
Windstar launches free-air offer for Tahiti cruises
For travelers booking through July 31, three Tahiti packages include roundtrip air from Los Angeles to Papeete on Air Tahiti Nui. The offer applies to select departures from July 2025 through March 24, 2026. Travel advisors must use booking code: AIR.
Each itinerary includes air, hotel stays and transfers.
The offer applies to three packages: Dreams of Tahiti (a 10-day escape through the Society Islands), Tahiti & the Tuamotu Islands (a 13- or 14-day trip pairing the Society Islands with the Tuamotus), and Tahitian Treasures & Magnificent Marquesas (a 17-day voyage).
An upgrade to a higher air class is available for an additional charge based on availability.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
This major cruise line canceled 5 cruises: See the impacted sailing dates
Carnival Cruise Line canceled five cruises aboard its Carnival Breeze ship. 'As we manage a busy dry dock schedule, we must sometimes adjust our sailing schedule to accommodate planned maintenance,' the cruise line told USA TODAY in an emailed statement. 'Affected guests and their travel advisors were informed of this change several weeks ago and we assisted in finding other sailing options. We appreciate their understanding.' Five sailings were impacted in total. Those include a cruise departing on Jan. 11, 2027, and four back-to-back sailings between March 5 and March 22, 2027. The ship will be sailing from Galveston, Texas, in early 2027, according to CruiseMapper. Cruise cancellations are relatively rare, but can happen for various reasons, including when a ship needs to go into dry dock or is booked for a full-ship charter, among others. MSC Cruises confirmed earlier this month that it had scrapped around five months of cruises on its MSC Meraviglia ship, which will spend its winter 2026-2027 season in Miami instead of New York. Norwegian Cruise Line also canceled over four months of cruises on two ships in July, citing 'a fleet redeployment.' Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carnival scraps 5 cruises: See which dates were impacted
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FTAL-windstar-culinary-plant-based-food-collage-VEGANCRUISE0925-7aa211750ec94d2a85319d91126917c7.jpg&w=3840&q=100)

Travel + Leisure
2 days ago
- Travel + Leisure
The Surprising Dining Trend That Cruise Lines Are Racing to Embrace
In February 2025, Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze set off on a seven-night sailing from Papeete, Tahiti, bound for five islands in French Polynesia, including Bora-Bora and Raiatea. The dreamy route is a specialty for the small-ship cruise line, but there was something different about this particular voyage: every meal served on the ship was vegetarian. The unique itinerary, which Windstar developed in conjunction with the National Health Association, an Ohio nonprofit that champions the benefits of a plant-based diet, was a sold-out hit. In addition to the onboard cuisine, shore excursions, like a visit to a vanilla plantation on Tahaʻa, were also on theme. The trip was atypical in its complete adherence to plant-based menus, but cruise lines are increasingly catering to this way of eating. It makes sense: more than 40 percent of Americans say they're now interested in plant-forward diets, according to Datassential, a market-research firm. 'These days, wellness concerns and healthy choices don't stop during vacations,' says Kristin Karst, cofounder of AmaWaterways, a river cruise line that recently developed plant-based menus. My own tastes are beginning to lean that way, too. On a recent Atlas Ocean Voyages trip in the Mediterranean, I bypassed the bacon and eggs served at breakfast in favor of a tofu scramble served with grilled mushrooms and toasted black bread, which quickly became my morning go-to. One evening I opted for an inventive version of beef Wellington, made not with prime filet but with beets wrapped in vegan pastry. Plant-forward 'dupes' like these have become fast favorites of many cruise-line chefs. 'One of our standouts is 'cashew e pepe,' a spin on the classic pasta made with a creamy cashew-based sauce,' says Colin Jones, fleet executive chef for the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. Peruvian operator Delfin Amazon Cruises has also foregrounded plant-forward dining, much of it drawn from the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous fruits such as cocona, shimbillo, and taperiba, as well as aromatic charapita peppers, often star on the menu. The use of these distinctive ingredients has helped make Delfin one of just a handful of expedition lines that are part of Relais & Châteaux, a hospitality collective known for culinary prowess. 'Every plate felt like it was telling a story, every meal like I was tasting a piece of the jungle,' says Carolina Blomberg, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer who traveled on the Delfin I . Other travelers see thoughtful vegetarian cuisine as a point of distinction. 'I've been on two cruises with Virgin Voyages and was really impressed,' says Anu Mandapati, an Austin-based executive. 'Every restaurant has creative, well-balanced vegan options that were actually good—not just an afterthought.' A version of this story appeared in the September 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure, under the headline "Vegging Out."


