Can you trust Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and TripAdvisor Reviews on Ships and Hotel Rooms?

 The quick answer to whether or not you can trust Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and TripAdvisor's reviews of 

Cruises - is Sometimes but your better options are RECENT Cruise Passenger Videos posted on u tube. 

Heres some suggestions if using the cruise passenger reviews on the three major Cruise Critic, Cruiseline and Tripadvisor sites

- Only a few passengers post their review on these sites. Most of the typical 2000 plus passengers on any cruise don't post about their experience.  So you are not  getting the full picture of what your might experience 

- You mostly get the extreme points of view on these sites - they loved it or hated it. The haters have usually had a bad experience with their cabin, their bill or the food. The lovers are often newbies or frequent guests for that cruise line.  

- Most cruisers review the food offered and I always think that is to personal taste so don't pay much attention to them .  I do listen  to whether or not the service or temperature of the food was good. I often find that reviewers are right about speed of service and food temperature.  They also give you forewarning on the buffets (crowds, variety of food). 

- Most cabin reviews are about the size, cleanliness, room steward service, showers and bed comfort.  I like the tips people provide on getting bed toppers (always as must on MSC and RCCL as they have very hard mattresses).  Whether or not showers leak and provide good hot water.  Very few passengers have issues with Room stewards, but when they say they never see their room steward or its poor I make sure I watch for this onboard.  I prefer the walk thru videos on cruise mapper or u-tube as these are usually in-depth. I find the Harr Travel videos on cabins particularly useful.

- Overall ship reviews often help you with how badly maintained a ship is including rust, old furniture, old mattresses and whether or not they have a decent promenade deck.  

I like the videos posted on line the best as you can visually see the cabins, shared spaces and often they show menus and the food. I find the commentary is sometimes helpful but not always.  Look for the most recently posted videos and avoid the ones posted by the cruise lines as these are professionally shot and often don't depict current  reality.

As for Hotel reviews I like the ones on Booking.com and Expedia as they are from guests that have stayed there. Again go for the most recent reviews and watch for tips on location, how to get to the hotel from the airport, restaurants nearby and of course any issues with cleanliness and or bed bugs.  I also like posted videos and pictures of the rooms and area around the hotels.  I always book hotels with average ratings of 8 and above out of 10.  I also always read the worst rated reviews as these give you insights on possible issues. 

I hope this helps

Marcia