There are better bangs for your buck than cruising IMO (unless you live in Florida), and usually don’t involve 135 sq ft puny rooms to holed up in or with 3-4k people including a ton of little kids. I travel to the Caribbean a LOT (just got back from Grenada on a free trip to Sandals in fact), Europe and all over the US (both for work and pleasure on the last two) and the math on the cruise ships just don’t work that well unless you are willing to stay in the super small entry level rooms, don’t drink very much on vacation, and simply unwilling to do research to find alternatives. Cruise ships are for inexperienced travelers IMO.
There are many different levels of cruises....adults only for instance.
Also, I keep hearing this 3 to 4 thousand passengers number being thrown around.......I guess the ships are that big now but personally I’ve never been on one with more the 2k people and it wasn’t crowded at all.
Also, I would bet that the cuisine on a cruise ship would rival anything at a sandals resort.....possibly even surpass it.
I like cruseing. You just have to take it for what it is. They try their hardest to keep you well fed and entertained. There is food everywhere 24 hours a day. There is always a deck somewhere that’s empty no matter how many people are on board. There is plenty of opportunity for exercise and swimming. And there is usually a magic show somewhere on board every evening. Blow off the gambling and the time-constricting formal meals and just have a good time on your own schedule. I recall on the first night out of a cruise to Halifax sitting in a steam room drinking ice water, looking out of a picture window watching the sun set over the North Atlantic, and listening to Pavorati sing Nessus Dorma - not bad for $800 for a 7 day cruise for two.
Could you point out some good ways of enjoying water based Vaca that would be more financially savvy? Pm if you prefer?