October 08, 2025

Top Cruise Lines: Readers’ Choice Awards 2025

Condé Nast Traveler readers rank the top cruise lines in the world, from mega ships to river cruises.

It isn’t possible for the Condé Nast Traveler team to see and do everything, everywhere, all at once—though we try our best! Fortunately, we also have you, our readers. This year you cast an astonishing 757,109 votes in the 38th annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey, sharing your opinions on the very best in travel. You told us you were enchanted by Italian hotels, went on safari in Botswana, took to semiprivate aviation, and advocated for newcomers to the top American cities. We loved poring over the results to find out what’s sticking with readers and editors and spinning the data into a snapshot of the current moment in travel. Ahead are the best cruises in the world, as voted by our readers.

Here are the Readers' Choice Award winners for best cruise lines as a list with scores:

Mega Ships (more than 4,000 passengers)

  1. Princess Cruises 88.71
  2. MSC Cruises 87.66
  3. Norwegian Cruise Line 87.48
  4. Line Royal Caribbean International 85.48
  5. Carnival Cruises 77.48

Large Ships (2,500 to 4,000 passengers)

  1. Disney Cruise Line 89.24
  2. Holland America Line 87.98
  3. Virgin Voyages 87.93
  4. Cunard 87.11
  5. Celebrity Cruises 86.74
  6. Norwegian Cruise Line 86.55
  7. Princess Cruises 84.11
  8. MSC Cruises 81.62
  9. Royal Caribbean International 79.56
  10. Carnival Cruise Line 76.19
  11. Costa Cruises 64.56

Medium Ships (500 to 2,500 passengers)

  1. Viking 94.66
  2. Crystal Cruises 93.09
  3. Silversea 91.78
  4. Havila Voyages 91.63
  5. Explora 91.58
  6. Regent Seven Seas Cruises 91.53
  7. Seabourn 91.19
  8. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises 91.17
  9. Oceania Cruises 88.3
  10. Hurtigruten 87.49
  11. Cunard 87.47
  12. Azamara 87.29
  13. AIDA 86.5
  14. Marella Cruises 85.51
  15. Holland America Line 85.06
  16. Disney Cruise Line 84.54
  17. MSC Cruises 84.17
  18. Norwegian Cruise Line 83.23
  19. Celebrity Cruises 82.36
  20. Princess Cruises 81.26
  21. Royal Caribbean International 78.34
  22. Costa Cruises 78.33
  23. Carnival Cruise Line 74.42

Small Ships (fewer than 500 passengers)

  1. Paul Gauguin Cruises 95.14
  2. Grand Circle Cruise Line 94.94
  3. Sea Cloud Cruises 94.32
  4. Windstar Cruises 93.86
  5. Ponant 93.26
  6. Heritage Line 93.71
  7. Cruise Croatia 93.12
  8. The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection 92.77
  9. Variety Cruises 92.16
  10. American Cruise Lines 92.02
  11. Sail Croatia 90.78
  12. SeaDream Yacht Club 90.26
  13. Seabourn 89.86
  14. Pearl Seas Cruises 88
  15. Star Clippers 86.39
  16. Emerald Cruises 85.33
  17. Silversea 84.77
  18. Regent Seven Seas Cruises 84.67
  19. Aranui 81.33

River Ships

  1. Viking 97.36
  2. Heritage Line 96.97
  3. Oberoi 95.71
  4. Tauck River Cruising 95.59
  5. Riviera River Cruises 95.21
  6. Grand Circle Cruise Line 93.94
  7. Pandaw Cruises 93.5
  8. AmaWaterways 93.34
  9. Avalon Waterways 93.24
  10. Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours 93.17
  11. European Waterways 93.09
  12. Delfin Amazon Cruises 92.99
  13. Uniworld River Cruises 92.8
  14. American Cruise Lines 91.39
  15. Aqua Expeditions 90.66
  16. Les Bateaux Belmond 88
  17. A-ROSA 79.8
  18. Emerald Cruises 79.25

Expedition Ships

  1. Metropolitan Touring 98.18
  2. Ecoventura 95.69
  3. Quark Expeditions 95.52
  4. Viking 95.51
  5. Aurora Expeditions 95.32
  6. Quasar Expeditions 95.28
  7. Overseas Adventure Travel 95.1
  8. UnCruise Adventures 94.84
  9. National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions 94.49
  10. &Beyond 94
  11. HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) 93.68
  12. Seabourn 93.44
  13. Atlas Ocean Voyages 92.92
  14. Silversea 92.68
  15. Ponant 92.37
  16. Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours 92.33
  17. Australis 91.33
  18. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises 91.33
  19. Antarctica21 86.67
  20. Aqua Expeditions 84.63
  21. Alaskan Dream Cruises 83.94
  22. Celebrity Cruises 83




Copyright 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. From https://www.cntraveler.com. By CNT Editors.

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