Condé Nast Traveler readers ranked the best cruise lines in the world for the magazine’s 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards survey which received votes from over 800,000 readers. Disney Cruise Line remains the top Large Cruise Line in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards for the tenth consecutive year. In the cruise category, voters evaluated more hundreds of cruise ships across multiple cruises lines.
Condé Nast says there’s one thing Disney Cruise Line does well, it’s hospitality. The company has taken every lesson it’s learned from its parks and resort operations and implemented that into its four cruise ships, the 2,400-passenger Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and the 4,000-passenger Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. The ships are designed for families through and through—there are numerous themed activities every day, from meet-and-greets to full-blown parties with Disney characters—but there are plenty of adults-only areas that provide a respite from little ones. That said, the ships are not over-the-top when it comes to Disney decor. In fact, they’re quite elegant, taking design inspiration from early-20th-century ocean liners and sporting Art Deco and Art Nouveau aesthetics. The four ships currently sail the Caribbean (where they make port at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay), Alaska, Europe, the Pacific Coast, and the Panama Canal. Three more ships, including Disney Wish, are scheduled to be added to the fleet between 2022 and 2025.
The Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards are one of the longest-running and most prestigious recognitions of excellence in the travel industry and are commonly known as “the best of the best of travel.” The 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards are published on Condé Nast Traveler’s website and in the November issue of Condé Nast Traveler US and UK print editions.
The full list of cruise line awards can be found here, some categories have more than 10 lines ranked. Presented below are the top 5* in each cruise category.
Mega Ships (more than 4,000 passengers)
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- Royal Caribbean International
- MSC Cruises
Large Ships (2,500 to 4,000 passengers)
- Disney Cruise Line
- Celebrity Cruises
- Cunard
- Princess Cruises
- Holland America Line
Medium Ships (500 to 2,500 passengers)
- Viking Ocean Cruises
- Crystal Ocean Cruises
- Seabourn Cruise Lines
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Oceania Cruises
Small Ships (fewer than 500 passengers)
- Lindblad Expeditions – National Geographic
- Paul Gauguin Cruises
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Seabourn Cruise Lines
- Windstar Cruises
River Ships
- Viking River Cruises
- Tauck River Cruising
- Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection
- Grand Circle Cruise Line
- Vantage Deluxe World Cruises
The Readers’ Choice Awards are announced in the November issue of Condé Nast Traveler, on newsstands nationwide on October 202021. 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.
According to Disney Cruise Line, these awards are a true reflection of our crew members and their unwavering commitment to deliver one-of-a-kind experiences to our guests every day, and we could not be prouder.
I kind of laughed to myself after reading the following section, only because the resorts have forgotten what makes DCL good, “Condé Nast says there’s one thing Disney Cruise Line does well, it’s hospitality. The company has taken every lesson it’s learned from its parks and resort operations and implemented that into its four cruise ships”
I too found it a bit odd. As for some things, I see the Resorts learning lessons from DCL.