A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
So you think you want to take a cruise?
First, let me say that you'll likely love it. I've been cruising for nearly 30 years on just about every line out there, and I can tell you it's a wonderful way to travel.
It's not for everyone, of course. Plenty of people have tried it once or twice and aren't fans. The world is also filled with "never cruisers" — people who, for various reasons, wouldn't even think of getting on a ship for a vacation.
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However, as survey after survey has shown, most people who try a cruise for the first time give it high marks — and many end up cruising again. The odds are high you'll give it high marks, too.
Still, before you can get to the point where you're raving about your life exploring the world by sea, you have a big decision ahead of you: Which line should you book?
It's not an easy decision. There are dozens of cruise lines, and no two are alike. Some only operate big ships. Some operate small ships. Some sail only in North America. Others sail all over the world. Some offer ships designed for family fun. Others don't even allow children on board.
Related: Is cruising right for you? Start by asking yourself these 7 questions
In addition, you'll find cruise lines all over the map regarding price points. As with land-based resorts and hotels, there are cruise lines for people on the tightest of budgets and cruise lines that cater to people for whom money is no object.
In short, a cruise line exists for everyone. However, depending on your preferences, not every line will do. The trick is to find the perfect cruise line for you.
In this story, I'll help you break down the options.
An overview of cruise lines
As noted above, dozens of cruise lines operate ships around the world. At last count, I had sailed with 41 different cruise companies, and I still hadn't hit every major brand — despite it being my full-time job for years to test cruise ships.
One thing to understand is that the lists of cruise lines you'll find here at TPG and at other travel sites include companies offering an incredible range of experiences.
When you think of a "cruise ship," you may think of the giant floating megaresorts operated by the likes of Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line that you see in television advertisements — the kind of ships that carry thousands of passengers and have all sorts of gee-whiz amusements on their top decks.
But the world of cruising also includes companies that operate far smaller, more intimate vessels that carry a few dozen to a few hundred people. These ships have a completely different vibe. They're more like small boutique hotels that happen to float from place to place.
Related: How to plan a cruise with points and miles
In addition, you'll find adventure-focused "expedition" cruise companies that offer yet another completely different kind of cruising — one that involves heading to off-the-beaten-path places like Antarctica on small, hardy vessels designed for exploring. Some cruise companies specialize in ships that travel on rivers, while others operate sailing ships.
If you hear somebody say they'd never take a cruise because the ships are "too big" or "too crowded," you've met someone who has no idea what's out there.
You can cruise on a big, boisterous ship that carries 6,000 people or a tiny, yacht-like vessel that carries 60 people, and everything in between.
Related: A line-by-line guide to 20 top cruise brands
The cruise industry likes to break down its offerings into a bunch of oddly named categories, such as "contemporary" and "premium" lines. But to me, that's all marketing speak. Just ignore it when you see it. After three decades covering the industry, I like to break things down into the six categories you'll find below and (in a few cases) several subset categories — each of which appeals to a different type of vacationer.
The biggies
Seven big lines account for the majority of cruises taken by North Americans. They are, in order of size (when measured by passenger capacity):
- Royal Caribbean: 26 ships; 94,041 berths
- Carnival Cruise Line: 25 ships; 79,602 berths
- MSC Cruises: 22 ships; 77,832 berths
- Norwegian Cruise Line: 18 ships; 53,681 berths
- Princess Cruises: 15 ships; 45,816 berths
- Celebrity Cruises: 15 ships; 26,733 berths
- Holland America: 11 ships; 22,810 berths
If you are cruising for the first time, you will likely travel with one of the above brands — if only because they dominate the market for cruises among North Americans and, indeed, the world. As you can read in our ultimate guide to Royal Caribbean, this single brand alone accounts for nearly 20% of all cruises taken worldwide. Add in the next three biggest players — Carnival, MSC Cruises and Norwegian — and you're up to over 50% of the cruise business.
