Best Cruise Ships: Cruise Ship Companies & Featured Ships - Cruise Critic (2024)

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Azamara

Azamara's fleet serves up a delightful ambiance that's a hybrid of luxury and destination-immersive cruising. The ships, which hold only 690 passengers each, offer a superb blend of amenities, yet they are small enough to feel friendly and cozy.

Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival specializes in fun, laid-back, family-friendly cruises. With few exceptions, Carnival sails exclusively from North American homeports and offers some of the lowest pricing in the industry, particularly on short three- and four-night Carnival Caribbean cruises.

Celebrity Cruises

Celebrity Cruises’ iconic “X” is the mark of a fleet of 15 award-winning ships redefining luxury cruise travel with cool, contemporary design and accommodation; premium dining, spa and entertainment experiences for modern tastes; and culturally rich and diverse destination experiences, all complemented by warm, personalized service.

Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises is a European experience that primarily is geared toward Europeans. Costa Cruises is well-known for its Italian ambience onboard, vibrant entertainment and Samsara Spa, one of the best at sea.

Crystal

The Crystal name was revived with the 2023 relaunch of the refurbished ocean ships Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony after they were acquired by the A&K Travel Group.Luxury line Crystal Cruises collapsed in 2022 following the post-pandemic bankruptcy of parent company Genting Group. The revived line has been rebranded as Crystal -- with the tagline Exceptional at Sea -- and now operates with the 740-passenger Crystal Serenity and 606-passenger Crystal Symphony offering global itineraries.The A&K Travel Group was founded by Geoffrey Kent in 1962 as Abercrombie & Kent. Kent grew up in Kenya and pioneered luxury adventure travel with the company's first African safaris. A&K now has over 55 offices in more than 30 countries. The Monaco-based private equity firm Heritage is the parent company of the A&K Travel Group and is chaired by Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio, founder and former executive chairman of Silversea.