the big advantage with going on a cruise you can get a taster of several different countries and next time go stay in one that you like.Ii think that is far better than getting a brochure from a travel agent and deciding by looking at pictures and reading over glamourised reports and writeups.
Ok they are only day trips away from the ship, but go on a conducted tour gives you far more information and insight about the country and culture than just going there.
Don't get me wrong, I was the most anti cruise person in the UK until I went on a "tester" on the River Nile, my thoughts were "will we are close to shore if anything happened", Then I was hooked. my wife and I flew to China (non cruise) and had a tour guide showing us the tourist attractions ,forbidden city- warriors- great wall to name just some of what we were shown.
Just going somewhere to lie on a beach is not my idea of a holiday, nothing worse can I think of. As I said before if you havn't tried going on a cruise ship with as much food a one can eat, many different restrauants serving food from different countries- (they have large stage shows every night) loads of other smaller ones somewhere else- cooking demos- gyms- swimming pools- shops duty free- usually onboard spending allowance . To top it all if not a day at sea waking up in a different country every day to explore.That is just to name some of life on a cruise ship, you won't get that stuck in a hotel anywhere
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErFwQC7D9bg&t=2s
they got more bottle than me (one of the side entertainments)