Disney Cruise Line Sweeps the 2013 Condé Nast Traveler Top 20 Large Cruise Ships in the World Readers Poll

If this were the Olympics, Disney Cruise Line would have swept the medals in the Large Ship category.  Condé Nast Traveler Readers have spoken and the [Disney_Magic], [Disney_Wonder], and [Disney_Dream] topped this year’s list of the Top 20 Large Cruise Ships in the World.

Disney Cruise Line's Disney Magic • A Magical Key West Night

The [Disney_Fantasy] earned a respectable 8 spot, but remember she is just approaching her 1 year anniversary and not as many people have had the opportunity to sail on her.

“With four ships in our fleet, more families than ever before can set sail on an a Disney Cruise Line vacation filled with imaginative fun for the kids and exciting family time for all,” said Karl Holz, president of Disney Cruise Line. “We’re thrilled that the experiences our cast and crew members deliver at sea continue to be recognized as outstanding by our guests.”

Conde Nast 2013 Readers Poll Large Ship Top 10

Fleet Comparison

Only a few tenths of a point separate the Top 3 with the #4 Celebrity Eclipse almost a full point behind the Dream.  Here is a look at how the Disney ships compare.

 MagicWonderDreamFantasy
Rank1238
Itineraries91.687.680.185.7
Excursions81.38180.173.7
Service96.296.395.795.2
Cabins91.690.595.790.5
Food85.784.387.271.4
Activities9293.895.290.5
Design90.392.690.985.7
Overall89.989.689.584.8

The Dream is hurt by her Bahamas Itineraries by the travel savvy readers, but the 3 and 4 night sailings are easy to add on to a vacation at Walt Disney World.  I am quite surprised to see a ratings difference in Cabins between the Dream and Fantasy, considering they are practically identical. I think this could be related to the type and location of staterooms the various readers had during their sailings.  The same can be said for the design, and while I agree there are some odd design issues, I felt the Fantasy was a bit better then the Dream.  Both suffer from having to walk through Cabanas to reach the pool from the aft stairs, but a 5 point difference between the sister ships, really?  I’ve sailed on the Fantasy twice this past year and have had mixed feelings on the food from cruise to cruise, but I would not rate it as low as the readers did.  There is no way the food on the Fantasy is an average of 14 points below the other three ships.

Condé Nast Traveler Readers Survey Methodology

Condé Nast Traveler readers rated 376 ships on a 100-point scale. Each ship was evaluated on seven criteria: Activities/ Facilities, Cabins, Crew/Service, Design/Layout, Food/Dining, Itineraries/Schedule, and Shore Excursions. Only ships that received a required minimum number of responses from the 46,476 participating readers were eligible to be included in these rankings.

One Reply to “Disney Cruise Line Sweeps the 2013 Condé Nast Traveler Top 20 Large Cruise Ships in the World Readers Poll”

  1. Pingback: Tudo sobre Disney Cruise Line – Navios e Roteiros | Viajando em Familia

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.