If you want to see somebody in the cruise business shudder, just mention that it looks like ships are becoming destinations. That people in the future will cruise not to go places but to go on certain ships and, as long as the sun's shining, it doesn't matter where they are.
Cruise people don't buy it, at least they say they don't, because they still believe part of the attraction of cruising is seeing foreign countries and enjoying local 
customs. And maybe it is.
Yet cruise lines continue to build more ships with more attractions on board…zip lines, walls to climb (not that kind!), mega slides, non-stop entertainment, bowling alleys, surf pools…and on and on it goes.
Where will it end? With an Oasis of the Seas, sitting out in ocean waters doing wheelies while 6,000 passengers roam the ship not wonting for anything to do?
It's all a balance, of course, and one that cruise lines continually tinker with to achieve a different balance…the one that goes with "sheet." Once you accept that it's all about the money, then it makes more sense. Also cents.
Cruise lines want passengers to be as busy as they want to be, which could mean "all the time." So they install all forms of gadgetry and entertainment so that reading a book on the upper deck becomes a lost art, because there's always something to do. Since many of these "to-dos" come with a price tag, it also becomes a profit center for the cruise ship.
That's on sea days.
Ports are a double-edged sword. Cruise lines want passengers to go ashore, preferably on one of the cruise line's profitable shore excursions, but if they're going to stay on board the cruise line wants to entertain them and if it means separating passengers from more of their holiday dollars, that's even better.
While we've never made a habit of it, we know people who go on cruises and never leave the ship, and not because they're going to zipline, climb rocky walls or play basketball. They just like to relax, and how boring is that?
Caribbean Princess
7 nights
April 5, 2014
Houston (return): Cozumel, Roatan, Belize
Inside $355
Cost per day: $50
www.princess.com