Cunard sails on to victory

Congratulations to Cunard, who have topped a UK poll to choose the best cruise line for the third year in a row. Their ship Queen Victoria also picked up three gongs, for best ship, best food, and best excursions in the annual survey published by cruise.co.uk
The results of the survey are compiled from the star ratings (from one to five) given by passengers submitting reviews to the website, and Cunard president Peter Shanks said:
“This is a particularly valuable award as the voters are people who actually go on cruises and they know what they are talking about. It means a great deal to all at Cunard to know our efforts have been rewarded not just with ‘The Best Cruise Line’ accolade for the third year running but with three other accolades for Queen Victoria. We are most grateful to all who voted for us, and they can rest assured we will continue striving to exceed their expectations.”
Other high scorers in the best cruise line category were Celebrity and Fred Olsen, who each scored 4.05 points behind Cunard’s 4.22. P&O‘s Ventura took second place in the best ship list, with Celebrity Eclipse in third.
When it came to food, P&O’s Oceana and Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 were runners-up to Victoria. On excursions, the next five places behind Victoria were all filled by P&O ships.
Among the other awards, Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas was top of the bill for entertainment, while Adventure of the Seas had the best staff. Celebrity Eclipse has the best cabins and – biggest surprise in the poll – P&O’s oldest ship, the 15-year-old Oriana, was best for kids, while the much-touted “family-friendly” Ventura failed to make the top 10.
Oriana is unlikely to repeat its success in this category next year – in November it will become an adult-only ship, alongside P&O sisters Arcadia and Adonia.
Seamus Conlon, Managing Director of cruise.co.uk said: “Our users as well as the cruise companies look forward to the results each year. We know the cruise companies use the reports to consolidate their own customer satisfaction reports. The surprise this year is the number of UK based ships that dominate all the groups.
“For the third year running, Cunard continues to excel. They have a great product and loyal following coupled with a new ship introduced late last year; their market share can only get stronger. Celebrity Cruises has moved up four places and continues to grow stronger, while Thomson has dropped five places,. Two newcomers taking the 9th and 10th spots respectively are Cruise & Maritime Voyages and MSC Cruises. The first is new cruise line operating the well known Marco Polo and the latter has targeted the UK market and will have a ship based in the UK in summer 2011.
“The surprise this year has come from Celebrity Eclipse, launched in May 2010 and sails from Southampton has performed in the top 10 in all categories.. Typically the newer cruise ships don’t rate highly in their first year because of the inevitable teething problems of a new ship launch.
Talking of surveys, Disney produced some fascinating figures last week during a presentation at the Magic Kingdom ahead of the launch of Disney Dream.
Two-thirds of children questioned believed they were responsible for making family decisions on where to take a holiday – a figure rather lower than that in a recent survey carried out for Dubai Tourism.
I would have thought that Disney kids would have been more influential on visits to theme parks than on a glamorous destination like Dubai, where 80 per cent of the kids surveyed said they had a hand in the holiday planning, and 97 per cent said parents did whatever the children wanted.
Dubai believes that it is the ability to provide new experiences – such as quad biking, ski-ing and swimming with dolphins – that swung it for them, while the reasons for kids’ infatuation with Walt Disney World really need no explanation.
Ian Scott, Dubai’s director of tourism in the UK, said: “A real land of contrasts, Dubai offers everything from adrenaline-filled adventures in the desert to indoor skiing, a wide selection of theme and water parks, alongside some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, Dubai can keep the whole family entertained.”
There were downsides to taking a holiday for some children, however. The Disney poll uncovered complaints about having to share a bed with a brother or sister, while almost as many children said their holiday experience was ruined by dad’s snoring.
Just wait until they get home!