Read more: Ultimate guide to Norwegian Cruise Line | Ultimate guide to Carnival Cruise Line | Ultimate guide to MSC Cruises
The cruise industry likes to label these seven lines as either "contemporary" (the first four on the list) or "premium" (the next three on the list). The idea is that the latter three brands offer a "premium" product to the first four. Such nomenclature is a throwback to the early days of cruising that I believe doesn't have much relevance anymore.
All these brands have changed over the years, and the old distinctions no longer apply. You can get a "premium" experience in the exclusive The Haven area on Norwegian ships, for instance, that will top anything you'll experience on many so-called premium ships. The experience on a Royal Caribbean ship can be just as elegant — or more so — as the experience on a Princess ship.
What all these brands have in common is that they operate relatively large, mass-market vessels with starting prices that are relatively affordable. Just keep in mind that the term "large" is relative. There is a wide variation among these brands in the size of their ships. The biggest Holland America ships, for instance, are less than half the size of the biggest Royal Caribbean ships and hold far fewer passengers.
Indeed, while Holland America vessels are "large" compared with many of the luxury, expedition and river ships that I will talk about later in this story, the brand often is labeled a "midsize" ship operator in the industry to differentiate it from the lines operating the biggest ships.
You'll also find that the size of the ships within the fleets of each of these brands can vary significantly. For instance, Royal Caribbean's biggest ships are three times the size of its smallest ships.
The key thing to know about the seven "biggies," as I call them, is that the type of experience they offer varies greatly. If you're booking a cruise for the first time, know that the seven lines are not necessarily interchangeable — even in cases where they offer similar pricing on similar itineraries. You may love one of these brands but not like another, depending on your tastes and preferences.
I break them down into three broad categories, each appealing to a different type of vacationer:
The floating megaresort lines
Are you a fan of big, bustling megaresorts with every amusement known to humans? You'll probably want to gravitate toward Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC Cruises. These three brands are what I call the "floating megaresort lines" — lines that offer unusually giant ships that are the seagoing equivalent of land-based megaresorts such as Atlantis in the Bahamas.
We're talking ships with a seemingly endless array of deck-top fun zones, from water parks and surfing pools to go-kart tracks and laser tag courses, as well as oodles of restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, spas, casinos and more. These ships can hold as many as 5,000 or even 6,000 people, not including the crew.
Related: The 10 craziest attractions you'll find on a cruise ship
These are brands designed to appeal to a wide demographic, including families with children of all ages. They offer cabins for $100 per night, cabins for $1,000 a night and everything in between. The best way to describe them is that they are like the big Las Vegas resorts, except they float.
As noted above, the size of each ship these brands operate varies. In general, the newer vessels in their fleets are the biggest, most megaresort-like vessels.
The anti-floating megaresort lines
If a ship topped with the cruising equivalent of an amusement park doesn't sound like your idea of fun, your best bets among the biggies are Princess, Holland America and Celebrity. These are what I call the "anti-floating megaresort lines."
Each of these brands operates medium-size to big ships that are not loaded up with water parks, rock climbing walls, surfing simulators and all the other things that are hallmarks of the floating megaresort lines. These are more traditional cruise ships for people who don't want a floating theme park or Las Vegas resort experience.
Instead of bustling attractions, the top decks of the ships these lines operate offer lots of quiet and relaxing pool and lounge areas where you can enjoy the experience of being at sea without a lot of hustle and bustle. Inside, the experience often revolves around dining, classic entertainment and a classy bar and music scene.
Read more: Ultimate guide to Celebrity Cruises | Ultimate guide to Princess Cruises
Compared with the floating megaresort lines, these brands draw more couples and fewer families. They skew older. At Princess, for instance, the average age of passengers is 57, and you see a lot of couples in their 50s, 60s and 70s on board.
At Holland America, the average age of passengers is closer to 70.
The budget option
And then there's Carnival. The "fun ship" line is also the budget line among the biggies — a brand all about great value.
