The good news is that some of the top rated ships will be visiting Australia in the coming months including Celebrity Solstice and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.
Hapag-Lloyd, Seabourn, SeaDream, Crystal, Celebrity and Cunard are the winners of the annual ranking of cruise ships for 2013. The top-scoring vessels of the 2013 Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships have been revealed three weeks before the book is published in October. Small and boutique ships were again the best rated, with only the premium class of one big ship awarded over 1,700 points out of a possible 2,000.
Hapag-Lloyd’s Europa retained its number one spot for the 13th consecutive year, scoring the most points of the 284 ships rated (1,852) and topping the small ships category. SeaDream I and SeaDream II were the next highest scorers (1,788 and 1,786 respectively), which also placed them in the top two of the boutique ships category, followed by Seabourn Legend (1,774).
Seabourn had three ships in the top 10 of this category as well as three in the top 10 small ships, including Seabourn Quest (1,776) and Seabourn Odyssey (1,775) in second and third place after Europa.
Queen Mary 2 (Grill class) dominated the large resort-style ships (1,702), followed by joint runners-up Celebrity Solstice, which will be based in Australia this summer, and Celebrity Equinox (1,611).
The best of the mid-size ships, according to the Berlitz rating system, was Crystal Serenity (1,717). Oceania Cruises’ new Riviera (1,702) and Crystal Cruises’ other ship Crystal Symphony (1,701) came a close second and third. The reviews, devised by British cruise critic and author Douglas Ward, take into account 400 items based on personal cruises, visits and revisits to almost all of the world’s ocean-going ships.
In the new book, Ward also outlines his six biggest cruise line rip-offs and 15 ways that costs are cut.
To get the best value for money, he recommends choosing an older ship and booking through a travel agent.
The 2013 Berlitz Guide app will be available on iTunes on 15 September; the book is due out 1 October.
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Source: Cruise Weekly