I Spent 3 Days In The Cheapest Cabin on A Luxury Yacht (Windstar)

I’ve just disembarked a cruise where I spent 3 days in the cheapest cabin on a luxury yacht.

It was the most expensive cruise I’ve ever booked, coming in at around $860/£640 per night for this room for two people.

I’ve wanted to try a cruise like this for years, but these luxury cruises are normally way outside my budget.

When I spotted a short sailing though, I thought that this would be my chance to give it a go. The 4-day cruise was the same price I’d usually pay for a 2-week cruise with a mainstream cruise line.

The cruise line did say that every cabin onboard was technically a suite, and this was a yacht, so my expectations were really high, much higher than normal.

I knew that I’d have to stay in the cheapest cabin to make it work, but I’m used to sailing in the cheapest cabins on the big budget cruise ships, so I thought that it would be fine. 

I was hopeful that the cheapest cabin on a luxury yacht would still feel luxurious and that it would have some extra perks.

I did worry that I’d end up disappointed, especially given the age of the ship, because she is really quite old by cruise ship standards.

I hoped that the room would feel spacious and that we wouldn’t feel a lot of movement in the cabin.

Small ships do tend to move around more, and sadly, I do get seasick.

My cabin options were a little limited because some of the cabins had fixed double beds, and I was cruising with my brother, so we wanted twin beds.

I booked this cruise fairly last-minute, and the only cabin that was available in the cheapest category was 432. My travel agent phoned Windstar for me to book that cabin. 

I was happy to see on the deck plans that it was right in the middle of the ship. I knew that 432 would be an easy one to remember, too. 

The fact that it was in the middle was even more interesting than normal. I knew that the cruise ship had been cut in half and that new cabins had been added in the middle a few years ago.

I wondered if I might have a new cabin on an old cruise ship. I hoped so.

We embarked the cruise at around 5 pm, which I’ve got to be honest, didn’t feel very luxurious.

The embarkation was perfectly fine, but I’m used to boarding a cruise ship at around midday, so it was a shame to miss most of the first day.

Because of the late boarding, our cabins were ready as soon as we got onboard. I’m sure we boarded late because of the fact that we were sailing out of central London. 

A crew member asked us for our room number, which I remembered easily, and he showed us to our room, which was a really nice touch.

Not that we would have got lost, though. I realised as we walked along the corridor just how tiny this cruise ship was.

…Or I should say yacht, actually, Windstar calls all of their ships yachts. Not sure if they technically are, but let’s go with it. 

Walking into the cabin was so exciting. The room felt absolutely massive, and it did feel luxurious.

Most cabins don’t have a big sitting area like this. When we boarded, we just had a view of the side of HMS Belfast. I was looking forward to seeing the views out of the huge window. 

The cabin felt huge because it was. Compared to a regular oceanview cabin that you might find on a big ocean ship like Royal Caribbean, it was around a third bigger.

I was very happy to see that the beds were split into two, as I had requested. It was actually written on my booking documents 4 times in capital letters, so I would have been surprised if that was missed. 

By the window were our two beds, lots of storage, the TV and a mirror.

Further into the cabin was the sitting area where I found this. I’m not sure what this is for, but it definitely isn’t for storing a first mate Rolo toy and a plum.

So far, the room seemed nice, but it wasn’t until I explored more that it would really start feeling luxurious, and no, I’m not talking about the random plums I found on the table…

I assumed that one door was for the bathroom, and I’d come in through the door on the right, so that left me with a question about what the door in the middle was for.

I saw plenty of storage around the room already, so it took me a little while to realise this was a massive walk-in wardrobe. 

I’d use this room for more than just storing my clothes, but at this point, I didn’t know that.

I was just amazed. I found a safe, and some robes which I would end up wearing every day. 

You can see the gold bits on the mirror. I know that this is very trendy at the moment, but personally, I really don’t like this; I’m not sure what it is about it.

There was another mirror by the beds though, and more in the bathroom so this wasn’t the only place we could see ourselves.

That was a good thing really, if you tried to do your hair or makeup in this mirror, that could be quite funny.

By the side of the sofa was the minibar, and above were more glasses than I could ever need on the cruise.

When I booked this trip, there was a promotion that meant the drinks package was included, so I could drink from the minibar without it costing me any extra.

That was a rare treat and something I never normally do. 

Something I also never normally do on a cruise is compliment the toilet, but this one was great, and it is well worth a mention.

If you’ve been on a cruise before, you’ll recognise that this is different to normal, it was much more comfortable and never broke down during our cruise.

I feel the need to mention that because I’ve been on other cruise ships of a similar age where the toilets broke a lot. This toilet I think is much newer though. 

You’ll also notice that this isn’t the normal cruise ship bath mat. This one was fluffy, and for me, that felt very luxurious. 

The bathroom also had two sinks and a big shower with nice toiletries.

I would have preferred to have had one sink, but more space around it to put my things.

I’d usually balance my phone on the edge of the sink, and I very nearly flipped it off and into the toilet.

This isn’t the kind of thing I’d care about if I were cruising in a mainstream cruise ship, but given that I’d paid well over double what I’d ever normally pay for a cruise, I am judging it more harshly.

They also had the same toiletries in the regular showers up by the pool, which definitely felt luxurious.

They had included suncream up on the pool deck too, which was a nice touch. 

