Summer 2018

Hello all!

Does anyone know or have an educated guess as to when the summer 2018 itineraries will be released?

Thanks!

~BeachyGurl

Have you called WS? I suspect that Summer 2018 should be announced soon. Lines like SD have announced.

Please let us know if you find out anything.

Lovecruiseingtoo, I have not called. However, the Alaska itineraries up to 8/18 are online now, so I'm hoping the rest will be up soon.:)

FWIW, I called WS today to specifically ask when Med 2018 cruise itineraries would be released and was told March/April.

Well, thats March gone so only 4 weeks to go. I am hoping that the delay means they are busy planning some new and exciting itineraries - we would love to see fewer 7 day cruises and more 10-12 day cruises. Seven days is just not long enough!

Well with much fanfare, the new Windstar 2017/18 brochure is now proudly displayed on their Facebook page - and still no 2018 Mediterranean itineraries in it. What on earth is going on?

Well with much fanfare, the new Windstar 2017/18 brochure is now proudly displayed on their Facebook page - and still no 2018 Mediterranean itineraries in it. What on earth is going on?

I wonder if they are watching the political climate before committing to anything.

They just posted on Facebook that the Summer 2018 European itineraries will be posted within the next few weeks.

I wonder if they are watching the political climate before committing to anything.

Yes I wondered that too - could be that they are waiting to decide whether or not to commit to Turkey in 2018.

Seabourn has itineraries that include Istanbul in July 2018.

Considering the political climate in Turkey, I would not book any cruise that began or ended in Istanbul. Too much risk. Also, we book air 11 months prior (because we use points) and that would put us in a horrible position if they later decided to change the start of end point of the cruise.

Just got an email from Tauck and looks Windstar has partnered with then on some small ship itineraries. That may be the reason for the delays in the 2018 European itineraries being posted

On our cruise from Istanbul, Tauck took 20 cabins on floor A, fine with me as I love the gentle rock of the bottom of the ship. They were a very nice group of people.

Yes I agree. We have traveled Tauck before, this caught my eye because we have been looking for Lisbon to Barcelona cruise that we could do after a land tour of Portugal in 2018

Slightly scary. We sent for the Tauck brochure as we are interested in river cruising. It did not come across as a very nice experience at all.

What I find strange is that Tauck has released the itineraries before WS. I wonder if this "partnership" will impact WS providing the "free" nights or any other perk? Also, does Tauck have an agreement with WS on pricing such that the Tauck pricing seems "reasonable"? Also wonder how WS will handle the Tauck "daily cocktail hour"?

Many questions......so few answers.

At last - mediterranean itineraries for the summer 2018 are now on the Windstar website.

I guess they were a bit hasty putting up the summer itineraries. The Gaelic Explorers cruise in June goes from Ireland to Tobago Cays to Scotland in 3 days! Now, that is supersonic sailing!

What I find strange is that Tauck has released the itineraries before WS. I wonder if this "partnership" will impact WS providing the "free" nights or any other perk? Also, does Tauck have an agreement with WS on pricing such that the Tauck pricing seems "reasonable"? Also wonder how WS will handle the Tauck "daily cocktail hour"?

 

Many questions......so few answers.

Tauck has worked with Windstar for ages. There was a Tauck tour on our 2005 Windsurf Istanbul to Athens cruise. I don't know how they handle the daily cocktail hour; it wasn't noticeable on our 2005 cruise but perhaps they didn't do it then. I may find out soon as there is a supposed to be a Tauck group on our cruise which starts Sunday.

For the Med, the only Windstar cruises on the Tauck website are Spanish Serenade (which they call Treasures of Spain and Portugal) and something from Venice to Athens.

Yes, as it happens, we are looking at the 'something' from Venice to Athens (in September)! Fingers crossed it should be ok.

Home now after the 23 April to 1 May Spanish Serenade cruise. As expected, there was a Tauck group on the cruise. It wasn't at all disruptive to the cruise experience.

They used the Compass Rose each evening at 6 PM, I assume for their cocktail hour. There was a private party sign at the entrance to the Compass Rose. That overlapped the port talk for the ship at 6:15 in the Lounge. On many days the sail away would follow that so we would go up to the Star Bar for the flag raising and then to the Yacht Club and the deck in front of it to enjoy the scenery. I never felt that the lack of the Compass Rose for that hour was an inconvenience.

The only other time I noticed the group on the ship was that they had a lecture on the Spanish Civil War in the Lounge on the sea day. (At least from the people and the speaker, I assume it was a Tauck talk.) I happened to be in the lounge following another activity when the talk was starting. They didn't shoo anyone out and there wasn't a private party sign, but I didn't find the speaker very engaging so I wandered off to do something else.