Indonesia cruise experience?

[Doh15]

I noticed there's an Indonesian cruise for 2020 on Wind Spirit (Singapore to Bali, with stops at Semarang and some small ports). 

 

I wondered if anyone had experience with Windstar in Indonesia, or with the smaller ports they've chosen (Probolinggo, Celukan Bawang, Lembar, etc.).

 

It also looks as though the Star Clippers offer a similar itinerary, so I wonder if anyone can compare Wind Spirit to a Star Clipper (e.g., is the quality of food comparable?).

[Doh15]

PS one reason I ask is to check if anyone knows whether WS has used these ports before or not, because I have been on cruises before with what seemed to be new ports, some of which were successful and some were not.

[new_cruiser]

These may be new ports (or at least ports that Windstar hasn't visited for quite a while) as I recall an announcement from Windstar about their new South Pacific itineraries. Wind Spirit has been doing just Tahiti for a long time and I've seen those cruises on special for pretty low prices often so this may be an attempt to get more business by adding new itineraries. 

 

Quote from an article on Windstar plans South Pacific in 2020:

“This will be a one-time special cruise,” said Peterson. “We wanted to do something adventurous and interesting. The ship will visit Indonesia, parts of Australia, and places like New Caledonia. There will be a lot of new South Pacific ports.”

Source: https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/windstar-cruises-a-sneak-peek-at-what-s-on-tap-for-2019-and-2020.html

 

There is always some uncertainty with new ports, but I was on Windstar's first Alaska trip (at least the first in more than a decade) and they handled the new ports pretty well. 

 

There have been several threads comparing Windstar and Star Clippers. I'm linking to this one because it has links to two of the others so you can get to most of the recent relevant material from it:

 

 

I'm scheduled to try Star Clippers for a Thailand itinerary in April. I'm expecting it to be different from Windstar but not necessarily better or worse.

[Misty Morning]

These new itineraries are timed out and back into French Polynesia so that the Wind Spirit can go into drydock in Singapore for a month in May 2020. Some of the stops have probably been visited by the Star Legend in the last year so Windstar does have some experience with some of the stops.

[Doh15]

Thanks!  I looked at those threads and while I think we'll aspire to getting on a clipper one of these days, it's not what we're looking for just now.

 

Has anyone done a pre-dry dock cruise on Windstar-- it looks from that article like this might be the last leg before drydock in Singapore.

 

Interested to hear how your Clipper voyage goes, any other experience with Indonesian ports, or anything else to take my mind off winter and towards travel 🙂

[milepig]

1 hour ago, Doh15 said:

Thanks!  I looked at those threads and while I think we'll aspire to getting on a clipper one of these days, it's not what we're looking for just now.

 

Has anyone done a pre-dry dock cruise on Windstar-- it looks from that article like this might be the last leg before drydock in Singapore.

 

Interested to hear how your Clipper voyage goes, any other experience with Indonesian ports, or anything else to take my mind off winter and towards travel 🙂

 

Others are correct, my TA confirmed that the Spirit is still based in Tahiti, but it was time for some spa treatments. This may also be timed to fill in as there are no other Asia itins in 2020 with the triplets beginning to go offline for their lengthenings. 

 

Sime of the pricing looks very good, I think I’d book the return to get advantage of the work but she was looking good this fall.