RCCL ship rankings, per U.S. News & World Report, Travel website

[styxfire]

I often look at the travel-dot-usnews-dot-com-slash-cruises website, to find out which ships are the best of each cruiseline. I was shocked to see the latest ranking of RCCL ships:

Serenade

Allure

Oasis

Jewel

Vision

Independence

Mariner

Freedom

Voyager

Rhapsody

Explorer

Radiance

Brilliance

Liberty

Quantum

Navigator

Legend

Adventure

Harmony

Grandeur

Enchantment

Majesty

Anthem

Ovation

Empress

 

I was absolutely shocked than an old ship like Serenade would surpass the stunning new ships like Oasis & Allure which have true Broadway entertainment and such variety of features/enjoyment.

 

Furthermore, Harmony (with its star-studded shows) and Ovation & Anthem (brand new) are at the BOTTOM of the list? And although I've enjoyed my several cruises on Majesty, there is no way in Hades that Majesty is a better ship than Anthem or Ovation... so... it appears US News & World Report travel website has jumped the shark.

 

I'm somewhat upset about this because I've always relied on their rankings to make my ship decisions. But it seems their rankings are now absurd. Comments?

[Clarea]

What was the criteria used?

[Domino D]

What was the criteria used?

 

Was just reading same.

 

Calculating Cruise Ship Rankings

 

Cruise ships are ranked based on each ship's Overall Rating. Some cruise ship rankings are tailored to specific interests using filter criteria, and these are still rank-ordered by Overall Rating. The overall rating is a numerical score that may include several decimal points; however, we represent this as a graphical star rating rounded to the nearest half-star. As a result, two cruise ships that show the same graphical star representation may have slightly different underlying ratings. The ranking reflects the specific underlying rating, and not the rounded graphical star rating.

Please note: Cruise ship rankings are updated regularly. As new vessels are launched and additional inspection scores and guest reviews become available, they are added to our rankings and affect how specific ships stack up against one another.

The rankings do not show a wide range when you look at them. Overall Ratings are 4.3 to 4.0 and are based on 30% on Expert Rating and 50% on Traveler Rating.. Then 20% on Health Rating which ranges from 4.0 to 5.0.

[actuarian]

What was the criteria used?

Pasted from the web site:

• Expert Rating (30 percent weight): Our editors assign each ship an Expert Rating between 1 and 5 based on the ship's level of luxury, with 5 being the highest score. This score represents our editors' analysis of a ship's atmosphere, facilities, activities, cabins, cuisine and service.
  
• Traveler Rating (50 percent weight): A ship's traveler rating is provided under license by [another cruiseline web site]. Reviewers assign a rating between 1 and 5 based on their level of satisfaction with their cruise experience.
  
• Health Rating (20 percent weight): A ship's health rating is based on sanitation inspection scores published by the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Individual ship inspection reports can be found here. The CDC defines "Satisfactory Scores" as those that are 86 or above (out of a possible 100 points). A ship's Health Rating is the average of the vessel's individual inspection reports from the 22 months prior to the calculation of the U.S. News Best Cruises rankings. For our rankings, CDC scores are translated to a five-point scale as follows: Vessels with average CDC ratings 97.5 or higher received a score of 5; vessels with average CDC ratings between 95 and 97.4 received a score of 4.5; vessels with average CDC scores between 92.5 and 94.9 received a score of 4; vessels with average CDC scores between 90 and 92.4 received a score of 3.5; vessels with average CDC scores between 87.5 and 89.9 received a score of 3; vessels with average ratings between 85.1 and 87.4 received a score of 2.5 and vessels with an average CDC rating of 85 or lower received a score of 1. If a ship has not received an inspection score within the past 22 months, its Health Rating appears as N/A; however, the average Health Rating of all CDC-rated ships within the cruise line is used as proxy in the calculation of the Overall Rating for a ship that lacks CDC scores.
  

[Ocean Dancer]

We did have a wonderful cruise last year on the Serenade and prices are up $500 for the same cruise this year.

We have also sailed Anthem last year and find it weird that it is close to the bottom. Sometimes these "surveys" are outdated when they are published.............Anthem may have something to do with the old DD dining. Just a thought.

[perditax]

Serenade has a higher member ranking here than in Anthem. Just saying.

 

Anthem has often seemed like a cursed ship to me.

[Trixie21]

Harmony's initial few sailings when she wasn't quite finished are still contributing to a lower than deserved rating - she has steadily been climbing up the ratings since then and has generally excellent reviews now. Really should be close to the top.

And I too just don't get Anthem's position - when we cruised on her we had a fabulous time and she is still our favorite ship to date.

