You should at least try a cruise. I've been on five. So I'm not a cruise collector. On our last trip I met people on their 35th Cruise!
I would consider a cruise as a part of a travel "program"(for want of a better word.) They are fun, but as a sightseeing experience they are more of a sampler. Sometimes the feeling is that I want to go back.
I would cruise sometimes, especially on an interesting iterary, but other travel is needed.
Don't cruise for the food unless you think Applebees is gourmet or you love to eat without dicrimination. I think a lot of people view it as a marine tailgate party. Except that alcohol on board is extravagantly expensive.

I found the prices for alcoholic drinks, including wines by the bottle, to be very reasonable actually.

"a marine tailgate party" love your description!

We just returned from an 8 night/3 port cruise on the Mexican Riviera. It was our first cruise in 8 years and our 5th cruise. We enjoyed ourselves, but then we always enjoy ourselves. There were some vast differences though in comparison to our other cruises.

While our waiter was the worst in the dining room, I was also assigned my own dietician for a food allergy and that was fantastic. I did not have to think about what I could and could not eat as she went over the menus with me every evening for the following day and helped me choose what I would be eating and documented it for me so I did not have to remember. How nice is that!

We also had the greatest tablemates in memory. The luck of the draw at work.

Our room steward was not as accomodating as the previous ones we had experienced. Finding someone else's leftover filth in our room was disgusting, but it was quickly attended to once we notified our room steward.

Just an quick observation, avoid the room service food that includes bread. Toast wasn't and rolls were toasted dark, sandwich bread was dry.

The casino staff was fantastic as were the beverage servers.

We took the Carnival Spirit out of San Diego. We are glad that we did it but don't feel that we need to do it again.

We enjoyed our shore excursion in Acapulco and thought the value excellant. We went to see the Palma Sola petroglyphs. The view alone from above the city was worth all 500 steps to the top. It was strenuous in 88 degree heat. The excursion also provided lunch, drinks, cultural dancing, a small tour of parts of the city and some shopping at the B&B located in the big park. I wish I'd bought more jewelry there as it was the best prices I saw in all the ports we visited.

We chose to be on our own in Zihuatanejo and just spent the day by the beach with some shipmates. We found a great restaurant there on the beach called Bistro Del Mar for lunch and just had them bring us lunch specialties. It was a great day. We will return to Zihuatanejo and spend a week.

We were grateful that in Manzanillo we had decided on a 7 hour shore excursion to Colima to visit the smaller, newly discovered pyramids there. The excursion was great value, interesting, lunch was delicious and we got to see some of the countryside. The bus was of the luxury class, but the driver did give us quite the scare at one point. Newspaper headlines flashed through our minds as we slid on the gravel towards the cliff.

Manzanillo is a busy port area. It was very uplifting though to see the residents line the shore waving and whistling as we left. We loved Colima. Too bad it has no beach.