Right up there with their ranking of Best Hotels, Best Vacations and Best Travel Rewards Programs, the cruise industry looks forward to U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of cruise lines.
This year marks the 11th year of the rankings as they highlight 18 of the most popular cruise lines in six categories for 2025:
- Best Cruise Lines for the Money
- Best Cruise Lines for Families
- Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean
- Best Luxury Cruise Lines
- Best Cruise Lines for Couples
- Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean
Their rankings are based on a comprehensive and transparent methodology that takes into account expert evaluations of ship quality, traveler ratings, health rating (read: sanitation inspection scores published by the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) at the CDC) and other relevant factors.
Obviously, as years go on, cruise lines have more offerings, which goes into the mix of how they’re ranked. However when Virgin Voyages was introduced, they shook up the Best Cruise Lines for the Money category, winning the #1 distinction in both 2023 and 2024.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that Virgin Voyages is my and my husband’s favorite cruise line. In fact, prior to our first cruise on VV in the summer of 2022, I had been completely turned off to cruising (I had been on Disney 4 times and once each on Royal Caribbean and Holland America) and hadn’t stepped foot on a cruise ship in well over a decade.
Virgin Voyages is still a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately, as much as their prices were slowly increasing every few months from 2022 to 2023, they’ve gone through the roof in the past year. And on top of that, various discounts and benefits they used to give have been, shall we say, dumbed down considerably…or simply no longer exist. So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve been knocked off that perch.
Here are the rankings for 2025. If they ranked last year, we included that information, as well.
Best Cruise Lines for the Money
- Celebrity Cruises (#2 in 2024)
- Virgin Voyages (#1 in 2024)
- MSC Cruises (new to this ranking. Last year, it was Princess Cruise Line, which is now #9)
Best Cruise Lines for Families
- Disney Cruise Line (DCL has been #1 in this category every year)
- Royal Caribbean International (same as last year)
- Norwegian Cruise Line (new to this ranking. Last year it was Carnival Cruise Line, which is now #4)
Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean
- Disney Cruise Line (same as last year)
- Celebrity Cruises (#3 in 2024)
- Virgin Voyages (#2 in 2024)
Best Luxury Cruise Lines
- Viking Ocean Cruises (same as last year)
- Seabourn Cruise Line (same as last year)
- Regent Seven Sea Cruises (same as last year)
Best Cruise Lines for Couples
- Viking Ocean Cruises (same as last year)
- Seabourn Cruise Line (same as last year)
- Celebrity Cruises (last year had been Azamara, which is now #7)
Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean
- Viking Ocean Cruises (same as last year)
- Seabourn Cruise Line (same as last year)
- Celebrity Cruises (last year had been Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which is now #4)
So, whereas Virgin Voyages has lost footing in both of the categories it mentioned last year, Celebrity Cruises has inched up in four of the seven categories, including taking the #1 spot in one of them. Disney holds onto its #1 spot as the best cruise line for families, while Viking and Seabourn remain #1 and #2, respectively, in three categories.
“With so many cruise lines to choose from, it may be hard to know where to start when it comes to finding the perfect cruise vacation,” said Nicola Wood, senior travel editor at U.S. News. “The 2025 Best Cruise Lines rankings not only recognize the top cruise lines, but also provide a way for travelers to compare features, amenities and offerings to find the right cruise for an exciting experience at sea.”
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