If you cruise with your kids, please dont be offended. Its just no longer for us as we once did.
Never, ever, ever will we book a short cruise in the summer. Just got off another RCL cruise. Had to be 1000 kids on board. And the cheaper and shorter cruises definitely draw a different sort of crowd. And also although it was reported like some of the recent brawls on a ship, we too had an assault between a girlfriend and boyfriend in "The R Bar" which drew blood. And it was really woman who was punching.
The MDR? might as well be the Windjammer. People in bathing suits and board shorts. Loud. The opposite of how it once was. Overrun with kids? Violence? Ships now merging with aspects of theme parks? We are not used to this sort if chaos on ships. We are moving to only longer cruises and to Celebrity which provides a more traditional cruise experience. We're going to try it anyway.
Hey we once cruised with our kids. But now we would like things a bit quieter! And yeah cruising has changed a lot. Mostly for the worse, sadly.
Lesson learned. We had never once all these decades of cruising had gone in the summer. Big mistake for us.