Increasingly, when vacationers start to speculate, first in planning a visit after which by taking it, they’re eager to spend extra time within the locations they’re going to. Actually, longer journeys to long-haul locations is a giant pattern in 2025.
In a tendencies report revealed by Zicasso Journey, we’re advised that “demand spans all traveler varieties — from households and {couples} to solo vacationers and multigenerational teams — highlighting the necessity for adaptable, personalised itineraries that cater to numerous pursuits inside single journeys.”
What if, says Janet Bava, Windstar’s chief industrial officer, “per week simply isn’t lengthy sufficient?”
Certainly, even Windstar-loyal vacationers inform us that they’re extra incessantly planning journeys on the again of journeys. In a latest weblog put up on ocean crossings, Brooke Harwood advised us that the precise voyage was only one side of the journey: On a crusing from Lisbon, he and his spouse, Trish, first traveled round northern Portugal, together with Porto, Fatima, Coimbra and the Douro Valley. “We really spent just a few days in Barcelona, sailed Wind Surf from there to Lisbon, did 10 days of touring in northern Portugal and Lisbon, then boarded Legend for the crossing,” Harwood says.
That’s simply why Windstar’s created a Star Collector sequence of voyages that supply worth, breadth of regional exploring, and plenty of perks. Primarily, a chosen Star Collector voyage combines two (or extra) itineraries for a 13-plus day journey. And there’s this: “We solely make one thing a Star Collector if there’s minimal overlap,” says Jess Peterson, Windstar’s director of vacation spot expertise & itinerary planning.
When you’re contemplating stretching your trip with a Star Collector bundle, listed here are our three key issues to know.
These aren’t merely back-to-back cruises with a brand new identify
Whereas back-to-back cruises, wherein vacationers merely e book two sailings in a row, are at all times a well-liked choice, Star Collector is a bit completely different. The designation signifies that the back-to-back prolonged sailings are nonetheless two or extra in a row — however these are specifically designed to eradicate repeating the identical ports (apart from a turnaround metropolis).
So for example, the Star Collector Adriatic Previous Cities and Aegean from Venice to Athens, a 17-day journey, is a seamless mix of two fairly distinctive areas of the Mediterranean. The one repeating port is Athens, the place the ship turns round on the finish of every crusing.
Onboard Star Legend within the Mediterranean in January, I used to be crusing on my ordinary seven-day itinerary, and I couldn’t recover from what number of different vacationers have been staying on, as a part of Star Collector, for not simply one other cruise however a 3rd. One night time’s eating companions traveled, as I did, from Venice to Rome, went on from Rome to Barcelona, after which cruised southern Spain. Each itinerary was distinctly completely different.
Star Collector provides unique perks and advantages that you just don’t get with back-to-backs
On that very same voyage, the perk that individuals bubbled about essentially the most was the free, each day laundry — a symbolic signal of the indulgence of a real trip.
The place are you able to go along with Star Collector?
How does Asia, the Caribbean, the Canary Islands and Northern Europe sound? Personally, the subsequent one on my want listing is a 21-day Star Collector journey that mixes the better of Tahiti with a run to the distant Marquesas. Or possibly it’s an Alaska to Asia voyage. In any case, you’ve traveled all this strategy to see a number of the most iconic locations on this planet.. Why not keep longer?
