Disney Cruise Line tops competitors in customer service survey

Disney Cruise Lines provides the best passenger experience of seven major cruise lines, reports J.D. Power's new study on cruise line satisfaction.

The report, released today, gives Disney a customer satisfaction score of 871 on a 1,000-point scale. This is significantly higher than the report average of 824 and the score, 838, of its next closest competitor, Royal Caribbean.

Outside of the major catastrophes that plagued the cruise season last year, 18 percent of all cruise passengers encounter at least one problem on their journey. The average is 1.8 problems per trip.

The likelihood of passengers returning for a second trip drops dramatically from 61 to 33 percent between passengers that experience zero to two or more problems.

Price is found to be the most important factor in attracting repeat customers and 53 percent of surveyed passengers say price is what initially attracted them to a brand.

The average cost per person is $1,628, although the price drops to $1,165 in groups of two or more.

The 2013 Cruise Line Satisfaction Report surveyed 3,003 passengers from cruises that took place in the last 12 months.

Below is the overall customer service satisfaction scores based on a 1,000-point scale for each cruise line: