Travel Rewards Program Awards

 U.S. News Travel Rewards Program Awards

U.S. News has identified the best airline and hotel rewards programs; programs that score in the top 30% receive a U.S. News Best Travel Rewards Program award. These awards are scheduled to be released annually at the time the rankings are updated.

Cruise Rankings:

The U.S. News & World Report Best Cruises rankings are designed to help you find a cruise that best suits your needs. Using the following methods, U.S. News has identified the best cruise ships and cruise lines in a variety of categories.

Scoring Components:

To rank the best cruise ships and cruise lines, we use the following scoring components:

Overall Rating:

The Overall Rating is used to determine the placement of each ship or line on any given list. The Overall Rating comprises three elements:

Expert Rating (30% weight): Our editors assign each ship an Expert Rating between 1 and 5 based on the ship's level of luxury, with 5 being the highest score. This score represents our editors' analysis of a ship's atmosphere, facilities, activities, cabins, cuisine, and service.

Traveler Rating (50% weight): A ship's traveler rating is provided under license by Cruiseline.com. Reviewers assign a rating between 1 and 5 based on their level of satisfaction with their cruise experience.

Health Rating (20% weight): A ship's health rating is based on sanitation inspection scores published by the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Individual ship inspection reports can be found here. The CDC defines "Satisfactory Scores" as those that are 86 or above (out of a possible 100 points). A ship's Health Rating is the average of the vessel's individual inspection reports from the 22 months prior to the calculation of the U.S. News Best Cruises rankings. For our rankings, CDC scores are translated to a five-point scale as follows: Vessels with average CDC ratings greater than 97.5 received a score of 5; vessels with average CDC ratings greater than 95 and up to 97.5 received a score of 4.5; vessels with average CDC scores greater than 92.5 and up to 95 received a score of 4; vessels with average CDC scores greater than 90 and up to 92.5 received a score of 3.5; vessels with average CDC scores greater than 87.5 and up to 90 received a score of 3; vessels with average ratings greater than 85.1 and up to 87.5 received a score of 2.5 and vessels with an average CDC rating of 85.1 or lower received a score of 1. If a ship has not received a health inspection score within the past 22 months, the average Health Rating of all CDC-rated ships within the cruise line is used as a proxy in the calculation of the ship's Overall Rating. (Note: Virgin Voyages provided U.S. News with a thorough health report conducted by a private company, which was used to evaluate the cruise line and assign a health rating at this time.)

A cruise line's Overall Rating is calculated as the average of its ship's overall ratings.

Filtering Lists by Criteria:

Cutoff points and other criteria are used to identify cruise ships or cruise lines that qualify for a given ranking list.

Traveler Type: Each cruise ship and cruise line's placement on our traveler-type cruise rankings take into account the aggregate traveler rating among specific types of travelers. Cruise ships and lines with the highest Overall Ratings and the greatest approval rating among a certain traveler type (e.g., families), appear on such lists. To qualify for a cruise ship traveler-type ranking list, a ship had to have a minimum of 10 total guest reviews, and a certain percentage of reviews had to come from the specified traveler type; the percentage required varies by list.

Region: We rank the best cruise ships in seven popular regions: Alaska, Europe, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Mexico, the Pacific, and Hawaii. We also rank the Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean and Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean. Regional scores are assigned based on a percentage of itineraries a ship has in each of these regions over a 24-month basis. The ship-level regional scores are updated as new information is made available; however, the list of the Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean and the Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean will only be updated once a year.

Price Class: A cruise ship's price class rating is based on its average nightly base fare. Ships with average nightly balcony rates of $450 or more are rated 5; average nightly balcony rates of $350 to $449 are rated 4; average nightly balcony rates of $250 to $349 are rated 3; ships with average nightly balcony rates of $150 to $249 are rated 2, ships with average nightly balcony rates below $150 are rated 1. Ocean view rates are also considered at the rates above, minus $50 per night. Cruise lines with average price class ratings of 3.5 and above are included in the Best Luxury Cruise Lines rankings. Cruise lines with average price class ratings of 2.5 or lower are included in the Best Cruise Lines for the Money rankings.

