How we verify what we publish

Most cruise listings on this bay are rewritten operator brochures. The specifications match the marketing because they came from the marketing, and when two operators contradict each other nobody says so.

We do something duller and more useful. Every figure we publish is checked against the operator’s own published material and against independent listings, and then labelled with how much agreement we found.

The four labels

Verified. At least two of the sources we read publish the same figure independently. This is the standard we hold most specifications to, and our content system refuses to publish a verified label with fewer than two corroborating sources.

Single-source. Exactly one of the sources we read publishes it — sometimes the operator, sometimes a single listing while the operator itself is silent, which is worth knowing and is why we do not call this label “operator-stated”. Treat it as a claim rather than a fact, and confirm it before you rely on it.

More than one figure published. Rather than pick the most flattering number we show every value we found and say what the range is. One boat was listed at twenty, eighteen and twelve cabins across different sites; tracing each back to its original page resolved it at twenty, and the outlier turned out to describe a different vessel entirely. We used to head this group “sources disagree” and dropped that wording, because a second figure is not always a contradiction. Cabin floor area is the clearest case: the numbers in circulation are usually the sizes of different cabin grades, so which one a listing prints depends on which room it happened to be describing. Where that is what is going on, the boat’s own page says so in words rather than leaving you with a warning label.

Not published. We do not know, the operator has not said, and we are not going to guess. Crew numbers and refit dates fall into this category most often.

What we do not claim

We have not sailed most of these boats. Where we have not, you will not find a figure on this site that could only come from being on board: no measured cabin areas, no noise readings, no scored meals. Several competitors publish exactly those numbers without explaining where they came from.

If that changes, measured figures will appear as a separate labelled group so you can tell at a glance which is which.

Prices

Every price shows the date we last checked it. Rates on this bay move with the season, and a price without a date is not information. We publish the operator’s own lowest advertised rate and add nothing to it. Our commission comes from the operator after you sail, which is why we can afford to tell you when a boat is not worth its price.

Corrections

If you operate one of these boats and we have a figure wrong, tell us and we will fix it and note the change. That includes figures that are wrong in your favour.