Rate Cruiselines Best to Worst

My daughter and I just came back from a 5 night cruise and spent much time deliberating which line we liked best, which we liked least, and why. There were clear winners and losers. Just for fun, list your favorite at the top and work your way down, just cruiseline, ship name, and your favorite thing.

Disney, Wonder: Rotating dining and themes

Celebrity,Summit: Aft grill and sushi bar

Celebrity, Constellation: Martini Bar

Princess, Golden: Embarkation at San Juan

Carnival, Glory: First Caribbean itinerary for us I

Carnival, Splendor: NE/Canada itinerary

Carnival, Holiday: Nothing memorable

RCCI, Independence: Aft balcony, and tied for last place

NCL, Pride of America: Hawaii itinerary

Seabourn, all ships, everything

Silversea, all ships, everything

Crystal, all ships, everything

Regent, all ships, everything

How am I doing? Or isn't this what you expected.

I've sailed too many ships to list but generally speaking, this is my current ranking of the lines. I say current because this stuff tends to change over time and like most frequent cruisers, I've sailed some lines more than others.

1. Celebrity - Especially Solstice Class - Love the ships and the ambiance.

2. Royal Caribbean - Any Class - I've always been blown away by RCI ship design and entertainment.

3/4. Tied between HAL and Princess. Holland America - Top notch for service, but entertainment sucks. Princess - Service and entertainment are good, but ships are dated and rooms are tiny.

5/6. Tied between NCL and Carnival. Both have their strengths and both have their weaknesses. I can't stand NCL's Spirit/Frontier Airlines approach to cruising, and Carnival's interior designs are just, well, gaudy.

Sea Dream I and II tied for first 10+ weeks on board - unbeatable - you have to sleep on the fore deck while overnighting at St. Barths.

Silversea - AK - Everything is great

Regent- Ak- Everything is great

NCL Dawn -Nice size

NCL Pearl - Bowling Alley

CCL Legend - Great size ship

RCCL Radiance of the seas - Love the elevators on the hump

CCL - Elation - sushi

CCL Fantasy

Of the lines we have sailed on -

Princess

P&O UK

NCL

(little to choose between these first three)

last by a country mile RCCL

However - this may change in less than two weeks when we sail on Azamara.

Setting aside the snobbery, I've only been on three lines. I rate them as follows:

 

RCL (maybe because the itinerary was so fantastic)

Princess

Carnival

 

I'd like to try Azamara, Oceania or Crystal, but I fear I'd run into some of the snobs that I see on this website, which would really turn me off. I'm assured that 99.972% of the passengers are fun and fabulous and then there are the one or two who are quite horrid.

Please point out the snobbery you're seeing in this thread,

Because I can't find it.

My answer is:

Windstar, Windsurf for the sails, service and size. (300 pax)

Windstar, Windstar for the above but gym and spa are very small

HAL, Oosterdam. Fairly quiet and not too crowded.

Princess to Alaska, don't remember ship, just ok, terrible food

Carnival- last place for crowds, lines, food quality

^Well now, you aren't really playing by the rules are you:D At least let us know what Carnival ships you've been on....

The maybe you should at least follow the title of YOUR thread.....it says "rate crusielines best to worst"......NOT cruise ships. ;)

OK I'll join in but you might be a bit surprised

Holland America (especially Prinsendam for outstanding service and itineraries and Westerdam)

NCL (Norway was the best when she was around)

Oceania - Riviera was our only sailing. 14 days - first time I wanted to get off a ship.

Princess

Celebrity

And some now defunct cruise lines.

This is fun

Disney- atmosphere and service

Tied for second:

RCCL- family friendly

Celebrity- family aft stateroom(only been on one)

Princess- similar to RCCL but more elegant

Tied for third:

Carnival- parties

NCL- buffets and they do freestyle Dinning the best (dine when you want), also offer a lot of kids sail free so since I have two the one I have done the most lastly. It's hard to pass up $2200 for four in a mini suite with a drink package

The only cruise I didn't like and wouldn't repeat is my Hawaii cruise on the now Norwegian Jewel ( which I have done in Mexico and Alaska since). The Hawaii cruise had the most awful service when it was the Pride of Hawaii. Luckily Hawaii was so fantastic it couldn't be ruined but the ship experience was so bad

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Celebrity - some of the most beautiful ships afloat.

HAL - still offers customers outstanding service and professionalism.

Princess - usually good entertainment, service above the norm.

RCCL - some really big vessels that are well run.

NCL - tries to be too laid back. One exception is The Sun - best run NCL ship.

CCL - dramatic drop at every level.

My list might indeed change since I'll be cruising on the Windstar Spirit and Viking Sea soon.

"As usual: another rating survey with zero conditions or criteria."

Of course there are criteria and conditions!

It says so right in the original post: "Just for fun, list your favorite....." The conditions is that this is a thread just for fun, and the criteria is that it be your favourite. An entirely whimsical thread of personal favourites.

I'd like to try Azamara, Oceania or Crystal, but I fear I'd run into some of the snobs that I see on this website, which would really turn me off. I'm assured that 99.972% of the passengers are fun and fabulous and then there are the one or two who are quite horrid.

