Star Explorer

Star Explorer is the odd ship in the Windstar fleet, and the easiest one to misfile. She has no masts, so she is not one of the sailing yachts. She was never a Seabourn ship, so she has nothing to do with the stretched trio. She was built in 2019 at West Sea in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, as World Explorer, a polar expedition vessel, and Windstar bought her in 2024. As of August 2026 she is still in the yard she was born in, being converted, and no Windstar guest has yet set foot on her.

What she was

World Explorer was Mystic Cruises’ first ocean-going ship, delivered in April 2019 and christened at Viana do Castelo with Carla Bruni as godmother. She began with Mystic’s German brand, nicko cruises, on Iceland, Greenland, Norwegian fjord and Baltic itineraries. Quark Expeditions chartered her for Antarctica in the 2019-20 season, which is the part of her record that explains her hull: she was built to work in ice and to carry two hundred people into places with no pier. After the pandemic she ran under charter to Rivages du Monde, and it was from that arrangement that Windstar acquired her in early 2024.

The conversion

She went into West Sea at Viana do Castelo in April 2026 and comes out in December, and the work is not cosmetic. The helipad is gone. The bow is being reshaped so that she reads as a Windstar ship rather than an expedition one. Staterooms are being added, taking her to 112 suites and 224 guests, among them two Horizon Owner’s Suites of 74 square meters each with separate living and dining space and a private balcony. Windstar’s Basil+Bamboo restaurant goes in, along with a marina platform, a bow sun deck and more dining.

The plain reading of that list is that Windstar bought an expedition ship and is deliberately removing the expedition from it. She is not being sent to ice. She is being sent to Europe, which is a reasonable use of a small, strong, seven-year-old hull, but anyone booking her because of the Antarctic pedigree should understand that the pedigree is what is being unbolted.

Where she actually sails

Europe, year-round, which is unusual; Windstar has committed her to the continent through the winters rather than chasing the sun. Her first sailing is a nine-night Southern Spain run from Barcelona on December 28, 2026, and the winter program is Mediterranean: seven- to nine-night trips out of Barcelona, Civitavecchia and Venice, taking in Málaga, Nice, Genoa, Livorno, Catania and Dubrovnik, with the longer Star Collector combinations stacking two or three of them together. Summers move her north; Dun Laoghaire turns up on her schedule for a circumnavigation of Ireland, and there is a Baltic program. She is christened on the Thames on May 31, 2027.

Who she suits

People who want small-ship Europe with long port calls and overnights, and who are more interested in where the ship stops than in what is aboard it. At 224 guests she gets into harbors that a 3,000-passenger ship anchors outside of, and the winter Mediterranean deployment means Venice and Dubrovnik without the July crowds.

She does not suit anyone wanting an expedition. There will be no ice, and the kit for it is being removed. She does not suit families or anyone who needs choice; a ship this size has no theater, no water park and a handful of rooms to sit in. And she is the one ship here that nobody can vouch for yet: she has never sailed a day under this name or this operator, the deck plans are new, and everything above is what the yard and the line say she will be rather than what anyone has seen.