Exciting News from Windstar

[dandee2]

Just got this in my email so it is official.

 

February 19, 2013

 

I am thrilled to announce that Windstar Cruises is doubling the size of our fleet with the addition of three Seabourn ships: Seabourn Pride, Seabourn Legend, and Seabourn Spirit, purchased by our owner, Xanterra Parks & Resorts. Under the project name Global Windstar, we will now be the leader in the small-ship cruise market with 300 or fewer passengers, with a total of 1,230 berths.

We will take possession of the all-suite ships, which hold 208 passengers each, over the next two years in the Mediterranean. The Seabourn Pride will be the first ship to enter into our luxury fleet in April of 2014. Following a Windstar-branded renovation, the Pride will set sail a month later in the Mediterranean in May 2014; voyages are expected to go on sale in May of this year. We will take possession of Seabourn Legend in April 2015 and Seabourn Spirit in May 2015; the yachts will start sailing in May of 2015 following their dry-dock period.

Windstar is proud of its heritage in sailing and will continue to offer voyages on all three sailing yachts. What our guests continue to be enthusiastic about is our intimate, yacht style of cruising. This style is the core of our brand experience and the new ships are a perfect fit to build on that foundation. Global Windstar will also allow us to service new regions of the world such as Asia and South America, in addition to the fifty countries we already sail to. We will continue to focus on the unique destinations that larger ships cannot call on. The opportunities of Global Windstar are already evident with the recent announcement of Windstar's return to Tahiti in May of 2014. Tahiti has been one of the top destinations requested by our guests and travel partners.

I hope you are as excited about this news as we are. In the coming months we will reveal additional details, including the new ship names, itineraries, onboard experiences, and renovation details. Windstar offers you an intimate, unique, and engaging cruise vacation - and I can't wait to see you on board again, whether it's relaxing under the sails or cruising on one of our new all-suite yachts.

Sincerely,

 

Hans Birkholz

CEO

[Host Dan]

There is quite a bit of talk on the Seabourn board about the aquisition!

 

Host Dan

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1792608

[RAYSAN11]

I heard all the scuttlebutt about this but I did not believe it, because when I checked all the order books there was nothing on order for Seabourn. So now I am wondering if Seabourn is struggling

[ducklite]

This is very interesting! I wonder if an Australian/New Zealand itinerary will be part of their new offerings? We were planning on that with Regent sometime in the next 4-7 years, but would be very likely to book with Windstar instead if they offered it.

[gnld]

I heard all the scuttlebutt about this but I did not believe it, because when I checked all the order books there was nothing on order for Seabourn. So now I am wondering if Seabourn is struggling

 

I don't think so. The link below refers to a 4th new build for Seabourn.

 

http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/8726-seabourn-newbuild-order-likely.html

[themutis]

I find this news very exciting. While I do enjoy the sailing aspect, depending on the cruise, the can be little to no actually sailing.

 

My hope is the relaxed atmosphere of Windstar will fall upon these new ships. One of the reason we have not done Seabourne is the more formal nature of the line. We enjoy the Windstair relaxed atmosphere and would definitely try out one of these new ships.

[winegirl]

This is a "win" for Windstar, which can now hopefully offer different itineraries. Windstar is our favorite cruise line. We can live without a winter cruise in the Caribbean or Mexico. Would be nice to see some of S. America, Galapagos, New Zealand or Australia in winter. Even the southern US and Bermuda would be great, like some lines are offering. I think loyal Windstar cruisers are ripe for that.

 

As for Seabourn, we just took a cruise with them to Scandinavia, foregoing Windstar because Seabourn offered 3 full days in St. Petersburg, which you need to explore this huge and attraction-filled city. Rather than sail each day, cruise lines seem to becoming a little more in tune with what their customers want: more time in great ports! I like the idea of a sailing hotel, a "nest" to come back to at night where everyone knows your name. After a full day in a strange city, you need that.

 

For those who consider sailing on Seabourn, it was delightful. Veranda cabin on the Sojourn was large, filled with thoughful appointments and very comfortable. Hopefully Windstar can emulate some of that. We liked being able to order hot room service breakfast on Seabourn every morning while we got ready to go touring all day. Came back just in time for afternoon tea (an informal affair set up in one of their bars but very welcome.) Food on Seabourn was about the same as I recall on Windstar: good, solid, some hits, some misses. Nothing real memorable, except in their alternative Restaurant 2. Oceania cuisine was better than either. Hopefully Windstar can emulate Oceania's cuisine program (they went outside the 9 dots and had a number of venues.)

 

Windstar service was always a hit for us. Although they don't use European crew, the crew was always kind, thoughtful, hard working, playful. They remembered our likes and dislikes and acted accordingly. We loved the watersports programs on Windstar, where my spouse earned a resort diving certificate off the coast of Monte Carlo. Great British scuba instructors.

 

Windstar passengers were easy to meet, we feel very comfortable there. No formal nights either.

 

Having sailed on "near luxury" and "luxury" lines now, I really don't see a big difference. Service was good on all. Food was good on all. Not signing for a drink or a bottle of wine was not enough of an advantage to pay thousands more for the "luxury" line.