If you price the cost of a cruise for a family of four, you'll often find that a sailing on a Carnival ship costs as little as half the amount of a cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship, assuming similar cabins and itineraries. The differential is even greater when you compare the cost of a family vacation on a Carnival ship with the cost of a trip on a Disney Cruise Line ship, assuming similar cabins and itineraries.
In addition to being incredibly inexpensive, Carnival ships are casual, unpretentious, fun-focused and, yes, a bit loud and wild. This is, after all, the brand that long held a Hairy Chest Contest around the pool deck on every voyage to a standing-room-only, hooting and hollering crowd.
Related: The best cruise ships for childlike fun
Like the "floating megaresort lines" above, Carnival also is known for amusements atop its ships, including water park areas, pedal-powered "sky rides," and — on its new ships Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration — the first roller coasters at sea.
But, in general, Carnival doesn't operate vessels quite as big and venue-packed as the big ships of Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC Cruises. In recent years, until the arrival of Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration, it didn't have a single vessel among the top 30 biggest cruise ships in the world.
Carnival also doesn't target as wide a demographic as the floating megaresort lines — at least when it comes to income levels. Its ships lack the range of higher-priced suites aimed at upscale travelers that you'll find on, say, a Royal Caribbean vessel. Among the biggies, it's really in a class of its own.
Other biggies
There are a few more relatively large, mass-market lines in the world that I didn't include in the list of biggies as they primarily cater to non-American vacationers.
These lines include Germany's Aida Cruises and TUI Cruises, both aimed at German-speaking travelers with onboard programs conducted in German. Aida, in particular, is a significantly large line — larger than Celebrity or Holland America when measured by passenger capacity. However, unless you live in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, you've probably never heard of it and would be unlikely to ever sail on it.
There's also Italy-based Costa Cruises, which draws about 80% of its customers from Europe but does market to Americans, and United Kingdom-based P&O Cruises. The latter draws about 98% of its customers from the U.K.
When talking about berths in this story, I am referring to the number of beds on a ship based on double occupancy per cabin — or what used to be known as "lower berths" in the industry. The totals do not include extra sleeping spots created with pull-down bunks and pullout sofas that can inflate the "total berths" number some cruise lines list for their ships.
Luxury cruise lines
If your idea of a vacation is being pampered at every turn, and you have lots of money to burn, you'll want to start your search for a cruise line among the luxury cruise operators.
More than half a dozen major luxury players market to North Americans, including:
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Silversea Cruises
- Seabourn
- Hapag-Lloyd Cruises
- Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
- Explora Journeys
- Crystal
Compared with mass-market cruise ships, luxury cruise ships typically offer bigger cabins (often every cabin is a suite), more elegant dining and high levels of service. It's not uncommon for luxury ships to have nearly as many crew members as passengers.
Related: Inside Seven Seas Splendor, the most expensive luxury ship ever
Luxury ships also typically offer more onboard space per passenger than mass-market ships. The "space ratio" of interior space to passengers can be twice as high. This means you'll have a lot of room to spread out and never experience crowds. At the same time, luxury ships generally are smaller than mass-market ships — often by a lot. That brings a much more intimate experience.
Within the luxury space, you'll find significant differences in the size and style of the ships. Four of Regent's five ships, for instance, are relatively large and famously elegant (think soaring spaces, lots of marble, crystal chandeliers). They carry 700 to 750 passengers. (The line also has one significantly smaller vessel that carries 490 passengers.)
Five of Seabourn's six vessels, with room for 450 to 600 passengers, are noticeably smaller than Regent's larger vessels. The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection — a new line that debuted in 2022 — specializes in vessels carrying 298 passengers.
With each step down in size, you can expect fewer onboard venues, such as restaurants and lounges. But you also may find the experience more intimate. Smaller ships can sometimes access off-the-beaten-path ports that bigger ships can't.
What all the luxury lines have in common is that they are pricey. You can easily pay several times as much for a luxury cruise as a mass-market cruise. Indeed, it's not uncommon to see cabins on luxury cruises listed for $1,000 or more per person per day.
