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US News & World Report 2018 Rankings


snuggarelli
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I noticed considerable comparison shopping of the different luxury cruise lines. So those of you who have been on multiple brands, what do you think of the US News and World Report 2018 rankings for best luxury cruise lines? I know it’s entirely subjective, but I’d like to hear the pros and cons you might have that this report omits.

 

http:// https://travel.usnews.com/cruises/best-cruise-lines/

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This does not surprise me. Crystal has been number one for years and Regent surpassed Crystal a few years ago. Now Viking which we have little interest in is being voted again as being number one. Go figure.

 

The main issue with Regent is blah entertainment and little enrichment programs which seems popular on Crystal.

 

We are booking the Explorer and the ship looks beautiful but it remains to be seen about the service and entertainment can exceed the Crystal experience. You can be in a gorgeous resort or hotel but if the food and service are not good that takes away from the guests experience. We will see.

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Hoping this is okay to post but it is pretty much a fact (heard from many sources) that Crystal gave/gives incentives to their passengers to vote favorably in polls. Don't blast me as I am simply passing on information that is very believable.

 

Second, Azamara, Oceania and Viking Ocean are not luxury lines - they are one step below Regent, Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn).

 

In terms of luxury lines, we have only sailed on Regent and Silversea. Silversea is much more formal than Regent but has great food and service. Silversea also charges for at least one of their dining venues (depending upon the ship - sometimes it is more than one). Crystal also charges (sometimes - it is a very strange policy) if you want to dine in a specialty restaurant more than once.

 

Regent is the only luxury cruise line that includes international business class flights and excursions (I believe that Silversea was including a few excursions for a while - not sure if they are done).

 

Crystal has the smallest suites overall and their ships are quite old. On the other hand, they reportedly have better entertainment and enrichment programs than other luxury cruise lines.

 

Hope that this helps.

 

Marc - Regent is making more money now than it has ever made. The ships are in better condition than since we began sailing with them in 2004. FDR is a very successful, savvy individual that would not be in his position if he was anything less. Pus, it was NCLH's idea to replace their former CEO with Frank Del Rio. Perhaps you just don't like him which is fine but he has little to do with the day to day running of Regent or Oceania anymore - only on the highest level.

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Hoping this is okay to post but it is pretty much a fact (heard from many sources) that Crystal gave/gives incentives to their passengers to vote favorably in polls. Don't blast me as I am simply passing on information that is very believable.

 

 

 

Second, Azamara, Oceania and Viking Ocean are not luxury lines - they are one step below Regent, Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn).

 

 

 

In terms of luxury lines, we have only sailed on Regent and Silversea. Silversea is much more formal than Regent but has great food and service. Silversea also charges for at least one of their dining venues (depending upon the ship - sometimes it is more than one). Crystal also charges (sometimes - it is a very strange policy) if you want to dine in a specialty restaurant more than once.

 

 

 

Regent is the only luxury cruise line that includes international business class flights and excursions (I believe that Silversea was including a few excursions for a while - not sure if they are done).

 

 

 

Crystal has the smallest suites overall and their ships are quite old. On the other hand, they reportedly have better entertainment and enrichment programs than other luxury cruise lines.

 

 

 

Hope that this helps.

 

 

 

Marc - Regent is making more money now than it has ever made. The ships are in better condition than since we began sailing with them in 2004. FDR is a very successful, savvy individual that would not be in his position if he was anything less. Pus, it was NCLH's idea to replace their former CEO with Frank Del Rio. Perhaps you just don't like him which is fine but he has little to do with the day to day running of Regent or Oceania anymore - only on the highest level.

 

 

 

Thanks TravelCat for sharing. I wouldn’t blast you. That’s very interesting about Crystal rigging the results. I’ve been meaning to ask (because I don’t know), what defines a luxury line?

 

We liked the idea that Regent had larger suites, all verandahs on most ships, king beds, and business class air for international flights.

