Travel & Leisure's latest survey

[Carhut]

Top 10 Small-Ship Cruise Lines

Rank Name Score

1 - Silversea Cruises 88.00

2 - SeaDream Yacht Club 87.37

3 - The Yachts of Seabourn 86.17

4 - Grand Circle Small Ship Cruises 85.88

5 - Lindblad Expeditions 84.32

6 - Windstar Cruises 82.09

7 - Viking River Cruises 80.89

8 - Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection 80.77

9 - Peter Deilmann Cruises 77.38

10 - Star Clippers Cruises 74.54

[orchestrapal]

Very interesting to see where Deilmann, much tauted on this board, winds up!:confused:

[steamboats]

orchestrapal,

 

That´s what I wondered last year too. I can only assume that those lists depend on the number of passengers and their reviews. That´ll explain why GCT and Viking are ranging higher than Deilmann. They both have a large fleet and a lot of customers in the US (GCT mainly US only). Deilmann´s main market is still Germany. Also customer reviews are always a personal opinion. Sure you can have a great cruise experience with all major river cruise lines on the US market. If you haven´t travelled on different lines you give them excellent marks as you don´t have anything to compare to. And definitely there is a big difference in quality and service between Deilmann and Viking or GCT. I also wonder why other major river cruise lines are missing like AMAWaterways, Avalon or Uniworld. They don´t provide a worse product than Viking or GCT.

 

steamboats

[orchestrapal]

:confused: The numbers are definitely skewed! We were always told that statistics can be made to show anything you want them to. With small enough numbers in this poll the accuracy is really questionable.

Tauck which is probably better that all those listed did not even make the top ten!

There is also the element that "you get what you pay for" and at a low price expectations may also be low..

So much for polls.:confused:

[Carhut]

I'm not in the position to debate this survey, but just found it kind of interesting. Guess it's just what people think and their opinions. It certainly wasn't a scientific survey. Just found it curious that there were so many satified customers of the so-called "low priced" small ships. By the way by the time you add all the expenses, they aren't low priced at all.

Steamboats, Uniworld is on the list at #8.

[letsgo39]

:confused: The numbers are definitely skewed! We were always told that statistics can be made to show anything you want them to. With small enough numbers in this poll the accuracy is really questionable.

Tauck which is probably better that all those listed did not even make the top ten!

There is also the element that "you get what you pay for" and at a low price expectations may also be low..

So much for polls.:confused:

 

Not sure why you found this survey so upsetting? Just because something cost more does not always mean that it is better.Don't shoot the messenger please.I doubt very much if Travel and Leisure has an axe to grind. I don't see how anyone can compare something that they have no experience with!:confused: I am also surprised that Avalon and Amadeus are not on the list. At least this list gives us several companies to consider that others have been happy with.

 

Steamboats we do appreciate all your valuable input but do you think you are perhaps a little bias because Deilman is a German company and you have cruised with them but not the others?I have not cruised with Deilman and would not even begin to judge them at this point.I guess I could eliminate them just based on the fact that it is a cruise that requires people dress up a lot?:rolleyes:

 

Carhut thanks for posting this,very interesting.

[Benita]

Tauck, while a great company, is not a cruise line, so would not be mentioned in the survey - they charter different ships, but do not own any.

[nyfeds]

We cruised with Peter Deilmann in 2006. Service and cuisine were impeccible. Therefore, I find their ranking a bit perplexing.

 

Prior to cruising with Deilmann, we cruised exclusively with Regent. We had very high expectations and Deilmann surpassed those expectations in a big way. In fact, Deilmann's cuisine runs circles around Regent's, IMHO.

 

We cruised on the MS Cezanne. I will say that I found our cabin decor a bit "tired." However, everything else more than made up for that. I would cruise with Deilmann again, in a heartbeat.

 

We are cruising with AMA next month. They had the exact intinerary we were looking for - Danube Discovery, beginning and/or ending in Budapest/Prague. We wanted our cruise to begin and end in these cities, so we could extend our visits. However, if Deilmann offered this identical itinerary, we would have gone with Deilmann.

[letsgo39]

We will be interested to see how you compare Deilmann to AMA.