Specifically to your concerns:

-Seasick; this is something you cannot predict. Pack various OTC remedies ahead of time. They also give seasickness meds out for free on cruise ships, but you will spend some time standing in line, most likely.

-Introverted, no problem. Research your cruise line and their dining options. We never share a table in two decades of cruising.

-General crowdedness/claustrophobia. This can be an issue. Most cruise ships are packed at baseline. There is a reason that any disease onboard can and will spread several times the rate on land. However, every ship has places where you can escape the crowds. It’s fun to find these places. Also; choose your stateroom wisely. If you’re claustrophobic you may not be able to stay in an interior room. And finally, there are small, specialty cruises, expedition cruises, and river cruises. These experiences are very, very different from the big cruise ships that most people think of when you mention cruising.

-The other passengers. Every cruise line caters to a different set of passengers, and whomever they cater to most; you’ll find a lot of that type of passenger! … and it’s important you find the “right fit” for you, or you will not like it. Within that cruise line the passengers vary also with the departure port and itinerary. This latter aspect is often overlooked.

-Medical care. Also varies per cruise line, but I’d say ranges from good to superb for most, especially considering you are on a ship. Some lines have impressive capabilities including mini-ICUs and XR imaging and US residency trained emergency medicine physicians for the passengers. For anyone with medical concerns, it is imperative to get very good comprehensive travel medical insurance, and it is important to consider the itinerary. Long passages over the ocean with no ports for days are obviously more risky. Evacuation by air is very weather dependent, and to be avoided, if at all possible.

Bottom line; find the right fit for YOU and you will have an awesome time!

I didn’t like getting norovirus, pink eye, and a cold.

You realize there's a tremendous difference between a budget cruise like Carnival (yuck) or Norwegian and a high end cruise line with 200-500 people or less? High end cruises can be $15,000 per person and the food, service, cabin size and style, excursion quality, and class level of your fellow travelers are exceedingly above those budget lines. As someone mentioned, think Seabourn, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas for luxury, Oceania or Azamara for premium plus, and a suite on Celebrity if you want the amenities of a bigger ship. Or try a river cruise (Uniworld, Tauck, AmaWaterways---avoid mass market Viking) for less than 200 people and wonderful food, service, and excursions. The higher price tag will rule out the typical budget cruiser that some of you are referring to.

Anonymous wrote:Well since you asked, I didn't like the food (it was like eating Chiles/Applebees quality), I didn't like how busy the pool area was and overall the whole thing felt cheesy.

Depends on the size of the ship and the cruise line. The food on the Queen Mary 2 from NY to the UK was incredible. It wasn't crowded at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worry about rogue waves. They are happening more and more.

Source for your scientific pontifications?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/03/americas/antarctic-cruise-rogue-wave-kills-american-intl-hnk/index.html

I like that they’re a pretty easy trip to plan if you’re not a huge “planner.” Book the cruise itself, the transportation to the port, and that’s 90% of the planning right there. The on-board stuff and port excursions are really simple if you go through the cruise line, which I always do because I don’t want to plan my own port excursions because I’m so not a planner.

Most of the cruise lines are increasingly moving away from the big assigned table/assigned time dining. I’ve always been able to get a table for 2 or 4 or whatever I needed. It’s better if you can go at your reserved time but if you can’t make it there are other options than the main dining room. I’ve never got norovirus on my 5 cruises so far, knock on wood, but did get a nasty respiratory virus toward the end of one cruise, but I don’t think that’s so unusual for vacations/travel.

The ships are very nice and the staff members are all great. What I didn’t like is that they can be pretty aggressive with trying to upsell you stuff. Like going anywhere the staff and bar/restaurant workers will try to get you to buy drinks. It gets annoying. I haven’t been since Covid so not sure what this is like now. The pools are very crowded on at-sea days. But Other than the pools being jam packed, and the stuff that’s open when you first board and everyone is milling around before their rooms are ready, the cruises I’ve been on didn’t feel too crowded. Once everything is open and people can be in their rooms there’s plenty of room on board to spread out.