 

 

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[Thetrail]

I often look at the travel-dot-usnews-dot-com-slash-cruises website, to find out which ships are the best of each cruiseline. I was shocked to see the latest ranking of RCCL ships:

Serenade

Allure

Oasis

Jewel

Vision

Independence

Mariner

Freedom

Voyager

Rhapsody

Explorer

Radiance

Brilliance

Liberty

Quantum

Navigator

Legend

Adventure

Harmony

Grandeur

Enchantment

Majesty

Anthem

Ovation

Empress

 

I was absolutely shocked than an old ship like Serenade would surpass the stunning new ships like Oasis & Allure which have true Broadway entertainment and such variety of features/enjoyment.

 

Furthermore, Harmony (with its star-studded shows) and Ovation & Anthem (brand new) are at the BOTTOM of the list? And although I've enjoyed my several cruises on Majesty, there is no way in Hades that Majesty is a better ship than Anthem or Ovation... so... it appears US News & World Report travel website has jumped the shark.

 

I'm somewhat upset about this because I've always relied on their rankings to make my ship decisions. But it seems their rankings are now absurd. Comments?

LOL sorry but your post is amusing...you're upset because you rely on some other source for their rankings, that's you're first mistake...:rolleyes:

[Ourusualbeach]

What was the criteria used?

 

Maybe they took the quality if the welds into account. That surely would explain Harmonys low rating.

[Clarea]

Maybe they took the quality if the welds into account. That surely would explain Harmonys low rating.

You should use a halo. ;)

[Saab4444]

I often look at the travel-dot-usnews-dot-com-slash-cruises website, to find out which ships are the best of each cruiseline. I was shocked to see the latest ranking of RCCL ships:

Serenade

Allure

Oasis

Jewel

Vision

Independence

Mariner

Freedom

Voyager

Rhapsody

Explorer

Radiance

Brilliance

Liberty

Quantum

Navigator

Legend

Adventure

Harmony

Grandeur

Enchantment

Majesty

Anthem

Ovation

Empress

 

I was absolutely shocked than an old ship like Serenade would surpass the stunning new ships like Oasis & Allure which have true Broadway entertainment and such variety of features/enjoyment.

 

Furthermore, Harmony (with its star-studded shows) and Ovation & Anthem (brand new) are at the BOTTOM of the list? And although I've enjoyed my several cruises on Majesty, there is no way in Hades that Majesty is a better ship than Anthem or Ovation... so... it appears US News & World Report travel website has jumped the shark.

 

I'm somewhat upset about this because I've always relied on their rankings to make my ship decisions. But it seems their rankings are now absurd. Comments?

 

 

 

For me big and new is not the criteria for quality. The shows and entertainment options on big ships are nice but also not key for an overall rating of a cruise ship.

 

In most cases in the cruise industry top quality comes with smaller size. Radiance class is perfect, they should build more of them!

 

 

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[CRUISEFAN0001]

Another meaningless ranking based on highly subjective non-data.

[Karma5]

Serenade has always been my favorite ship .................for many reasons. It also has always been tops------ for at least the last 10 years.

[bobmacliberty]

Not quite meaningless ratings, but close. I would hope that the health rating part is well calibrated (although there will be at least some bias in any inspector), but that's only 10% of the score. The expert rating part should be somewhat calibrated since they have likely seen/experienced many different ships, but there is likely a much great amount of bias in the experts than in a health inspector. The traveler rating (50%) is almost completely un-calibrated. Take a quick read through a few threads here and it's easy to see that 2 people on the exact same cruise will have 2 completely different opinions.

[Grandma Dazzles]

Survey does not compare apples to apples - no way you can compare an Oasis class ship to the Majesty, for example.

 

Would make more sense to compare ships within each class.

 

Many people rave about the Serenade. Sailed last year and had a good cruise - great staff, good food - but found the ship to be crowded and entertainment terrible; too much done in the centrum and no seating. Much prefer bigger ships. Sailed the Navigator a few months ago and much preferred.

[Ourusualbeach]

You should use a halo. ;)

 

I wouldn't want to be accused of stealing someone else's Trademarked signature.;p

[Domino D]

Do those of you with so much experience with cruising than me think it could be related to size and experience level of cruiser? I have noticed that even in looking at the ratings here, many of the new ships are rated lower then the smaller/older ships. I reading the reviews though it appears to me that the new ship reviews include a wide range of cruise experience. A lot of the negatives are people new to cruising, whose expectations were not met; and long time cruisers who feel they are not getting the traditional experience. When I look at the older ships, it appears that they are much more heavily weighted towards long term cruisers who are very impassioned about the ship and its crew.

 

Is this a bias on my part, or do you all think it is part of the equation?

[kwokpot]

Do those of you with so much experience with cruising than me think it could be related to size and experience level of cruiser? I have noticed that even in looking at the ratings here, many of the new ships are rated lower then the smaller/older ships. I reading the reviews though it appears to me that the new ship reviews include a wide range of cruise experience. A lot of the negatives are people new to cruising, whose expectations were not met; and long time cruisers who feel they are not getting the traditional experience. When I look at the older ships, it appears that they are much more heavily weighted towards long term cruisers who are very impassioned about the ship and its crew.

