Windstar Cruises has put its summer 2028 Europe season on sale, and it is the line's most varied yet. Five ships — Star Explorer, Star Legend, Star Pride, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf — will operate across the Mediterranean and Northern Europe between March and October, with 348 different itinerary combinations ranging from a four-day short break to a 53-day Grand Mediterranean Adventure that runs from Tenerife in the Canary Islands all the way to Venice aboard Wind Spirit.
There are several genuinely new things for 2028. Germany gets an expanded program, including sailings through the Kiel Canal and along the Elbe River — rare routing for a cruise ship. A four-day repositioning voyage from Copenhagen to Hamburg has been timed so passengers arrive during Hamburg's major maritime festival on May 3. Inis Mór, the largest of Ireland's Aran Islands, joins the line's port list for the first time.
Star Explorer, Windstar's newest ship, gets a headline assignment of its own: a Circumnavigate Ireland itinerary that calls at Belfast, Londonderry, Killybegs, Galway, Dingle, Cork and Waterford. That is a proper lap of the island rather than the usual one-port taster, and it will appeal to anyone who has already done Ireland by road.
In the Mediterranean, Windstar is leaning into events and intrigue. Both Star Legend and Wind Spirit will be positioned for the Monaco Grand Prix, building on the line's established Grand Prix sailings. The Athens roundtrip Mystery Cruise program also returns — an odd but popular format where the exact route stays under wraps until you're aboard.
Windstar's COO Stijn Creupelandt framed the season as a way to give repeat guests new angles on places they think they already know, and the numbers back that up: canal transits, Aran Islands calls and a full Irish circumnavigation are not standard small-ship fare. The 2028 season is unusually far out, so early bookers will get the best pick of cabins and fare bands, particularly for the Grand Prix sailings and the 53-day Grand Mediterranean, both of which tend to fill first.
If you like the idea of a yacht-style ship — few passengers, casual dress, ports the big lines can't reach — this schedule is worth an early look. Short voyages make it easy to test the format without committing two weeks of holiday.
