Testing the Waters with Dori: Do Top Cruise Lists Mean Anything?

Last week, Travel + Leisure released its annual World’s Best Awards for 2025. The awards cover everything from hotels to destinations to spas and more, including cruise lines.

This year’s cruise results had a few surprises, and I’d like to take a minute to talk about it all.

First, it has to be said that “Top 10,” “Best of,” and similar type lists say more about the people who voted than they do about whatever is being voted on.

A “World’s Best” list of cruise lines as voted on by Reader’s Digest readers would look very different from the list Travel + Leisure just put out. For one thing, the chances of finding lines like Oberoi and Quasar Expeditions on that list are pretty close to 0%.  Second, several cruise lines that didn’t make the Travel + Leisure lists – and probably never will – would definitely be on a Reader’s Digest list.

And here’s the kicker – neither list would be any more or less legitimate than the other.

With that said, let’s get into which cruise lines Travel + Leisure’s readers think are the best of the best.

Surprise #1 – Costa Cruises

First, let’s keep in mind what I said about each list reflecting the voters. According to Google’s AI summary: “The Travel + Leisure reader demographic is characterized by active, affluent, and sophisticated travelers… with a higher household income and are frequent travelers.”

And yet, Costa Cruises came in at #3 on the Top 5 Mega-Ship Cruise Lines.

(Don’t get me started on why some lists have a top 5 and some have a top 10!)

 I’ve never sailed on Costa so I can’t speak from experience, and I know of at least two people within the world of cruise writing who have been on Costa’s newest ships and loved it but… Reviews of Costa cruises, especially on the older ships, are generally somewhat negative. So, it’s quite surprising that Travel + Leisure’s “sophisticated” readers rated Costa so highly in comparison to other mega-ship cruise lines. 

Surprise #2 – NCL and Riverside Luxury Cruises

Both Norwegian Cruise Line and Riverside Luxury Cruises were on the 2024 “World’s Best” lists. Neither is on the 2025 lists.

Considering how much effort NCL has put into reframing itself as a premium cruise line over the past few years, it’s surprising to see it fall off the list of top five mega-ship cruise lines. (One would assume it would be on the list if the list went up to 10 instead of five.)

It’s even more surprising considering the lowest score on that list, which went to Royal Caribbean International, is 80.49. Which means, NCL – as a cruise line – scored less than that (less than Costa’s 83.0 as well). Were Travel + Leisure readers only on the older Norwegian ships? Or is there something about the new, “More Included” Norwegian that readers aren’t happy about? NCL execs love to talk about how the line’s satisfaction scores are higher than they’ve ever been, so why isn’t that reflected in this list?

The other cruise line to drop off the lists this year is Riverside Luxury Cruises. In 2024, Riverside sat at #7 on the Top 10 River Cruise Lines list with a score of 94.62. This year, Avalon Waterways, which moved from #2 to #10 – another surprise – scored 88.09. Having been on Riverside, I’m a bit surprised it scored below 88.09. I’m quite aware that Riverside is struggling to make its mark and break through the noise of so many other river cruise options. My cruise last summer wasn’t even close to 50% full, but is that somehow translating into a less-than experience onboard?

Surprise #3 – Viking

The third surprise for me was Viking’s drop from #1 on the list of top 10 mid-size ocean cruise lines to #3. It’s not a huge drop but considering how long Viking has dominated this space on so many lists, it’s interesting to see.

Even more interesting is seeing which two cruise lines unseated Viking: Crystal and Explora Journeys.

Both cruise lines market themselves as luxury. Viking does not, even though its ocean product is typically lumped into the luxury segment. Both are new cruise lines (Crystal may be leaning on the reputation of its previous incarnation, but it is a new cruise line) and neither has been much of a threat to Viking with their small fleets versus Viking’s larger fleet, and their less-known brand names versus the Viking marketing machine.

If the scores that Crystal (94.85) and Explora Journeys (92.98) got – versus Viking’s 92.46 – are any indication, both have hit their stride and are putting the legacy brands on note. If they want to compete in the luxury space, they’re going to have to up their game.

Surprise #4 – Larger Ships, Lower Scores

This probably isn’t as much of a surprise to anyone that’s been involved in the cruise world for any length of time, but it’s remarkable to see it laid out so clearly in Travel + Leisure’s rankings. The highest scores – across all categories – went to cruise lines with smaller ships.

Here were the top five highest scores: Oberoi Nile Cruises (99.07), Quasar Expeditions (98.41), Grand Circle Cruise Line (97.37), Viking Expedition (97.13) and Aqua Expeditions (97.02). There were only two other lines with scores above 95, both small.

In the list of top large and mega ships, only one cruise line scored above 90 (Virgin Voyages at 94.8) and only two others rated above 85 (Disney Cruise Line at 88.33 and Cunard at 85.04).

The large-ship cruise lines that attempt to offer luxury via enclaves like Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, and Celebrity? Two didn’t even make it onto any of the lists and Celebrity was rated 84.48 on the mega-ship list and 82.6 on the large ship list.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions…

Were there any other results that stood out as particularly surprising to you? Are you shocked to see Costa on the list? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this year’s Travel + Leisure World’s Best Cruises. You can email me at dsaltzman@travelmarketreport.com.