There are so many cruise lines, passengers, critics and assorted opinions in North America that it's easy to forget about what the rest of the world thinks about cruise lines.
Today, we bring you a sampling.
It comes from the United Kingdom, where readers of Cruise International Magazine cast 20,000 ballots to pick the best of everything…everything from cruise agent to learning to well-being to — of course — cruise line.
You might be surprised by some of the results.
Instead of saving the best for last, let's reveal right off the top that the best cruise line is…Carnival. It's not exactly like winning Best Picture at the Oscars, but it's a feather in the cap of a cruise line that doesn't do much more than put its toe in the water in Europe. That makes it a curious choice.
Either Brits like to cross the ocean and sail on Carnival ships, or they're enamored with the British humor in the world according to John Heald, Carnival's blogger-in-chief. If you don't think that's possible, you should know that Best Cruise Blogger was one of the magazine awards, and Heald won it.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the red carpet…
Best Food — Cunard, with an honorable mention to Holland America
Best for Activities — Royal Caribbean, followed by Celebrity
Best Innovation — Carnival's 5D Cinema, ahead of Norwegian's Ice Bar on the Epic
Best for Learning — Fred.Olsen first, Cunard second
Best Luxury Cruise Line — Seabourn number one, Oceania second
Best Entertainment — Princess, followed by Carnival, with nary a mention of Norwegian
Best Shore Excursions — Uniworld, and honorable mention for Fred.Olsen
Best for Kids — Disney, with Carnival best of the others
Best Destination (Europe) — Norway, then Stockholm, even though one is a country and the other a city
Best Destination (Rest of World) — Alaska, then Jamaica
And in the event you think any of those are strange choices, this has to be the strangest…
Best River Cruise Line — Viking first, Uniworld second
Best Luxury River Cruise Line — Uniworld first, Viking second
Carnival Breeze
15 nights
November 6, 2012
Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Las Palmas, Antigua, St. Maarten, Miami
Inside: $799
Cost per day: $53
www.carnival.com