 

Thank you for sharing your insight.

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Just checked out the report and how ratings were established.

Note -“expert” rating.

Only Regent and Viking got 5.0. All the others received 4.+.

Very interesting.

Sheila

 

 

 

Hi Sheila,

 

I noticed that too. They seemed to weigh the health and average customer reviews pretty heavily. Thanks for pointing that out. I totally forgot about how weirdly they set that up.

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Cannot comment on the rankings in the report as we have not tried any of the other cruise lines.

We stick with Regent as we enjoy what they offer and would only consider changing to another line if we could not find itineraries that we like with our cruise line of choice.

 

However this report, whether accurate or not, is not good advertising for Regent or Silversea.

 

PS: Multiple sources for hearsay does not make it factual

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When Edie Rodriquez at Crystal was CEO she came out with the bribe of free internet if you voted but she has been gone and Internet is now free. So no real incentive to vote for any particular line. We do vote on the Condé Nast polls which are independent of any cruise line. Look at our political polls they are all over the map.

 

What is important is your opinion voting or not.

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Most intelligent people have learned (sometimes the hard way) not to believe polls so if there is any effect from reading these ratings, it is likely minimal. If Crystal was doing so well as a result of their rating, I wonder why they have deceased the fare on a cruise a year away twice in the past four months. That speaks louder to me than a poll.

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I cruise Crystal as well as Regent. I am not surprised that Crystal is ranked higher. They have a very loyal and active clientele. There two ship are very nice and in many ways better than Regent.

 

Crystal never offered me anything to post any review or vote for them. If this was done it was a long time ago.

 

I would be careful about making slanderous comment about a Companies practices if I did not know them first hand.

 

 

 

J

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We have sailed on Regent/Radison since 2003 (gold) but not as many sailings as many on this board. We have also sailed Crystal with our last three cruises on Crystal Serenity. We love both lines. As for entertainment, I agree with most that the troups on Regent are not as good as Crystal, however Some of the best entertainment we have seen has been on Regent when they bring a headliner in for a few days. None of this matters to me because I just love the experience on both lines. The polls and rating do not matter to me either because my vacation/cruises are personal and I truly enjoy both lines regardless the polls. I just don’t care what others think about one line being better than the other line and how many people actually vote anyway in these polls.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Just my opinion, does it really matter. It really boils down to what you think and how you spend your money. Right know we enjoy Regent and have a few cruises booked. That said will I cruise on the new Ritz-Carlton line when they start, mostly yes--will I cruise other lines yes as long as I get the cruise I want and the service that comes with it. Being loyal to one line, no that isn't the way we chose our cruises.

So to us a report is good information, but a small part in choosing a cruise that we'll want to go on.

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I cruise Crystal as well as Regent. I am not surprised that Crystal is ranked higher. They have a very loyal and active clientele. There two ship are very nice and in many ways better than Regent.

 

Crystal never offered me anything to post any review or vote for them. If this was done it was a long time ago.

 

I would be careful about making slanderous comment about a Companies practices if I did not know them first hand.

 

 

 

J

 

Agree but one Crystal regular just confirmed what I posted. I am aware of the repercussions of making slanderous comments as one poster on the Regent board was banned from Regent about 5 years ago due to such comments (yet continues to post on this board). Not naming anyone so I hope that this post is okay!

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Just my opinion, does it really matter. It really boils down to what you think and how you spend your money. Right know we enjoy Regent and have a few cruises booked. That said will I cruise on the new Ritz-Carlton line when they start,will we cruise other lines yes as long as I get the cruise we want and the service that comes with it. Being loyal to one line, no that isn't the way we choose our cruises.

So to us a report is good information, but a small part in choosing a cruise that we'll want to go on.

 

We also are looking forward to the Ritz Carlton ships as well. We have the same thoughts as you. We are not permanently married to any line. Some people will never change and are not open minded to change which they maybe missing some fabulous cruises and better quality. No, they will stick to the line they enjoy and not even bother tipping their toe on another luxury line.

