What a great writeup! Thanks for doing so. I've from time to time wondered what those sorts of cruises are like. For comparison, I've done a bunch of day-trip scenic cruises in a variety of different sorts of boats/ships, and loved those. While I adore boats in general, the focus during the day-trip cruises has either been the scenery itself, or in the case of a couple of cruises aboard old tall ships, on the boats themselves. I've wondered what the longer cruises are like... when you're at sea for days on end, the scenery can't really be the focus of the trip in the same kind of way. Does that mean that the community and activities provided on the boat become the focus?
I did actually spend a month at sea on a ship in 1975 - my family emigrated to Australia by ship during the last years of that program. However, the ship was, um, rather bargain-basement in its amenities (it was being re-painted internally as we sailed; the food was horrible and by the end of the trip a large number of passengers had come down with gastro-enteritis) - but I have the sneaking suspicion that using that trip as a model for cruising in general may be a little misleading. :-7
ETA: Here's some info about the Australis by someone who seems to have been rather a lot fonder of her than most of the passengers who I recall travelling with in 1975.
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I did actually spend a month at sea on a ship in 1975 - my family emigrated to Australia by ship during the last years of that program. However, the ship was, um, rather bargain-basement in its amenities (it was being re-painted internally as we sailed; the food was horrible and by the end of the trip a large number of passengers had come down with gastro-enteritis) - but I have the sneaking suspicion that using that trip as a model for cruising in general may be a little misleading. :-7
ETA: Here's some info about the Australis by someone who seems to have been rather a lot fonder of her than most of the passengers who I recall travelling with in 1975.