We (my fiance and I) recently returned from a cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a short, 5-day cruise, just to see if we even liked cruises. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise. We had a good enough time, but both agreed that we’re not likely to ever do it again.
I guess I was raised watching Love Boat just enough to have an expectation that all was luxurious and relaxing on a cruise. This expectation was not met.
First of all, a cruise is basically a floating communist Russia. We stood in line for everything. There was always a crowd, no matter where you were or what you were doing. This does not make for a relaxing vacation. That whole “24 hour food thing”? Well, it’s true, but the truth is it has to be 24 hours because you have to stand in line so long to get it. This doesn’t apply, of course, to formal meals in the dining room, just *all* other food.
The entertainment on board the ship was pretty poor and extremely amateurish. We sat through it anyway to try to get some enjoyment out of it. It didn’t work very well, but we were gonna die trying!
There were TONS of kids. Kids everywhere. If you don’t like kids, don’t go on a cruise, because they completely monopolize the pool areas, and even some of the lounge areas, so you can’t really use them in peace. The parents who bring these kids on board are clearly of the mind that there’s no need to keep an eye on their kids because they’re on a boat. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit. Maybe they never watch their kids.
There were other issues as well. I’m a geek, and they had wireless access, and I asked the person in charge where the signal spread to, and she said throughout this really big bar/lounge area. My next question was where I could plug in my laptop, and she pointed to an outlet… the *only* outlet in the entire area! The rest of the outlets are some special connector specifically for vacuum cleaners. So wireless did not offer much in the way of freedom unless I wanted to watch my battery drain.
The beds were not comfortable, the rooms were very small, the shower water pressure sucked, and the temperature of the water would go from cold to *scalding* hot at least 2 or 3 times during a shower.
We might just as well have gone camping. At least our expectations would have been met!