Suncream can be your Britishism of the week if you’d like, or you can pick one from this list – cheeky, mate, bloke – whatever you’d like. A couple of these I definitely don’t think are polite for me to read out loud.

I’d count the other two “B words” as low-level swear words, and I know some kids do watch my videos. That can be another Britishism for you; we say swear words, not curse words. 

Windstar’s passengers are mostly from the USA and Canada, so that’s why they left this on the bed for us on the first night.

I’m pretty sure half the people on my cruise were from the UK, given that it was such a short cruise, but still, it was interesting to me.

It was around now that our bags arrived in our cabin and we started to unpack.

I’d only brought a small carry-on bag with me for the 4 days, so there was a lot of space.

Most Windstar cruises are a lot longer, but this is more wardrobe space than I have at home, so I could, in theory, probably fit all of my clothes into this cabin, and I could stay here forever. 

At this point, I thought that that really wouldn’t be bad at all.

This cabin is bigger than a lot of apartments and flats, and it does come with 24/7 included room service. 

No kettle, though, which I did miss.

We headed out to dinner, and when we came back, our cabin had been made into night mode.

Our covers were folded back for us, ready to get into bed, and the curtain in the middle of the room had been drawn.

Even my charger’s cable had been tidied up, and they’d used a little windstar velcro piece to secure it.

At first, I thought that was luxurious, but it’s one of those things I really don’t need. 

I did sleep with the curtain across, and I slept very well.

I do normally sleep better on a cruise ship than I do at home. Find out why here:

Why I Sleep Better On A Cruise Than At Home

The beds were really comfortable, and they had the cutest subtle anchor design on them.

I was a little bit nervous that I would wake up to go to the toilet in the night and walk face-first into the dividing curtain, but that actually never happened, much to my surprise. I mostly used the curtain for dancing. 

Another luxurious touch was that by my bed, there was a refilled bottle of filtered water and a glass. I always like to have water by my bed when I sleep, so that was nice. 

By each bed, there were 2 US sockets and 2 USBs, with another 2 US, 2 European and 2 USBs over on the desk.

Given the fact that the ship was built in 1988, I thought that was very impressive.

Interestingly, my cabin wasn’t built in 1988 like the rest of the ship. It was added to the ship 31 years later, when the ship was cut in half and stretched.

It was basically like if you cut a car in half and added an extra row of seats in the middle. 

Doing that increased the ship’s passenger capacity from 212 to 312, which is a massive increase.

Have a closer look at that process here:

That said, though, Star Pride is still 10 times smaller than most cruise ships. The biggest cruise ships in the world can hold 7000 guests. 

We didn’t get to bed until almost 3 am on this first night because we were sailing under Tower Bridge, and I didn’t want to miss it.

The last thing I wanted was an early wake-up call, so we put the “do not disturb” magnet on the door and went to sleep. 

Our cabin was set a little bit back from the corridor, so we didn’t hear any noise at all. We never heard anything from any cabin neighbours either, not even a cough or a sneeze. 

Our room was cleaned twice a day, and during the day, it was a great place to spend time.

We never felt any movement here and had smooth seas for our entire cruise.

The views from the window were fantastic, and it felt as though we were really low down to the water.

We were on deck 4, so not really that low, but I’m used to cabins being on decks 8, 10 or 12. The highest cabin I’ve ever had was on deck 19. 

As the cruise went on, I discovered my favourite thing about the wardrobe area, and that was that I could use it as a little changing room.

The light did turn off when the door closed completely, but just leaving it ajar would keep the light on.

Whenever I wanted to get changed to go to dinner or for bed, I’d come in here.

I’m pretty sure that this wardrobe was a similar size to the bathroom I had on a Virgin Voyages cruise once – it certainly felt like it.

You don’t want to get those two rooms confused in the middle of the night, though. 

I’d normally get changed in the bathroom, but it was great to have this dry option.

When we were in France, they did leave us some French phrases and a little biscuit.

That was nice, but there weren’t really any extra luxurious touches beyond the included room service.

Not that I could think of anything else I’d like, apart from a kettle and perhaps to swap around the bed and the sitting area. 

They do have cabins where the layout is the opposite, with the bed further into the cabin and the sitting area at the far end. But it seems that these new cabins that were added in the cruise ship stretch are laid out like this. 

The cabin was in perfect condition without a scratch or a scuff anywhere, which isn’t so surprising given the age.

The new cabins do match the old in terms of style, though, and if the rest of the ship is anything to go by, I imagine that they’re all in very good condition. 

For me, this cruise was far more about trying this itinerary and taking a cruise on a small ship. But I’m not convinced that small ship sailing is for me, for lots of reasons.

It wasn’t anything to do with the cabin, of course. The room was quiet, comfortable, and I knew that if we needed anything at all, our cabin steward would make it happen. 

Considering that this was the cheapest cabin on the ship, I was very impressed.

Have a closer look at my Windstar cabin here:

To understand why small ship sailing isn’t really for me, you’ll want to see what the cheapest cabins are like on the big cruise ships.

The room I had onboard Cunard’s Queen Anne was one-third of the price and had everything we needed.

To see that cheap cabin, watch this video next:

Before You Go

Compare that cabin to the cheapest cabin on the luxury cruise line Viking below. All cabins on Viking cruises have balconies.

I Booked The Cheapest Cabin on a Luxury Cruise Ship

Find out about cruise ship tours that take you to areas most passengers never see, here:

Cruise Ship Tours That Take You To Areas Most Passengers Never See