Virtuoso, one of the premier travel consortiums (I belong to another, Ensemble Travel Group), has voted Seabourn Cruise Lines as the best small ship cruise line. (A travel consortium is a group of affiliated, but independent, travel agencies.)

This “award” is far more relevant to me than, say, the Travel & Leisure/Conde Nast/Port Hole polls. The reason: It is voted on by generally high quality travel agents who have booked their clients on Seabourn and have to deal with Seabourn from a business perspective. And there is no ballot-stuffing possible.

I believe one of the keys to determining if a cruise line is good for the clients is how they respond to, and work with, travel agents.

I find Seabourn to simply be the best…without question.