Cunard has won a clean sweep among the best large ships selected by the Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise.

The annual publication is well known for selecting the best of the industry out of a total of 285 vessels selected by prolific cruise writer Douglas Ward.

This year, Cunard ships managed to place first, second and third in the large ship category (over 1,600 passengers), with the Queen Mary 2 topping the rank, followed by the new Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria.

“That large ships such as Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria can deliver the kind of experience it [Cunard] does to a wide socio-economic passenger range is evidence that the company’s finest asset is not just the ships, but all those individual crew members who simply love what they do,” Ward said.

Crystal Cruises took the top three places in the Mid Ship category (between 600 and 1,600 passenger) with the Crystal Serenity and the Crystal Symphony and Marina, which tied in second place.

The Small Ship Category (200-600 passengers) was won by Hapag-Lloyd’s Europa, with the Seabourn Quest and Seabourn Odyssey in second and third place.

Among the boutique ships, which carry between 50 and 200 passengers, the SeaDream II took top honours, followed by its sibling SeaDream I and Hapag-Lloyd’s Hanseatic, in third place.

It rounds off a good week for Crystal and Seabourn, which also picked up awards in the recent Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice ceremony for best medium and small ship line respectively (Celebrity won best large-ship line).

The book will be available from October 19, priced at $24.99 and will also be released as an iOS app priced at $9.99.

Source: AFPrelaxnews