Related: This supersuite on a cruise ship costs $11,000 a night
But comparing such high pricing to the pricing of mass-market cruises can be misleading. That's because luxury lines typically include almost every extra charge you could imagine — drinks of all types, gratuities, Wi-Fi and even flights to the ship — in their base fares.
Luxury ships such as Regent Seven Seas Cruises' Seven Seas Splendor offer spacious, elegant suites that rival anything found at a luxury hotel on land. REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES
Note that one of the luxury lines mentioned above, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, is a German line that operates many of its cruises in German only. But in recent years, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has increasingly marketed to English speakers with specific sailings operated on a bilingual basis. While relatively unknown in North America, it operates several of the most elegant, spacious and service-focused cruise vessels anywhere in the world.
Also of note: Several new small luxury cruise lines are on the way. Luxury hotel company Four Seasons is building a fleet of small luxury cruise vessels that will begin debuting in 2025. Luxury purveyor Aman Resorts also plans to enter the cruise business in the coming years.
Upscale-but-not-quite-luxury lines
Several additional cruise lines offer an upscale, elegant experience that isn't quite as white-glove as what you'll find on the luxury lines above but is still wonderful. These include:
For the most part, these lines operate ships nearly as small and intimate as the luxury lines' ships. Oceania vessels carry around 700 to 1,250 passengers, for instance, while Viking ships carry 930 passengers. (We're talking about the line's ocean ships; Viking also operates river ships, which we'll discuss below.) Windstar vessels are even smaller, with room for 148 to 342 passengers. SeaDream's two yacht-like vessels hold just 112 passengers apiece.
Like luxury lines, these lines have a high staff-to-passenger ratio — though often not quite as high as the luxury lines. They also generally offer more space per passenger than mass-market lines and bigger cabins — but, again, not quite as big as what the luxury lines offer.
They're also generally less expensive than the luxury lines. But they don't always include as much in their base fares. You'll likely pay extra for gratuities and some drinks on ships in this cohort, for instance.
Compared with the mass-market biggies, the entry-level pricing of this group still is significantly more expensive. Often, an entry-level cabin on a ship operated by these lines is on par with a suite on one of the mass-market lines.
Note that quantifying which lines are "luxury" and which are "upscale but not quite luxury" is a tough business. Fast-growing Viking, notably, is careful to not call itself a luxury line. However, it offers an experience on its ocean ships that some would call luxury, with spectacular onboard service, high-end eateries and many inclusions in its base fares, such as a shore excursion in every port. To me, it straddles the line between the two categories.
Viking also boasts an ocean ship fleet that is all new. Every one of its ocean ships was built in the last seven years. That's relatively unusual among this group of lines.
Three of the lines listed in this segment — Azamara, Windstar and SeaDream — have fleets entirely made up of vessels that are at least a couple of decades old. Often, they are ships that were originally built as luxury vessels and were state-of-the-art in their time but no longer have as wide an array of amenities as newer luxury ships.
Notably, many cabins on Windstar and SeaDream vessels lack balconies — a feature that was rare on cruise ships a few decades ago but now is standard. All four Azamara ships and the four oldest Oceania ships have relatively small cabins compared with cabins on today's luxury ships.
Upscale line trivia: The four Azamara ships and the four oldest Oceania ships are sister vessels. They all once belonged to long-defunct Renaissance Cruises. You'll sometimes hear cruising aficionados refer to them by their Renaissance-related class name, the R class.
Expedition lines
One of the fastest-growing segments of cruising in recent years has been "expedition cruising," a type of cruising that involves traveling to remote, hard-to-reach places such as Antarctica on small, hardy vessels that carry their own landing craft to get you ashore.
This type of cruising is so different from what the big mass-market lines offer that it might as well be considered an entirely different form of travel.
Expedition cruising is all about getting you to off-the-beaten-path places that often have little or no land-based infrastructure. You are traveling to these places by seagoing vessel because that's the only way to reach them.