 

The trend at the top end appears to be more, larger ships, like Oceania "Riviera" and "Marina," at 1200 pp. It would not surprise me if Seabourn went even larger than their 450 passenger ships. The 700 pp Oceania "Insignia" felt like a "big ship" to me, with large crowds milling around and service more impersonal. The difference between the atmosphere on a Windstar 150 passenger ship and a 700 passenger Oceania is worlds apart--and not in a good way.

[commodoredave]

This is a "win" for Windstar, which can now hopefully offer different itineraries. Windstar is our favorite cruise line. We can live without a winter cruise in the Caribbean or Mexico. Would be nice to see some of S. America, Galapagos, New Zealand or Australia in winter. Even the southern US and Bermuda would be great, like some lines are offering. I think loyal Windstar cruisers are ripe for that.

 

As for Seabourn, we just took a cruise with them to Scandinavia, foregoing Windstar because Seabourn offered 3 full days in St. Petersburg, which you need to explore this huge and attraction-filled city. Rather than sail each day, cruise lines seem to becoming a little more in tune with what their customers want: more time in great ports! I like the idea of a sailing hotel, a "nest" to come back to at night where everyone knows your name. After a full day in a strange city, you need that.

 

For those who consider sailing on Seabourn, it was delightful. Veranda cabin on the Sojourn was large, filled with thoughful appointments and very comfortable. Hopefully Windstar can emulate some of that. We liked being able to order hot room service breakfast on Seabourn every morning while we got ready to go touring all day. Came back just in time for afternoon tea (an informal affair set up in one of their bars but very welcome.) Food on Seabourn was about the same as I recall on Windstar: good, solid, some hits, some misses. Nothing real memorable, except in their alternative Restaurant 2. Oceania cuisine was better than either. Hopefully Windstar can emulate Oceania's cuisine program (they went outside the 9 dots and had a number of venues.)

 

Windstar service was always a hit for us. Although they don't use European crew, the crew was always kind, thoughtful, hard working, playful. They remembered our likes and dislikes and acted accordingly. We loved the watersports programs on Windstar, where my spouse earned a resort diving certificate off the coast of Monte Carlo. Great British scuba instructors.

 

Windstar passengers were easy to meet, we feel very comfortable there. No formal nights either.

 

Having sailed on "near luxury" and "luxury" lines now, I really don't see a big difference. Service was good on all. Food was good on all. Not signing for a drink or a bottle of wine was not enough of an advantage to pay thousands more for the "luxury" line.

 

The trend at the top end appears to be more, larger ships, like Oceania "Riviera" and "Marina," at 1200 pp. It would not surprise me if Seabourn went even larger than their 450 passenger ships. The 700 pp Oceania "Insignia" felt like a "big ship" to me, with large crowds milling around and service more impersonal. The difference between the atmosphere on a Windstar 150 passenger ship and a 700 passenger Oceania is worlds apart--and not in a good way.

 

You've nailed it. For me, 750 is the max for a luxury experience, and 450 or less is much better. Like SeaDream, Windstar has decided to focus on the small ship luxury experience. There is a market out there for it. But humongous cruise congomertes cannot service it because their overhead is too high and requires scale and volume to be profitable. I think Windstar has made a good move. Just wonder if SeaDream was in the bidding as well.

[lovecruisingtoo]

I also am very happy that WindStar has decided to increase the number of ships they have. When my wife and I were on the Surf a year and a half ago some of the "new" owners were on board and they expressed at that time how they needed to find a way to grow the line and get more ships. We have gone on WindStar 5 times and Oceania once (and one Celebrity cruise). We agree with Winegirl that the 750 passenger Oceania ships is about the biggest we enjoy - and even 750 is really too big.

 

The return to Tahiti and having ships to explore other parts of the world will put new life back in the line. We were tired of seeing the same itineraries year after year so we are now saving up for our first sailing on the "new" ships.

[KarlS]

The 700 pp Oceania "Insignia" felt like a "big ship" to me, with large crowds milling around and service more impersonal. The difference between the atmosphere on a Windstar 150 passenger ship and a 700 passenger Oceania is worlds apart--and not in a good way.

 

Have to agree with Winegirl, too. We've only cruised Wind Surf, but have always enjoyed her size, and we thought Oceania's "Regatta" was about as "large" as we'd want to ever go again. We'd strayed from ocean cruising for awhile while we discovered the pleasures of river cruising on five Uniworld itineraries in Europe. In 2012 we tried a couple Royal Caribbean "Enchantment" cruises because she sailed out of Baltimore (just a bit over an hour's drive from home in northern VA). What a huge shock that was, to get back onto a ship with 2200 passengers. Although it was sweet being able to drive to the port and use the $$$ we'd have spent on airfare to upgrade to Owner's suites, we've concluded we're soooo "over" our thoughts of cruising on (what's considered these days as) a "mid-size" ship. We're ready to return to Windstar and her new small shipmate additions once we get ourselves psyched to get back to flying to the departure port. :)

 

...Karl

[dag144]

Wonderful news! The new ships (new to Windstar) will allow the line to cruise to more distant places. If the service and food stay the same, which I pray they will, I cannot wait!:)

[rafinmd]

FWIW, and I'm not yet sure it will really happen, but I just booked the repo to Tahiti.

 

Roy

[lovecruisingtoo]

I know the prices on the new ships will be higher than the current ships but I just hope they don't raise the prices such that they position themselves out of the current market.