Why would you let that stop you? Can you say that there aren't one or two people on Carnival, HAL, or Disney that aren't quite horrid? I know there are, because I've met them......but I don't let one or two "horrid" people out of 1000+ keep me from doing something I want to do. If those are your standards to keep you from trying something you want to do, I feel sorry for the lack of discovery in your life.

"As usual: another rating survey with zero conditions or criteria."

 

Of course there are criteria and conditions!

 

It says so right in the original post: "Just for fun, list your favorite....." The conditions is that this is a thread just for fun, and the criteria is that it be your favourite. An entirely whimsical thread of personal favourites.

"Best to worst" and "favorite" can be vastly different things.

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My picks; I've left out a few that didn't leave much impression on me pro or con:

Voyages to Antiquity -- Aegean Odyssey (x6): great, themed itineraries and guest lecturers; small ship means you get to know fellow passengers; low solo supplements on many sailings.

Swan Hellenic -- Minerva: much the same reasons as the above but slightly more expensive (and posh), so felt a little less like "home" to me.

Sitmar -- Fairwind/Fairsea (x many; now long defunct): My first "love"; wonderful Italian crew that made me feel special as a child/young teen; wonderful introduction to cruising.

Celebrity -- Silhouette: Perfect New Year's Eve cruise; enjoyed every second; proves big ships can still provide good food, good service and good entertainment.

Royal Caribbean -- Song of America: Glitzy and new at the time; epitomized 1980s cruising.

Celebrity -- Zenith: NY to Bermuda; back when Michel Roux had just started to change how people thought about cruise ship dining. Delicious food!!

Princess -- Sea Princess: Great onboard traditional-style pizzeria; smaller ship experience worked well for Alaska.

HAL -- Westerdam: Wanted to compare big-ship Med cruising experience with smaller ship. While smaller ship won out, Westerdam was a very good experience; HAL treats solo cruisers well.

Princess -- Grand Class ships (many cruises): Good, solid ships without being too large; great balconies on Caribe deck and mini suites. Enjoyed cruises to Baltics, Med (x2), Caribbean (x4), Alaska.

HAL -- Zuiderdam: Decor painful to the eyes (bright pinks/oranges); very slow dining experience in MDR night after night.

Princess Regal: Too large; not enough crew so service & food suffer.

NCL -- Skyward: Worst vacation ever; will never sail NCL again.

1)Cunard -wonderful experience on the Ambassador

2)HAL -every ship for our 4 cruises

3)Celebrity-love the Silhouette

4)RCI-have been on the Grandeur many times

5)NCL -3 times on this line

6)Carnival Fascination -worst cruise ever

I'll just list a few on the top, middle and bottom of my list:

Top: Pacific Princess, Coral Princess and the Old Star Princess (no longer with Princess).

Middle: RCCL, American Steamboat

Bottom: NCL (2 nightmare cruises) and Oceania (the sick ship Riveria)

We have plans for Silversea & Regent so my list might change.

Seabourn, all ships, everything

Silversea, all ships, everything

Crystal, all ships, everything

Regent, all ships, everything

 

How am I doing? Or isn't this what you expected.

I have not been on any of these cruise lines, however, I would have thought that Regent would have been first, not 4th. What is is it you like abut Seabourn?

I wouldn't mind trying Regent. I've been researching Regent for our 25th anniversary cruise. Just afraid it will ruin me for cruising, like Mini suites did on Princess :)

I'm sure I'd love sailing on any of the luxury lines. But until I win the lottery, here are my choices from best to worst of the lines I've sailed on:

Princess

Holland America

Celebrity

Royal Caribbean

Carnival

Norwegian

Princess wins more of our business than the others combined due to good value for the money, interesting itineraries, variety of entertainment and activities, good food, and service. HAL has everything except the variety of entertainment and activities. Celebrity went down a notch on our last X cruise due to poor service and so-so food. I'd like to sail on one of Royal's smaller ships. I'm not too keen on trying the mega ones. Carnival and Norwegian, enough said.

I have not been on any of these cruise lines, however, I would have thought that Regent would have been first, not 4th. What is is it you like abut Seabourn?

 

I wouldn't mind trying Regent. I've been researching Regent for our 25th anniversary cruise. Just afraid it will ruin me for cruising, like Mini suites did on Princess :)

Regent is definitely #1 in our book (followed by Silversea and Oceania -- both of these are good but not as good as Regent). We have intentionally not sailed on Crystal or Seabourn for a variety of reasons.

To preface, we have never had a bad cruise and would under the right circumstances sail again on any of the following:

Celebrity - consistently excellent service and our favorite specialty dining venues, ships never feel overly crowded. Only downside is occasionally experienced lack of activities that interested us on sea days.

Royal - most "wow" factor we have experienced in terms of design and above average entertainment. Service good but food just fair.

Carnival - nice size staterooms, chef's table an unforgettable experience, Serenity area just heavenly. Other food options just fair and service inconsistent.

Norwegian - have not been on in awhile, but did find specialty dining to be very good and entertainment above average. Cabins layouts awful and main dining room food by far the worst.

Princess, Azamara and MSC are on the list to get to at some point.

NCL

HAL

Celebrity

Carnival

Royal Caribbean

Princess

Regent is definitely #1 in our book (followed by Silversea and Oceania -- both of these are good but not as good as Regent). We have intentionally not sailed on Crystal or Seabourn for a variety of reasons.

Awesome

Thanks

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