This should be fun as everyone would have different preferences.

Here it is, my ranking, and I know I will get a lot of people "p-ed" over my choices.

HAL, Celebrity, RCL and NCL.

Some may pick Celebrity over HAL but I think most will agreed on the ranking of the bottom 2.

Thanks for bring the first to reply eschew! What puts HAL at the top for you?

I think it totally depends, but I would probably rank Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, HAL and NCL...... Depending on the ship - that might move around a bit.....

I'm considering a Celebrity Summit cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Anyone have experience with this ship?

I've not been on NCL, but I think Celebrity and HAL are comparable. Maybe an edge to HAL as their crews seem more friendly. Maybe Celebrity has better food, but I have not been on there ships recently and I think HAL's food has gone down hill with each cruise we take. We had a great cruise on RCL, but the ship was not as well maintained and the cabins were smaller. I just was not as comfortable.

I've never been on HAL,RCC, or NCL. I heard RCC is really great in all catagories. I love the RCC website. My parents been on NCL and they said it was great and they like the free-style dinning. My family and I were on the Summit in April. I liked the Galley tour and the Rendevouz Lounge band. The things my family and I didn't like was the ship was so rocky(not the ship's fault), I saw some people fall(no one got hurt and the captain made several announcements to becareful moving around). Still it depends on the person. Just do research and ask questions and I hope you have a fun cruise.

ChicagoDallasGirl. friends did a back to back on the Summit and loved it.

As for ratings I have not been on Holland America but from the listings of lines agree NCL ranks last (been on NCL) Celebrity is on the top of my list for service, crew, etc.. and I don't know whether to put Holland above or below Celebrity, but Royal Caribbean (which I did sail once) is most likely a matter of choice and probably third. Interesting that nobody has mentioned Princess...with my experience on Pacific Princess I'd rate it above NCL

ChicagoDallasGirl, Aristotle answered your question for me.
The Summit should be fine. I had a poor experience recently with Celebrity so they are a bit lower on my book right now. Maybe it will go back up after the next experience. ParrotMom just loves Celebrity and hates Princess (she had a bad experience on a Princess small ship)

If you add Princess to the mix, I will rank Princess, HAL & Celebrity at similar level, RCL and Carnival next, and NCL last.

We too love Princess and I wondered why it was left out. Thanks Eschew for including it. We would rank it 1st over RCL and NCL. We've not yet sailed with HAL (but wouldn't hesitate to) or Celebrity.

I have been on 12 cruises, some with my partner, some with groups. All satisfy different needs so to speak but I would say that Celebrity was the most all inclusively satisfying of the bunch.
Different strokes for different folks.

ESCHEW -YOUR CORRECT..on our one and only Princess cruise as did our friends on the same cruise. iAttempting to finish up my long review of the Equinox and the one thing that stands out above all on any other ship or line is the exceptional service by the staff on this ship....right down to the moments we were debarking outside of Rome on a windy, raw and cold day. Each cruise was accompanied by a steward with a large umbrella down to the tent and stayed with us until we found our driver to take us to the airport and that was only one instance

Wow! Thanks everyone for your perspectives. Today we received a brochure from Princess advertising the very same/similar cruise route we're 99.9 percent sure we'll be booking with Celebrity. When I went to the website, tho, couldn't find the same special listed in the brochure. Also, everytime I log onto Princessdotcom, especially when I try to look at cabin virtual tours, it shuts down my internet explorer. At any rate, I think we're pretty sold on the Celebrity cruise at this point. If/when we book, I'll update the forum. Thanks again!

I would say Celebrity, then HAL, both are several notches better than the other 2 in all areas

ChicagoDallasGirl,

I just came back from my 1st cruise on the Celebrity Summit. Our cruise was from the November 6th-13th, 2010. Ask me anything you wish to ask me. My yahoo IM is the same as my name on here should you want to IM back and forth sometime.

By the way, you should totally book it!!!