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Cruisers Pick Their Best & Worst Lines RIGHT NOW!
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Jan 28, 2025
I'm constantly asked if I think that cruise lines are worse now than they used to be. After analysing how cruisers are rating them right now, the answer seems to be mostly yes. I've poured over the online reviews and ratings of 25 of the biggest cruise lines aimed at English-speaking cruisers over the last nine months. A staggering 20 of them are being rated lower than ever before, with just two being rated higher. Welcome aboard, I am Gary Bembridge and to make my findings as helpful as possible for you, I'm going reveal the current best and worst rated lines right now in each of the 5 categories the cruise industry uses: Mass Resort lines, Premium Lines, Small Ship Luxury Lines, Ultra-Luxury Lines and Local-focused Lines. Get 10% off you "The Cruise Map" of you favourite cruise at https://www.thecruisemaps.com/tft For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: ---------------------------------------------------
View Video Transcript
0:00
I'm constantly asked if I think the
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cruise lines are worse now than they
0:04
used to be after analyzing how Cruisers
0:06
are rating them right now the answer
0:09
seems to be mostly yes I've poured over
0:12
the online reviews and ratings of 25 of
0:15
the biggest cruise lines aimed at
0:16
english- speaking cruises over the last
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9 months staggering 20 of them are being
0:21
rated lower than ever before with just
0:24
two being rated higher welcome aboard
0:27
I'm Gary benridge and to make my
0:28
findings as helpful as possible for you
0:30
I'm going to reveal the current best and
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worst rated lines right now in each of
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the five categories the cruise industry
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uses Mass Resort lines premium lines
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small ship luxury lines ultr luxury
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lines and local focused lines let's
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start with the category more passengers
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go cruising on than the others the
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popular Resort style lines which
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includes Carnival Royal Caribbean MC
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Cruisers and Norwegian Cruise Line the
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highest rating by Cruisers right now in
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this Cate and just narrowly beating
1:01
Carnival is Royal Caribbean with a score
1:04
of 3.2 out of five so why are Cruisers
1:07
rating them the best in this category
1:11
their reviews suggest it's mostly to do
1:13
with the shows and their entertainment
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options including big theater production
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shows IE shows water shows a busy daily
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program that caters for all ages and all
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the activity features on board like flow
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Riders slides game rooms zip lines and
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so on also I see the new Mega ships are
1:32
extremely popular with icon of the Seas
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helping boost recent reviews but even
1:37
ships like Symphony Of The Seas that I
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was on recently and their other huge
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Resort ships are driving higher scores
1:43
that the ratings and reviews are pulled
1:45
down by cruisers on the older Royal
1:47
Caribbean ships which are felt to be
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increasingly dated and worn and as Royal
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Caribbean kind of leads their
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advertising with big bald action-packed
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glitzy ships when people get on the
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older ships they're not surprisingly
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disappointed more than ever before
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reviews and ratings are also dampened by
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the numbers and crowds on ships
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especially as many ships now sale over
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double capacity with kids sharing
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parents cabins and that leads to many
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lines and everything from the winda
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buffet to the water slides the worst of
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the resort lines right now is MC
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Cruisers with just 2.7 out of five and
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they got the most one-star ratings of
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all 25 lines are reviewed so why do
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Cruisers rate MSC so poorly well many
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say they find MSC attractive there are
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five things they consistently bring up
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first the ships are overly crowded MC
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does have kids traveling for free and
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lots of shared family rooms so these
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ships can be extremely packed and spaces
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are always busy it can be hard to find
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places around pools or often in many of
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the venues second as a result service is
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slow and there is poor and dismissive
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customer
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service thirdly entertainment is average
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especially though compared to the other
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lines in this category fourthly the food
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is at best average with many people
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saying the buffet is disappointing and
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repetitive and lastly there is a lot of
3:12
upselling on board which brings me to
3:15
what people like most about them in the
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reviews the low fairs and kids traveling
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free those that like them feel they are
3:22
the best option of all the lines in
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terms of value if that was the best and
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worst of the resort style lines which
3:29
lines are doing well and badly these
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days in the premium category as the
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industry calls it the premium category
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lines tend to have smaller ships than
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the resort lines carrying from about
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2,000 to say 3,500 passengers they don't
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have features like water parks and
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slides but they do still have a wide
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range of cabins from inside through to
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Suites it mostly includes long
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established lines at kmore for all the
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couples with a pretty traditional Cruise
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program the lines in this category
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includes holl in America kunard
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celebrity but it also does include
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Disney for families and virgin voyagers
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for 18 plus Travelers only the best
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scoring line with 3.6 out of five and
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one of the few that saw a growth in its
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ratings recently is celebrity which is
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part of the Royal Caribbean group who
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also topped the resort category right
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now as you just heard unlike most lines
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many Cruisers talk about how celebrity
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have improved their product better ships
4:25
improved service and food what I'm
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seeing is their decision to Launch The
4:30
Edge class ships Edge Apex Beyond and
4:32
Excel is driving their improved ratings
4:35
and their reviews for sure these new
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modern ships have the most positive
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reviews even though the infinite balcony
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cabins do definitely divide opinions in
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the reviews however cruises traveling in
