It is just as important to know what you don't want in a cruise as what you do want. In my case, I do not want to go on "Booze Cruises" or cruises catering to families with children. So I have learned to pick my cruises very carefully to avoid going on trips on which I would feel I've wasted my money.
Avoiding booze cruises is relatively easy. Think of a typical long weekend. It's usually 3-4 days long. When I see a cruise which lasts less than 5 days, I assume that the cruise will be filled with young adults who want to party - and hard. Yet, they may be perfect for some people. I see them for what they are and avoid them like the plague. There are exceptions to this rule of thumb. For example, if Disney offered a 4 day cruise, I'd bet that it would cater to a family friendly clientele, and that one would rarely see anyone who is three sheets to the wind.
Often, people do not want to be on a cruise that will have families with children, As a result, many in this demographic avoid cruise lines such as Disney, avoid cruises during school vacation periods, and avoid cruises of less than 10 days. Additionally, they may choose to cruise on cruise lines such as Virgin or Viking (adults only lines) to ensure that they do not bump into children while on the cruise ship.
Many people like to gamble and smoke on cruise ships. Many others do not. If I wanted to gamble, I'd avoid ships like the Pride of America, or cruise ships from Disney which do not have casinos onboard. In general, finding ships without casinos is a little bit more tricky, as most major cruise lines' ships have some sort of casino. Unfortunately, to get from one place to another on the ship, one will need to walk through the casino area, an area which is usually smoke-filled, as it is one of the few areas where one can smoke on a mainstream cruise ship. So, if one wants a tolerably smoke-free journey, one may want to avoid older ships which do not have a closed off casino area for smokers.
The larger the ship, the fewer the number of ports where it can dock. Although this isn't important to that many people, it can be important to people who want to travel to more exotic places. Many ships use tender boats to reach small ports, which means that mobility challenged people may not be able to get off the ship and enjoy the port. If one falls into this category of cruisers, one should contact the cruise line to find out whether the ship uses a tender boat to bring people to/from the shore. On many of the cruises I've been on, at least one of the ports requires tendering to go ashore, making it impossible for the wheelchair bound to enjoy the port. Why is this important? There are many destinations that can only be reached by tender boat, and mobility challenged people would be advised to avoid cruises that are tender boat port intensive.
There are so many things that turn people off from cruising, many of which are having the wrong expectations of a cruise before it sets sail. The best thing one can do is to be careful in selecting a cruise, making sure that the cruise fits one's needs as well as possible.
