{"id":24052,"date":"2015-04-30T01:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=24052"},"modified":"2015-04-30T01:00:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T08:00:23","slug":"thursday-127","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=24052","title":{"rendered":"Windstar: Best Small Line\u2026Big Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you increase something, anything, by 50 per cent it’s a big deal. For Windstar Cruises<\/a>, the month that starts tomorrow is a big deal.<\/p>\n

Next Friday, Windstar officially adds a ship to its fleet of four when the Star Breeze<\/a> is christened in Nice<\/a>, France. This will come two days after Windstar takes possession of its sixth ship, the Star Legend<\/a>, and its official addition to the fleet will come May 25 in Rome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What today is a four-ship fleet will become a six-ship fleet. Hence, 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

Windstar’s an interesting cruise line. It has been around, in one form or another, for 30 years. It has been bought by Holland America, Carnival Corporation, Ambassadors International and — most recently — by Xanterra, a subsidiary of the powerful Anschutz Corporation.<\/p>\n

None of its ships carries more than 300 or so passengers. In the eyes of Conde Nast Traveler<\/a> readers, this is the “World’s Best Small Ship Cruise Line” and, clearly, it is growing. The last three ships were purchased from another luxury line after they sailed as \"Bar<\/a>Seabourn’s Pride, Legend and Spirit. The Star Pride arrived a year ago and the two making their Windstar debuts this month have undergone $8.5 million in upgrades.<\/p>\n

Each.<\/p>\n

Based on feedback from Star Pride<\/a> passengers over the last year, Windstar doubled its investment in refurbishing the Pride’s two sisters.<\/p>\n

The Breeze also underwent a name change. It was the Spirit at Seabourn<\/a>, but there’s already a Wind Spirit in this fleet.<\/p>\n

Six ships is a 100 per cent expansion in the last year. With the ability to accommodate 636 more passengers on the three ship additions (212 each), the overall capacity grows dramatically, to 1,242. Windstar can now take twice as many people on exotic, small-port excursions on ships that are in reality known as yachts.<\/p>\n

The demand must be there, and this oft-orphaned cruise line is doing its best to meet it.<\/p>\n

Today at portsandbows.co<\/span><\/a>m: <\/strong><\/em><\/span>Scenic Jasper on the Danube<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Norwegian Sun<\/a>
\n\t4 nights
\n\tSeptember 28, 2015
\n\tVancouver<\/a>, Victoria<\/a>, San Diego<\/a>
\n\tInside: $219
\n\tCost per day: $54<\/strong>
\n\twww.ncl.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you increase something, anything, by 50 per cent it’s a big deal. For Windstar Cruises, the month that starts tomorrow is a big deal. Next Friday, Windstar officially adds a ship to its fleet of four when the Star Breeze is christened in Nice, France. This will come two days after Windstar takes possession… Continue reading Windstar: Best Small Line\u2026Big Growth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,32,36,19,15],"tags":[1425,68,912,72,819,35,151,126,367,1037,26,27,1242,1918,1919,1238,1104,1016],"class_list":["post-24052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-deals","category-reviews","category-ships","category-stories","tag-anschutz-corporation","tag-conde-nast-traveler","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-news","tag-cruises","tag-new-cruise-ships","tag-norwegian","tag-norwegian-sun","tag-pacific-coast-cruises","tag-phil-reimer","tag-ports-and-bows","tag-ship-christening-ceremonies","tag-star-breeze","tag-star-legend","tag-star-pride","tag-wind-spirit","tag-windstar-cruises","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}