Conde Nast Luxury Travel Ship Ratings

[Travelcat2]

Just reviewed the ratings in the August, 2010 Conde Nast Magazine for luxury ships. They judged Crystal Serenity (1,070 passengers), Regent Voyager (700 passengers), Silversea Whisper (382 passengers) and the Seabourn Spirit (208 passengers). Note: There are more than this -- these are the only ones I tracked.

Crystal came out #1, Regent #2, Seabourn #3 and Silversea #4. I noticed that Crystal was receiving extremely high ratings for excursions, activities and design. It is not surprising that activities and design of a 1,000+ passenger ship could be better than a ship holding only 208 passengers.

Since everyone has different criteria for cruise ships, I recalculated the ratings based on ours (Service, Cabins, Food). When you rate only these items (again, the items I care about), the ratings are:

#1 Seabourn. . . . #2 Regent. . . . . #3 Crystal. . . . . #4 Silversea.

Just some interesting information.

[Roland4]

I'm curious about your methodology in coming up with your ratings. Not critical, just curious. I don't believe you have sailed on three of the four lines (haven't sailed on two of them myself) so I'm wondering how you came up with your rankings.

[gfranzen]

"Yours" refers to Conde Naste - not TC2

[Travelcat2]

I'm curious about your methodology in coming up with your ratings. Not critical, just curious. I don't believe you have sailed on three of the four lines (haven't sailed on two of them myself) so I'm wondering how you came up with your rankings.

These were not my rankings. . . they were the ranking of Conde Nast Traveler magazine. What I did was pick the categories that I care about. . . . . service, food & cabins. I added up the points in the three categories for each of the ships (from the magazine). Hope that makes sense.

[Roland4]

These were not my rankings. . . they were the ranking of Conde Nast Traveler magazine. What I did was pick the categories that I care about. . . . . service, food & cabins. I added up the points in the three categories for each of the ships (from the magazine). Hope that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense. Our copy of CN hasn't arrived yet, so I haven't seen the rankings or methodology, but I did understand the rankings were from CN. As I said, I really was just curious.:)

[Paulchili]

Is this the same Conde Nast(y) - dubbed so on Azamara thread - that ranked Azamara near the end, only a fraction above Carnival?
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1239235
While that may be totally subjective, they really screwed up in the entirely objective category. See if these prices look right to you (and this should be very easy to obtain). Below is a quote from the thread, red hilight mine (I should have hilighted all of them) :):

Ratings aside, the article also identifies costs for each evaluated ship for an evaluated cruise line - defined as "Rates reflect the lowest cost per person per night for an oceanview cabin on the ship's least expensive sailing."

Azamara Journey - $420
Carnival Miracle - $140
Celebrity Solstice - $107
Crystal Serenity - $249
HAL Prinsendam - $105
NCL Pearl - $80
Oceania Insignia - $149
Princess Ocean Princess - $86
Regent 7 Seas Voyager - $557
Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas - $112
Yachts of Seabourn Spirit - $357

I have future cruises booked on Azamara (1), Oceania (4) Regent(1), Silversea(2) and Princess (2) - none come even close to these prices.
If they cannot get this right, how could they possibly be trusted to get the rest of it right. I really don't care one way or another, but I take these ratings with a POUND of salt.
JMO

[Travelcat2]

Is this the same Conde Nast(y) - dubbed so on Azamara thread - that ranked Azamara near the end, only a fraction above Carnival?
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1239235
While that may be totally subjective, they really screwed up in the entirely objective category. See if these prices look right to you (and this should be very easy to obtain). Below is a quote from the thread, red hilight mine (I should have hilighted all of them) :):

Ratings aside, the article also identifies costs for each evaluated ship for an evaluated cruise line - defined as "Rates reflect the lowest cost per person per night for an oceanview cabin on the ship's least expensive sailing."

