I was on one as a kid (my dad had a job on the ship) and it was fun. But I wouldn’t do it today since the ships are floating petri dishes for respiratory illnesses.

Never been and zero inclination to go on an ocean cruise for the reasons you mentioned and anecdotal horror stories I’ve heard- but I am intrigued by river cruises. With those you can spend time on the boat but also pretty frequent stops and if anything goes sideways you’ve got land on either side.

Bill Burr’s bit on cruise ships sums up how I’ve always felt on the matter.

I’ve been on 2 cruises and enjoyed them, which still kinda shocks me because I’m generally an introvert who doesn’t like going to crowded places. However there are a few reasons I liked the cruises I took and would consider going on one again:

1. The first cruise only had 1 “at sea” day (out of 7). The rest of the days we were in a port. The 2nd cruise did have 2 at sea days but they were at the beginning and end of the cruise. I’d probably stick with just 1 at sea day if looking at a cruise in the future.

2. To me the ship is just the hotel. It’s where I sleep, and the food is decent with the added bonus that I don’t have to cook or wash the dishes. With the cruises I went on, we got deals where it was cheaper per night than sleeping in many hotels. And we never had a problem finding some quiet corner to hang out if we didn’t want to be in our room when we were on the boat.

3. I didn’t take any tours offered through the cruise. Instead we would get off the boat and use public transportation or a cab to take us to where we wanted to explore for the day. This let us avoid the cruise crowds.

4. I didn’t feel much sales pressure. Yes they mentioned a couple times about getting a deal if you book your next cruise before the one I was on finished, but I knew I wasn’t interested. I just ignored it and no one bothered me about it. I also didn’t have any presentations I had to sit through either.

It’s definitely not the only way I’d vacation, but I’d take a cruise again under certain circumstances.

I love them. I would reply more on why but hate typing on my phone. But I’ve been on six of them between 7 and 14 days. They give you the ability to get a taste of different areas and the entertainment on the ship is usually good. I’ve never felt “trapped” on a ship as they are very big. I have another cruise booked later this year and looking forward to it. I’m an introvert too. I know some people like the interaction with other people but that really isn’t my thing but I do like cruising.

Took my mom on an Alaska cruise. I was very nervous about it and expected to hate it, but it was fun. Not nearly as claustrophobic and boring as i expected. We had a balcony so we spent a lot of time outside watching water animals and looking for land animals and eagles. When we travel city to city we always try to do two nights in each place so we don’t have to repack everything every day. It was kind of nice to see different things each day and return to a room with my book and phone charger on the nightstand. I have friends who’ve been on many cruises and talk about early/late dinner seating to get to the show and pack dinner clothes. We just wandered into whatever restaurant or pub sounded good that night. The food was fine. We went to one show and it was so bad that i complained to the cruise director. The other nights we went to the jazz bar or karaoke bar after dinner. I saw groups sitting in the closed buffet area late at night playing games and i thought that would be fun for a gathering where no one has to drive home.

My wife and I went on a 3 day cruse to test our sea legs and we did enjoy the cruise for the most part.
Buffet food was fine and the entertainment was good. We sprung for a double room with a balcony and it was like a small hotel room.
Had no problem with the bed, boarding, or disembarking.

Our only issue was the ship was anchored in deep mooring for 2 of the 3 days for repairs so we didn’t really get the full sea leg testing we wanted.

