Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

That's why I am surprised the wife likes cruises.  She is a very quiet private kind of person.  The ship we were on in the Med had 4600 passengers and 2600 crew, the Norwegian Epic, which is surely was.  At dock, it was like a long skyscraper, 16 decks tall.  We had a nice balcony suite which worked, she said don't bother without a balcony.

We were able to find spaces where few others went, even restaurants that were relatively not crowded.  I was amused by the casinos they have on each ship, obviously a money maker for them.  Ha.  The last one we bought a fitness package and did that every morning, which kind of worked out for us.  This one had a rather different "clientel" than the one in Europe, same cruise line.

Anyway, I'll report back about Alaska etc.  D'you know the capitol of Alaska?  Yes it is.

That ship pretty much swallowed them up, only certain areas like the pool decks were crowded.  As I say, I'm surprised the wife liked it, but she did, so we're going back.

I don't care for crowds and noise myself (other than at CFB games I reckon).  I had a strong notion to do more river cruises as a way to see central Europe, but my one experience was not the greatest.  Like everything, if I pay more I probably get a better experience.  That ship was crowded and the berths were quite small.  It had nowhere really where one could get away from the crowds, and it had around 150 passengers.

The tours they had arranged were also largely boring.  We walked away from most of them after a third was done and did our own thing.  The tours were included in the price on that adventure, which was a group deal, all French speaking folks.  In Germany.  The wife did not like that one, I had to encourage her to do the western Med cruise, which she loved.   Some things are unexpected.

It's sort of interesting to me that the pools are consistently the most crowded area on a ship, as in packed.  Most are "sun bathing" and drinking.  Folks, you can do that at home easily enough in most cases.  The main pool will be amidships and often we'd want to go forward or aft and would try and do that on a lower deck.  We brought our suits and never used them.  They had a pretty nice basketball court above the largest poll that I used a bit playing around, often it was empty.  And yes, I can shoot hoops around here also.

I don't quite get the notion of shedding clothing in order to expose more skin (an Americans on cruise ships have a lot of skin) to radiation.  Folks who are scared of a nuclear power plant 100 miles away think nothing of "sun bathing" with the largest nuclear furnace in the neighborhood bearing down on them creating all sorts of free radicals.

I sometimes sit by the pool because that is where my daughters want to be

I wear my shorts and golf shirt, hat and sandals.  Never get in the water.  But, they will bring drinks.  It's fine for relaxing and people watching.

This is the same at a resort or on a ship.

I've been on 14 cruises and going on another in March.   We like waking up in different places each day and while we enjoy people, the ships allow you to also spread out.   Mostly we like the flexibility.   If I want to be active or explore a city/country... I can.  If I want to sit back and read a book, I can.   Plus, I like food.   We've found the food on Cruises to be better than resorts that are reasonably priced.  Please note, that is not the buffet's but the evening dinning.   Buffet's are pretty universal...

The luxury we have in 2019 is the variety of options for vacations.   People can choose and meet their preferences.   For some, that is cruising.  For others, it would be renting a house on an island or in mexico.    We are fortunate..

Bear in mind, I'm not criticizing cruises or the people who go on them. Just saying I can't imagine it being my thing. 
I like going to a city and walking around exploring. My wife always complains that she needs to buy new sneakers for every vacation because I'm going to "walk her to death". When we went to Europe last year, my step tracker said we walked 80 miles overall, with several days individually over 10 miles. I'll admit that's not for everyone either lol...

Bear in mind, I'm not criticizing cruises or the people who go on them. Just saying I can't imagine it being my thing.

I couldn't imagine it being my thing either, but I was pleasantly surprised.
first cruise was 25 years or so ago.  Went with the girlfriend's dental office.  Had to pay my way.  Their were about a dozen of us, mostly in our 20s, and we had people to experience the day or evening with or not.  Everyone got along very well.
last cruise was a few years ago with my two teenage daughters.  I enjoyed spending the time with them and let them do the choosing on our schedule each day and evening.  I was just along for the ride.
Both times, I thought being cooped up on a ship for long periods of time would be boring and brutal, but it wasn't at all.