U.S. News and World Rpt Cruise Line Rankings

[Hlitner]

Here is a link to the recent cruise line rankings/ratings by US News and World Report. HAL did not do well in this article. We also found it interesting that they ranked the Koningsdam near the bottom when compared to other HAL ship. They had the Prinsendam tied at dead last place.....which shows what we know since we still consider it our favorite HAL vessel.

 

http://travel.usnews.com/cruises/

 

Hank:eek:

Edited November 17, 2016 by Hlitner

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for providing the link.

Very interesting.

We have no desire to book the Koningsdam.

I am not surprised that HAL has slipped in recent years.

[Harry1954]

It appears that they are attempting to compare HAL mid-sized ships with activities etc on much larger ships for instance and pan them for not having as many ... that alone struck me as being a bit obtuse in trying to 'compare' cruise lines ..

 

harry

[rkacruiser]

I used to be a long time subscriber to U. S. News and World Report. Always enjoyed their content, but, they changed. When they dropped their hard copy magazine, I dropped them. What does such a publication know about cruise lines?

[iancal]

These types of reviews/rankings are meaningless to us. We are only interested in our ship, our itinerary, our cruise line vis a vis our personal preferences. Not in generalities.

 

Nor do we run to the front of the class with our hand up if our favourite ship/cruise line happens to make it to the top of some questionable survey. From our perspective they are all questionable.

Edited November 17, 2016 by iancal

[sammiedawg]

Here is a link to the recent cruise line rankings/ratings by US News and World Report. HAL did not do well in this article. We also found it interesting that they ranked the Koningsdam near the bottom when compared to other HAL ship. They had the Prinsendam tied at dead last place.....which shows what we know since we still consider it our favorite HAL vessel.

 

http://travel.usnews.com/cruises/

 

Hank:eek:

 

I'm not familiar with the metrix this publication uses.

However I've read Berlitz ratings for years and find them accurate, fair and balanced. A small team and the author spend months and months on cruise ships doing the assessments. The components evaluated are clearly delineated in the thick annual compendium.

I recently spent some time reading the 2016 edition. I wrote down the scores of cruise lines and ships I've sailed. I've sailed eight different cruise lines.

 

Nine HAL ships were rated higher than Prinsendam. K'dam was described but not yet rated.

The highest rated HAL ship was Eurodam at 1447. The lowest rated was Masdam at 1346 and Veendam at 1353. Most HAL ships were in the low to low mid 1400's.

 

Highly rated mass market ships include Royal and Regal Princess and Celebrity Solstice class, all scored over 1500.

[Cruise Junky]

Interesting that Seabourn is completely missing

[KirkNC]

It obvious to me they have different tastes then we do.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We are on the Maasdam today and I think they do a pretty good job.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[jhannah]

I don't have much faith in published reviews, except those in Consumer Reports. Most other reviews are so subjective they're meaningless to me.

[sammiedawg]

I don't have much faith in published reviews, except those in Consumer Reports. Most other reviews are so subjective they're meaningless to me.

 

Berlitz ratings are credible, the same professional reviewers sail different cruise ships and numerically rate ships for food, service, ship quality, etc. I find the numerical ratings to be pretty consistent with my personal evaluations.

I don't write or particularly value cruise reviews on CC except for itinerary suggestions.

[Hlitner]

We actually have some major issues with Berlitz reviews :). Berlitz does their reviews for publication in their book, hence even their most current review can be over 2 years old by the time it is in print. While they do try to update some of their reviews (i.e. for a new ship) they do not routinely update all of their reviews (simply compare an old edition to a new edition and you might be surprised to see much of the same language). From just our most recent cruises (over 100 days in 2016) our personal ratings have changed (substantially) for 2 cruise lines.

 

We actually value CC reviews more then any book, because on CC we can focus on the latest reviews and compare to some older reviews to pick-up on changing trends (and opinions). This is not to say that one should totally rely on a single CC review, but if you have multiple folks talking about the same issues it is usually something worthy of consideration.

 

Hank

Edited November 18, 2016 by Hlitner

[oliver1821]

I've sailed on all the Celebrity ships and find Holland to be a notch above for service and food.

 

Would not put a lot of faith in this article.

 

Happy sailing!!

[Aquahound]

I usually don't put much faith in rankings. After all, we all know how faulty polls can be. ;)

 

But in this case, I agree with their rankings. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that HAL doesn't rank well. Their entertainment is awful and they're not known for attracting a younger to middle age crowd.

 

I'm not saying they don't have their own group who favors them but all things and demographics considered, they just don't score well right now.

[sammiedawg]

We actually have some major issues with Berlitz reviews :). Berlitz does their reviews for publication in their book, hence even their most current review can be over 2 years old by the time it is in print. While they do try to update some of their reviews (i.e. for a new ship) they do not routinely update all of their reviews (simply compare an old edition to a new edition and you might be surprised to see much of the same language). From just our most recent cruises (over 100 days in 2016) our personal ratings have changed (substantially) for 2 cruise lines.

 

We actually value CC reviews more then any book, because on CC we can focus on the latest reviews and compare to some older reviews to pick-up on changing trends (and opinions). This is not to say that one should totally rely on a single CC review, but if you have multiple folks talking about the same issues it is usually something worthy of consideration.

 

Hank

 

I've followed Berlitz ratings for years and I've noted certain lines and ships get downgraded or upgraded. I don't think the numerical ratings are static at all. I agree the write up descriptions probably stay the same.

I googled Berlitz ratings on Prinsendam, not surprisingly I found a cruise critic discussion from January 2014. Prinsendam at that time was rated 1483. But in the 2016 edition it was downgraded to 1421.

[rkacruiser]

We actually have some major issues with Berlitz reviews :). Berlitz does their reviews for publication in their book, hence even their most current review can be over 2 years old by the time it is in print. While they do try to update some of their reviews (i.e. for a new ship) they do not routinely update all of their reviews (simply compare an old edition to a new edition and you might be surprised to see much of the same language). From just our most recent cruises (over 100 days in 2016) our personal ratings have changed (substantially) for 2 cruise lines.

 

We actually value CC reviews more then any book, because on CC we can focus on the latest reviews and compare to some older reviews to pick-up on changing trends (and opinions). This is not to say that one should totally rely on a single CC review, but if you have multiple folks talking about the same issues it is usually something worthy of consideration.

 

Hank

 

Like you, I tend to focus my interest on CC reviews more than travel book published reviews for the same reason. CC reviews make me more cognizant of situations that I try to remember to look for once aboard. Sometimes, I find that I agree with the comments of CC members; sometimes, I don't. I simply find the opinions and reviews of CC members to be more helpful than any other travel information source of which I am aware.