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January 8, 2025

The time has come once more for the Cruising Journal Awards, one year after the debut of this initiative.

This process—making public the aggregated results of the reviews hosted on our platform—has proven essential for recognizing and valuing the contributions of all users who consult us daily and share their experiences with others. At the same time, it has also become a valuable tool for cruise lines, who use our reviews to evaluate their services and monitor the satisfaction level of their offerings.

Our review scoring and balancing system, as is now widely known, is far more effective than an official questionnaire, which may be completed too hastily and often exaggerates judgments, whether positive or negative. This was the most appreciated aspect of the first edition, held in January 2024. Another fundamental characteristic is the spontaneity of the reviews, written by users not as part of a contest or voting process but out of a genuine desire to share their experiences. This makes the results far more authentic than a series of votes possibly influenced by specific requests or invitations over a short period.

I would also like to emphasize that the scores derived from these reviews are in no way expressions of our editorial team’s opinions. They are solely based on what users input during the review process. This is why we always stress that the Awards do not represent our staff’s views or stem from our personal cruise experiences.

As with the first edition, the new Cruising Journal Awards are based on rankings published bi-monthly in our Magazine. For the introductory year of 2024, the results reflect the average of six bi-monthly rankings, encompassing all evaluation criteria offered by our review models. This approach has led to outcomes that allow us to identify the cruise lines and individual ships with the highest overall scores and, more specifically, to determine the best performers in each evaluation category.

Since we are dealing with calculations and statistical averages, my recommendation is always not to consider the rankings as absolute values but rather as indicators of how closely traveler expectations align with onboard experiences. This is because we have intentionally not categorized cruise lines by levels of luxury, making direct comparisons overly simplistic. However, based on the concept of customer satisfaction, it becomes evident how a ship can be deemed “excellent,” whether it is an ultra-luxury vessel or a small, modest river ship. Both, in this scenario, would have met customer expectations and strived to deliver the best service possible within their means.

That said, it is undeniable that if a cruise line or individual ship ranks first in the standings, they have undoubtedly delivered exceptional service, and this is where the value of the Cruising Journal Awards should be acknowledged. However, not all cruisers provide reviews on our platform, so we make no claims of exhaustive or absolute truth. Nonetheless, it is our pleasure and responsibility to highlight these efforts and showcase to travelers and cruise companies the insights derived from published reviews.

There is no need to list the cruise lines and ships that have made it into the Awards rankings—they can be easily found in the following pages. An important observation is the consistency seen at the top positions, confirming the high level of services offered to customers. Silversea Cruises and Windstar Cruises for the Ocean category and Transcend Cruises for the River category stand out as exemplars of excellence, as revealed by our reviews. It is therefore fitting to commend them for their dedication and consistency in client service. Nevertheless, rankings can shift even with the addition or absence of a single review. All companies and ships mentioned in the tables are worthy of recognition and represent excellent products for cruisers. We thank them for their work and encourage them to follow the example of the many companies that now proudly display our Awards on their websites.

In my view, the Cruising Journal Awards are also a moment of enjoyment and discovery. Browsing the rankings, which summarize a year of reviews and opinions, allows us to encounter unexpected names or surprising positions. It’s an opportunity to see ships rise or fall in the rankings, even when our personal preferences might differ. Or perhaps it’s a chance to read all the reviews of a ship we were less familiar with or find intriguing due to its ranking.

With gratitude to all users who dedicate their time to writing reviews and to the cruise lines that have expressed their appreciation for being recognized with Cruising Journal Awards, I invite everyone to contribute their travel stories. These reviews are a treasure for other cruisers and an essential tool for companies to continuously improve their products and services.

Gabriele Bassi

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