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the older Solstice and Millennium class
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ships feel that those are being
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neglected and are starting to look a bit
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dated less wellmaintained and they're
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losing excuse the upon their Edge the
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other dampling fact in the reviews is
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the impact of kids the new ships are
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attracting younger Cruisers with kids
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and this is proving fairly divisive
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those used to cruising on Celebrity
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without kids are complaining about the
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disruption that kids are causing while
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those taking kids are complaining that
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there's not enough for their kids to do
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and that the kids clubs are not good
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enough so while the new ships have
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driven celebrities ratings and reviews
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upwards the premium line that's getting
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the worst score these days had theirs
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driven downwards largely due to their
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new ship the worst scoring premium line
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right now is kunard with 3.1 out of five
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their scores and reviews have been
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dragged down since the launch of Queen
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Anne largely as many existing Cod
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Travelers feel it's not Cod enough and
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they dislike some of the features like
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the Queen's room and the overall layout
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and design of the ship the flagship
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transatlantic Queen Mary 2 liner is
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still pretty much getting getting
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overall good ratings and reviews
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although many reviewers generally feel
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that kunut is kind of watering down the
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experience and feels more mainstream
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than luxury these days now personally I
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think that kunard create this issue
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because their advertising suggests a
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luxurious experience with white glove
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service and loads of Glamour but once
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you're on board it's not quite like that
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and it's broadly a similar experience to
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princess or H in America unless you're
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cruising in a Grill's Suite talking of
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luxury many Cruis in the premium
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category seem to have upgraded or tried
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smaller luxury ships in the last few
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years and I can see in the ratings and
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reviews of this next category what
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effect that is having on which lines do
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well and which do badly the lies in the
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small ship luxury category like Azamara
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Oceania Viking and Saga mostly operate
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with ships between about 700 and 1,200
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passengers there some like Windstar are
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much smaller most have a wide range of
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cabin types starting from inside an
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ocean view up to Suites and make much of
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being able to call into smaller ports
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than bigger ships can or about docking
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in City centers while of course bigger
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ships must stock in further away
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industrial ports there is a line that
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stands up by some margin in this
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category and is actually the second
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highest scoring of all 25 lines I
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reviewed with an impressive 4.6 out of
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five at the moment and that is Viking
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ocean being adult only pushes up the
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reviews and ratings attract active to
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some as more families are cruising on
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premium lines but the main reason for
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their High rating is their consistent
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quality and there's no sense of them
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cutting back as Cruisers accuse other
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lines of doing that's certainly what
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they're saying in the reviews they do
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have a very loyal audience that tends to
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be the over 60s and 70s and they do seem
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to be a more cautious Travelers who
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frequently talk about how Viking takes
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care of all the details as they include
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transfers and so on and people
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definitely like that I saw many reviews
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and high ratings though by first timers
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who really like the lack of onboard
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upsell that they got on premium lines
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because Viking does have many more
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inclusions The Limited negative reviews
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are by younger Cruisers who feel that it
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caters only for an older crowd with
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stayed and less relevant entertainment
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and I do have to agree with that
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personally the worst of the small ship
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luxury lines right now is Oceania still
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with a relatively good score of 3.7 out
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of five Oceania gets mark down as
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existing Cruisers that the lofty promise
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in their marketing is no longer being
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delivered and first timers say they
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expected more for their money based on
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This Promise Oceania have created a rod
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for their own back because they
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advertise that they have the finest
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cuisine at sea but almost universally
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recent reviewers say they don't these
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days and several other lines have caught
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up and even exceeded them in their view
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another thing that is affecting the
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reviews is their inconsistent Fleet they
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have these new modern ships like the
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Vista which seem well liked but they
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also have old and increasingly dated
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Rass ships with tiny cabins and very
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small bathrooms and these pull the
9:14
rating and the reviews down Oceania also
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changed their Fair inclusions and
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exclusions during the time that I did
