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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Cruise Information, July 10, 2004
"Porthole" is a magazine about cruising, and is generally informative and interesting. The format has recently been enlarged by the publisher, which is a big improvement. The magazine is a glossy, color spectacle that deals mostly with reviews of ships and itineraries, with some superficial human interest articles thrown in for good measure. In general "Porthole" is more about visceral impressions of ships and cruises rather than about hard, factual information, which is largely to its detriment. For that reason, I prefer "Cruise Travel" magazine, which has a more thorough analysis of current topics, particularly in their itinerary reviews and "Ship of the Month" sections. Interestingly, I recently got both "Porthole" and "Cruise Travel" on the same day and both of them had as the cover story Holland America's new "Oosterdam". While "Porthole" showed some nice photos largely of common areas and talked about how spacious it was, "Cruise Travel" detailed the new ship's layout, size of different class cabins, itinerary review, facilities and features, fares, etc. To me the information in "Cruise Travel" was unquestionably superior, although the "Porthole" photographs were nicer. I enjoy reading "Porthole", and particularly enjoy the coverage of more obscure expeditions, such as the recent (June 2004) article on European river cruises. The coverage of the 'Queen Mary 2' was also excellent, particularly the excellent photographs. Overall, I think Porthole is a good magazine, but not the best in the category. For that try "Cruise Travel".
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