Cruise Guides

The only thing better than a great cruise is a great luxury cruise. Cruise lines are not all alike, and when it comes to choosing a cruise company or specific cruise ships, you generally get what you pay for. Viewpoints cruise reviews will help you decide what's right for you.

Cost of a Non-Luxury Cruise

Pony up $1000-$2800 per person, and you can enjoy a summer's week, cruising the Mediterranean or the Greek Isles on a Royal Caribbean cruise (for example). You'll have access to lots of good food and entertainment options, and plenty of day excursions (which will cost extra.) You'll be surrounded by lots and lots of other happy passengers. Your cocktails may not be included in the rate. The $1000 rooms will be interior rooms with no windows, and may be near a noisy steward's closet.

Luxury Cruise Lines: You Get What You Pay For
By contrast, a luxury cruise for the same time period can run $6000-$8000 per person - significantly higher in price - but, as with everything else in life, you get what you pay for. There's a good chance you'll be on a smaller ship, and you'll definitely have a much higher ratio of staff members to passengers, which means far better service and personal attention. The quality of the food will be outstanding, and could even be the creation of a celebrity chef; many are partnering with cruise lines these days. Unlike on budget cruises, all your cocktails will be included, meaning far fewer surprises on your incidentals bill. (Carnival Cruises, for example, charges extra for alcoholic beverages.)

Because a luxury cruise line has a larger budget to work with, the quality of the entertainment will be far better on board a luxury cruise ship. The ports will likely be more exclusive. There may well be cultural enrichment programs on board, or inspiring educational programs geared toward the heritage and cultures inherent in the itinerary.

And while you wouldn't spend much time in your room on a budget cruise, you may well opt to enjoy room service in your cabin on a luxury cruise line. Your quarters will be magnificent - in many cases a suite - and certainly an outside room with a view or a balcony. Regent Seven Seas gives each passenger a personal butler.

Think Small Cruise Ship

One of the best ways to achieve the immediate sensation of luxury on the seas is by choosing a small ship. The benefits of this are threefold: not only will you have fewer fellow passengers around you, you'll see places you wouldn't see on larger cruise ships because your ship can get there, and lastly, large ships actually change a destination once they begin regularly offloading of hundreds of passengers for day excursions. So visiting a beautiful place on a small cruise ship means you'll see more of its true character.

So, what are some of the best luxury cruises?

Orient-Express cruises are luxurious all the way, and travel to exotic locations like Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and Peru, as well as to many traditional cruising destinations across Europe. Because the company has access to their own luxury trains as well (such as the Venice-Simplon Orient Express) itineraries are not always limited to the sea. You have many options on world discovery with this company.

Regent Seven Seas cruises claims they are the "World's Top Rated Small-Ship Cruise Line" and Travel & Leisure readers gave them two of the Top 10 slots in the 2007 Reader's Choice Awards. With 700 passengers, they could be considered in a different, larger class than Windstar, Silversea, or Seabourne. Itineraries are available for anywhere in the world.

Mid-size Oceania cruise ships hold just 684 passengers who are being pampered by 400 staff members. Wine tastings, stimulating lectures and celebrity guest speakers offer a diversion from onboard dining , high tea and spa treatments. You can also score some super upgrades from Oceania, as reported in a Viewpoints review.

Seabourne Cruises promises "Intimate Luxury" and is, for many, synonymous with the best. Each Seabourne cruise ship only holds 208 lucky passengers, allowing them to anchor or dock at spots inaccessible to larger ships. Nearly everyone gets a balcony in Seabourne's all-suite accommodations, while gourmet cuisine and 24-hour room service increase pleasure levels.

Silversea Cruises believe that travel is an art form. A journey aboard a Silversea cruise ship is billed as "one of enlightenment, enjoyment and excitement." The company strives to inspire its guests intellecturally, offering exploration into world cultures and heritages, delving "deeper into the worlds of art and culture" for its guests.

"180 degrees from Ordinary" is how luxury line Windstar Cruises bills itself. 148-passenger Wind Song, Wind Star and Wind Spirit ships are all visually stunning motor-sail yachts which cruise with billowing white sails. The four-ship luxury fleet was rounded out by the 312-passenger Wind Surf. LCD flat screens, iPod nanos, Bose stereos make the rooms real havens, while the ships offer a casual atmosphere and the feeling of being aboard a private yacht.

"The Most Famous Ocean Liners in the World" are owned by Cunard: the Queen Mary 2, the transatlantic Queen Elizabeth II (aka QE2), and the Queen Victoria. Cunard cruise line is known for elegance; its ballrooms have hosted some of the most famous passengers in the world. Cunard has many western hemisphere itineraries from which to choose.

Crystal Cruises' luxury ships hold about 1,000 passengers each. The company sails to destinations worldwide and has partnered with PocketMD so that all guests can cruise with their entire medical history on CD. In another unique move, Crystal's ComputerUniversity@Sea program gives low-tech passengers "group and individual instruction on use of a PC, extensive enrichment course offerings and digital camera support."

For those who consider a great value the best luxury of all, Grand Circle Travel took 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th place on Conde Nast readers' list of best small cruise ships. Grand Circle offers worldwide river cruises, and an amazing variety of ocean cruises spanning the globe's beautiful spots, from Greece to the Cook Islands.

Learn More Before you Plan
To read reviews of every individual cruise ship, by every cruise line, as well as ports of call, Viewpoints reviewers like CruiseCritic.com. To get personalized service and a best-price guarantee on luxury cruises, consider L.A.-based All Travel or CruisingLuxury.com. These luxury cruise agencies help affluent travelers find the perfect cruise among the luxury liners. Another great resource is the newsletter put out by Thomas, Townsend & Kent, called Luxurycruisenews.com.

Upscale publications like Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast, Town & Country, Caribbean Travel & Life Robb Report and W will give you great inspiration and let you hone in on the area of the world you want to explore. Then you can sit back on the deck of your private cabin, and let the cruise ship bring the world to you. Bon Voyage!