I went on a cruise 20 years ago with my family. We drove to New Orleans and stayed a couple days there before boarding the ship and hitting a couple spots in Mexico. Overall, the cruise was fine, but I actually enjoyed our time in New Orleans more. Some notable things from the cruise: -Security at the Mexican ports were packing some heat. I saw security personnel with Uzis and M16s. -The ship had a clothing-optional tanning deck, and I found it equal parts amusing and awkward to be walking with my parents among a bunch of topless/naked people laying around. For context, I was 18 and raised in a conservative christian household, so I hadn’t really been exposed (heh) to that kind of thing before. -The food on the ship was fine. They had a soda fountain and small pizza bar available 24 hrs/day. -A hurricane was entering the gulf towards the end of our cruise, which ruined our snorkeling activity. The waves wouldn’t let us swim very far from the shore. At least we got refunded for that part. -On the way back to NO, we sailed on the outskirts of said hurricane, so the waters were decently rough. Luckily, I don’t get motion sickness, but evidently, just about everyone else did. I got bored sitting in the cabin with my seasick family, so I walked around the ship. It was kinda eerie seeing almost no one else as I was walking around.

I don’t think I would do another cruise, since for that kind of money, I’d rather take a trip that I would enjoy more, not to mention the environmental impact those ships have.

I haven’t, but I’ve stayed at resorts and don’t think that I’d like cruises because of what I do at resorts.

I like to give myself time at each location, getting to know it for several days. I might get to know the ship in that time, but I feel like it is just getting to know the resort instead of the destination. The only caveat to that would be a place like Disney World, which is gigantic.

I’m also interested in things like local culture and food, which isn’t something you are going to get on a cruise ship.

The experience looks to be cheaper, but I’d rather pay to stay on location.

I did my first cruise this year, and honestly had an absolute blast. However, the extremely important factor here is that it was a gay cruise (from the company Atlantis), and so it was absolutely nothing like the standard experience. For one week in the Caribbean, it was basically just a giant non-stop party. No kids, no entitled retirees, just you and 5000 other gay men trying to enjoy as much debauchery as can be fit into a week.

There were some port stops as well which were nice, but the main draw was very much the parties that would go on all night and through the morning. The music and production was incredible, and most of the other entertainment options were also swapped out for more gay-oriented options, so instead of bingo or whatever it is the boomers do, it was drag queens doing Britney Spears singalongs and things like that. And because everyone is gay, there’s already a shared common experience and identity so people tend to be very friendly and welcoming.

Also, if you’re single or otherwise available, the amount of sex you could have is genuinely ridiculous, though I was there with my boyfriend so we mostly just enjoyed the parties and made some great new friends. I had such a fun time, contrary to my expectations, that we’ve actually signed up to do another one in Europe later this summer, and that winter Caribbean cruise will probably become an annual thing for us.

This was a fantastic read, thanks! It confirms I will never go on a cruise!

I went on one when I was 16. I enjoyed it, there was an arcade and a water slide and all the pizza and ice cream I could eat, so I was pretty much set for the week. There were other teens my age there, so I had made friends that week, which was fun even though I never talked to them again after the cruise. It was my parents first cruise, and they enjoyed it so much that they have become regular cruisers. I haven’t been back on one, as I didn’t have the money and now my wife doesn’t want to go on one, so it will remain a very fun thing I’ll never get to do again.

I worked on a Royal Carribean ship once. It was cool, I worked late so got off every day at dock and got public transport to the nearest town then had a walk round or visited a small free museum then I had a nice meal and a beer before going back to work.

For the ship I was on it mostly stayed in port for the full day, return times were like 4 or 5, for me getting off is important, but for many people on the ship (which it sounds like this guy hung around with) the ship IS the destination and they spend all day in the pool, in the restaurants, it sounded mind numbing to me! I think those people are quite culty, a lot of them are on their 100th+ cruise and if you do talk to them they only really talk about cruises. We were docked at a port next to another Royal ship once and this couple were telling me that they were on that one the week after for a full atlantic cruise which doesn’t dock at all, then onto the carribean after, I have no idea if they had a home.

I will say though, American cruisers are a different breed to European, they wear customised shirts and decorate their doors, we don’t do that here, or didn’t when I was there.

Didn’t David Foster Wallace write about the cruise experience, trying to find comfort in luxury but realizing it left you only wanting more? That’s always been my perception of cruises.

That article is what happens when you give a grade 9 student a thesaurus for Christmas.