Well said and I agree with every word. I LIKE cruises and my husband LOVES them, so we go on a few.

I just got back from our cruise on the Grand Princess to the Baltic region. The ship was going to be in St. Petersburg, Russia for 2 days and there's lots to see. Also getting a Visa is expensive and a lot of paperwork, so going on a guided tour there is the best way to see it a lot in 2 days. The cruiselines always offer tours but we're not the "get on the bus" types and we like to go where WE want to go. We had heard about a private tour company called Red October and wanted to book them, however, it was very pricey for just 2 of us and we wanted another couple to join us. I found a great couple on cruisecritic.com. We spent the entire cruise together with them and they'll probably be lasting friends for many years, whether we take a cruise with them again or not.

BTW, our TA is CruisePro's and I found them doing a websearch.

How did people travel before the internet???

Which cruise ship did you just get off of?

Candice NYC