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MV Europa is world's best cruise ship
October 26, 2005

Hapag-Lloyd's MV Europa has been voted the world's best cruise ship for the sixth consecutive year.

The 1999-built ship, which carries 408 passengers, is so high scoring in Berlitz's annual guide to cruising that guide author, Douglas Ward, has created a new five-stars-plus category for it.

The guide rates all 269 cruise ships currently sailing the world's seas, and only 18 made it into the prestigious five-stars club, down from 20 the previous year.

Hebridean Spirit and Hebridean Princess are no longer part of the club, while Cunard's Queen Mary 2 went down several places after scoring less than last year.

"Any ship on the top 18 five-star list can be considered to deliver the utmost in luxury," said Ward.

But he added that there was "no best cruise line in the world". Different ships would be suitable for different people depending on what they were looking for in a holiday – luxury, romance, rest, adventure, teen fun or sports for children.

He does, however, devote a section in the Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships 2006 to luxury cruises.

"Luxury cruises are very special," he said. "Staff will know passengers by name, and provide them with the finest in amenities. Guests don't have to endure announcements and mindless background music in public rooms, and the menus are highly creative, with items like caviar, foie gras and fresh, not frozen vegetables in abundance."

Five-stars-plus ships
1. MV Europa (Hapag-Lloyd Cruises) with 1,858 points out of a possible 2,000.

Five-star ships
1. SeaDream I – 1,790 points
2. SeaDream II – 1,790
3. Seabourn Legend – 1,786
4. Seabourn Pride – 1,785
5. Seabourn Spirit – 1,785
6. Silver Shadow – 1,757
7. Silver Whisper – 1,757
8. Hanseatic – 1,740
9. Silver Cloud – 1,722
10. Silver Wind – 1,722
11. Queen Mary 2 (Grill Class) – 1,712
12. Sea Cloud II – 1,706
13. Sea Cloud – 1,704
14. Crystal Serenity – 1,702
15. Crystal Symphony – 1,701
16. Seven Seas Mariner – 1,701
17. Seven Seas Voyager – 1,701

TravelBite.co.uk

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1. SeaDream I – 1,790 points
2. SeaDream II – 1,790
3. Seabourn Legend – 1,786
4. Seabourn Pride – 1,785
5. Seabourn Spirit – 1,785
6. Silver Shadow – 1,757
7. Silver Whisper – 1,757
8. Hanseatic – 1,740
9. Silver Cloud – 1,722
10. Silver Wind – 1,722
11. Queen Mary 2 (Grill Class) – 1,712
12. Sea Cloud II – 1,706
13. Sea Cloud – 1,704
14. Crystal Serenity – 1,702
15. Crystal Symphony – 1,701
16. Seven Seas Mariner – 1,701
17. Seven Seas Voyager – 1,701

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The above ratings are mixup Large and Small ships.
Douglas Ward should be listed in category for ships carrying passengers over 500 or under.

[ 10-28-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

Nevertheless I still have a prolbem with this pseudo objective apporach. This is a very subjective matter and having lists to calculate a certain number of points is not really a good way to describe a vacation expierience. To get an overview one probably has to come up with some categories - but having 2000 points is just ridiculouse pseudo scientific.
A detailed 'review' of the expierience is finally much more important than these 'points' - this way the different types of ships can also be better considered, and a complain as stated above would not arise. To make it easier to read on could structure it - like it is done on some webpages - and it is problaby better tosort the ships by some 'rough' categories like 'premium' - 'luxury yacht' - 'budget minded' etc. - and not so much the five star system.

To summarize this lengthly posting: Categories considering the type of the ship are better - but if you use this five star sytem to rate the quality of the expierience - and this is a widely spread sytem everyone know - very different ships can very well be in the same category.

[ 10-28-2005: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Doglas Ward is entitled to his opinion, but that is all it is.

His book is not a 'Bible' its just a book of opinions and some facts. Some of the facts are wrong anyway. As long as we remember that, it can be a useful guide book - but that's all.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
...it would be sad if someone booked 'SeaDream I' instead of 'Seven Seas Voyager' for example, just because Ward rates it higher.

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Originally posted by CGT:
Where's Eroller to say how meaningless this poll is and goddammit why didn't fete Song?

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Polls and 'best of' lists are only meaningless if you do not agree with them!

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Even when I do agree with them they are still meaningless.

In the case of Ward, it's one man's opinion. I'm certainly not going to base where my vacation dollars are spent on a single source, and neither should anyone else.

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Originally posted by CGT:
Where's Eroller to say how meaningless this poll is and goddammit why didn't fete Song?

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Oh did I hit a nerve? Apparently I did.

Maybe you need to have another cocktail ... although it is a little early for you. Either that or go climb back under the pebble you came from. You add nothing here but negativity.

Ernie

[ 10-28-2005: Message edited by: eroller ]

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Originally posted by PamM:
Even if I agreed Malcolm, I would think it mighty suspicious that all sister ships had identical scores.. laughable really, so obvious only one may have been visited.

Pam

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Agreed Pam. Ward's book seems to get more riddled with errors every year. Maybe it's time for him to move on. His ratings should not be taken any more seriously than those of yours or mine.

Ernie

[ 10-28-2005: Message edited by: eroller ]