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Windstar

Three ships with real sails, the rest without, so check which one you are booking.

Who Windstar genuinely suits

  • Guests who want an uncrowded, yacht-style holiday: casual luxury, high-end food, direct access to the sea from a stern watersports platform, and the ability to anchor in coves and harbours a big ship could never reach. Nothing in the fleet carries more than 342 guests.

When you'd be better off elsewhere

  • Anyone picturing a big-ship resort, or anyone expecting to actually help sail the ship; the vessels are crewed, not hands-on. Families with young children too, since the ships carry no structured kids' provision and there's little for a child to do aboard a yacht built for adult pacing.

What the ships are actually like

Three different kinds of ship under one name. Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf are motor-sailing yachts with real masts and canvas, the most distinctive ships in the fleet. Star Legend, Star Pride and Star Breeze are all-suite motor yachts with no sails, bought from Seabourn. And Star Seeker, delivered at the end of 2025, and her sister Star Explorer, due at the end of 2026, are new-build yachts of 224 guests, also without sails. Star Explorer is the ship behind Windstar's Edinburgh sailings.

Don't let "sailing yacht" oversell the whole fleet

The whole brand is built on the romance of sail, and on three ships it is completely real. Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf have masts and canvas, and the moment the sails go up to music as you leave harbour is the reason people book this line twice.

The rest of the fleet does not have sails. Star Legend, Star Pride and Star Breeze are all-suite motor yachts that began life with Seabourn, and Star Seeker and Star Explorer are new builds. They are excellent ships and most people who sail on them come home delighted. But if you booked imagining canvas above you and walked up the gangway of a motor yacht, no amount of quality fixes that, so check which one your sailing uses before anything else. If you are boarding in Edinburgh, it is Star Explorer, and there are no sails.

One trade either way: cabins on the older ships run small by luxury standards. Almost nobody minds, because on a ship of at most 342 people the cabin is not where you spend the week.

Tips and gratuities

It depends on the offer. Some Windstar offers include gratuities and others do not, so check what your fare says.

Checked against the line's own website, October 2026.

Where Windstar sits

Class

Luxury, on our ladder from Mainstream through Ultra-Luxury.

A sample sailing

Wind Surf, 7 nights: Riviera under sail, Barcelona to Rome, guide price from £2,200pp.

Its only British departures leave from Edinburgh

4 of 1,704 sailings worldwide leave from a UK port (under 1% of the programme), from Leith 4.

Counted 17 August 2026 against live cruise-line inventory. Sailing counts move week to week.

Where Windstar boards in the UK

In the UK, Windstar sails from Edinburgh. Our guide covers who it suits, what actually sails and how to reach it.

Ready to sail?

See what Windstar actually has available

Answer in plain English and we'll show you real sailings, judged on fit, never on who pays us more.

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