Inviting All My HAL Friends to Follow my Live From on our 1st Windstar Cruise

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Greetings HAL cruisers, we are about to embark on something very new to Tom and I. I thought many of you may be very interest in following our cruising on Windstar Sailing Yacht Wind Surf. Many long time Holland America Cruisers remember when Windstar Cruises was part of Holland America.

To give you a bit of history for those that may be fairly new to Holland America in 1987 Holland America purchase 50% of Windstar Sail Cruises then in 1988 purchased the remaining 50% making Windstar Cruise part of Holland America. With Officers and Crew working on both lines. In 1989 Holland America became a subsidiary of Carnival Corp bringing Windstar with it.

The ship we will be sailing on is Wind Surf which is the largest Sailing Yacht in the World. It is just 15k tons, it average close to 350 passengers per sailing. Interestingly enough of the 6 Windstar ships 3 sailing ships and 3 Motor Yachts that were formally Seabourn ships that were also part of Holland America. The Wind Surf is the largest of the 6 although the Motor Yachts have been stretched in recent years.

 

Below is a bit of history from Wikipedia that give a bit more history.

The option to continue building the Wind Surf and the Wind Saga was passed up by HAL. With assistance from the French Government these two larger ships were built for Club Med as Club Med I and Club Med II, with HAL / Carnival retaining rights of first refusal for purchase. A few years later, HAL / Carnival planned to buy the Club Med I and the Club Med II with permission. However, Windstar cruises was unable to purchase the ships and rename them to Wind Surf and the Wind Saga because they had only enough money to purchase one ship. So in 1998, Windstar acquired the sail cruiser Club Med I from Club Med Cruises, and rechristened her to her original name Wind Surf.

In March 2007, Carnival sold Windstar to Ambassadors International for $100 million.^[5]

On April 1, 2011, Windstar's parent company Ambassadors International filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.^[6] A bankruptcy court in Delaware held a two-day auction and Anschutz Corporation won Windstar Cruises with a bid of $39 million. Subsidiary Xanterra Travel Collection is now the parent company.

 

I plan to continue my What's for Dinner so look forward to seeing more activity on the Windstar board.Plus I will be doing lots of comparisons to cruising Holland America.

[oakridger]

I will be watching daily for your posts over on the Windstar Forum!  I was booked on Star Breeze for February and March 2025, but I was just notified that the cruises have been cancelled.  Not sure what I'll do, but I was really excited to try Windstar for the first time.  

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

 

~Nancy

[WriterOnDeck]

I will look forward to your reports! I sailed on the Wind Star and the Wind Spirit five times in the mid 1990s -- transAtlantics between Madeira or Lisbon and Barbados -- 14 days each with no stops until it was time to depart. I loved those voyages -- especially in those pre-Internet days when my boss could not reach me! We usually had no more than 60 or maybe 80 passengers (once 29), and when they bought the Wind Surf we thought it was entirely too big!

 

Bon Voyage!!!

[ski ww]

I'll be checking it out, enjoy your cruise.

[FlorenceItaly]

I am really looking forward to reading about your experience.  Wishing you and Tom a wonderful cruise.  Bon Voyage!

[*Miss G*]

Wow, a Windstar journey!  That is so awesome!  I really appreciate you sharing your journey with us.  Ever since I watched them silently gliding into port in Montenegro I’ve been fascinated with them.  Can’t wait to read along!

 

[albingirl]

I'll be very happy to follow along, probably wishing I was aboard!  Bon Voyage!

[kazu]

This is so exciting for you and Tom, Lisa 🙂 

 

And so happy I will get to share it with you - albeit vicariously. 😉 

 

I am really looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

I hope the two of you have an absolutely fabulous time 🙂 

[travelnap]

Bon Voyage Lisa and Tom.  Hope you two enjoy this cruise.

[habenicd]

We sailed Windstar a couple of times way back when.  We loved our Windstar cruises. Then we found Star Clippers which is even more about the sailing.  We will follow your journey and will be interested in your opinions and how the line has or has not changed over the years.

Bon Voyage!

[Love the beach]

Bon Voyage! Have a wonderful time!