 

Nobody has a right to comment on a cruise line they have never sailed or experienced. We will be on the Explorer next year so we cannot make any opinion of the experience until we sail.

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Anyone on CC can "comment" on any cruise line that they wish. After all, there is enough information on the web (reviews, cruise line website, etc.) to have a very good idea of what to expect. I do not need to sail on Crystal, for instance, to know the size of their suites.

 

I find it interesting that several years ago I was judged because we had only sailed on Regent. Then I sailed on Silversea but the same comments were made. Next year we will sail on the 3rd of 4 luxury cruise lines (only considering the top 4 for U.S. passengers) and will likely hear the same comment. Why the judgments? We have also sailed on Oceania, Celebrity and NCL but still am hearing the same old comments.

 

It is wonderful that we all have choices and no one should be put down for theirs. After all, how many cruise lines must one sail before they are permitted to sail on one cruise line simply because it is the right fit for them? By the same token, it does not matter if someone stays in the top suite or the least expensive suite.

 

As an aside, having just disembarked from a Celebrity cruise yesterday, I could not help but notice how nice the passengers were - not judgmental, pushy, set in their ways, etc. While Celebrity is a one time experience, it opened our eyes as to how some people are on Regent.

 

It seems that on this board, judgements and slams are rampant. That is really too bad and very sad. After all, any of us can cruise any ship/cruise line that we wish and should be able to do so without judgement but rather it would be lovely if all of us posted thoughtful, helpful posts.

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Anyone on CC can "comment" on any cruise line that they wish. After all, there is enough information on the web (reviews, cruise line website, etc.) to have a very good idea of what to expect. I do not need to sail on Crystal, for instance, to know the size of their suites.

 

I find it interesting that several years ago I was judged because we had only sailed on Regent. Then I sailed on Silversea but the same comments were made. Next year we will sail on the 3rd of 4 luxury cruise lines (only considering the top 4 for U.S. passengers) and will likely hear the same comment. Why the judgments? We have also sailed on Oceania, Celebrity and NCL but still am hearing the same old comments.

 

It is wonderful that we all have choices and no one should be put down for theirs. After all, how many cruise lines must one sail before they are permitted to sail on one cruise line simply because it is the right fit for them? By the same token, it does not matter if someone stays in the top suite or the least expensive suite.

 

As an aside, having just disembarked from a Celebrity cruise yesterday, I could not help but notice how nice the passengers were - not judgmental, pushy, set in their ways, etc. While Celebrity is a one time experience, it opened our eyes as to how some people are on Regent.

 

It seems that on this board, judgements and slams are rampant. That is really too bad and very sad. After all, any of us can cruise any ship/cruise line that we wish and should be able to do so without judgement but rather it would be lovely if all of us posted thoughtful, helpful posts.

 

Agree!!

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Agree but one Crystal regular just confirmed what I posted. I am aware of the repercussions of making slanderous comments as one poster on the Regent board was banned from Regent about 5 years ago due to such comments (yet continues to post on this board). Not naming anyone so I hope that this post is okay!

Repeating secondhand hearsay is not going to offer any protection from a slander or libel claim. Unless you yourself have witnessed this action, or have a proven source, you have no way of knowing if there is any validity to the allegations. Making or repeating false disparaging remarks against a Company's reputation is not protected speech and the injured party does not even need to prove that the false remarks caused any real monetary damages in order to win.

 

In this case you have accused Crystal Cruise lines of having offered incentives to people to vote for Crystal in a very prominent trade publication without any firsthand knowledge of the fact, nor have you supported your statement from any credible source. I think all would agree that such an accusation, true or not, would be damaging to the reputations not only to Crystal but to US News and World Reports magazine as well. Using the defense that you read it in some third party post is not going to offer any protection unless you, yourself, can prove the allegations as being truthful.

