Yes now that we’v reached 60 my wife would like us to be the ‘young folks’ at some point before too long on a river cruise. 
From all I’ve heard of that it’s about as different from a short, relatively cheap big ship Caribbean cruise as, well any other market segment in travel is from another totally different segment.
I’ve gotten, due to extraordinarily lucky circumstances, two trips on Lindblad Expedition cruise ships. They’re a little different, as they’re run in partnership with National Geographic (and on the second one, the executive editor on NatGeo was the keynote speaker as well as being a guest). One went to Baja, Mexico, and the other went to the Antarctic Peninsula.
They were great trips. There was some trashy behavior on the first one (a group of young, wealthy fitness types from Colorado drank too much and didn’t acquit themselves). I saw nothing like that on the second.
They’re not cheap, though: other than my free berth, the cheapest berth on the Antarctic trip was around $13,000 for one bed in a two-bed room. As such, while the trip was overwhelmingly white, socioeconomically it was elites on the trip: lots of attorneys, some extremely-well-paid scientists, some Hollywood types, and so on. There were a couple of teachers there on scholarship, and there was one low-level university administrator who’d saved up for six years to afford the trip, but otherwise it was pretty much the one percent.
When we stopped at Aruba we went to a local museum, then got an all day bus pass for $10. We went north past the tourist beaches, but then we went south to where the real people lived. (The driver asked us if we really wanted to be on the bus.) It went through the dry center of the island. A lot more interesting than shops or sitting on the beach.
We also usually go to a grocery store to see what kind of things they have.
I voted yes, because I come from a long line of white trash and the majority of us love our Disney cruises, two or three per year. Take along the grandkids.
Never been on one myself because I’m afraid I would get claustrophobic on a boat. I mean, I am really afraid of this. I would be stuck, I would be panicky, they’d have to fly me off on a helicopter, and I’m really afraid of helicopters, too.
Also my mother went on one where most of the cruisers got really sick, and not from seasickness. I think that was her last cruise, although she took a couple of fall foliage bus tours after that (which sounds even worse to me!).
Actual poor white trash probably couldn’t afford it, certainly not two or three a year, but we middle-class white trash know how to budget. (Again, not me. I do not know how to budget.)
The attraction is that not everyone has your priorities. I won’t say I don’t care about the destination at all - but what I really want out of a vacation is to be away from home and chores, to be unreachable by my job ( which
means out of the US or at sea), and to be able to do something other than stay in the hotel room or possibly sun myself while my husband is in the casino. Basically, my choices are an all inclusive resort or a cruise. And since I live in NYC , most all-inclusive resorts will cost more than a cruise - if I’m not choosy about the itinerary/week , I can usually get a cruise out of NY for well under the price of a resort. The cruise can be as little as $399/pp plus taxes and port fees for seven nights, so let’s say it’s 600 per person, $1200 for two.An OK hotel is $700 for 7 nights and lets say I manage to keep to a $500 food budget. That’s $1200 right there, and all I’ve done is eat and sleep.
For the same $1200 on the cruise, I get a couple of Broadway-type shows plus comedians, multiple live music performances, towel origami/cake decoration/fruit carving demonstrations and game shows - in addition to a variety of other free activities that I don’t recall right now. The resorts I’ve priced are at least $400 per night for two, so that’s a minimum of $2800 plus airfare.
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