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look at the reviews to something called
9:23
simply more and that was really
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unpopular they've also by the way just
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changed that again and I think that's G
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to affect their results going forward
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talking of inclusions the next Cruise
9:32
category has the greatest level of these
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those you will see those are having an
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unwelcome impact on the ratings of some
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of the lines the ultr Lu Tre category
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often style themselves as offering six
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star service with all sweet ships and
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inclusions like drinks gratuities Wi-Fi
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and special dining there some actually
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have even more than that this category
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has seen new entrance like Explorer
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Journeys the Resurrected C and Ritz
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Carlton Yachts who join the long
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established silver sea Seaborn and
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Regent 7even Seas scores overall are
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really high in this category but the two
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highest scoring are the new lines
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Explorer Journeys launched by MC scores
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an incredible 4.8 out of five with the
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most five-star reviews of any of the 25
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I studied the second highest scoring in
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this category was crystal with 4.4 out
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of five Explorer Journey ships carry 922
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guests and the reviews say things like
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Explorer is a festar floating
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Masterpiece reviews constantly say the
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ships feel luxurious cabins are plush
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and Rave about the dining the only
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negative spoken about is that evening
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entertainment is pretty much everyone
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says underwhelming the worst performing
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line in this category is another
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Norwegian Cruise group line region 7even
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seats with 3.5 out of five now region
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offers more inclusions than some in the
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category like flights prestay Hotel
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based on grade transfers and multiple
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excursions in ports they recently they
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have actually started offering a fair
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option with less inclusions as well
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there are two key issues I saw in the
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region reviews and ratings that I want
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to highlight first cruises feel overall
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they don't recently match the quality of
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the other luxury lines and although many
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in the reviews compare them to Seaborn
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and silvery increasingly I see reviewers
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compare Regent and in fact the other
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ultr luxury lines to Explorer and
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Crystal as these seem to be the new
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elevated gold standards in the category
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second for region the biggest impact on
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their reviews and ratings were directly
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related to their more all-inclusive
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experience I saw repeated complaints
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about complicated flight routings and
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pre- hotels I have to say I agree that
11:48
based on the region trips I've done they
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haven't had great pre- hotels and they
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offered not great flight
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routings also there are many complaints
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about the choice and quality of the
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included excursions with the best ones
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being sold out and really hard to get
12:05
there is another category I want to talk
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about local focused Cruise Lines which
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are sold exclusively or mostly to
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residents of one particular country the
12:14
UK is the most noticeable of these with
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many including Pino cruises Fred Olsen
12:21
Mela Ambassador and Saga the best
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scoring of these is actually Fred Olsen
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with a score of four out of five
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where a fleet change seems to have had a
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really big impact they retired some
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ships and bought two of the older
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Holland America ships during the
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pandemic shutdown we launched them as
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Borealis and the bolet after some
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negative reviews early on about the
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condition of the ships they seem to have
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worked on them and these days reviewers
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seem to like the ships the food and the
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service the worst scoring of the UK
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Lines by a really long way was P cruises
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which gets one of the low scores of the
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25 lines are analyzed with a low 2.6 out
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of five now P used to be a very
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traditional couples line that's
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transformed in the last few years by
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launching Mega ships and value pricing
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so they're becoming a family focused
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fun-packed line they kind of want to be
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in the UK what I think Carnival is to
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the United States the new ships are big
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and crowded and past Travelers talk
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about p as now being distinctly average
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with a real sense of cutbacks in the
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product food and service
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mov to things like once a day cabin
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service they do have though two adult
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ownerships Aurora and Arcadia but those
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reviews aren't great either because
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people talk about the ships looking kind
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of old and dated these days in terms of
13:44
the US the regional line that does
13:46
incredibly well is Margarita vet SE with
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4.1 out of five score I was to be honest
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quite surprised at that from what I've
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seen of the line however it's clear that
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they know their audience and Their
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audience loves the Great value short
13:59
breaks that they provide if I haven't
14:02
mentioned one of your favorite lines it
14:04
means they're basically in the middle
14:05
neither good nor bad right now let me
14:07
know what you think of your usual line
14:09
these days in the comments and join me
14:12
over in this video where I reveal what
14:14
we're all doing that is currently
14:16
driving cruise ship Crew crazy see you
14:19
over there
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