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Appreciate your concern but I am very confident that this allegation is true (as of a couple of years ago) and has been discussed previously on CC. What I alleged had nothing whatsoever to do with with the current article but polls in a different publication which another poster mentioned above. And, while I do not want to get political, allegations against most news networks has not resulted in any lawsuits that I am aware of.

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Let me start off by saying I always love US News & World Report High School Ratings as my High School (public) that I attended as a youth is one of the highest ranked schools. :D

 

With that said, I do have to commend the magazine for providing a criteria for their rankings which I just read through. That was impressive.

 

Now to these rankings.

 

It lists some cruise lines that as best I know are not luxury cruise lines.

 

And like all rankings and just like us the eyes are in the beholder because in the end a lot of this is subjective because we are all different and because of that our views are different.

 

What is the best car?

 

What orange juice tastes the best?

 

Ritz Carlton vs. Four Seasons; which one is number one?

 

What is the number one city in the world to visit?

 

What type of cut of steak is ranked number one?

 

Number one beach in the world?

 

Best airline?

 

Better yet rankings of worst airlines?

 

Best sports shoe?

 

Best Hotel in Paris?

 

And the list goes on and on.

 

Oh a favorite of mine. Rank the ships within a cruise line? Which one is number one?

 

In the states I get Consumer Reports. A solid magazine but does that mean the product that is ranked number one is truly number 1? And even if it is when you try it out number 5 might be your number 1 product. Why? Because we are all human.

 

So for me it is always nice to see the rankings. This includes rankings such as these and even ones in Trip Advisor.

 

But then I have to defer to my own experience. Last year I stayed in what I consider one of the nicest hotels we have ever stay at around the world in Paris. But it is not ranked number 1 nor 2 nor 3 nor I am not sure how many other number in some of the rankings of hotels for Paris. And I have stayed at others ranked higher. Yet for me this was on outstanding experience.

 

I do believe that if you are new to a product and sometimes at an age that the rankings are important to many people. I will be the first to admit that when I was in my earlier years that I would digest the rankings and that they had some influence on me in terms of potentially considering an item for its ranking. Certainly ones that were ranked very low I might just not look at period. But as I have gotten older and more experienced I learned that they represent that publications opinion. And just like our opinion sometimes they vary considerably. This is why many companies such as in the travel industry do look at these as being something that can be important in their ability to market their product.

 

Have you ever been on the same cruise as others and gotten back and shared your opinions on Cruise Critic as others have and sometimes you wonder were you on the same ship/voyage as the experiences vary greatly? I know I have. In the end only one opinion matters (your own) because if we all saw everything the same way there would be far less products as we see today in all areas and other than cost we would all pretty much use similar products, eat the same food, and so forth and this would be quite a boring world.

 

So nice to see the rankings. Always interested to see how one set of rankings by one publication vary with another one. If many of us were making a list of the top luxury lines other than a discussion of whether a couple of the lines should be on the list we would have had the majority on our list. But each of us even if we took each line would have ranked them in our own way as these publications do.

 

However, why this line is ranked one on x publication and two on y publication and five on z publication says it all to me. It all comes down to the eyes of the beholder. :D

 

Keith

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We also love reading Consumer Reports, U.S. News and the Robb Report also visit Trip Advisor and get a pretty good consensus on what hotel, cruise or land vacation we are leaning towards. Absolutely, some boutique hotels are superior to Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons as we have found out as well. If you don’t try something you simply don’t know and really should not make comments or allegations.

 

The poll that was taken on Crystal about three years ago was an open poll I think for Condé Nast had all cruise lines listed and you could vote anonymously for any line you wish. Crystal did offer the incentive of free internet at that time to vote and Crystal would not know the results until they were released by Condé Nast. O oxygen was twisting anybody’s arm to vote for Crystal.

 

What about people offered a free maiden voyage cruise on a luxury line? That to me is more suspect and more of a bribe.

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