| Star Ratings |
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Are awarded to vessels to indicate relative standards. The higher the rating, the higher the overall standards you can expect to find when you cruise aboard.
The highest star rating a vessel can achieve is 6-star, the lowest is 0 (zero). All star rating assessments are under constant review and take into account a ship's qualities in terms of hardware, service, cuisine, cleanliness, entertainment and satisfaction level.
These official ratings are compiled by an experienced international team of experts including journalists, writers and consumers.
The majority of ships in The Cruise Planner fall into the three, four and five star area. To help differentiate in these areas, each rating in these ranges is sub-divided into moderate, standard and superior.
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| Dining |
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Food is a very important part of all holidays, so we tell you about each ship's dining arrangements, give advice about any alternative dining options and a resume on the range and quality of cuisine aboard.
We identify whether standard dining arrangements are for open sitting, a single fixed sitting or conventional two sitting using knife and fork icons as above.
Check the comment boxes for additional information such as advice about alternative dining options.
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| Space Ratio |
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Is a mathematical ratio used throughout the cruise industry to indicate the relative space per passenger that each ship affords. The higher the ratio factor, the more spacious you will find the ship.
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| Tonnage |
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This is not the weight! Or at least has not been, since we went metric. Today the tonnage is a measure of cubic capacity, so features such as magrodome swimming pools and anything else which encloses outdoor space will push up the figure.
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| Capacity and Crew numbers |
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Appreciating that many readers start planning their cruise already having a pre-determined ship size in mind, we have shown in clear form what the capacity of every ship listed would be, if full.
The second figure shown tells you how many crew you can expect aboard.The relative ratio of crew to customers, so the nearer together the capacity and crew numbers, the better the service you can expect.
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New Ships
To help better inform you, ships new to a line but which have previously sailed for another company, are shown in blue, eg. Island Escape.
Ships which are brand new and have been in service for less than six months are shown in red. Their rating is subject to further review. eg. Radiance of the Seas. | |
