Two years ago, we went to the Antarctic on a Princess cruise. Because it’s a big ship, it wasn’t permitted to let passengers go ashore on the continent, but the cruise around the peninsula was impressive. Plus on all the at-sea days, we’d have 2 or 3 presentations by very knowledgeable folks on the explorers, the geology, and the history of Antarctica. We attended quite a few of them and they were really interesting and well-done. And being in the January/February timeframe, there were very few children aboard. No craziness that we noticed.
Last year, we did an Arctic cruise on Holland American (one of our stewards referred to it as the old folks’ cruise line, and that’s not a joke.) Most of the presentations on that ship were about the ports we were about to visit, but rather than focusing on shopping (like when we did a Caribbean cruise) they talked about the history, economy, and the life of the locals - that was especially interesting for the stops in Greenland and Iceland.
We’ve had some interesting excursions/bus tours and some that were less than impressive. On one tour in Rotterdam, our guide as a student of architecture, so that’s all she talked about, with a few tidbits of history thrown in - not what we’d signed up for. So some of those trips are hit-or-miss.
This coming January, we’re doing the Panama Canal from west to east. It starts in San Diego and hops down the coast of Mexico and Costa Rica, and the only stop in the Caribbean is Aruba before ending in Fort Lauderdale. I expect there will be at least one presentation on the history of the canal.
I’d say to avoid party-like cruises, avoid Carnival and some Royal Caribbean cruises - they’re the bargain companies and they attract younger crowds and families with kids. The pricier lines are more to my liking.