@whiteroseredrose
My parents did a small ship cruise to the Norwegian fjords just pre Covid. It was one that went from Newcastle or near there.
They are foodies, walkers, and not keen on other people, which begs the question of why a cruise, but it seemed easier now that they are mid 70s.
They would not do a cruise again for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, unless you book years in advance, you share a dinner table with the same people every night. My (and their) idea of hell, having to make polite chit chat with strangers every night. (After a few nights they discovered a self service alternative and stuck to that). The food was OK but nothing to rave about.
Other main issue was being in a crowd the whole time. As a family we always arrive wherever very early or late in the day to avoid crowds. Not possible on a cruise as you all disembark together.
There were some interesting talks and the fjords were lovely. There were other activities too which they avoided - apparently they went past a room with people singing and waving union jacks. Never found out what that was all about.
So a mixed bag really. I always liked the idea of waking up in a new place every day but the other bits would put me off.
We love cruising and have done a few Royal Caribbean ones now. Not on the mega ships, but still reasonably large ships with a good couple of thousand passengers on.
A few points from our experience of the above:
Re Dining - On RCL you can contact them by email in advance (recommended about 2 weeks) and request a private table. If you can't get a private table on your fixed dinner time you can choose My Time Dining instead, where you book each day. You're then more likely to get a table for two.
We didn't know this first cruise and ended up on a shared table. Only no-one else joined us, so we had a table for 8 for the two of us and looked like Billy-no-mates! From then on we've requested tables for 2 and have had them each time.
Alternatively, you don't have to use the main dining room. You can use the buffet restaurant or other restaurants on board (more often than not these come at a premium though).
We've always enjoyed the food but we're not foodies or in to really fancy food, so maybe that's just us. Food is always subjective.
Re crowds - yes, sometimes it can be busy and difficult to find somewhere to sit in a bar, but there's normally somewhere to sit.
We always get a balcony cabin and aren't really sunbathers, so sitting on our own balcony is preferable to fighting for a sunlounger.
You get a document each day which lists out everything going on. You can use it to either find what you want to go to, or (in our case) find what you want to avoid!
We did a cruise that covered part of the Flords and Iceland too. It was all fabulous, but even in May/June, the weather was not great. We had one or two nice days out of a two week cruise. Just be prepared for any weather! We had a balcony and used it even when it was cold and wet, but just had a blanket!
A cruise is what you make of it - as I say, we love them and find them really, really relaxing. Being out at sea, cut off from the internet, etc, is very liberating and waking up each day somewhere different is a lovely way to see a glimpse of lots of places. No, you don't get to see a huge amount of each place, but that's not the point of a cruise.
Give it a go!