The BEST ships from Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Carnival

Thanks for sharing this information. It is always fascinating to see what the average of all the reviews reveal. Thanks for comparing the ships within a cruise line to each other.

We'll see if Norwegian Bliss lives up to her reputation in this article, she is my next ship!

It looks like the NCL Dawn is dropping. We were on that in 2017 to Bermuda and were very pleased with the dining, service, entertainment, and over all quality of the ship.

We were just on there last May and even though it could use some refreshing in some spots overall still a very nice ship and you should have a great time.

WOW. 16k from ONE year only? ...kudos for the effort!!! and if you do it that way, you're doing it correctly. now if you could somehow COMPARE one year to the next... I'm going to have to look at 19..with some paper, and see how a bunch of ships compare...I guess its impossible to allow for chronic complainers et al...Some folks reviews are clearly worth reading, and some thought went into them...others, not so much...

I'm not quite sure I'm understanding you correctly, but if I do, we did this last year too. The 16,000 reviews are just from the calendar year of 2019, not all years compiled leading up to 2020. We have thousands and thousands more reviews on each of these lines, but we are strictly using data from the previous calendar year when we do these kinds of articles. Next year when we do it, it will only be the reviews from the calendar year of 2020, and so on.

Here are the ones from last year:

https://cruiseline.com/advice/how-to-book/select-a-ship/the-best-royal-caribbean-ships-2019

https://cruiseline.com/advice/how-to-book/select-a-ship/best-norwegian-ships-2019

https://cruiseline.com/advice/how-to-book/select-a-ship/best-carnival-ships-2019

Let me know if I misunderstood something, but I hope this clear it up for you.

Interesting read, thanks for the info.

Interesting reading alright. Couple things about statistics tho. Given the 16k review ratings it took to compile it, those rankings will NEVER change, because of the size of the sample, unless great care is taken the next time. These rankings are a baseline. Next year, lets say, you do it again. The new rankings (for reviews for one year only), can only be compared to the old ones, not added to it.So next year, for example, you'll have TWO columns of ratings. If done annually (and I'm going to warn against that.) they may purport to show a given ships improvement or slipping in ratings. I warn against it, because...how many YEARS did it take to achieve 16k reviews? A handful of bad reviews (or good ones for that matter), analyzed for ONE year, may very well show a completely incorrect conclusion.

I generally laugh at "surveys" and "polls" and such, because you have to ask how was the question asked?, who was asked? even in the case of cruise passengers, how many cruises have they taken? how much did the weather affect their cruise, and their attitude? How about ONE bad meal out of 20-30 or more? Clearly, some folks in here, as veteran cruisers, look at these reviews with a different set of values. I have a hard time believing some who might claim that "industry ratings" (whatever that means) rank one line over another. Who did the rankings? TA's or editors with agendas? Folks with complaints? You see the problem.

I appreciated the effort that went into it, but I would hate to think that folks who didn't know better made their travel plans (selecting a line or ship) based on that, and then had a miserable experience because of it. the reaction of veteran cruisers in here is one thing. The reaction of folks just lurking and fishing for info is another.

Interesting RCL findings. Pleasantly surprised that Liberty has retained a shine. Totally agree with the Symphony ratings. Not too surprised that Oasis shows a fall from grace. At the time of the reviews, it was getting dated compared to the later Oasis class ships, and the lines always will move top crew members from the fleet into the newest ships to bring them on-board. Hope to see Oasis class move up with the renovation.

Thanks