DH and I used to go on regular cruises back in the days before we had children. Our honeymoon was spent on a Cunard cruise.
What attracted us was the ports and itineraries. We used to love planning and going off on our own tours where possible: felt more of an adventure than using the ones usually organised by the cruise lines. Those were good times.
The cabaret-style entertainment was never 'us'. We've never been to a stage show in all the cruises we've done. We made friends with a pianist and singer/musician in the bars of two different ships, once one with a couple we palled up with, and were always the last up. The second of these was the apparently staid Cunard Line. When most other people had gone to bed they'd switch to playing rock, because they knew we liked it!
I'm still friends with my old gym instructor from the Queen Victoria. He is an absolute sweetheart. The staff on that ship were amazing, the one thing that did grate after a while was the insistence on formality. By the end I was dying to go out to a restaurant in my combats. On most other cruise lines you only have a couple of formal nights on 20-week voyage, and can easily avoid those if you want.
You can make of it what you will, you don't have to be bound be 'the things people usually do on ships'. Nowadays, though, I'm not the least interested: the allure has gone. The thing we really wanted to do was see places. But the time in port has drastically reduced, owing to port charges. If the whole point is floating around on a large resort with less time ashore then to me there IS no point. The whole reason we did it was to see a large number of places on one holiday in relative luxury and without having to unpack in between.
With a semblance of normality even now not returned post-COVID, you wouldn't get me on one of those things if you paid me. I was also less aware at the time of the disastrous impact they have on the environment.
One day I do still fancy the Alaskan one - we'd been saving the best for last with that! - coupled in with a road/railroad trip in Canada. Beyond that I genuinely don't care if I never set foot on a cruise ship again!