Travel + Leisure Readers' 5 Favorite Large-ship Ocean Cruise Lines of 2024
In our “World’s Best Awards” survey of 2024, large-ship ocean cruise lines received praise for their destinations, entertainment options, and overall ambience.
Think of the spacious ships in our large-ship category — those with 800 to 1,499 cabins — as the sea-going equivalent of seeing a superstar concert in a Broadway-style theater, as opposed to an arena. Like larger mega-ships, these vessels serve up a broad range of choices in restaurants, onboard activities and entertainment, and accommodations to suit many tastes and budgets. What they often don’t have, to the delight of our voters, is mega-ship crowds.
How Voting Works
Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Over 186,000 T+L readers completed the 2024 survey. A total of more than 700,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).
For the cruise category, respondents were asked to rate individual ships; the results were combined to generate scores for cruise lines in different categories based on number of cabins.
Ships were specifically rated on the criteria below:
Cabins/facilities
Food
Service
Itineraries/destinations
Excursions/activities
Value
For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.
Courtesy of Cunard
What Readers Loved
Moving up from No. 3 last year to the No. 2 spot in this year’s survey is Disney Cruise Line, receiving effusive praise from both adults traveling sans kids and the family crowd. “Our grandchildren loved it and so did we,” said one voter. “Like Disney World, it was first class all the way! Food was outstanding, entertainment was above and beyond.”
Holland America Line (No. 3), which has been taking visitors to Alaska for more than 75 years, received praise for its exploration of the 49th state. “They have high quality trips to Alaska and do a great job of coordinating the excursions and tours to the interior,” said one voter. Also making the top five in the large-ship category are popular lines Celebrity Cruises (No. 4) and Princess Cruises (No. 5).
With its traditional cruising style and regular roster of transatlantic cruises, Cunard retains its No. 1 ranking in the large-ship category for a second year in a row.
The Winner
Cunard
Courtesy of Cunard
Even as Cunard debuted the new Queen Anne in May 2024, expanding its fleet to four ships, tradition rules. Dress-up balls and afternoon tea served by white-gloved are part of the Cunard scene. The Queen Mary 2, on regular seven-night transatlantic service between Southampton, England and New York City, received particular praise from Travel + Leisure readers. “An amazing once in a lifetime experience!” said one voter. “A return to a more civilized approach to travel,” said another reader. “I felt on my transatlantic crossing that I truly unplugged from the digital age and entered a calmer, happier state of mind.”
The Full List
1. Cunard
Reader Score: 89.06
Reader Score: 85.79
Reader Score: 84.02
Reader Score: 82.28
Reader Score: 80.24
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