new_cruiser

Or take the train from Anchorage to Seward. It leaves Anchorage at 6:45 AM and gets to Seward at 11:20 AM - similar to the shuttle bus schedule. The train is more expensive than the shuttle but very comfortable and quite scenic.

Some 2025 itineraries: it applies to sailings through March 2025 if booked by Sept 30.

With the current special, they didn't. We switched our February 2025 cruise to the current special to add All-In and the base fare stayed the same. Our price went down slightly because special increased our 5% Yacht Club discount to 10%. We got All-In and a slightly lower price. I wouldn't ever buy All-In at $89 pp per day. As 4-stars, we already get free WiFi. We are light drinkers paying $73 per day (89 - daily gratuity) to get free alcohol wouldn't make sense.

I don't think the offer changed from late June, but I might be wrong. We got a post card in early summer telling us about the promotion. It seems it always pays to keep an eye on how Windstar applies things as some things don't seem to be fully automatic. I've done some solo trips and that pricing is even more opaque. When I'm traveling solo, I just check it to see that it isn't higher than what I expect and as long as that's true I'm fine. Their normal solo supplement is 75% but it seems that there is some part of the cruise fare that they don't apply it to because the invoice has always come out slightly lower than I expect. Until recently, the Reduced Solo Supplement page just gave the price for the lowest category room and didn't have solo supplement %. And since the price on that page was static and not linked to the current price, one couldn't even calculate what the supplement was supposed to be if the cruise was on sale. So I would just call my TA and get a quote. Recently, they added the % to the page so that will be easier to check.

In most cases, the $200 OBC per cabin plus complimentary All-Inclusive is as good or better than past booking incentives. Some past incentives have had a higher OBC amount for the premium suites but didn't include All-In. Depending on how valuable All-In is to the particular passenger and depending on length of cruise, the higher OBC might be a better deal for those who book the large suites. If you book don't book a premium suite, the current deal is best even if you don't care about WiFi and included alcohol since you get the OBC plus All-In covers daily gratuities ($16 per passenger per day). Many Windstar cruise fares are higher than $2000 ppdo, so the extra 5% off plus complimentary All-In on the current kind-of-late booking deal is usually better than the $200 OBC for the Early Booking deal. But I haven't seen that offered before.

The OBC is a feature of a particular special, not of All-Inclusive. The Early Booking Offer for 2026 includes complimentary All-in plus $200 OBC. The Complimentary All-Inclusive offer on sailings through March 2025 booked before Sept 30 doesn't include OBC. Instead it has a 10% Yacht Club discount instead of the usual 5%. On many Windstar cruises the extra 5% off would save more than $200 per cabin.

They have a Price Assurance Policy that let's you re-price to the current fare if the price drops over 90 days before sailing. Generally, that means you lose any perks that went with the prior fare and get the ones that go with the new fare. I've seen fares go up or go down as the cruise approaches. We are probably about 50/50 on cruises where it never dropped below our original fare and ones we re-fared under the price assurance program. Currently, they have the all-in package included on a lot of cruises (some before a certain date and some far out in 2026). We had a February 2025 cruise booked and used the policy to get ihe current offer. It truly was All-In for no added cost; our cost actually went down 5% because the fare didn't change but the current promotion includes a 10% Yacht Club discount instead of the usual 5%. Also, they let us keep the free hotel night that was part of our original promotion.

If the do a wetlanding in Kenai and Misty Fjords, it must be for a hike or nature walk. There is nothing there other than nature. When they did Alaska before, they had kayak and zodiac trips those places but didn't land. Kenai Fjords has a glacier. In both locations in May, there were bears on the meadows by the Fjords. That would make landing tricky. That's probably seasonal as we were told bears tend to graze when they get out of hibernation. It helps get their digestion moving. In Misty Fjords, there was a whale in the fjord with us.

The map for the ones to/from Seward shows the path going to Kenai Fjords which would be a glacier day, but the itinerary just says 2 sea days. It should only need 1 sea day to get from Seward to the first inside passage port but if they are going to Kenai Fjords why isn't it on the itinerary?

Strange because under dining on that same page it says stylish athletic shoes are fine for dinner. Also, I think it's wierd to have jeans be okay and not athletic shoes. In my experience, athletic shoes are fine.

This is the source I quoted: https://www.windstarcruises.com/voyage-plan/general-information/#DiningWithWindstar

Where are you reading that? Dinner dress description on the Gerneral Information page for booked guests says: "If you’re dining in Amphora, Stella Bistro, or Cuadro 44 by Anthony Sasso in the evening, slacks or non-distressed jeans are appropriate, paired with collared, button-down or polo shirts, or fashion tops or blouses. Skirts with nice tops, casual dresses and sundresses are also good choices. Dress shoes, nice sandals or stylish athletic casual shoes round out your evening wardrobe." Whenever I've looked, the website has not prohibited athletic shoes. It used to prohibited jeans but now non-distressed ones are allowed. Several years ago (pre-COVID), some cruise directors would say no "trainers" when they gave their introductory talk but that was contrary to the website. I ignored them since it's not right to try to inforce a stricter policy on board when guests relied on the website for packing. I never had anyone question my shoe choice in the dining room. On our post COVID cruises, no one has said "no trainers".

We've arrived on board and sent almost everything to the laundry after unpacking (long flights plus 4 days pre-cruise), sent in laundry every day and left with almost everything clean for our post-cruise stay. All covered by the package and never any complaints about it. The only time there has been an issue was when we boarded in Aukland. Due to an unreasonable heavy storm, the ship came into Auckland the day before we boarded and then stayed in port until the day after we boarded. They couldn't discharge the grey water there and tanks were near capacity so the couldn't do laundry until we got out to see. So return of t g at first laundry was delayed a day.

There have been a few different Lisbon to Barcelona itineraries. Currently, most of them are similar to the one we did in which all the stops other than Gibraltar were in Portugal and Spain. This itinerary has a stop in Almeria which is about 90 minutes from the Alhambra. The Windstar excursion to the Alhambra is very good and because it is a long excursion and a significant distance it's a good way to go. On our cruise, we had to skip the Almeria stop due to high winds but stayed an extra day in Malaga instead. That's a similar distance to the Alhambra so the Windstar excursion was switched to depart from there instead. We and about 6 others had booked a non-Windstar excursion and had to scramble working with the tour provider to get it modified to leave run from Malaga. The other itinerary stops in Tangiers and has some different ports in Spain. The current version of it doesn't stop in Almeria and doesn't have excursions posted so it isn't known whether they will have an Alhambra excursion from there. It does stop in Seville so you are right in town instead of needing to take a shuttle from Cadiz and that is an overnight stop which is pretty nice. Our cruise stopped in Seville, but they have stopped doing that with most of their cruises because the channel in the river is pretty tight - the ship had to back for a good bit of the way out. They have some new winter itineraries that are Barcelona to Malaga or round trip from Barcelona that hit Gibraltar and the Spain ports (except Cadiz/Seville) - I guess they stay in the Mediterranean to avoid winter seas in the Atlantic - even at other times of the year, the sea can get a bit rough on the way to Lisbon. Those have overnights for some of the stops.

They have never done on line bookings. I call or use a travel agent.