Azamara Journey - $420
Carnival Miracle - $140
Celebrity Solstice - $107
Crystal Serenity - $249
HAL Prinsendam - $105
NCL Pearl - $80
Oceania Insignia - $149
Princess Ocean Princess - $86
Regent 7 Seas Voyager - $557
Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas - $112
Yachts of Seabourn Spirit - $357

I have future cruises booked on Azamara (1), Oceania (4) Regent(1), Silversea(2) and Princess (2) - none come even close to these prices.
If they cannot get this right, how could they possibly be trusted to get the rest of it right. I really don't care one way or another, but I take these ratings with a POUND of salt.
JMO

Those numbers did look a bit strange. I'm onlly familiar with Regent and Seabourn (somewhat) pricing. I suppose that $557/person is within the ballpark for some Regent itineraries. Seabourn sounds really low. It's hard to tell on that one as they are currently running extremely low prices. I stopped my subscription on Conde Nast last year. . . . the issue I found (August) is about month old since they come out very early. I haven't seen this format previously and just assumed that things are being done differently.

IMO, there is no way to make comparisons between ships carrying 2,800 passengers with those carrying 209. . . . or mass market with luxury. I was interested in learning exactly why Crystal consistantly beat the other luxury lines and figured the ratings in the magazine was a place to start. Crystal earns very high points in the areas of activities and design. . . . two things that we don't care much about. They did not come out on top for either food or service and were the lowest in the cabin category (of the four luxury cruise lines).

These things are just interesting. . . . most people don't take them too seriously. Reputation means a lot. . . . Azamara has a good one -- I need to go back and look at their ratings.

P.S. I did go to the Ocean Princess website -- those numbers appear to be off by quite a bit.

[Paulchili]

You don't have to do much research to know that there is no way that Crystal's lowest OV cabin price is $249 and Azamara's is $420 - neither of those are even close. I am in an Azamara balcony at half that price, just as an example. I would love to cruise Oceania at $149/pp/day!
As far as the ratings go, it depends on who they poll and also who "bothers" to respond. These polls used to be somewhat interesting - now I consider them totally worthless. Conde Nast used to be a nice coffee table top magazine, later dentist's office, now it's only good for my bathroom (the pictures are nice, though).

[Hambagahle]

As I understand it, the CN traveller magasine ratings come from polls of its readers. This explains a lot about the results, I think!! also, you have to remember to register to vote and then to do so. I registered, and then forgot and there was no reminder to go on the site to vote. So I personally take these polls for what they are worth - not much!!

[hoosier74]

Quite agree. Reader polls don't really reflect anything other than those who make the effort to respond. I've tried quite a few travel mags and am about ready to drop Conde Nast.

And as TC2 says, what is important to one individual might not be to another. However, I trust guide books far more as the folks who do the rankings have some sort of credentials and I think it's easier to choose the destination, cruise ship, resort, restaurant that's right for you.

[Roland4]

I suspect, and it is just personal opinion, that people who respond to these surveys are much like people who post occasional cruise reviews. They do it because they either "love" the product or "hate" it. I just know that in almost six years in the industry no one has ever told me they chose a particular cruise line based on a Conde Naste or Travel & Leisure survey. I think the lines (and Crystal is probably the "worst" offender in this) make way too much of them in their advertising. But that's just MHO.:rolleyes:

[Suite Travels]

I never vote in these polls with CN or T&L. I vote with my wallet.

[Travelcat2]

I have also not voted in any of thse polls. What interests me, however, is that the results, no matter which poll you look at, come out within a couple of points of being same (Crystal on top). From the way this "Cruise Guide" was presented, it was easy for me to see that the areas that Crystal came out on top was Excursions, Activities and Design. Seabourn won for Service, Food, Itineraries, and. . . . very surprisingly, cabins (remember, this was based on the Seabourn Spirit -- no balconies).

We enjoy reading these polls, but, do not make decisions based upon them. If we did, we would not be sailing on the 4th rated luxury cruise line. . . . . Silversea.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Our "lowest" per diem on Voyager for a pretty cheap itinerary in December is about $400, by the way. Although this includes an air credit, so I guess that would bring it up to close to $500.

[wripro]

All those polls are garbage.