First cruise the folks did was a fjord cruise. Mum said it was so boring and that if you’ve seen one fjord you’ve seen them all!
I’m not feeling a river cruise as my first one as I want the experience of being on a ship rather than a boat. That said I would consider a Nile cruise maybe.
Very, very early starts in the Nile cruises. 5am ish.
Our one and only cruise was a Royal Caribbean Cruise. We opted for a large table for dinner as we thought there would be at least one person we’d like! We ended up with a family from Boston ( US not Lincolnshire!) two older teenagers celebrating the end of their school life before college. We got on great and kept in touch for a while.
It was a huge ship with maybe 5000 passengers but never felt packed as it was so big. You struggled to get in the pools on sea days but we didn’t mind. Lots of different nationalities which I liked. Lots of restaurants to chose from, lots of amenities, gyms, sports etc. we enjoyed it but have chosen not to do another one as we felt too restricted, having to get back to the ship at a certain time. ( We’re free spirits!). We also don’t need entertained, not bothered about shows, although they were good, we didn’t visit the nightclub or casino.
We did the western Med, flew to Barcelona, did south of France, just walked off the shop at Toulon and did our own thing. Did Monaco, loved it. Then Rome, a long trip from the port but glad we did it. Our favourite was the day we did Pompei, we were taken to Salerno by tender, lovely little town, had a wander along the cobbled streets and paid €20 for two Diet Cokes, bus along the beautiful Amalfi coast to a nunnery for lunch under the grapevines. Then on to Pompei. Unforgettable, must go back as we couldn’t see everything. We had a guide which was helpful.
We booked a balcony cabin but even in June it was a bit cool to sit out when the ship was at sea. In hindsight an outside cabin would have been better, and cheaper! You definitely won’t be bored but if you want peace stay on the ship when it’s in dock and almost everyone gets off. We did that on the Florence day, we sat at the bow of the ship just chilling, no one else was there.