Anonymous wrote:I didn't like

the scheduled dinners
someone going through my things
the smells
room was nasty
leaving my bags outside the room the night before leaving
getting up at the crack of dawn for various reasons
being hounded to buy things from the native ports
taking pictures and charging ridiculous prices
topless titty deck. saw so many fights over that
the drunken asses walking through the halls
but the trip and window suite were free
had three other opportunities to go again. thanks but no thanks

What?

Anonymous wrote:I worry about rogue waves. They are happening more and more.

Source for your scientific pontifications?

I enjoy them. And am fairly well traveled outside of the cruises. The ones on the mass market lines (royal, carnival, Norwegian...) are really not fancy. The food is not special. They're crowded.

BUT, like any trip, you make your own fun. Even on the most crowded, biggest ship during Christmas week, there is always somewhere quieter to go. Maybe not around the main pool deck, but a lounge chair in a quiet area without music, no kids. Eating at non peak times can help avoiding restaurant crowds. Or get your food and find a quiet place to sit. I hate crowds and I always find my spots away from them. Get a room with a balcony and you have all the peace and quiet.

I worry about rogue waves. They are happening more and more.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for all of the experiences. It seems you won’t really know the crowd or vibe until you get on ship.

You can get a pretty good feel for what to expect by reviewing the line-specific subforums at cruisecritic.com, as well the the websites of the different lines themselves. As with all travel, managing expectations is important to having a good time.

Anonymous wrote:What do they do to clean ships after use? I just can’t imagine all the humans that get run through at breakneck speed and all the mess they leave. (That is the business model isn’t it?). Can the dip the entire ship in a 100% alcohol bath between cruises?

They literally have staff who are constantly cleaning/wiping down everything. You can avoid using communal restrooms simply by using your private bathroom in your cabin.

Anonymous wrote:I didn't like

the scheduled dinners
someone going through my things
the smells
room was nasty
leaving my bags outside the room the night before leaving
getting up at the crack of dawn for various reasons
being hounded to buy things from the native ports
taking pictures and charging ridiculous prices
topless titty deck. saw so many fights over that
the drunken asses walking through the halls
but the trip and window suite were free
had three other opportunities to go again. thanks but no thanks

I bet you picked the cheapest cruise line to have experience all of this. It's kind of like goingt to a cheapest motel and expect to have 5 star experience.

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of types of cruises, just like there are lots of types of hotels and resorts. Just like them, it depends on the destination and the quality/luxury level.

Yes, a small cabin on a Carnival cruise to Jamaica is just a drunken crowd. Might as well go to any Caribbean resort.

A nice suite cabin on a higher end cruise or cruise section (Celebrity, NCL Haven, Holland America, etc.) that takes you to a bunch of ports in the Mediterranean or Alaska, I love it!

Absolutely agree with this comment. There are cheaper cruises who attract younger crowds who might be very loud and drink a lot ( like Carnival) and food might not be good. But if you choose a better, higher quality cruise line you should enjoy it. I thought that I wouldn't like any cruise, I had this strange image of being stuck on the ship with all these people. But when I took my first cruise, I absolutely loved it. I took since then 7 cruises, me and my spouse cruised with Princess cruise line and loved every single cruise. I'm an introvert as well and personally don't like eating with strangers by the same table, so me and my spouse will opt out of this arrangement ( we pick a table for just two of us) so we don't have to deal with this. Our favorite cruise was Mediterranean, it was great to just get up every day and be in a different port/country.
So my advice to you is - depending how old you're, with whom are going, what's your budget, just read a little bit about different cruiselines online and what type of crowds do they attract.

Oh, it wasn't norovirus, and this was before covid. It was a weird thing. I think I was actually getting sick before I got on the cruise, but didn't realize it. But I was sick for so long, and I have so many bad associations with the cruise, I just have been scared off.

Also, rooms are very small unless you pay for bigger options.

I sort of think the same kinds of people who like Disneyworld like a lot of mainstream cruises. I used to love Disney when my kid was young, but now I am just too old for it. I think they only way I'd consider a cruise now is a high end small one.