We have always thought we weren’t cruise people. But now we’re sure.

After a weekend in Athens made better by Greek salads, worse by lost luggage anxiety, but better again by convenient thrift shops and the Archaeological Museum, we jumped in a cab to Lavros for our Aegean Highlights cruise.

The experience started as it would largely continue: standing in line for check in. The music was pumping, the staff were supernaturally cheerful, and it moved along pretty well.

The next big crowd situation was lifeboat drill.

The ship is kind of medium-sized, capacity about 1200 passengers. It had all the amenities we expected. And although it is 25 years old, everything seemed in good repair.

We sprang for a bigger room with a balcony. Didn’t really use the balcony all that much, but it was nice to have anyway. Especially nice entering and leaving the ports to be able to watch from the balcony.

We had a bar just down the hall. Alcohol was not included in our package, so we paid by the drink, leading to a constant feeling of being just slightly ripped off. The buffet meals were “fine”, but always crowded and definitely not better than “fine”.

So… everything on board was as advertised, and we suffered no cruise ship misadventures (other than a very finicky toilet). But we didn’t enjoy: the constant crowds, the relentless greetings from the zillions of crew, the equally relentless upselling of food, drink, data, excursions; the utter predictability of just everything; the one-step-up-from-karaoke multi-lingual multi-instrumental semi-circus entertainment troupe.

Been there, done that, won’t do it again.