And the award goes to ...
When the upscale magazine Condé Nast Traveler picks you “first in show” and the No. 1 cruise social media site Cruisecritic.com smothers you in awards, you must be doing something right.
Both are all over Disney Cruise Line.
The two ratings systems are different in that Condé Nast selects the cruise line and Cruise Critic the ships, but any way you cut it, their readers love Disney.
Cruise Critic just announced its annual Cruisers’ Choice Awards and Disney won 12. For three years running, Disney has won best cruises overall, with the Disney Dream winning for best large ship and the Wonder — which cruises from Vancouver to Alaska this summer — winning for best mid-size ship. Pacific Princess snuck in to take best small ship.
How does Cruise Critic pick them?
Reviews are posted at Cruisecritic.com by passengers, so the awards are selected by cruisers who have sailed on those ships. Computers determine what the readers like in three categories: large (2,000-plus), mid-size (1,200 to 1,999) and small (1,198 or less).
I’ve failed in my annual attempt to convince Carolyn Spencer Brown, Cruise Critic’s editor-in-chief, to add a megaship category. My argument is that at 3,600to 5,600-passenger capacity, these ships are a different breed. The bigger the ship, the more dining, entertainment and recreation.
For example, winners such as Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas or Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam — both carry fewer than 2,500 passengers — are vastly different from megaships such as Oasis of the Seas and Norwegian’s Getaway and Escape.
So before I’m sent off to a landlocked existence, my final wish is for a megaship award to recognize the differences between large and mega. I rest my case.
So with the sound of Disney ship horns belting out a few bars of When You Wish Upon a Star ringing in my ears, here is a partial list of Cruise Critic’s 2015 Readers Choices:
Best dining
Disney is pushed aside here, with Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam winning the large ship category, Oceania Riviera the mid-size and Azamara Quest toppling last year’s small ship pick, Crystal Serenity.
Best service
Disney won in both the large and mid-size categories and Crystal Symphony in small ships.
Best excursions
Norwegian’s Pride of America, based in Hawaii, wins large ship. That doesn’t surprise me when you consider there are several overnights on this cruise out of Honolulu. Coral Princess takes mid-size and Silversea’s Silver Galapagos the small ship. Silversea now has three expedition ships in that
growing side of cruising.
Best value
In this important category, the Carnival Liberty wins large ship for the second time, with Holland America Zuiderdam taking the midsize category and Pacific Princess the small ship.
When size really doesn’t matter
The unique part of Cruise Critic’s awards is in categories where size is immaterial, such as these:
Best Alaska cruises: Radiance of the Seas.
Best Caribbean: Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam, replacing Disney Fantasy.
Best from the West Coast: Sapphire Princess.
Best from the U.K.: Celebrity Eclipse, for the second consecutive year.
Best Mediterranean: Celebrity Reflection.
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