SPECIAL CRUISE ISSUE : CRUISE FAVORITES : THE VOTES ARE IN ON OUR SECOND READER SURVEY

Your ships have come in, and there are 121 of them.

That’s how many names surfaced when, as part of our second cruise survey, we asked readers to tell us their favorite cruise ship.

First in line by a wide margin was the Crystal Harmony, lone vessel of Los Angeles-based Crystal Cruises (until the line floats a second ship in May) and a consistent favorite: The same ship was the winner of our last survey in 1992.

In this year’s tally, the Crystal Harmony drew 16% of the 800 votes cast--more than twice as many as its nearest competitor. It not only prevailed @among travelers age 65 and over--those who most often have the time and money to cruise on a high-end luxury ship--but also among travelers 50 to 64 and those 49 and younger.

“Large room. Good shows. Great food,” wrote Crystal Harmony enthusiast Gilbert Bezar of Laguna Beach, wasting no syllables.

The No. 2 ship was the Crown Odyssey (operated by the San Francisco-based Royal Cruise Line) with 6% of the vote, followed by the Royal Princess (operated by the Los Angeles-based Princess Cruises) with just under 5%.

Other survey results showed that St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was the favorite port (atop a list of runners-up that was striking for its global variety) and the Caribbean was the favorite itinerary. Both of those results may owe something to the law of averages: Since the Caribbean is the most popular cruise itinerary, it stands to reason that more cruisers have sampled it. And among Caribbean ports, St. Thomas is the one most often visited.

Our survey was open to any reader who took the time to return a ballot by mail, fax or computer (the survey was distributed electronically via the new TimesLink on-line service on Prodigy) and entirely unscientific. (Thus it includes the vote cast by Sherry Sbarsky, a Sherman Oaks travel agent and veteran of 18 cruises who named Crystal Harmony as her favorite ship, adding: “She is luxury, she is family.” Indeed she is. Though her ballot didn’t mention it, Sherry Sbarsky is married to Art Sbarsky, Crystal Cruises’ senior vice president for marketing.)

On the whole, the readers who wrote us proved to be a well-traveled bunch. Most were retirement age (including the woman who added “just barely” to her mark indicating that she was 65 or older). Of the 800 who responded, 297 reported that they had taken five or fewer cruises, 240 reported six to 10, 161 reported 11 to 20. And 102 respondents claimed they have taken a whopping 20 or more cruises. Some even volunteered that ships matter more to them than ports.

“Why leave the ship?” asked Mark Bevan of Pasadena, declining to name a favorite port.

These cruisers also had champagne-and-caviar tastes. Among the three most popular ships, average costs per person, per day begin at around $275. Winner Crystal Cruises estimates its average passenger in 1995 will pay $417 per day in fares, excluding air travel. Meanwhile, highly successful Carnival Cruise Lines, whose nine ships tend to draw younger travelers and feature more animated night life, estimates its average brochure rates at $200 per person, per day. None of Carnival’s ships placed in the top 10 named by our readers.

But nearly every cruise ship floating--and at least one that isn’t--has a devotee somewhere among the readers who returned ballots between Jan. 15 and Feb. 3. (The New York-based Cruise Line International Assn. last year counted 111 member ships and 20 non-member ships doing business with travelers from North America.)

The non-floating choice, for the record, was the Achille Lauro, named by Sarah Heath of Ventura. Heath boarded the Achille Lauro in Genoa, Italy, in 1988, when the ship and its Italian crew were operating on a charter basis. Heath remembers being the only American aboard (most of the other passengers were South African) and cruising south for 17 days along the coast of Africa, winding up at Durban, South Africa.

“There was so much warmth to that ship, and she had terrific public rooms and lots of little nooks and crannies where you could go and tuck away with a book,” Heath recalls. “The officers and crew were truly gallant.”

The Achille Lauro is better known, however, for its hijacking in 1985, when Palestinian guerrillas seized the ship in the Mediterranean, killed Jewish American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and dumped his body overboard. Then last December, the ship’s engine room caught fire 125 miles off the coast of Somalia. Three passengers were killed, and about 500 were safely evacuated in lifeboats as the Achille Lauro sank.

The ships at the top of our survey results have less-eventful histories. In fact, none of the top three is more than 11 years old.

The Crystal Harmony, inaugurated in 1990, holds 960 passengers in 480 state rooms. It features an unconventional dinner scheme, which many readers praised: two seatings in a main dining room and two “alternative” restaurants, one Italian and one Japanese, that serve from 6-10 p.m. Today, the ship is in the Strait of Magellan. The ship’s 1995 itinerary takes it to South America, through the Panama Canal and around Europe.

