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Windstar Cruises

Windstar Cruises to expand in South Pacific

Gene Sloan
USA TODAY
Windstar does a regular season of Panama Canal sailings with its Wind Spirit, combining a crossing with visits to small Panamanian islands with rainforest exploration in Costa Rica.

Windstar Cruises will offer year-round sailings in the South Pacific starting in May.

The small-ship company today announced one of its three sailing ships, the 148-passenger Wind Spirit, would permanently move to Tahiti on May 26 to operate voyages around the Society and Tuamotu Islands.

Itineraries will include seven-, 10- and 11-night trips.

Windstar offered seven-night sailings in the South Pacific this year for just a few months after a 10-year absence from the region.

Windstar is in the midst of a major fleet expansion that is allowing it to offer a growing range of itineraries. Long a three-ship line, the company added a fourth vessel, the 212-passenger Star Pride, earlier this year. Two more 212-passenger ships, the Star Breeze and Star Legend, will join the Windstar fleet in May 2015.

"When we returned to Tahiti this year, we knew it would be a popular choice for our guests," Windstar CEO Hans Birkholz says in a statement accompanying the announcement. "Now with the addition of our Star Breeze and Star Legend power yachts ... we're able to extend our sailings in Tahiti year-round to accommodate the demand from our customers."

As part of the expansion in the region, Windstar is adding new upscale adventures to its shore excursion lineup such as private snorkeling at a Tahitian black pearl farm in Raiatea.

Seven-night "Dreams of Tahiti" voyages will feature stops at the islands of Moorea, Tahaa, Raiatea, Huahine, and Bora Bora. Longer 10- and 11-night "Tahiti and the Tuamotu Islands" itineraries will add stops in Takapoto and Rangiroa in the Tuamotus, as well as two days at sea. The 11-night sailings also feature a visit to Fakarava, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

The line will offer four of the longer sailings in 2015 and seven in 2016.

For a deck-by-deck look at a Windstar vessel, click through the carousel below.

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