Personal Reasons for Taking a Cruise

(parts from TravelWeekly) - "There are many conventional selling points to a cruise. But often it isn’t the size of the cabin, or the itinerary or the food that people care most about when they’re on a cruise. When I asked a man on a recent cruise why he was on the ship, there was no hesitation: “I wanted to spend time with my brother,” he said. The passenger lived in Tennessee, his brother in Michigan. They didn’t see each other regularly, and a weeklong cruise was a chance to catch up."
So it was when we took a cruise in January....it was with my brother and sister-in-law. My brother's stroke left him with great difficulty in communicating. But it was just being there with him that mattered!

More than marketing slogans or ad campaigns, the human need for connection and recognition often drives the choice of a cruise vacation. One passenger on another cruise was astonished to be the center of attention after his family surprised him with a cruise for his 90th birthday. Another person on the cruise was aboard with someone who had started to show signs of memory loss. She said she took the cruise because she wasn’t sure in a year or two if her traveling companion would even be the same person.

So it is fine to have the latest and greatest technology on a ship, hot new entertainers or interesting new shore excursions. Onboard spending credits or free gratuities may be the way to seal the deal if someone is close to making a purchase. But just as often it is the soft things, the human things, that start passengers thinking about taking a cruise.