If you are dismayed by the decision of cruiselines to place bumper cars and basketball courts on their top decks, does that make you an "elitist" or a spoil-sport? If you prefer the cruise ships that provide you with quiet lounges, libraries, or reclining deck chairs for reading, if you value wide-ranging conversations with fellow passengers, if you enjoy attending seagoing lectures by eminent specialists, does that make you an old fogey?
Recently on my weekly radio broadcast (click here for the podcast), I criticized the decision of ocean architects to convert large cruise ships into amusement parks (click here to read our recent coverage of Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas). I talked of the upset I felt on recent cruises in not being able to escape loudspeaker-blaring rock-and-roll, of failing to find a quiet spot to enjoy the vastness of the seas, only to be surrounded by grown-ups standing in line for water slides. I told of the latest large ship featuring simulated sky-diving and "flow-rider surfing machines"--and actually said that I did not relish sailing with people who were attracted to that ship by such mindless thrills.
What resulted from those opinions was an avalanche of emails condemning my views. I was accused of favoring the more dignified vessels that could only be enjoyed by rich people. I was said to be an enemy of parents traveling with small children. I was "behind the times," "living in another age," a stuck-up prig.
So let me state here and now that I don't retract a word of my earlier sentiments about cruise ship trends. A cruise is (and should be, in my view) an activity of travel—it takes you to visit and experience other cultures, other lifestyles, in locations and ports related to the sea. Those important goals should never take second place to carnival-like games aboard the ship. And a cruise should permit us to encounter the awesome oceans that cover so much of the earth—and that exposure should be enjoyed in calm and quiet, and not disturbed by grown-up children playing on skydiving simulators or surfing machines.
It's true that young children are exhilarated by the rock-climbing walls and other similar sports aboard the newer ships. But families bringing their children aboard a cruise should reflect on the fact that those entertainments impart nothing of value to their children, and can't remotely approach the life-lessons of a visit to a national park or to the cultural attractions of great world cities. When the cruise ships start installing roller-coasters on their top decks (as will inevitably happen), how will parents contribute to their children's development by booking a roller-coaster-containing cruise?
It's sad that the mass-volume, 4,000-and-5,000-passenger, cruise ships featuring the thrill-machines are today the cheapest to book. It's sad that to enjoy the traditional pleasures and rewards of the sea, requires that you now book instead one of the more expensive ships, the ones that don't place giant water slides on their top decks. And I will continue criticizing the cruise line executives who have so cheapened what used to be a great adventure of the mind.