(Crystal Cruises in May will introduce its second ship, the Crystal Symphony, with a trans-canal voyage from New York to Los Angeles. That ship will offer Italian and Chinese alternative restaurants.)

Runner-up Crown Odyssey, inaugurated in 1988, holds 1,050 passengers in 520 state rooms and is scheduled to spend 1995 around the Panama Canal, Hawaii and Europe. Its average cost per passenger, per day: $275, assuming double occupancy, but excluding air fare. Today, the ship is heading north from Acapulco toward San Diego. Crown Odyssey serves a predominantly older crowd and, like other Royal Cruise Line ships, is known for its corps of “hosts”--senior gentlemen recruited by the line to even out numbers on the dance floor.

“They take intimate care of every passenger--rare for a large ship,” wrote Robert Lerner of Valley Center, in San Diego County. Lerner, a veteran of nine cruises, took a Crown Odyssey itinerary to Scandinavian capitals two years ago.

The third-placed Royal Princess, launched in 1984, holds 1,200 passengers in 600 state rooms and this year will cruise the Panama Canal, Europe, Canada and New England. This is the line made famous by television as “The Love Boat,” and this ship is praised by its followers for featuring all outside cabins (with outdoor views) and a bathtub in every cabin. The Royal Princess’ average cost per passenger, per day: $350-$400. Today, the ship is at the Caribbean island of Curacao, heading west toward a canal passage.

“We found the ship very warm and friendly, and not too extremely formal--yet elegant,” wrote Gale Lyman of Anaheim. She and her husband cruised the Mediterranean last year on the Royal Princess.

Among other readers’ favorite ships: The Rotterdam (Holland America Line) ranked fourth; the Majesty of the Seas (Royal Caribbean Cruise Line), fifth (and among cruisers younger than 50, second only to Crystal Harmony); Viking Serenade (Royal Caribbean), sixth; Royal Viking Sun (Cunard Royal Viking), seventh; Sun Viking (Royal Caribbean), eighth; Norway (Norwegian Cruise Line), ninth; and Sagafjord (Cunard Royal Viking), 10th. The Noordam, Star Princess, Sovereign of the Seas and Island Princess were close behind.

In the balloting among ports, St. Thomas was a conclusive winner: That U.S. Virgin island--the busiest in the Caribbean with 1.2-million cruise-passenger arrivals in 1994--drew 10% of the vote from our readers, substantially more than any other. Most readers were pleased by the shopping possibilities and general scenery of Charlotte Amalie, the island’s port town. (There is, however, another side to that town that cruisers usually don’t see: The death of a tourist from San Diego last April focused attention on escalating crime problems on the island.)

The runner-up among ports showed how widely our respondents had traveled: After St. Thomas was Venice, Italy, well ahead of Istanbul, Turkey, which edged out Hong Kong, which ran safely ahead of Juneau, Alaska. St. Petersburg, Russia; Singapore and St. Maarten were foremost among the also-rans. Readers said their prime reasons for favoring one port over another were scenic beauty and shopping possibilities.

Given the wide popularity of St. Thomas--and the year-round nature of the cruise industry in that region--the Caribbean was a shoo-in among cruise itineraries.

More than 27% of those responding chose the Caribbean first, giving it almost exactly twice as many votes as the runner-up, the Mediterranean. Alaska ran third followed by the Panama Canal, the Mexican Riviera and Scandinavia.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Top 10 Cruise Ships Crystal Harmony: 16.0% Crown Odyssey: 6.0% Royal Princess: 4.9% Rotterdam: 4.1% Majesty of the Seas: 2.9% Viking Serenade: 2.8% Royal Viking Sun: 2.8% Sun Viking: 2.5% Norway: 2.1% Sagafjord: 2.1% *

Top 10 Ports of Call St. Thomas: 9.9% Venice: 5.2% Istanbul: 3.7% Hong Kong: 3.6% Juneau: 2.5% St. Petersburg: 2.4% Singapore: 2.1% St. Maarten: 2.1% Grand Cayman: 2.0% Curacao: 1.8% Sydney: 1.8% *

Top 10 Itineraries Caribbean: 27.7% Mediterranean: 13.9% Alaska: 12.1% Panama Canal: 11.1% Mexican Riviera: 5.4% Scandinavia: 5.1% Far East / Southeast Asia: 4.9% South Pacific: 3.4% Greek Islands: 3.0% Europe: 2.9%

Cruise Experience Survey included 800 respondents. Here is the number of cruises those respondents said they had taken:

of cruises Respondents 1.5 297 6.10 240 11.20 161 20+ 102