Inclusion in Cruise Ship Rankings

For now, we only rank cruise ships within 17 of the most popular ocean cruise lines.

Calculating Cruise Ship Rankings:

Cruise ships are ranked based on each ship's Overall Rating. Some cruise ship rankings are tailored to specific interests using filter criteria, and these are still rank-ordered by Overall Rating. The overall rating is a numerical score that may include several decimal points; however, we represent this as a graphical star rating rounded to the nearest half-star. As a result, two cruise ships that show the same graphical star representation may have slightly different underlying ratings. The ranking reflects the specific underlying rating and not the rounded graphical star rating.

NOTE: Cruise ship rankings are updated regularly. As new vessels are launched and additional inspection scores and guest reviews become available, they are added to our rankings and affect how specific ships stack up against one another. Ships that feature N/A as their overall score have either not launched yet or have not received enough traveler reviews.

Cruise Line Rankings:

U.S. News evaluated 17 cruise lines in this year's rankings, identifying the best cruise lines in a variety of categories. Whereas ship rankings are updated throughout the year, cruise lines are ranked only once per year.

Calculating the Cruise Line Rankings:

We rank cruise lines in six categories: Best Luxury Cruise Lines, Best Cruise Lines for the Money, Best Cruise Lines for Couples, Best Cruise Lines for Families, Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean, and Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean. In order to qualify for a ranking, a cruise line must meet the requirements for that specific list.

Best Luxury Cruise Lines: For our luxury cruise line ranking, we include only cruise lines with a price class rating of 3.5 or above. Qualifying cruise lines are ranked highest to lowest based on their Overall Rating.

Best Cruise Lines for the Money: For our best value cruise line ranking, we include only cruise lines with a price class rating of less than 2.5. Qualifying cruise lines are ranked highest to lowest based on their average Overall Rating (50% weight), their average nightly pricing on a scale of 1 to 5 (40% weight), and value-add benefits included in the base fare, such as prepaid gratuities, free onboard Wi-Fi access, free room service and more (10% weight).

Best Cruise Lines for Couples: This ranking factors in (1) each line's Overall Rating as well as (2) the aggregate traveler rating by "couples" travelers and (3) the percentage of a cruise line's reviews on Cruiseline.com that are left by couples. For example, a cruise line that receives a high percentage of its reviews from couples is more likely to be couples-oriented. Cruise lines are ranked according to the weighted average of their rank within each of these three factors. For a cruise line to be eligible for inclusion in this ranking, at least 60% of its total traveler reviews had to come from couples.

Best Cruise Lines for Families: This ranking factors in (1) each line's Overall Rating as well as (2) the aggregate traveler rating by "families with kids" and (3) the percentage of a cruise line's reviews on Cruiseline.com that are left by family travelers. For example, a cruise line that receives a high percentage of reviews from families is more likely to attract family travelers. Cruise lines are ranked according to the weighted average of their rank within each of these three factors. For a cruise line to qualify for this ranking, at least 20% of its total traveler reviews had to come from families.

Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean: This ranking is based on (1) each line's Overall Rating as well as (2) the percentage of scheduled itineraries in the Caribbean over a 24-month period (3) the number and variety of Caribbean itineraries available over a 24-month period. Cruise lines are ranked highest to lowest according to the weighted average of their rank combined with the annualized rate of scheduled itineraries and the number of total Caribbean itinerary options over a two-year period. The Overall Rating carries a 50% weight. Line coverage components are both weighted at 25%.

Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean: This ranking is based on (1) each line's Overall Rating as well as (2) the percentage of scheduled itineraries in the Mediterranean over a 24-month period and (3) the number and variety of Mediterranean itineraries available over a 24-month period. Cruise lines are ranked highest to lowest according to the weighted average of their rank combined with the annualized rate of scheduled itineraries and the number of total Mediterranean itinerary options over a two-year period. The Overall Rating carries a 50% weight. Line coverage components are both weighted at 25%.