Cruise control: Consideration holds steady amid dip in industry perception

Key takeaways:

• Buzz scores for cruise lines dropped from 4.1 in March 2025 to 2.3 by mid-September, reflecting steady negative press.
• Overall Index scores, a measure of brand health, slipped from 6.2 to 5.1 in the same period, showing softer consumer sentiment.
• Value perceptions fell most sharply, dropping from the mid-3s to below 2.0, as fewer Americans see cruises as good value for money.
• Despite declining perceptions, Consideration has held steady at around 5.2-5.4%, signaling continued intent to cruise among loyal travelers.

The US cruise industry has been weathering a slightly difficult period of public relations storms. A couple of high-profile documentaries — namely, Poop Cruise and a true-crime documentary named Amy Bradley is Missing — have kept negative narratives in the spotlight. This coverage appears to have had a slight impact on brand perceptions, but not enough to cause a meaningful impact to Consideration levels.

Buzz and Index scores have dipped

YouGov BrandIndex data shows that Buzz — which measures whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about a brand — has trended downward, dipping from 4.1 in March 2025 to 2.3 by mid-September. While the decline hasn’t been dramatic, it has been steady.

This dip in Buzz aligns with the overall Index score (a composite of several brand health metrics including Impression, Quality, Reputation, Satisfaction and Value). The Index score has edged down from 6.2 in March to 5.1 by September, signalling that consumers are feeling slightly less favorable overall towards cruise lines.

Unpacking the Index

Impression, which captures whether people have a generally positive or negative view of cruise lines, has softened from the mid-7s to the mid-6s over the same period. Quality and Reputation scores — which had been remarkably stable — have also begun to creep lower, dipping from around 9.0 in March to about 8.0 by September.

Value perceptions have seen the sharpest drop, going from the mid-3s to below 2.0, suggesting that consumers are less likely to see cruise lines as providing good value for money.

Consideration holds steady

Interestingly, despite the dip in sentiment across most brand health measures, Consideration has remained relatively stable. While there was a mild dip in July and August, it still hovers around 5.2–5.4%. This suggests that even as public perceptions sour, intent to take a cruise has not been hit as hard — perhaps reflecting the loyalty of the cruise-going demographic and the strong pull of the category for those already inclined to travel by sea.

Image Credit: Maurício Mascaro via Pexels

Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Buzz score is based on the question: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something positive/negative about?” Scores are reported as net scores from –100 to +100, based on daily surveys of US adults. Data is weighted using a propensity scoring methodology with targets from the American Community Survey (ACS) to ensure representation by age, gender, race, education, and region. Figures are shown as an 8-week moving average with a daily rolling sample size of 69,020 between 15 March and 14 September, 2025.