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Windstar is making waves in the small luxury cruise space with the debut of its seventh ship.
The first new-build vessel for the line in three decades, Star Seeker, was unveiled in a naming ceremony at the Port of Miami on Thursday night.
Designed to be intimate and upscale, Star Seeker is an all-suite ship with just 112 rooms — a notably small number in the cruise world these days. Each of these 112 accommodations features a full private veranda or floor-to-ceiling windows.
Speaking to the ship’s highlights, which include lots of open decks, cozy tucked-away seating areas and a coffee-to-cocktail-bar area known as the Yacht Club (an amenity iconic to the brand), Stijn Creupelandt, Windstar’s chief operating officer, told TPG that “this was our first opportunity to really build and design a ship that kind of really will encourage those types of experiences that Windstar is known for.”
Accommodating 224 guests, Star Seeker’s top-tier amenities include a full-service spa, a pool and a whirlpool, a gym and five dining venues — a large number for a ship of this size.
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For the adventurous traveler, the smallness of the ship offers both an intimate experience and the ability to access ports that bigger ships can’t enter, executives noted.
“I want to see destinations that the big ships can’t take me to,” Janet Bava, Windstar’s chief commercial officer, told TPG. “I think Windstar is going to be a great product for an active traveler that wants experiential, culturally immersive, really good cuisine, quality food, when they come on board.”
Hoping to redefine what a cruise is for travelers who associate cruising with big lines, Bava believes that Star Seeker has the “opportunity to continue to welcome guests to a style of cruising that I think is not popular” with many cruisers.
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Case in point, the ship has a marina that lets passengers kayak, snorkel and paddleboard right off the back of the yacht — something you’ll find on all Windstar vessels but not on most cruise ships.
With a new ship added to its portfolio, Windstar is expanding its itineraries. Star Seeker is spending its inaugural season in the Caribbean but soon will redeploy to Alaska for the summer — a destination the line has not been able to offer since 2023. It’ll then move on to Japan in late 2026 and 2027.
“The only way we could go back to Alaska, to go to Japan, to go deeper and to add more destinations, was to grow our brand. … So I think that’s the biggest connection is really, you know, being able to offer more destinations to our guests at the platform that’s uniquely designed,” Creupelandt said.
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The ship’s small size will allow Star Seeker and a soon-to-debut sister ship, Star Explorer, to not only visit ports that are inaccessible to larger cruise ships but also offer more off-the-beaten-path itineraries.
The ship, for instance, will be able to dock in Venice, Italy, something that big ships no longer are allowed to do, giving passengers walk-off access to one of the world’s most famous destinations. Many big ships these days must dock more than an hour away by motorcoach from Venice due to new regulations.
“We’re small enough to … be allowed into Venice,” Bava said. “And so people, when they say experiential means I get off my ship, I get to unpack once and see multiple destinations, just like the big ships … but the destinations [that Star Seeker can access] are a lot more, I think, the destinations that people want to see when they travel.”
Allowing for a continued expansion into other markets, Star Explorer will debut in December and service European itineraries, sailing to river ports and city centers.
The two-hour christening event kicked off with light hors d’oeuvres, followed by speeches from Windstar’s president, Christopher Prelog, and Star Seeker captain Tom Schofield and blessings from Star Seeker’s appointed godmother, Libby Anschutz. The ceremonious night concluded with a bit of sparkle as a beautiful fireworks display lit up the Miami harbor.
Following the event, Star Seeker said farewell and officially set sail to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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