Wealthy consumers rated Disney Cruise Lines’ website the top cruise line site in the Luxury Institute’s 2007 Luxury Website Effectiveness Index survey for Cruise Lines. Crystal Cruises’ website ranks a distant second while Royal Caribbean’s website rated third place among the 11 cruise line websites reported.

“Cruise lines, like travel firms, tend to have customer-friendly websites,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. “We were surprised, though, that many cruise lines have traffic that is so low that they cannot be rated in a statistical sample. And, the wealthy will travel on luxury and non-luxury cruise line brands depending on the needs of their kids, parents and other family members. It is pure fallacy to believe that wealthy consumers live only a life of luxury. They are also the best clients of mainstream cruise lines. Since most are self-made and from maintain middle-class values, they are as likely to consume non-luxury brands as luxury brands. That is the freedom that wealth buys.”

Brands rated, in alphabetical order, include: Carnival Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Viking River Cruises, and Windstar Cruises.

The proprietary Luxury Website Effectiveness Index survey is the only measure of the effectiveness of leading brand websites to wealthy Americans. A national sample of wealthy American consumers, with a minimum household income of $150,000, was surveyed online. Survey results are weighted to match demographic and net worth profiles of the same audience according to the latest Survey of Consumer Finances from The Federal Reserve.
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