What is it about awards that we love? Somewhere in your house, I bet you have a 鈥減erfect attendance鈥� award, a 鈥渕ost popular鈥� award, or 鈥渕ost improved鈥� award like mine, from when attending the late Dave Murray's summer ski camp at Whistler. The truth is I went from really bad to okay 鈥� not a big leap.
Just about every form of entertainment, sport, agriculture or craft has some form of award. For cruising, I have regularly presented awards results from Cond茅 Nast and Cruise Critic.
Today, I鈥檓 offering the views of people who live in the United Kingdom and who read The Daily Telegraph. Seventy-five thousand of them participated, the most since this poll started in 1998. It covers all forms of travel and sa国际传媒 figures in the Britons鈥� likes and dislikes
Best Small Cruise Line: Seabourn, followed by another luxury brand, Silversea, with third place going to Hurtigruten, which spends a lot of time in Norway, Iceland and Greenland.
Best Large Cruise Line: Cunard 鈥� no surprise here. The man who founded it (Samuel Cunard) was Canadian. Next are Disney and Celebrity.
Best River Cruise Line: Scenic Tours, the Australian owned river line. Second and third are Riviera Travel and Noble Caledonia, best known across the Atlantic.
Best Hotel: Cruisers usually need a hotel when travelling to their ship. We all have our favourite port cities which, in many cases, are among the best cities in the world. Voters thought the Canadian-created Four Seasons Hotel was tops.
Best Rail Operator: Orient Express, but right behind was the Rocky Mountaineer that travels between Vancouver and Banff.
Favourite City: Cape Town, with Vancouver second and Venice third.
How about your favourites? Let me know at [email protected].
While you鈥檙e at it, help me answer this question:
鈥淒o entertainment, crafts or the quality of speakers play a role in your decision as to line and/or ship, or does it just come down to your favourite ship?鈥�
Cruise lines think the answer is entertainment.
Royal Caribbean has become 鈥淏roadway at Sea鈥� on several ships. It started when the 6,000-passenger Oasis of the Seas was launched with the Broadway hit Hairspray. Then Allure of the Seas launched with Chicago and Liberty of the Seas introduced Saturday Night Fever. Next year, Quantum of the Seas will stage Mama Mia, featuring the music of Abba.
Holland America is bringing back ABC鈥檚 Dancing with the Stars in 2014 with an at-sea version. Passenger winners from all 15 Holland America ships will participate in a dance-off on the Dec. 6 Westerdam sailing in the eastern Caribbean.
Other cruises will feature performances by professional dancers from the television series.
Still with Holland America, there is no BB King at sea, but his club-theme blues show can soon be seen on select sailings of Eurodam, Noordam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Westerdam and Zuiderdam.
Carnival features George Lopez鈥檚 Comedy Club on many of its ships. Norwegian colours it up with the Blue Man Group. Cunard has a history of well-known speakers 鈥� author Bill Bryson will join the Queen Elizabeth on its New York-to-San Francisco cruise, departing Jan. 18.
Boredom at sea is a non-starter.
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Phil鈥檚 Deal of the Week
Lowest price I have seen on the iconic ship Queen Mary 2 across the Atlantic 鈥� $799 鈥� and it鈥檚 for a balcony. The seven-day cruise leaves New York for Southampton on Jan. 3.
See a cruise agent or go to cunard.com. The price is per-person, double occupancy and was available at time of writing.
