What are the "better" cruise lines?

I do marketing for a cruise travel agency. This is how the cruiselines are ranked: Family/Budget: Carnival/Norwegian Cruise Line Moderate: Princess, Royal Caribbean Premium: Holland America, Celebrity Premium-Plus: Azamara, Cunard, Oceania High-End: Crystal, Regent High-End Small Ship: Silversea, Yachts of Seabourn, Windstar Cruises 7-nights in Europe may limit your selection as most are 10-12 night sailings. Azamara recently rebranded and feature a bunch more amenities including prepaid gratuities, complimentary soda/specialty coffees & teas, as well as complimentary house wine at lunch and dinner, shuttle service in ports, concierge service and self-serve laundry. They currently have a promotion for June (ends June 30th) where you get $500 onboard credit per stateroom, and $500 air credit per person from most US air gateways. You may also want to look at the higher level veranda and suite categories on Celebrity as they are comparable to Azamara, but with much fewer amenities. Check out the Celebrity Constellation and Solstice; the former is a smaller ship but the latter is their newest ship. Holland America is quite nice; less "contemporary/chic" compared to Celebrity and more classy. However their clientele is known to be older. Check out the Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam, they are the two new ships sailing Europe. Hope that helps!

Queen Mary 2 or Queen Elizabeth 2.

Yes, prices are typically a fairly good indicator, I'd say. CruiseCritic.com is a good resource, but there is a lot of information to slough through. A competent travel agent, especially ones that specialize in cruises (the ones in my office at least), can definitely help you pick the cruiseline right for you and what you are looking for in a vacation, especially with the details and specifics. As I am in marketing, I know the generals of each line but not so much the nitty-gritty. Celebrity and Holland America are about a half step up from RCI I'd say. It is more the atmosphere and decor that separates them from RCI. RCI is more family friendly with onboard activities and distractions, where Celebrity and Holland is more "adult" focused. The quality of the ship and dining are comparable between RCI, Celebrity, Holland, Princess. Azamara is definitely positioned a step above RCI. Where before it was seen as a half step above Celebrity; with it's new branding and new amenities, it definitely differentiates itself as a "Premium-Plus" line. In fact, it provides more amenities and inclusives than Oceania. The president of my company went on Azamara (pre-rebranding) and had nothing but great things to speak about it. He's sailed on almost every line, all across the world, dozens of times, and it sounded like his time on Azamara was one of the better ones in his experience. There hasn't been anything I've heard that would lead me to not recommend Azamara. I am not sure what your budget is, but perhaps take a look at Windstar Cruises or The Yachts of Seabourn; their lower categories there may be about the same price as Azamara's higher end categories. They are much smaller ships than Azamara, and a much more intimate experience. Much better service with almost a 1:1 staff to passenger ratio. Our VP went on Windstar last month and just absolutely raved about it.

This is actually a great thread and thanks Sonik for sharing your knowledge.

So, to further exploit you, take an adult cruise like one on Holland or Celebrity. What would a cruise from the Left Coast to Hawaii or some Mexican route cost with a nice sized room (like at least 800 sq feet)? Do any CCs get you discounts or upgrades, i.e. Amex Plat? What about if you wanted to cruise to Europe, get off and stay in Europe, then cruise home?

Mexican routes are one of the most affordable itineraries for cruising, but fares vary widely depending on the time of the year. Holland and Princess sail Mexico in the fall/winter, while Celebrity does not sail Mexico.

800 sq ft is on the very-large side of staterooms; as of right now, a deluxe verandah room (500-700 sq ft including balcony) you are looking at about $1600-$2100 per person on Holland in October for Mexico. That is for the second-from-the-best room of the ship, which is a penthouse at about 1,300sq ft.

As for Hawaii, only Norwegian Cruise Line does a Hawaii roundtrip itinerary. Other cruiselines may do a one-off (i.e. only a few sailing dates per year) that goes from the Pacific Coast, out to Hawaii and back; but you are looking at more sea days than port days on those itineraries which isn't really worth it imho.

The Europe plan is possible with Cunard, I believe they are the only ones that do regular transatlantic sailings, but it is only during Summer (June to November).

If you book through Amex, they may have dates where there's additional onboard credits, or they may have an exclusive sale going on at a time period, but it is like any other agency.

Agencies often get a limited number of dates, where they can pick and choose which bonus amenities they can offer to clients. Also, agencies may be offered exclusive sale fares and promotions where not everybody may get it. Amex may have a promotion going on that other agencies may not have access to, and vice versa.

They may have offers on top of bookings (perhaps hotel or flight discounts, travel insurance, etc.) but I am not familiar with them.

Sonick, thanks again. Good stuff to know.

Sonick- Do you know where I can get a round-the-world Cunard cruise for under $2000?

I think you are missing a zero there!

Hey OP, Not sure what stage of your planning you are at, but an agent just got back on azamara with a rave review.

There's actually a good guidebook for this that goes over all major and small cruise lines with fulsome reviews of their various aspects and the atmosphere that they try to promote, along with individual reviews of the actual ships. I'll be damned if I can remember what it was called but if you're into cruises it's probably a good investment so perhaps a look on amazon is in order.