Over the years my wife and I have taken many happy cruises aboard the Windstar and Windsurf sailing vessels available through Windstar Cruises. We have been extremely happy with the small size of these beautiful sailing ships and the personal attention we experienced. Last year Windstar contacted us less than a week before our cruise in the Caribbean to inform us the cruise had been canceled as a result of the Sailing Ship having to go to Dry Dock for repairs. In consideration for the inconvenience, we were offered a sizable discount on a future cruise. That was acceptable to us considering the events that took place.

This year is quite the different story. I am guessing it has to do with the economy and poor customer relations. We booked a cruise on the Windstar leaving from Barcelona with final destination to Nice. At the time of the booking, we were told there were only two cabins left and to book as soon as possible. We booked the cruise and proceeded to make our final plans for our air and other destinations for before and after the cruise.

We made arrangements to fly into Madrid and spend a few days and then fly to Jerez with destination to Rota Spain. From there we were to fly to Barcelona where we would board the Windstar and spend the next 7 days eating and touring our way across the Mediterranean. After arriving in Nice, we would head to Italy to visit some friends in Pigna and do some local things such as going to the Friday market in Ventigmillia.

The phone rang..... it was American Express with a Windstar Representative on the line. I was being informed that Windstar had Chartered the ship I had reservations on. They would refund my Money and nothing else. When I commented they had lied to me about the number of remaining cabins... there was a dead silence. When I told them they were creating a huge problem for me, with this cruise being smack dab in the middle of our vacation, they had nothing to say. When I asked Sam (the representative with zero emotion) what they intended to do in the way of compensating me for having to change plans and parts of my air travel to fill in the blanks... the answer was nothing.

It did not matter that we were members of their "Foremast Club". Nothing seemed to matter. As it stands now, Windstar may consider reimbursing us for part of the added plane ticket charges to get us from Barcelona to Nice.

So much for giving a damn about their customers.