Voters Win Too!
Lucky Readers’ Choice voter Mary Wolfe has won a 7-night cruise for two in a veranda stateroom on Celebrity Cruises after her name was drawn at random from the thousands of votes we received. “My husband and I began cruising in 2004. Since then we have been on about 19 cruises ranging from the supersized vessels to an UnCruise adventure,” says Wolfe. “We like cruises because we unpack once. (My husband doesn't unpack at all.) All our meals and transportation are taken care of. We like getting a glimpse of different venues, and if we like, we can return for a longer vacation. We also enjoy sea days. Just our ship on the vast ocean.” I’m sure that’s something every Porthole reader can understand. Thanks for voting, Mary, and we hope you have a great time on your cruise!
YOUR VOTES UNDERLINED THE GROWING
popularity of expedition cruises and river cruising, with a surprising standout: Although AmaWaterways was first past the post in the river category, Viking Cruises — which started as a European river carrier — actually had the most votes spread across all of the cruise-line categories combined, with strong showings among ocean lines, luxury lines, and expedition lines. AmaWaterways won out among river lines because voters loved the shore excursions (especially on Danube cruises to Budapest and Vienna).
For ocean-going cruises, voting was split much more evenly, with Norwegian, Carnival, Celebrity, and Princess getting almost equal shares of the vote. Among luxury lines, Seabourn took a slight lead over Oceania, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and Cunard. Expedition lovers rallied around Lindblad Expeditions, overcoming excitement from UnCruise Adventures fans and enthusiasm for Viking’s new expedition ships, Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris.
There were surprising showings lower down the ballot, like when Princess beat out Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, and UnCruise for the best multi-generational cruises, and when MSC narrowly defeated UnCruise and Lindblad in the “Most Eco-Friendly” category (likely due to the impact of MSC’s popular marine reserve destination, Ocean Cay).
PRINCESS CRUISES AND ROYAL CARIBBEAN
seem to have mastered technology at sea, with the best onboard tech and best wi-fi respectively. Small-ship lines did quite well at making guests feel cared for on board, with high showings across all three related categories (best accommodations, best service, best cruise director) for UnCruise Adventures and Avalon Waterways. But in each of those categories, a large ocean line came out on top, with Celebrity earning top marks for accommodations and service, and Carnival’s Lee Mason narrowly beating out UnCruise Expedition Leader Kelly Sutter for best cruise director. In another surprise, voters cared more about main dining rooms than specialty dining, with a close contest breaking out between Oceania, Holland America, and Princess for top honors (Oceania eventually won).