A List of Personal Bests From All Those Cruises

Which cruise ships do what best, and why?

Even after a hundred cruises, give or take a few, we can’t answer these questions with absolute certainty since shipboard details have a way of changing day by day. The following, therefore, are recollections of personal bests:

Best New Ship, 1990--Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Harmony, where the flaws in the “hardware” (i.e., bathtubs) are overshadowed by the first-class “software”--an attentive, caring and well-trained staff and special events on every cruise that are really worth celebrating. Ours included a midnight Mozart concert-and-dessert party served by bewigged waiters in waistcoats and breeches, and a pasta buffet in a re-created Italian village, with scenic backdrop, village market and a gondola floating in the swimming pool.

Best Cabins--Princess Cruises’ new Crown Princess wins across the board for space, understated decor, comfort and closets. The cheapest inside cabin has 190 square feet and a walk-in closet; the most expensive suites have 550 square feet, king-size bed, sitting room, dressing room, huge white marble bathroom and large private veranda.

Best Bathrooms--Seabourn Cruise Line’s Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit both have marble bathrooms with double basins, luxurious tubs, complimentary toiletries and his-and-her towels--one set peach, the other gray.

Best Shipboard Entertainment--We declare a three-way tie between the traditional Broadway shows of Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norway and Seaward, and two dazzling new revues, “Show Stoppers” aboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Nordic Empress, and “Give Our Regards to Broadway” on the Crystal Harmony.

Best Food--The upscale small ships Sea Goddess I, Sea Goddess II, Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit cook all dishes to order, and diners arrive when they choose and sit wherever and with whomever they wish. Within reason, diners may also order any dish not listed on the menu.

Best Buffets--Holland America’s Westerdam has the most elegant self-service restaurant at sea, the Verandah Restaurant, with lunchtime music, an ice cream bar, sumptuous buffet and, just outside on the deck, a self-service taco bar and grilled-to-order hot dogs and hamburgers.

Best Staff/Passenger Ratio--Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit, with 140 staff to a maximum of 212 passengers, barely nudge out Crystal Harmony and the Sea Goddess ships in this category.

Friendliest Staff--Holland America’s waiters are always cheerful and ready to linger for a chat with passengers (sometimes even when someone else is waiting for service). Not incidentally, tipping on this line is optional.

Best Care of Passengers Over 50--Royal Cruise Line pampers its passengers on air/sea programs with hand-holding employees posted at every key point along the way. At table, passengers find low-calorie, low-fat, low-salt menus as an option. Elsewhere there are New Beginnings lectures on health and nutrition, special spa and exercise programs and even courtly gray-haired guest hosts waiting to dance with unattached ladies.

Best Ships for Children--Premier Cruise Lines, the “official cruise line for Walt Disney World,” had 460 children aboard its Atlantic and 239 on its Oceanic on a muggy Saturday last July in Nassau. A typical package gives mom and dad and the kids a half-week on the ship, a half-week at an Orlando hotel, Disney admissions and a rental car at modest prices.

Best Nightclub--Cunard’s Sagafjord has an elegant supper club in gray suede with two levels and a glass wall, perfect for a midnight cabaret show when they book the right performer.

Best Pool Area--We declare a draw between Princess’s Star Princess, with its in-pool bar, waterfall, sunning table and three Jacuzzis, and Carnival’s trademark curved slide into the pool on its newer ships Tropicale, Holiday, Celebration, Jubilee and Fantasy.

Best Spa--Edging out our classic favorite, Cunard’s Golden Door at Sea, is the 12,000-square-foot Nautica spa aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ new Fantasy. Nautica has tile whirlpools under skylights, steam rooms, saunas and 35 state-of-the-art exercise machines with a professional instructor always on hand.

Best Casino--We non-gamblers defer to a couple of high rollers we know who vote Crystal Harmony’s Caesars Palace at Sea tops for “great Las Vegas odds, really professional dealers and free drinks for players at the tables.”

Best Itineraries--Renaissance Cruises, with its small fleet of 100-passenger vessels, carries travelers to 226 ports, 56 of them exclusive to Renaissance, on 30 different itineraries.

Best New Itineraries--Ocean Cruise Lines’ Ocean Pearl promises both Bombay-to-Mombasa sailings and Singapore-to-Bombay itineraries, with add-on land excursions for overland India (the Taj Mahal and Jaipur) and Kenya (Nairobi and Amboseli Lodge).

Best Cruise Director--Royal Cruise Line’s Fernando de Olivera doesn’t sing and he doesn’t tell jokes; he simply introduces the entertainers and exits. More importantly, he’s always around when you need him. He also has the remarkable ability to remember the names of virtually every one of the Crown Odyssey’s thousand passengers.

Best Captain’s Cocktail Party--Aboard the Crown Princess, Capt. Nicola de Stefano lets his guests mix and mingle in the three-deck atrium with no lining up to shake hands, just like a real grown-up cocktail party.