In an earlier post, I said that I hate cruising.

Too harsh? Maybe I should have gone with “cruising is not my style of travel” instead.

It certainly is for many people. I know there are a lot of big ship fans and I gather the industry is very profitable and growing.

So, why am I not a fan of spending a week or more in a floating resort with thousands of strangers? Despite being smack in the middle of the cruising demo?

Let’s start with the fact that most of the time on a trip like we took is spent on the ship. A contained space where most of the staff seems to be dedicated to selling stuff to us “guests”. Alcohol, upscale dining, jewelry, photos, casino games, excursions. And fine art for some reason I can’t figure.

The other side is that we didn’t get much time in the ports. We were generally able to get off the boat around 8am, which allowed for some pretty nice morning light. But the deadline to be back on board 5pm, or earlier. That didn’t allow for much exploring, even in the smallest towns.

Then there are the “sea days”, where all the attempts to keep us occupied in the evenings are stretched to the full day and night. Lots of time to read and watch downloaded videos on the tablet. Fortunately, this particular cruise only had two of them.

Let’s face it: at its core, cruising is pretty much the same as any other “resort” vacation. Where you go to a fancy hotel at the beach or the mountains, with the goal to spend most of your time “relaxing”. And, as I’ve ranted about previously, that is not at all my kind of travel.

Anyway, I should note that everything in this post only applies to ocean cruising. I have never tried the river variety, which, I’m told is a very different experience.

However, I will be discovering those differences for myself in the near future.

Next fall, we will be joining my brother and his wife to celebrate his retirement on a much smaller ship, sailing down the Danube River.

Not my choice. We sometimes do things for family that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves (as evidenced by the fact I booked the Canada cruise for my wife).

But I will certainly be writing a post or two when we return from that trip.

The photo shows a part of our big ship that we aren’t meant to see. I wish they would have offered a tour into that section since that would make for far better images than the public areas.