On an expedition cruise, the focus is often on remote wilderness areas and the wildlife that inhabits them. Expedition leaders with deep knowledge of the destination will accompany you on your journey. Scientific experts such as biologists, geologists and ornithologists and a historian may also be on board to lead landings and give informative talks.
Big expedition cruise destinations include Antarctica and remote parts of the Arctic, including the icy islands of Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Canada's Northwest Passage. The wildlife-filled Galapagos, where many islands are uninhabited, is another classic expedition cruise market (with a vessel ecosystem all its own, thanks to unusual local regulations).
You'll also find expedition cruise vessels operating in remote parts of South America, Asia and the South Pacific but also in some more mainstream destinations such as Alaska.
Notable players in the expedition cruising space include:
- Aurora Expeditions
- Atlas Ocean Voyages
- Lindblad Expeditions
- Hurtigruten
- Hapag-Lloyd Cruises
- Ponant
- Quark Expeditions
- Scenic Luxury Cruises
- Seabourn
- Silversea Cruises
- Oceanwide Expeditions
- Poseidon Expeditions
- Viking
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that four lines listed above — Silversea Cruises, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Seabourn and Viking — also appeared in this story's listing of luxury or almost-luxury lines. The four brands are major players in both the traditional luxury ship market and the expedition cruise ship market.
There is a growing trend of traditional cruise lines getting into the expedition cruise space. Two of the brands mentioned above — Seabourn and Viking — only added their first expedition ships in 2022.
In addition, luxury river cruise specialist Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours recently unveiled its first two expedition ships. The past two years have also brought an all-new luxury expedition cruise company, Atlas Ocean Voyages. It's calling itself a "luxe-adventure" line.
I also include UnCruise Adventures in this category of lines. It's a hard-to-categorize little line specializing in adventurous, outdoorsy, ship-based trips in remote parts of Alaska. It operates the tiniest of vessels, with the biggest among them holding just 86 passengers. Its trips revolve around hiking, kayaking, whale watching, birding and exploring by skiff.
Historically, expedition ships have carried under 200 passengers — a manageable number for an exploration-focused vessel operating in a remote location such as Antarctica. But a growing number of expedition ships carry more. Viking designed its new expedition ships to carry 378 passengers. Some new Hurtigruten expedition vessels are designed for around 500 people.
Note that expedition cruises are expensive, with pricing on par with traditional luxury cruises. Expedition ships are expensive to build on a per-berth basis and require a relatively high ratio of staff to passengers to operate compared with mass-market cruise ships.
River cruise lines
All the lines I have discussed so far have one thing in common: They operate oceangoing ships. Another entire segment of cruising revolves around travel on rivers.
Like expedition cruising, this has been a fast-growing segment of the cruise world in recent years, with capacity among the major river cruise lines growing at a rapid pace.
Much of the growth in river cruising has been driven by the marketing efforts and aggressive shipbuilding program of a single line, Viking. Founded in 1997 with four river vessels, Viking has exploded into a cruising colossus over the past decade with the rollout of more than 60 new river ships. (Starting in 2015, it also began adding ocean ships, which we discuss in the "upscale" segment above.)
Viking now accounts for about half of all river cruises taken by North Americans. However, it's not the only significant river cruise player. Other major brands that market river cruises to North Americans include:
- AmaWaterways
- Avalon Waterways
- Uniworld Boutique River Cruises
- Tauck
- Emerald Waterways
- Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours
- American Cruise Lines
- American Queen Voyages
- Grand Circle Cruise Line
As you can see, there is no shortage of companies in the river cruise business. The list above doesn't even include river lines that primarily cater to Europeans, of which there are many, including France-based CroisiEurope and Germany's Nicko Cruises.
Related: Booking your first river cruise? Here's what you need to know
On many rivers, the vessels these lines operate are all roughly the same size due to specific size limitations caused by lock sizes and bridge heights. As a result, there is less variation among river ships than there is among ocean ships. That said, the brands above offer a range of experiences and price points.