 

Is this a bias on my part, or do you all think it is part of the equation?

I definitely think that's a large part of it. For instance, I'm not sure why Anthem gets such mixed reviews. It's such a beautiful ship, tbh it looks more like a Celebrity ship than RC (I know THAT is why some people don't like it) The staterooms are designed like real hotel rooms. 270 is such an amazing space. The shows are the quality worth paying admission for. TWO!!! Indoor pools! I see many comments that there's too many indoor spaces. Yes, but some itineraries warrant that. Sailing from NY/NJ means that for the most part it's going to be cold, so having lots of indoor space is GREAT! Just the opposite of Oasis Class ships, where everything is geared towards the outdoors and not enough indoor spaces. So RC was smart in designing different ships for different itineraries. Do you know not ONE NCL ship has a legitimate Solarium/Indoor pool area (Not talking about Haven).

Many traditional cruisers like the smaller, more traditional design ships with a wrap around promenade.

[Biker19]

The ultimate rating is the cabin price per day.

[george35]

Will some one please explain WELDS to me & where do you find them on a ship? I was in the AIR FORCE not the navy

 

george35

[Northstar21]

I definitely think that's a large part of it. For instance, I'm not sure why Anthem gets such mixed reviews. It's such a beautiful ship, tbh it looks more like a Celebrity ship than RC (I know THAT is why some people don't like it) The staterooms are designed like real hotel rooms. 270 is such an amazing space. The shows are the quality worth paying admission for. TWO!!! Indoor pools! I see many comments that there's too many indoor spaces. Yes, but some itineraries warrant that. Sailing from NY/NJ means that for the most part it's going to be cold, so having lots of indoor space is GREAT! Just the opposite of Oasis Class ships, where everything is geared towards the outdoors and not enough indoor spaces. So RC was smart in designing different ships for different itineraries. Do you know not ONE NCL ship has a legitimate Solarium/Indoor pool area (Not talking about Haven).

Many traditional cruisers like the smaller, more traditional design ships with a wrap around promenade.

 

I completely agree with kwokpot. I recently returned from a 5 night Bermuda cruise on the Anthem. It is a beautiful ship. It is perfect for sailing out of NY/NJ because it has great indoor spaces. The 270 is an amazing space with so much light and space. Surprisingly, there is always plenty seats available. The Solarium on Anthem is absolutely incredible. The Solarium Bistro is a hidden gem that offers reserved time dining at no up charge unless you want lobster or the lamb chops. (both are worth it!) Lots of great entertainment. I really enjoyed The Music Hall that featured ROCK THE BOAT, an outstanding band that played great rock music. It's a very large ship with (I believe ) about 4800 passengers but I didn't feel like I was in a sardine can except for when we attempted breakfast in the Windjammer. Yes, I would have loved more outdoor spaces too but I had a balcony that allowed me to spend quiet time in the fresh air and sun. There is ample room and loungers up top so that you can take a stroll or get some face time with the sun. I would definitely sail on Anthem again.

[Clarea]

Will some one please explain WELDS to me & where do you find them on a ship? I was in the AIR FORCE not the navy

 

george35

The ship is made out of separate smaller blocks and they all have to be welded together. There are welds everywhere.

[jdshaw1000]

Around 40 years ago U.S. News & World Report was a respected magazine. Now it's a website looking to be relevant. Every few months it posts some stupid ranking, and is then savaged by those who know something about the subject. Best advice - ignore it.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

I often look at the travel-dot-usnews-dot-com-slash-cruises website, to find out which ships are the best of each cruiseline. I was shocked to see the latest ranking of RCCL ships:

Serenade

Allure

Oasis

Jewel

Vision

Independence

Mariner

Freedom

Voyager

Rhapsody

Explorer

Radiance

Brilliance

Liberty

Quantum

Navigator

Legend

Adventure

Harmony

Grandeur

Enchantment

Majesty

Anthem

Ovation

Empress

 

I was absolutely shocked than an old ship like Serenade would surpass the stunning new ships like Oasis & Allure which have true Broadway entertainment and such variety of features/enjoyment.

 

Furthermore, Harmony (with its star-studded shows) and Ovation & Anthem (brand new) are at the BOTTOM of the list? And although I've enjoyed my several cruises on Majesty, there is no way in Hades that Majesty is a better ship than Anthem or Ovation... so... it appears US News & World Report travel website has jumped the shark.

 

I'm somewhat upset about this because I've always relied on their rankings to make my ship decisions. But it seems their rankings are now absurd. Comments?

 

I think Harmony is rated WAY too high!:D

[Colorado Babe]

We sailed on The Serenade back in March and have to say, the food was wonderful. I have Celiacs and always lose weight. Not on this cruise ship. The staff went above and beyond to ensure I had delicious gf food, I gained 5 pounds.

 

 

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