How we read a fare and score a ship

The inclusion table

For every line we keep one table: 12things a cruise might include, one column per fare the line sells. Each cell says Included, Partly, Extra or Unknown, in words, with the price the line publishes when it is extra. We read the line’s own terms and conditions and fare pages, not a seller’s summary of them, and every table carries the date of the document we read. Terms change without notice, so a table without a date would be a guess wearing a fact’s clothes.

Space ratio and crew ratio

Space ratio is a ship’s gross tonnage divided by its passenger count at two per cabin. It is the industry’s own measure of how much ship each guest gets, and it predicts a quiet pool deck better than any star rating: mainstream megaships sit around 40, premium lines in the 50s and 60s, luxury lines above 70. Guests per crew member is the other half: about 1.5 on a luxury ship, nearer 3 on a mainstream one. Both come from the lines’ published specifications. Where a line publishes a range we use the lower berth figure, and we say so.

The ship score

A ship earns a score out of ten only when we have the two ratios, the line’s inclusion table, and enough independent guest evidence to have an opinion. Until then the score is blank, on purpose: a blank beats a guess. Scores are editorial and will be published with their reasoning on each ship page.

Prices

Cruise fares move daily. Any price on this site is marketing, shown with the date we saw it, and is confirmed at the time of a quote or a booking. We never quote from our own records: a quote is the live fare pulled on the day you ask.

Independence

No cruise line can pay to be listed, ranked higher, or scored better. Some links on the site earn us a commission, and bookings placed through us earn us the agency commission the line pays any seller. Neither changes a table or a score. How we are paid.