Ranking methodology

Raw category scores

Every cruise review has up to six separate 1–5 ratings: food, service, room, cleanliness, activities and entertainment. “Not experienced” is skipped, never counted as zero. A review's overall score is the plain average of the categories the member rated. Raw scores are always published as written.

Weather fairness

Weather (sunny, mixed, rain, rough seas, storm, other) is recorded as context. It is not a scoring category and never changes any score. How the crew and line handled disruptions is asked separately. Weather never excuses poor communication, safety or service.

Optional AI summaries restate the reviewer's own words, list themes and point out weather-related complaints for context. AI never alters scores, hides negatives or labels reviewers. Summaries appear only after the author approves them. If AI isn't available, we say so.

Which reviews count

• Published, genuine member reviews only.
• Demo content is excluded everywhere.
• Removed, flagged or pending reviews are excluded.
• One review per member per ship per sailing (start date), enforced by the database. One director review per member per sailing, whether it was written with a cruise review or on its own.

Periods

Monthly, quarterly and annual periods are assigned by the sailing's end date (inclusive), not the date the review was submitted. A late review of a 2024 sailing counts toward 2024.

Bayesian adjustment

Adjusted score = (C × m + sum of ratings) ÷ (C + number of ratings), with C = 5 and m = the mean of all eligible ratings in that period and category. Small samples are pulled toward the average, so one 5-star review can't win. We always show the raw average next to the adjusted score.

Award eligibility

A ship or director needs at least 5 unique reviewers in the period to qualify. Otherwise we show “insufficient data” instead of a winner.

Cruise line scores

A line's score is the average of its qualifying ships' adjusted scores, each ship weighted equally, so large fleets don't win on volume. A line needs at least 2 qualifying ships.

Ship age bands

Age is measured in full years from the ship's in-service date to the sailing end date.

• Brand New: 0–6 years
• New: 7–15 years
• Refurbished (age band): 16–25 years
• Ancient: 26–40 years
• Heritage: 41+ years

Finalized awards

After a period ends, an admin can finalize it. Winners are archived once (repeat runs don't change them). Automatic scheduled finalization is not configured yet.