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Mine: RCL/Celebrity.
Frosty 4
Carnival for shares.
RCI only because they build interesting ships.
Celebrity for their artwork and potential to be better than they are. Still possibly the best value at sea.
And how much did the itinerary effect your vote? Did you do the Caribbean 3x and of all the cruises X-cruise line was your favorite? Or is it just based on the features and experiences you had on the ship? Ever have a really bad cruise, try the cruise line again, and have a totally opposite experience?
I've cruised Carnival at least a dozen times, Princess 6 times, Celebrity 4, Cruise West twice, Royal Caribbean 4, Holland America 3, Cunard, Costa, and NCL once each, as close as I can remember.
My favorite cruise line experience based on the ships themselves would be Celebrity with Holland America a very close second.
I cruised Alaska 5 times; Princess twice, and Celebrity, HAL, and Cruise West once each.
My favorite cruise line to be on based on the experience of that particular itinerary I did was Cruise West.
quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1:It would be intersting to see how many times you have cruised on the cruise line that you are voting as 'your favorite' similar to what dougnewman did. If you have only cruised them once, and no other cruise line, how does that justify it as your favorite among only one effort? [...]
You are too picky. Since we are all experts we are certainly able to extrapolate from our experiences to how it must be aboard ships of other lines even if we have not yet cruised with these ships or even if we have not been aboard a ship at all.
quote:Originally posted by Ernst:Since we are all experts we are certainly able to extrapolate from our experiences to how it must be aboard ships of other lines even if we have not yet cruised with these ships or even if we have not been aboard a ship at all.
I drive a car. I consider myself an expert. My favorite used to be the Ford Mustang, never driven one, it was just my favorite. Until I drove it. My 'expertise' in 'driving' really did not translate to the Mustang as a 'favorite' based on anything other than asthetics. The actual experience was completely different than what I had imagined (extrapolated) it in my mind.
Is that kind of what your talking about?
quote:Originally posted by dmwnc1:It would be intersting to see how many times you have cruised on the cruise line that you are voting as 'your favorite' similar to what dougnewman did.
I'm definitely not a loyalist to any one cruise line. I've sailed with Royal Caribbean four times, Celebrity three, Cunard three, HAL two, Princess two, Orient one, NCL one and Uniworld one. And lots of ship visits. So I have a pretty broad base I think.
quote:Originally posted by dougnewman:[...] So I have a pretty broad base I think.
Allow me to give you a well meant advice: I guess it's a good guiding principle to start a thorough self-check every time you make such a statement.
Let's not confuse two things here: One can very well have a favorite ship or a favorite cruise line without having cruised a lot. Saying that does not imply that one has a 'broad overview'. (it is of course a bit ridiculous to say and maybe even insist on such a statement not having cruised at all or only with one ship/line)
It is a very different situation if one makes the claim to come to the conclusion that a certain line/ship is the best (or favorite) because one has 'a broad overview'. To backup such a statement based on 'facts' requires certainly MUCH more than having cruise with a handful of cruise lines over a rather extended period. If one claims to have a broad overview of the present cruise industry one certainly has to cruise aboard A LOT of different ships within a rather short (!) period of time. There are certainly much more than eight (!) cruise lines out there and things change quickly these days.
quote:Originally posted by Ernst:If one claims to have a broad overview of the present cruise industry one certainly has to cruise aboard A LOT of different ships within a rather short (!) period of time.
By your definition the number of people in the world who have a "broad overview of the cruise industry" is probably in the single digits, or indeed maybe there may not be any such people at all. I suspect even the people I know who go on cruises as a full-time occupation probably have not been on enough to satisfy you.
Anyway my comment was rather tongue-in-cheek (I should have put in a ) - I was trying to make light of the demand that everyone put forward their CV if you will as I think in a discussion about favorites it is not really important that one have an exhaustive overview of everything that is out there.
In the past it has been suggested that most (?) of the opinions voiced on here (including mine) are close to worthless because we simply don't have enough experience. I think this is a rather unreasonable demand. Perhaps it would be easier if there were simply more cruise lines in the world - after all, nobody would say that one has to have eaten in a majority of the world's restaurants in order to have an opinion on what constitutes a good restaurant, but that is often said about cruise ships. If there were 100,000 cruise ships in the world this whole discussion would be really pointless as nobody could have gone on more than a small fraction of them to begin with.
quote:Originally posted by dougnewman:[....]I never said I have a "broad overview of the present cruise industry".[....]
You posted: "So I have a pretty broad base I think."You are certainly not required to have a 'broad base' or 'broad overview' but you might want to be a bit more careful with such a statement - just a well meant advice.
quote:Originally posted by dougnewman:[....]By your definition the number of people in the world who have a "broad overview of the cruise industry" is probably in the single digits, or indeed maybe there may not be any such people at all. I suspect even the people I know who go on cruises as a full-time occupation probably have not been on enough to satisfy you.[....]
Yes, there are probably not many people who can make that claim. It is certainly a big problem for travel journalism which is not know for the highest standards first place.
P&O do my favourite single rate.
Tony
as i have NEVER cruised, and probably never will you can have a favorite cruise line though
for me as a ship enthausiast it has to be Arcalia Shipping (Classic Int Cruises) with Louissecondly
i fully understand that for those who like this board for different reasons, that cruising is about personal experiences but i have never understood why you would support just one company...
it's pretty impossible to compare Seabourn or SilverSea cruises with a mass product like HAL / Princess / Celebrity or whatever
and finally if you just happen to fall in loveor the other extreme get a virus on your cruise it will colour your total experience which have nothing to do with the cruise line
and all this blabla about eachother opions does tellme a lot about the childishness of some people on this board...
good luck and bon voyage
b.Joe
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