We are back! It was a great vacation - sailing ships are an awesome vacation that make the "big iron" cruise ships pale by comparison. I will post some pictures in the next week or so, as I process them through Photoshop, but for now just wanted to thank everyone for their good wishes in this thread!
If you are interested in a sailing "cruise type" vacation, check out any of:
www.windjammer.com
www.starclippers.com
www.windstarcruises.com
In general, the above three all offer "cruise type" vacations on small sailing ships (no more than 350 passengers, vs. 3000+ on the big ships). In all cases, the focus is on the joy of sailing, the exploration of small islands and the shared experience with your fellow passengers. There is none of the non stop PAR-TAY type experience on the big ships, and only a limited amount of organized on board activities. The experience is low key, laid back, and focused on the sea and the islands.
Of the above three, Windstar is the closest to the big cruise ships, with the expected gleaming white hulls, ornate fittings and the like. Still, passenger counts are way down (150 typically, 350 on their biggest ship) and the ships travel under sail power a lot of the time. Windstar ships present an unusual appearance - they look like small cruise ships with masts stuck into them. While closest to the big ships, Windstar is still a long, long way away from them in terms of size and focus.
Star Clippers provides a truly unique experience. Like Windstar, their ships sport clean white hulls and most modern amenities, but they run a fleet of real, purpose built, square rigged clipper ships. Again passenger counts are way down vs. the big ships (max seems to be about 250 passengers on their biggest ship, the Royal Clipper). The Star Clipper ships are modern, well fitted out and provide most of the amenities of the big ships in terms of cabins, service and the like. However, they are very, very focused on the experience of traveling under full sail, and enjoying the islands and your fellow passengers.
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises (the one we went on) takes yet another tack on the whole thing. They run a fleet of refurbished and reconditioned original windjammers (a class of wide bodied sailing ships popular right up to the end of World War One as cargo haulers). These ships are small relative to the Windstar and Star Clipper ships, and because they are older, cabins are smaller and the general level of amenities and fittings is the least of the above three. Windjammer Barefoot Cruises goes for more of the original authentic experience. They wrap a truly laid back and relaxed experience around these smaller ships, with a truly friendly and fun loving crew, lots of unique ports of call, and even opportunities to pitch in and help with such things as raising the sails. We thoroughly enjoyed our time on their s/v Polynesia (interesting name, given that we were sailing around the Virgin Islands) and hated to leave. Windjammer has a bit of "roughing it on the open seas" about it, and they even celebrate this fact, touting the fact that "this ain't no foo-foo ship"!
Anyway, thats a quick run down of the major options in the area. Have a look if you are interested! Meantime, we had a great vacation, and unfortuntely must now dive back into the real world, instead of the sparkling Caribbean!
