It's not often I can't make up my mind about a ship, but after one week on Star Clippers' sailing ship Star Flyer I was still asking myself, was this a luxurious experience or not?
For sure it's not luxury in the conventional sense of the word as Yachts of Seabourn and Silversea are. The cabins are small, the bathrooms are pokey, there's no one to escort you to your cabin when you first arrive.
Indeed when my daughter and I were disembarking after seven days on board, the crew in the dining room said goodbye and just watched as we carried our luggage up the stairs.
But look at it from another angle. You are on a real sailing ship that gracefully slices through the water when the canvas is hoisted (and that's most of the time, on the orders of Mikael Krafft, who owns the cruise line).
It holds just 170 passengers (and on my cruise there were only around 100), there are no dress codes and no one telling you where to sit in the evening. That's my idea of luxury.
The decor is lovely, with lots of brass and mahogany (see pictures below), the guys behind the bar and most of the waiters did a great job and the food, while not gourmet, was not bad.
My daughter and I boarded Star Flyer in Giardini Naxos, Sicily, the port for Taormina, and the first thing that struck me (apart from how small it looked) was that they were operating the tender in conditions other cruise lines would have deemed too rough and therefore dangerous.
True they had to keep going for a while because it was the only way we and 10 others who were starting our cruise there could get on. But the captain could have told the passengers who sailed in on the ship they would stop the tender service early.
It happened on Seabourn when we were in Mykonos just a week before and the sea was nowhere near as rough.
But no. On Star Flyer they treat you as adults, able to make up your own mind whether you can get on and off a tender, which was very refreshing.
(My only complaint was that the crew in charge of the tenders told you to take your time and when you did, they yanked you out. On one occasion, it left me with a cut and bruised leg.)
The bruise aside, everything (including the price, from £2,600 per person for 14 nights cruise-only) should have combined to provide a luxurious experience.
But it wasn't. Something was missing and I'm still struggling to know what.
The poor entertainments team didn't help - the cruise director excelled in speaking French, English and German but little else, and the two lads with her did as little as possible the entire seven days.
While you don't come on Star Flyer for the entertainment, some of their efforts were so lack-lustre they would have been better not bothering at all.
I don't think the excluded drinks helped either. You've got the small ship, the sailing, the convivial open dining - and each couple ordering their own bottle of wine. Or more usually getting the last dregs from the bottle they bought a few nights before.
I'm sure if you asked everyone if they would like wine included with meals they would all say "oh no, we don't drink much".
But you just include the drinks and then tell them and watch their faces light up and the conversation flow. I saw it happen the first night I was on Spirit of Adventure in February, when none of us knew drinks were included.
Given the cruise line's buying power, it wouldn't cost them much so likewise it would add very little to the cruise price, but it would take the whole experience to another level.
And maybe help fill their ships - although actually I think Star Flyer was much nicer with so few passengers on board!
Jane Archer
