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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We went on Disney Cruise with my kids then ages almost 2, almost 5, and 7 in Dec. 2016. We had a good time. 
I just booked our second cruise on Royal Caribbean for spring break 2021 - when the kids will be 11, 9, and 6 at the time of travel.

They still talk about the Disney Cruise and I think they’ll have fun on this next cruise.  In general, I think you can make almost anything including the beach educational but [b]I am having a little bit of trouble making the cruise not just total entertainment only, haha!! [/b] The specific cruise we’re going on, will stop at Labadee (beach day for us), Jamaica (likely beach day for us, but I am considering Blue Hole excursion which would be different / nature exploration but I think we are less likely to do this), and Cozumel (where maybe we will do an excursion to Punta Sur Eco beach park instead of just a regular beach club and get a little more nature type stuff). I feel like the Cruise uniquely doesn’t allow too much time for culture or nature - though if that’s how you want to focus your excursions you could do that. For my group I think that would involve too much travel on the excursions.  For example, if we went to a beach resort for a week in Mexico, I think I could fit in a visit to Chichen Itza and other cultural or nature things in addition to relaxing at the beach / pool, but for me, most of these type of things seem too far to travel for one day cruise stop.  Maybe I am doing it wrong, idk!!

Overall my husband and I have fun when our kids are entertained and happy. I don’t care what other people think about my vacation though. If they think it’s tacky, ok good for you. [/quote]

That's because there's nothing educational about 99% of cruises (so excluding something like going to Alaska). And no, the stops are usually too short to allow for any real exploration of the destination, which is another problem with cruise vacations.

Here's an academic study that evaluates the economic, social, and environmental impact of cruise ships on the local economies: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517717302418

Here's the abstract:

We use a unique multi-method natural experiment to measure economic, social, and environmental impacts of cruise tourism on a local community. Through the measurement of multidimensional indicators before and after the opening of a cruise ship port, and using control groups, we compare community impacts with greater detail and control than previous studies. Although theory and industry multiplier estimates predict gains in employment, income, and related measures, we find little evidence of improvement. The ability of the local population to provide for necessities and obtain sufficient food worsened, corruption increased, and there were substantial negative environmental impacts. One observed benefit to communities was a decrease in crime due to an increase in government expenditure on policing. Our results show that in low taxation and regulation environments with an absence of community development and involvement initiatives, large cruise tourism projects can fail to provide benefits for local populations.

So the one benefit they found was a decrease in crime. No other benefit came from cruise ships docking at low taxation/low regulation ports (which is many of these places). [/quote]

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