Cruise Critic announced the 2023 Best Cruise Lines of The Year

Table Of Content

• The 11 Best Luxury Cruise Lines, According to T+L's Experts
• Cruising Antarctica on Silver Cloud or Silver Endeavour
• Viking Cruises
• Alaska on Ocean Victory
• Best Cruise Ship for Entertainment: Celebrity Beyond - Celebrity Cruises
• Best Family Cruise: Regal Princess - Princess Cruises
• Solo Cruising With a New Line

The latter area will be home to the line's first swim-up bar on a ship, Swim and Tonic. Also included in every SeaDream experience is complimentary access to wave runners, Hobie cats, kayaks, snorkeling gear and other water sports equipment. Just refurbished, the 165-cabin Paul Gauguin will be exploring the Pacific in 2023, with trips to the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Marquesas, and the Society Islands. The single-vessel brand was voted the very best small-ship cruise line in the World’s Best Awards 2022, as T+L readers gave particularly high marks to the Paul Gauguin’s on-board staff. In June, Quasar Expeditions is offering a Galápagos cruise on the 32-passenger Evolution for children with autism spectrum disorder, hosted by an expert in supporting families with special needs. The trip, which departs June 24, is a seven-night expedition that takes in many of the most notable sites on the islands, with programming specially tailored for both kids and adults.

The 11 Best Luxury Cruise Lines, According to T+L's Experts

Like Silver Nova, Silver Ray will be bigger than Silversea's previous ships and feature an unusual, asymmetrical design for its public decks that reorients its key features toward the sides of the ship instead of the center. Whether you're floating in the ship's main pool or dining at its open-air Marquee restaurant, you'll be looking out at the sea (or whatever destination the ship is visiting) like you've never been able to before. Celebrity Beyond, which debuted in 2022, accommodates 3,260 guests has 32 bars and restaurants, like Le Voyage by chef Daniel Boulud, and two-story villas on board. Viking Cruises is a river and ocean cruise line that recently added expedition sailings and the Great Lakes trips to its repertoire. "T+L readers rave about the consistency of Viking's vessels and their Scandinavian design," cruise expert Fran Golden reported when Viking once again topped T+L's World's Best Awards last year.

Cruising Antarctica on Silver Cloud or Silver Endeavour

When river cruise line Viking debuted its ocean ships with the 930-passenger Viking Star in 2015, it was with the goal of creating a better, value-packed cruise experience for adults aged 55 and up. Eight sister ships followed, all with the same profile of stunning Scandinavian decor, well-planned itineraries that linger in ports, and the promise of no nickel-and-diming. Everyone stays in a spacious veranda stateroom or suite; specialty restaurants, such as a fine Italian venue, and a chef’s tasting experience are complimentary, and so is the accompanying beer and wine. I could often be found indulging in the crab legs at the seafood bar at the World Café. Don’t miss the complimentary spa complete with a snow room and heated thalassotherapy pool.

Viking Cruises

Three of the ships (American Song, American Jazz and American Harmony) are 180-passenger modern river ships launched from 2018 to 2020. American Pride is a 150-passenger paddlewheeler launched in 2012, and American West is a 110-passenger veteran paddlewheeler launched in 1995. Whether you're fascinated by American history, culture and cuisine, or you've enjoyed river cruising in Europe but are now looking to explore closer to home, U.S. river cruises are an easy and enjoyable vacation option.

The second venue, The Dusk Bar, will be an open-air sky bar at the back of the vessel that, like Marquee, is positioned on the port side of the ship. Queen Anne, notably, will embrace the latest trends of travel and cruising in a way that Cunard ships haven't done before, including a new focus on choice in dining and entertainment, wellness and onboard celebrations. Sun Princess initially will sail in Europe through the fall before repositioning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for voyages to the Caribbean. Fares start at $467 per person, not including taxes and fees, for a five-night Caribbean sailing.

A shore excursion at every port is included in your cruise fare, and there are overnight port calls on many itineraries—sometimes even multiple overnights to maximize the destination experience. Passengers can choose additional excursions for an extra fee, such as exploring the culinary highlights of Gdánsk, Poland, or biking the streets of Oslo. French luxury cruise line Ponant aims to make passengers feel as if they're traveling on their own private yachts. Guests enjoy Ladurée macarons, Veuve Clicquot Champagne, and luxurious Hermès bath products on board. Each of the company's ships features an onboard spa with massage cabins and either a Turkish bath or sauna. Ponant's luxurious small ships sail to remote destinations like Antarctica, incorporating once-in-a-lifetime experiences such as eclipse spotting from the edge of the earth.