While the outsides of river ships often look similar, their interiors can vary greatly, with some being more luxurious and pampering than others.
One way to judge the relative luxury level of river lines operating in Europe, in particular, is to look at how many passengers each puts in one of its 135-meter vessels. That's the most common standard river ship size on European waterways due to the lock sizes in Europe.
Related: Why a Portugal river cruise may be the perfect friends group getaway
River cruise giant Viking, for instance, designs its 135-meter vessels to carry 190 passengers. Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways put 166 and 156 passengers, respectively, on the same-length ships. At Tauck, the number is 130 passengers.
As a rule of thumb, the ships with fewer passengers offer a more premium experience — and are priced accordingly. You'll pay a lot more to sail with Tauck than Viking.
Niche lines
Finally, there are lots of little (and in some cases tiny) cruise lines that I call "niche" lines. These lines offer a specialized product, often with just a handful of ships.
In some cases, these lines only operate in a certain part of the world, such as Alaska or the South Pacific. In other cases, they only cater to a narrow range of people, such as sailing aficionados.
You may end up loving these lines, but you probably won't sail with them all the time — if only because they don't offer all the types of cruises you will want to experience.
Among these lines, I include the following (with its specialty in parentheses):
- Disney Cruise Line (cruises for Disney fans, families)
- Virgin Voyages (cruises for adults without kids looking to let loose)
- Paul Gauguin Cruises (South Pacific cruises)
- Star Clippers (cruises for sailing fans)
- Sea Cloud Cruises (cruises for sailing fans)
- Cunard Line (cruises for ocean liner enthusiasts, Anglophiles, globetrotters)
- American Cruise Lines (U.S. waterway cruises)
- American Queen Voyages (U.S. waterway and Mexico cruises)
- Alaskan Dream Cruises (Alaska cruises)
- Celestyal Cruises (Greece and Turkey cruises)
- Grand Circle Cruise Line (niche small-ship sailings)
Even the biggest of these lines — Disney — is just one-tenth the size of industry leader Royal Caribbean, when measured by passenger capacity. Some of these brands, such as Paul Gauguin Cruises and Alaskan Dream Cruises, are barely 1% the size of the biggest brands.
Paul Gauguin only has a single, 332-passenger ship, Paul Gauguin. It operates a very specialized set of French Polynesian itineraries out of Tahiti to destinations such as Bora Bora and Moorea that draw a lot of honeymooners and couples celebrating anniversaries.
Related: Why it's easier to meet new people on a small ship
A few of these lines such as American Cruise Lines and Grand Circle, you will have noticed, were already included in the listings above for river lines. They fit in both categories, as they operate river ships but also some very small oceangoing vessels that offer niche itineraries.
All of these lines are niche players in the industry. But, in many cases, they are well known in the travel world for what they do. Disney may have just five cruise ships — compared with 26 for Royal Caribbean — but if someone says the words "family cruise," Disney will likely be the first line to come to mind.
Related: Everything you need to know about Disney Wish
Star Clippers and Sea Cloud Cruises, which both operate sailing ships, are popular with people who want to experience what it was like traveling in the days before steam power. American Cruise Lines has developed a major niche offering small-ship trips along U.S. coastal waterways and rivers, including voyages along the coast of Maine, up the Hudson River and in the Chesapeake Bay.
Dating to the 1800s, the storied, U.K.-based Cunard Line is particularly known for its transatlantic sailings between New York and Southampton, England. Operated by the iconic Queen Mary 2, the sailings are a throwback to the days of grand ocean liner travel. Cunard also is known for its annual around-the-world sailings that include stops in dozens of countries.
Bottom line
The cruise industry includes many lines offering a wide range of experiences. No two are exactly alike. If you want to find the right cruise line and ship for you, do your homework in advance. Think hard about the type of vacation experience you want, and read up on the lines and ships that seem the closest fit for your travel style.
Here at TPG, we offer a growing array of guides to individual cruise lines, as well as ship-specific reviews.
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