How We Match

Step 1 — Hard filters

Before any scoring, candidates are excluded when they conflict with your chosen departure port, a firm travel window, your selected night bands, any cruise line you excluded, or an accessible-cabin requirement that the record cannot support with a confirmation path. If too few candidates survive, we relax soft preferences in a published order — cabin, onboard features, vibe, destination, night band, then a flexible date window — and we tell you exactly what was relaxed on the results page. We never silently relax your port, your exclusions, or accessibility needs.

Step 2 — The 100-point score

Each surviving pattern is scored against your answers:

• ◆Destination / itinerary fit — 20 points
• ◆Trip style / vibe fit — 20 points
• ◆Budget-band fit, using the record's planning band — 15 points
• ◆Traveler / party fit — 15 points
• ◆Departure-port convenience — 10 points
• ◆Cabin fit — 10 points
• ◆Requested onboard features — 10 points

Commission is not an input

Affiliate commission does not exist as a field in our catalog data model, so the ranking function cannot see it, sort by it, or be influenced by it. Sponsored placement does not exist in V1; if it is ever introduced, it will be labeled 'Sponsored' at the placement and kept outside the match score.

The catalog

Our catalog is human-curated: real lines, ships, ports, and itinerary patterns, each with editorial pros, an honest trade-off, traveler fit, and a verification date. It is not scraped inventory. Ships move and patterns change, so every record carries a 'deployment can change' warning and the booking partner confirms your exact sailing.

Prices and verification

CruisePalm shows planning bands — budgeting ranges per person before taxes, fees, gratuities, and add-ons — never dressed up as live fares. When we display a captured example fare, it names the partner, the basis, and the date it was captured. Our freshness rule: deal-type content is rechecked within 7 days or removed; evergreen examples within 30 days or downgraded to dated examples. Past sailings are removed, never left standing as if bookable.

Corrections

If a fare example, deployment, port rule, or ship fact is wrong, we correct or remove it and update the verification timestamp; material errors get a correction note on the page. Tell us through the contact page — corrections are a feature, not an embarrassment.