I have just returned from a lovely sailing on board the Windstar Pride from Amsterdam. Our itinerary took us to Rotterdam, Antwerp,& Bruges. We thoroughly enjoyed our ship! The cabins are spacious and nice, but they do have an older décor of wood and blue tones. They are NOT worn, just older decor. We had a balcony suite.

The food was very fancy. There are 2 ala carte restaurants that require reservations. Candles was the steak house, and it is set out on the Verandah. Not a lot of ambiance, but the food was superb. The other was Basil & Bamboo. All-in-all our opinion of the food was that it was just OK. A foodie might really love trying all the fancy cuisine, but it did not impress us.

Service was impeccable and I feel that for the right person, it would be a great product. I spoke with many of the guests who love Windstar because of the service and size. That would be my reason too.
In Rotterdam we did the Keukenhof excursion to see the tulips. Although the colors were beautiful, the site itself was very crowded and touristy. This was a 6-hour tour and we probably only needed 4 hours to see it all, but the weather was great, so good to be outside.

In Antwerp we went to Fort Breendonk. It is a former military installation that served as a Nazi prison camp. We had a great guide and it’s wonder that anyone could survive living like that. Well worth the visit.

Post cruise we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and it was fabulous! The location was perfect. We did the hop on hop off canal/bus pass for 2 days and with the canal stop #4 being 1.5 blocks from the hotel, we could get about anywhere. Depending on what you are planning on seeing, I would do the canal hop on/hop off instead of the bus. The bus really takes you outside of the city, where the canal stops will get you to most of the city sites. We had a canal view, King suite and it was quite large. The bathroom and closet alone were larger than many European hotel rooms. Great bathroom amenities with a large soaker tub. For someone that wants to be pampered, this is the place to go. The breakfast which is a Signature amenity fed us for a good part of the day. You get so much food that they offered to do a take away for the bread and fruit and we ate that later in the afternoon for lunch. The croissants were to die for.

I would highly recommend sailing with Windstar on your next adventure.