Condé Nast Traveler readers ranked the best cruise lines in the world for the magazine’s 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards survey which received over 429,000 votes. Disney Cruise Line remains the top Large Cruise Line in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards for the seventh consecutive year.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by Condé Nast Traveler readers for seven years in a row now,” said Jeff Vahle, president of Disney Cruise Line and Disney Signature Experiences. “This speaks directly to the dedication and talent of our cast and crew members and the extraordinary way they create magical vacations for our guests.”
Disney Cruise Line dropped a spots to 6th place in the Medium Ship category which would include the Disney Magic & Disney Wonder. AmaWaterways, the river cruise line Adventures by Disney partners with for ABV voyages, earned a fourth place spot in the river cruise category, up one spot from 2017.
Presented below are the top 5* in each cruise category.
Mega Ship Cruise Lines Reader Ratings (more than 4000 passengers)
- Royal Caribbean International (87.74)
- Norwegian Cruise Line (82.60)
Large Ship Cruise Lines Reader Ratings (2500 to 4000 passengers)
- Disney Cruise Line (Dream & Fantasy) (92.95)
- Princess Cruises (88.32)
- Cunard (88.19)
- Royal Caribbean International (87.02)
- Holland America Line (85.69)
Medium Ship Cruise Line Reader Ratings (500 to 2500 passengers)
- Crystal Cruises (96.96)
- Viking Ocean Cruises (95.55)
- Seabourn Cruise Lines (91.73)
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises (90.99)
- Cunard (90.40)
- Oceania Cruises (89.25)
- Disney Cruise Line (88.72)*
Small Ship Cruise Line Reader Ratings
- Seabourn Cruise Line (96.40)
- Crystal Cruises (95.16)
- Windstar Cruises (92.99)
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises (92.48)
- Paul Gauguin Cruises (92.39)
River Ship Line Reader Ratings
- Viking River Cruises (98.99)
- Crystal River Cruises (98.80)
- Uniworld Boutique River Cruises (98.55)
- AmaWaterways (97.91)
- Grand Circle Cruise Line (97.49)
The full list of cruise line awards can be found here, some categories have as many as 16 lines ranked.
The Readers’ Choice Awards are announced in the November issue of Condé Nast Traveler, on newsstands nationwide on October 2018. For more on the Readers Choice Awards page and a complete list of awards visit www.CNTraveler.com/rca. To learn more about how the awards were calculated check out this page.
Viking over AmaWaterways? So this is a popularity contest with not metrics to substantiate the ratings.
Aren’t all travel awards essentially a popularity contest?