, luxury bedding, Egyptian cotton towels and bath amenities by L’Occitane were added to staterooms as well. Other additions include hammocks built for two on deck, and lemon-scented iced towels and orange sorbet served on warm days."

Meals will now include an amuse bouche, Riedel stemware and Rosenthal china, and new menus by Joachim Splichal. Some other changes, good and bad, include the ability to bring aboard and consume wines (but not spirits other than wine and Champagne:

"Bottles or other containers of beer and other alcoholic beverages purchased in the vessel's shops or otherwise brought on the ship cannot be consumed on the ship, with the exception of wine and champagne. If the beverages are purchased from the vessel's shops or at ports of call, they will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to your stateroom on the last day of the voyage. Our staff will make arrangements to store the items for you during the cruise. Guests can bring wines and champagne purchased from outside the ship onboard for consumption in their stateroom. For consumption in the restaurants or bars, a $15 corkage fee will be applied to the guests onboard account."

A new tipping policy has also been put in place (dining staff received group tips, bar staff and room stewards received individual tips, all in envelopes, as desired by passengers) states:

"Hotel Service Charge of $11 per passenger is automatically added to each guest’s shipboard account on a daily basis. If our service exceeds or fails to meet your expectations, you are free to adjust this amount at the end of the cruise. In addition, a 15% Beverage Service Charge is automatically added to bar charges and dining room wine purchases."

And, Jerry is still - featured prominently in brochures and online! (Left in photos heading Windstar FAQ.)

Just a quick update - as we are looking forward to our 12th Windstar cruise (MSY Wind Spirit, Lv Istanbul Aug 7 - Arv Athens Aug 14, via Kusadasi, Rhodes, Bodrum, Santorini, Mykonos) on a WS alumni cruise. We've done this cruise in the opposite direction, and decided to do it this way too. (We sometimes take the offered, extra fee, land excursions, but often dive - though this is not generally offered other than in the Pacific and Caribbean cruises - or do our own thing; on Rhodes, it's on our own and a taxi or driver to dine at the divine Ta Kioupia.)

We've spent time on 7 and 14 day cruises on MSYs Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf since my last post, and I must say much of what made Windstar cruises enjoyable has been kept in place. The ships have all been refurbished, spas have been added as well as an outdoor dining venue (not so great on the Surf, really a glorified barbecue with grilled fish and neats on offer, better on the two smaller ships).

They still offer SCUBA diving, and in November / December we cruised from Bridgetown, Barbados, to Grenada, Venezuela, Curacao, Panam� and Costa Rica, with scuba diving in some interesting venues on the MSY Wind Star, the original / prototype of the three smaller (138 pax) Windstar ships (the MSY Wind Song, our favourite of course, is no longer.

The food is still excellent, and the outside booked venue doesn't cost any more - nor does the upscale dining on Wind Surf, which we took in 2008 in the Adriatic. Service is still quite good in the cabins and dining venues, but has slid at the home office IMO.

They have indeed implemented the new tipping / fee policy, though they say if you do not like the service you can choose to cancel the $11 per person per day service charge. It does make me wonder if they somehow use this fee to offset wages... but we love Windstar, as it's really more like cruising on a large yacht - and it's always nice to run into crew we have sailed with previously; they seem to all remember, and it personalizes it all for us.

In August, I will have to post a trip report.

Most of the mainstream cruise lines have gone to adding the tips to your on board account. Funny, Windstar is not a cruise line that I would put into the mainstream category.

Do they have a mixed gender crew? My memory is of British officers and Indonesian or Filipino crew....no females. Dropped interest and could not figure the value proposition after three cruises.

I haven't seen a female crew member since I was on the Wind Song in Tahiti back around 1988, before the line was sold the first time.