According to Google, there are 246,000 searches for “Cruise Reviews” every month – which is over 2.5 Million searches a year. If you consider folks looking for reviews using “cruises” or “cruise”, it’s a ton more. That’s a lot of people searching for cruise reviews. Not too surprising, given that most people looking to go on a cruise will search for and read some sort of review online. I’m going to look at the two major types of cruise reviews on the web – user generated and professional.

Before we do that, let’s step back and think about how reviews came about. Reviews are a big part of how people research any major purchase. Even before reviews were online, we called our family and friends and asked about their cruise; What did you like? How was the food? What did you not like?  What did you do at the ports? How was the cabin? That is essentially a review but it just happened in a conversation over the phone or in person.

There is one major benefit of these in person or phone reviews – you know a few things about the person giving you that information. Besides age, gender you also know a bit about their personality. You know whether they are typically overly generous or overly critical. Or you get a sense for whether you would enjoy the same things. E.g. if Aunt Hilda would not go back to Grand Cayman because she didn’t like getting on a tender boat, well that may not be a big deal for you, so you discount that part of her review. This benefit of knowing a few things about the reviewer is important.

So, if reviews are important, which type of online cruise reviews are the best?

Reviews by Everyday Cruisers: Sometimes known as “user generated content”, these are reviews written by normal folks who’ve submitted their cruise experience on a website for others to benefit from. Chances are if you search for a cruise review you’ll see links to Cruise Critic. Search for a review for any ship, and you’ll find several reviews by everyday cruisers on Cruise Critic including ratings of categories (food, cabin, etc.). Let’s be honest, Cruise Critic has the lion share of cruise reviews on the web and they are quite useful for anyone looking for help in choosing a cruise.

The issue with Cruise Critic reviews is there is limited information about the user who provided the review. If you are married with two pre-teen kids, you’d probably like to read a review from another family with kids of similar ages. A young, single person’s account of their cruise may not be as helpful to you.  Clicking on the author of a review on cruise critic, brings up their other reviews – but no social information about that person – how old, how many cruises have they been on, single/married, etc.

Reviews by Professionals:  These are experienced travel writers and/or travel media people who provide their discriminating opinion on every aspect of a ship and cruise. Given this person has been on many many cruises, they should be able to clearly articulate the pros and cons.  Perfect, who needs reviews from everyday cruisers?  Well, professional reviews are a great place to start, but again, there are some drawbacks.

The professional review writer is still an individual and their review is subjective. They are describing their experience through their individual lens. But the good news is you know more about the person (age, gender, etc).

A second issue with professional reviews is they are typically subsidized  or paid for by the cruise lines. So, the reviewer cruises for free and while there is no obligation to write a positive review, you can see how that can potentially influence the review. Obviously, there are good professional writers that will write their review honestly and fairly..but there are some that will not. Of course, cruise lines roll out the red carpet for professional media folks knowing that they will be writing, tweeting and talking about their experiences.

A new player to cruise reviews online is vacationcruisesinfo.com who has a very new take on cruise reviews. Their reviewers (professional) are anonymous. So cruise lines should treat the reviewer as an ordinary passenger and vacationcruisesinfo pays all of the costs. This is a nice addition to cruise reviews and solves the issue we talked about in the professional reviews above. However, what it doesn’t address is WHO is the reviewer. You have no idea if you have anything in common with this person. Are they like your Aunt Hilda or your crazy cousin Vinny?

Of course, there are other forms of reviews on the web. There are audio podcast reviews (both user generated and professional) on programs such as Cruise Radio and Cruize Cast. Also, there is the blog format review (professional) such as on Avid Cruiser and Cruise Maven who both regularly write reviews on their sites.

As for my view, (obviously I’m biased!) I think the best reviews are done by ordinary people who I have things in common with. When I search for a cruise I pay attention to reviews from couples with no kids because they will have similar priorities to me – the person trying to choose a cruise. And that’s why on MeetOnCruise.com we’ve chosen to have user-generated reviews (everyday cruisers) with a big emphasis on the social (who is the person, how many cruises, etc.).  Because we need to know more about the reviewer, not less.

At the end of the day, all reviews are subjective and there is not one way that has proven to be the best. All of these types of cruise reviews are good additions as they give cruise consumers more information to make their decsions. One thing is certain though, reviews will continue to change and evolve.

Now, your turn: Which reviews do you read and like? Do you agree or disagree with the view here? Sound off in the comments below.