{"id":16594,"date":"2014-01-10T08:13:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T08:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/berlitz-star-ratings-and-expedition-ships-do-they-fit-the-model\/"},"modified":"2014-01-10T08:13:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T08:13:00","slug":"berlitz-star-ratings-and-expedition-ships-do-they-fit-the-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2014\/01\/berlitz-star-ratings-and-expedition-ships-do-they-fit-the-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlitz star ratings and expedition ships &#8211; do they fit the model?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" trbidi=\"on\">\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-cK_e6khYEk4\/Us-qiJ9O92I\/AAAAAAAAkdU\/oGVe0vKMWgg\/s1600\/MS+HANSEATIC+in+Antarctica-s.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-cK_e6khYEk4\/Us-qiJ9O92I\/AAAAAAAAkdU\/oGVe0vKMWgg\/s1600\/MS+HANSEATIC+in+Antarctica-s.jpg\" height=\"270\" width=\"400\"><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Hapag-Lloyd&#8217;s HANSEATIC &#8211; the only expedition ship rated five-star by Berlitz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The first thing anyone should know about \u2018star ratings\u2019 and expedition ships is that they don\u2019t fit the model devised by Douglas Ward for ranking conventional cruise ships.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of chandeliers and waist-coated service staff, investment goes directly into passenger enrichment. Knowledgeable and tertiary-qualified guides, expedition equipment (Zodiacs, diving kit etc) and the costs involved with operating small groups in remote and inhospitable environments with little or no infrastructure make small ship adventure cruising an expensive business. Passengers invariably come for the destination-focussed experience, not the all-night buffet or cabaret shows.<\/p>\n<p>So when you see a lowly star-rating against any of these ships which are booked to near-capacity all year round, don\u2019t equate this with the quality of expedition experience offered.<\/p>\n<p>And if you want to toss around \u2018five-star\u2019 as some in the industry are prone to do, then you must be talking about Hapag-Lloyd\u2019s Hanseatic, far and away the world\u2019s top expedition ship \u2013 as far as Berlitz is concerned at any rate \u2013 and the only one to achieve their five star rating.<br \/><b><br \/><\/b><b>Berlitz Rated Expedition and Adventure Cruise Ships<\/b><\/p>\n<table bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\">\n<br \/><b>Vessel<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hanseatic\t\t<br \/>Silver Explorer\t<br \/>Hebridean Princess\t<br \/>Orion\t\t\t<br \/>Caledonian Sky\t<br \/>Bremen\t\t<br \/>Corinthian II\t\t<br \/>Le Boreal \t\t<br \/>L\u2019Austral\t\t<br \/>Firty Years of Victory\t<br \/>Tere Moana\t\t<br \/>Celebrity Expedition\t<br \/>Le Ponant\t\t<br \/>Fram\t\t\t<br \/>Clipper Odyssey\t<br \/>Galapagos Explorer II\t<br \/>Sea Spirit\t\t<br \/>Ocean Diamond\t<br \/>Akademik Ioffe\t<br \/>Polar Pioneer\t\t<br \/>Ortelius\t\t<br \/>Clipper Adventurer\t<br \/>Spirit of Enderby\t<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\">\n<b>Points\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n<p>1746<br \/>1684<br \/>1680<br \/>1612<br \/>1601<br \/>1553<br \/>1546<br \/>1543 <br \/>1543<br \/>1448<br \/>1415<br \/>1404<br \/>1385<br \/>1321<br \/>1245<br \/>1244<br \/>1222<br \/>1222<br \/>1065<br \/>996\t<br \/>963\t<br \/>948 <br \/>947\t<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\">\n<b>Rating<\/b><\/p>\n<p>5 Star<br \/>4.5 star<br \/>4.5 star<br \/>4.5 Star<br \/>4.5 star<br \/>4.5 star<br \/>4 star<br \/>4 Star<br \/>4 Star<br \/>4 star<br \/>4 star<br \/>4 star<br \/>3.5 star<br \/>3.5 star<br \/>3 star<br \/>3 star<br \/>3.5 star<br \/>3.5 star<br \/>2.5 star<br \/>2 star<br \/>2.5 star<br \/>2 star<br \/>2 star<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/hapaglloydcruises.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/berlitz2012.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/hapaglloydcruises.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/berlitz2012.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"132\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p><i><br \/><\/i><i>Source: Ward, Douglas (2012-09-15). Berlitz: Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships 2013 (Berlitz Cruise Guide) (Kindle Location 28488). APA. Kindle Edition.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hapag-Lloyd&#8217;s HANSEATIC &#8211; the only expedition ship rated five-star by Berlitz The first thing anyone should know about \u2018star ratings\u2019 and expedition ships is that they don\u2019t fit the model devised by Douglas Ward for ranking conventional cruise ships. Instead of chandeliers and waist-coated service staff, investment goes directly into passenger enrichment. Knowledgeable and tertiary-qualified [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}