Forbes
06-08-2025
- Forbes
High Net Worth Travelers Are Balking At Increased Prices, Lower Service
Luxury travel and hospitality providers are facing growing resistance to higher prices; however, it's not clear whether high-net-worth customers are curtailing their spending. A survey of travel consultants who specialize in high-end travel found 'most advisors are reporting healthy revenues, strong forward bookings, and continued appetite from high-net-worth clients. But underneath that rosy picture are signs of subtle but important shifts.' When it comes to dipping into their wallets, the percentage of clients willing to spend more for exclusive and bespoke experiences dropped from 89% in 2024 to 73% this year. What's more, 59% of travel advisors say customers are waiting longer to make final decisions. The report attributes the hesitancy to 'growing caution in the face of rising costs.' The Pulse of the Industry survey from Strategic Vision concludes, 'Clients remain price-conscious and more deliberate in their choices — opting for different hotels, tweaking itineraries, and sometimes choosing different destinations when pricing doesn't align with expectations.' The survey comes as Virtuoso Travel Week gets underway Saturday in Las Vegas. The annual conference brings together travel advisors who are part of the Virtuoso Travel network – they sell around $30 billion in travel per year – and executives of travel suppliers, including managers of five-star hotels and top executives of hotel groups, cruise lines, expedition companies, destination promotion boards, and local companies that often organize that after-hours access and VIP treatment. The report says, 'Growth is bringing its challenges. Advisors are juggling high demand with limited staffing and rising client expectations.' Strategic Vision President Peter Bates says, 'Luxury travelers are still willing to spend — but they're asking more of their advisors. They want meaning, they want value, and they want it delivered seamlessly. That's not a challenge: It's an opportunity to elevate what we do.' According to the survey, 51% of advisors cited high prices as their biggest obstacle, with 68% of respondents saying clients changed hotels due to pricing. More than half of advisors (55%) say clients have changed destinations entirely based on cost. Still, demand is strong with 63% saying bookings are ahead of last year. So, what's making the wealthy get out their black cards? Interest in trips for rest and relaxation has decreased by 10 points, from 43% to 33%. At the same time, 84% of advisors say there is a higher interest in celebration travel planned around birthdays, anniversaries, and destination weddings. Spending time with family (76%) and discovering new places (73%) ranked highly. Buzzy travel categories, such as transformative experiences, are rated just 45%, which is still a significant number. Bates says, 'The buzzwords may evolve - from experiential to slow to transformational - but ultimately what we're selling is the same: travel that fulfills a personal need. Your messaging should speak to emotional drivers — family bonding, cultural immersion, personal milestones — rather than generic luxury cues.' However, rates that can often exceed $1,000 for entry-level hotel rooms are causing pause. The advisors also say service isn't keeping up with prices. According to Strategic Vision, 'Clients are more willing to change plans based on perceived ROI and service quality — especially when pricing doesn't align with expectations.' Nearly a quarter (24%) of advisors said 'inadequate service delivery from suppliers' was a top challenge. Despite increases in prices on land and the water, 75% of advisors say they are seeing more interest in expedition cruises, with 57% pointing to river cruises as a hot segment. With paying more seeming a given, the advisors say having that perfect or near-perfect experience is more important than ever. Almost one-third of respondents (31%) said overtourism was an obstacle to selling popular destinations. Travel suppliers can take heart that they are not alone when the wealthy push back on pricing. A current survey by Private Jet Card Comparisons of private aviation flyers shows 59% of respondents citing increased prices as the top reason for considering a change of flight providers. That's down from 65% last year. However, 25% say they have been frustrated by flight delays, cancelations, or changes with 17% saying aircraft cabins were in poor condition, and 16% pointing to declining customer service. Still, there are hints that despite increased prices and service issues, HNWs are still going to spend. Private jet flying, as tracked by ARGUS and WingX, has rebounded after two years of slight declines and is approaching the record levels seen in 2022. What's more, over 95% of HNWs who started flying during or after Covid are sticking with it and of those responding who were flying privately before the pandemic, while the majority say they are flying privately a similar amount, those who have increased use of private aviation are outstripping those who have cut back by a greater than four-to-one margin.