... the admission of an admitted anti-social type.
No. It just looks likes an absolutely hideous way to see the world. The babble of thousands of mindless voices all the time, stupid on-board activities to keep people "interested," jammed into shoreboats, packed into tour busses, led by the nose up trails to listen to the programmed yammer of bored-out-of-their-skulls guides and "naturalists."
I've met too many people on the "supply side" of these cruise ships-- -the tour guides, the activity planners, the purveyors of naturalist tours, see-the-glacer helicopter rides, salmon-dinner floatplane operators, etc., etc., etc. to have any illusions whatsoever that the cattle are seeing anything real other than the passing geography.
I read an interesting analysis of the cruise ship world in a business magazine on some recent flight. According to this article, as the ships get bigger and bigger the emphasis is shifting away from offering tours of places--- Alaska, Carribean, wherever--- to making the ship itself the "destination."
The experience is not where you go and what you see, it's being on the ship itself. The cruise ships are, in essence, becoming theme parks and the activities on board are increasingly being designed to keep the passengers on board, even in port. So said the article anyway. I have no intention of wasting any time or money to find out if it's true.
PS The only boat tours that I think would be somewhat enjoyable are the river cruises in smaller boats that let you get off and go overland on your own for awhile and join the boat farther downstream. The one I am familiar with by virtue of our music composer doing a number of trade-off projects for them is Viking. He's done a number of their river tours in Europe and was very impressed with them and with the freedom the passengers have to do their own thing when they want to.