But Silver Ray and Silver Nova offer new premium aft suites, including a massive 1,324-square-foot complex called the Otium Suite. A new juice bar and a cafe near the main pool will serve healthy dishes, and the ship's spa is being built as a temple to wellness. Under development for more than six years and the first of an all-new series of vessels for the line, the 4,000-passenger Sun Princess is about 21% bigger than the biggest ships currently in the Princess fleet. And yet, while it's 21% bigger, it's designed to hold just 17% more passengers. The bigger passenger capacity is in part due to the ship's greater focus on family travelers. Icon of the Seas is being built with more cabins offering extra bunks to accommodate families with children.

Best Family Cruise: Regal Princess - Princess Cruises

The 9 best luxury cruise lines for elegance and exclusivity - The Points Guy

The 9 best luxury cruise lines for elegance and exclusivity.

Posted: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

So much so that Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ 34,000-mile world trip for 2024 sold out in just over two hours, while the adults-only Virgin Voyages, which aims to throw cruise stereotypes overboard, rose to first place in Large Ships. And we’ve brought back last year's new category showcasing the expedition cruises – small, often sustainable vessels with a shoal of scientific experts onboard – that follow in the wake of adventurers such as Sir Ernest Shackleton. American Cruise Line offers this itinerary on five ships from April to October 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Fares start at $449 per person, not including taxes and fees, for a quick two-night cruise from Hamburg, Germany, to Southampton, England. Seven-night sailings in Europe start at $849 per person, not including taxes and fees. Other notable features of the ship will include an expanded Commodore Club observation lounge and a main pool area (The Pavilion) topped with a retractable glass roof designed to be as much a showpiece as a functional structure. Like Carnival Celebration, Carnival Jubilee measures 183,521 tons, putting it in a tie with the former ship for the position of biggest vessel ever to sail for Carnival (at 181,808 tons, sister ship Mardi Gras is slightly smaller). Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras, notably, are a whopping 35% bigger than the next-biggest Carnival ships currently afloat, and they are bigger than all but a dozen other cruise vessels in the world.

These are the top 4 cruise lines in the world, according to travelers - CNBC

These are the top 4 cruise lines in the world, according to travelers.

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There's "cruising" and there's "yachting" – small ships that dock in harbors and ports inaccessible to larger ships. SeaDream offers 7- to 15-day voyages with a maximum of 56 couples and a 95-person crew, so service and attention to detail are highlights. Included and specialty dining both shine, with plenty of options for everyone.

With 2023 poised to be a big year for both new and frequent cruisers — thanks in part to an abundance of new ships and itineraries — Travel + Leisure has hand-selected 16 different types of adventures to consider in the year ahead. French line Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot is the world’s most luxurious icebreaker—and one of the best cruise ships in the world. Get to know the best cruise ships in a variety of categories, based on member review ratings for cruises taken in the last year. While many apps at sea are still finding their footing, Royal Caribbean's delivers an experience that is seamless and fun.

Fares start at $431 per person, not including taxes and fees, for a three-night sailing. The development of ships on the scale of Carnival Jubilee and its sisters has been a big deal for Carnival. Until recently, the line had resisted the trend among major brands to build even bigger vessels that offer a supersized megaresort-at-sea experience. All three vessels — Icon of the Seas, Queen Anne and Sun Princess — are the three new cruise ships for 2024 that have us the most excited here at TPG. But they're far from being the only major new cruise vessels arriving during the next 12 months. This year will be a big one for new cruise ships, with three major vessels on the way that promise to break new ground in cruising.

Onboard activities will revolve around enrichment programs and classy entertainment, and there will be elegant meals in multiple restaurants. Cabins will be relatively spacious, with the smallest of five cabin categories having 270 square feet of space. In addition to asymmetry in many areas, one thing that will be particularly noticeable about Silver Ray is its spaciousness — something it will share with Silver Nova.

They can watch icebergs and polar bears passing by from the serenity of the heated pools on the sides of the ship that are heated by recycled energy from the ship’s propulsion. Inside, there’s another heated pool and a spa with a snow room and sauna, where therapists serve up massages using natural and eco-friendly products. Scientists are on board conducting research and discussing topics such as climate change.

Passengers floating in the pools on these ships or lounging on nearby lounge chairs get an unobstructed view of the sea off the starboard side. The ship will offer 15 different places to grab a bite, more than double the number on the line's other ships. The options will include Aji Wa, a new restaurant concept for Cunard that will serve Japanese cuisine influenced by the seasons of the year. Also new for Cunard will be Aranya, an Indian eatery; Sir Samuel's, a high-end steakhouse; and Tramonto, which will serve Mediterranean dishes. Many of these cabin categories are family-friendly rooms that sleep four guests; some can accommodate six or eight guests. In total, 313 cabins and suites are listed specifically as family-focused accommodations, though many regular room types can sleep more than two people.