On Monday, August 14, at the 35th annual Virtuoso Travel Week, Virtuoso®, the top worldwide network specializing in luxury and experiential travel, presented the winners of the network’s “Best Cruise Lines” awards.
Virtuoso Travel Week, which took place from August 12–18, attracted hundreds of top luxury travel experts, advisers, and preferred partners from more than a hundred countries. At “Cruise Night Out,” one of the week’s hottest tickets, which brings together the network’s cruise partners and its advisers who specialize in cruises for an invitation-only party, the top cruise partners of 2023 were recognized.
Best Ocean Cruise Line, Best River Cruise Line, and Best Expedition Cruise Line nominations come from both Virtuoso advisors and preferred partners. The winners are then chosen by a vote of the advisors. The competition is fiercer than ever as the cruise industry experiences growth in both market size and consumer demand. The winners this year have a shared dedication to innovation, creativity, client satisfaction, support of the travel advisor community, and, of course, wonderful travel experiences in some of the most extraordinary places on earth.
And the winners are Quark Expeditions (best expedition cruise line), Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, and Silversea Cruises (best ocean cruise line).
- OPTIMUM OCEAN CRUISE LINE
This prize honors the cruise line that provides Virtuoso tourists with the finest overall ocean cruise experience.
- Silversea Cruises wins.
The intimate luxury ships offered by Silversea are intended for travelers who like the rush of exploration while indulging their senses in the most opulent settings possible. More than any other cruise line, Silversea trips and cruise adventures visit nearly 900 locations on all seven continents. Additionally, sailing the world has never been more effortless thanks to enhanced all-inclusive service, door-to-door transfers, and extra shore excursions for classic journeys.
- The best river cruise route
This honor is given to the river cruise company that offers Virtuoso travelers the best overall trip experience.
- Uniworld Boutique River Cruises is the winner.
Itineraries in stunning locations around Europe, Egypt, Asia, and Peru are available from Uniworld. Its fleet includes opulent vessels with an average passenger capacity of 120, one of the highest crew-to-guest ratios in the river cruise industry, all-inclusive advantages to the highest degree on the rivers, alluring shore excursions, top-notch gourmet cuisine, and flawless service. With sustainability at its core, Uniworld has banned more than 60 single-use plastics across its activities and aims to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050
- EXPEDITION CRUISE LINE, BEST
This honor is given to the adventure cruise line that offers Virtuoso travelers the best overall trip experience.
- Quark Expeditions won.
For more than 30 years, Quark excursions has been the top supplier of excursions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Quark Expeditions gives tourists unrivaled access to the most inaccessible locations on the planet with a wide fleet of small expedition ships that are carefully outfitted, icebreakers, and uncommon land-based excursions. The cruise company has a long history of operating in the arctic areas, and it is committed to providing transformative experiences for those travelers traveling there. With the best teaching, photography, and overall experience for travelers on board, Quark Expeditions offers the highest expedition guide-to-passenger ratios (1:6).
Source- Travel daily