Windstar
Cruises announced that its owner, Xanterra Parks &
Resorts®, has reached an agreement with Seabourn, a
cruise company that operates six luxury cruise ships, to purchase
three of their ships: Seabourn Pride, Seabourn
Legend, and Seabourn Spirit. Under the project
name Global Windstar, the expansion will double the size
of Windstar’s recently renovated, three luxury sailing yacht fleet,
making the company the market leader in small-ship cruising with 300
or fewer passengers, with a total of 1,230 berths. The purchase on
February 15, 2013, is one of several recent Xanterra Parks &
Resorts® acquisitions, including VBT, an adventure
travel company, and The Grand Hotel in Tusayan, AZ, adjoining the
South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The
delivery of the three 104 all-suite ships, which hold 208 passengers
each, will take place over the next two years in the Mediterranean.
The Seabourn Pride will be the first ship to enter
into Windstar’s luxury fleet in April of 2014. Following a
Windstar branded renovation, which will give the ship a new name and
casually elegant look, the Pride with set sail a
month later in May 2014; voyages are expected to go on sale in May of
this year. Windstar Cruises will take possession of Seabourn
Legend in April 2015 and Seabourn Spirit in
May 2015. These two yachts are scheduled to start sailing in May of
2015 following their dry-dock period.
Windstar’s
shoreside operations will continue to run out of the company’s
Seattle, WA headquarters.
Source:
Windstar Cruises
