Article "Is there anything we can't do on a cruise?"

NYTimes Article says there are 5 "new" directions designed to pull in more pax:

Younger/Families

River Cruises

Distant Ports (Beyond the Caribbean)

Entertainment (incl. HAL's DWTS)

Mega Ships & Amenities

Link: http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/travel/cruise-lines-serve-a-growing-buffet-of-options.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Interesting reading, thanks for sharing. DH and I are considering our first river cruise in Europe in the summer of 2014, so I guess the new directions in marketing are working.

Thank you for the link.

Enjoyed the reading.

Thanks for the link. You won't see us on a mega ship.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting, I'm with KirkNY, I don't think I'll be on any of those mega ships any time soon.

Good article. There is something for everybody in cruising but not on every ship. A mega ship worked out great for us on a recent three generation family cruise at Christmas but when we cruise by ourselves we make a different choice.

The more the mega ships are hyped the more we're driven to the smaller cruise lines and their ships. We simply do not want to be on floating resort, at least not in the sense that the ship tries to be all things to all people all the time. We're destination cruisers meaning we cruise to visit different ports and countries. Sure it's kind of a "sail-by-visit" and certainly no immersion but it makes us happy. While we understand it's what some want, and that's just fine, the ship is not our destination and, in fact, the thought of more than two or three sea days in a row turns us off and with a few exceptions would probably keep us from picking an itinerary.

I usually don't like to use the word never, but in the case of a mega ship I can say we'll never be on one.

The mega ships hold no attraction for us. We started on ships that only held 425 people and loved it. I have friends that only want to sail on the big ones and that's OK as long as I don't have to go along. :D

I'm open to trying them all ...loved both Freedom of the Seas Carnival Dream and NCL EPIC ...all different all wonderful even QM@2 was great

I love ships ....the only little guy was Ocean Princess ...handled seas well but entertainment was a real DUD but itinerary was GREAT

Size does not matter ///a ship has so many fine qualities !!!

Nice article. Thanks for sharing!

My husband and I are both 30, and while our friends our age sometimes tease us for our love of cruising, for us it's the best way to travel. I think the variety and styles of cruising available now are really opening the industry up to new clients, and it has also changed so much even in the six years since my husband and I started cruising.