Slightly off-topic, but given the brevity of the linked blog post and the lack of conversation here, why not.

Can anyone explain to me the appeal of cruises? You're stuck on a boat with thousands of other people as you are taken to predefined locations and undergo what I like to call "organised fun". While on board, you're their captive audience as they sell you overpriced food and drink and generally try to sponge as much extra money from you as possible. Meanwhile, you're surrounded by people from the same place as you, who, at least for me, you might be trying to be get away from. Then, at each port, typically in a place with a tourism-driven economy, the locals identify and surround you everywhere you go, trying to sell you yet more stuff because they know you're probably rich and suggestible. I have friends who went on holiday to Curaçao and were told by the locals not to shop on [insert day here] because that's the day of the week the cruises come in, when they increase their prices 50%.

While this is somewhat of a rant, I've never been on a cruise and I'm genuinely interested to hear from someone who has been on one and enjoyed it - what their reasons were, whether they thought it was good value, relaxing, etc.