For many years a cruise holiday was seen as a very stuffy and formal kind of holiday with the emphasis on dinner at the captains table, ballroom dances and being seen in the right company.
Over the past 10 - 15 years the image of the cruise holiday has completely changed with the emphasis of the vacation now being geared around non stop family entertainment for all age groups.
Luxury cruise ships are now bigger, grander and better than ever before with the feel of a luxury floating entertainment palace about them.
Modern luxury cruise ships are huge craft with every possible kind of entertainment onboard including shopping centres, swimming pools, fully equipped gyms, health and beauty spas as well as some ships even having their own casino onboard.
Modern cruise ships really are designed to offer every member of the family an entertainment packed vacation.
A luxury cruise holiday is a wonderful way to take a vacation, offering you a totally different way to see the world's nicest tourist resorts without ever having to worry about packing or unpacking each time you land at a different destination.
Taking a luxury cruise holiday does not have to be as expensive as you may imagine with prices varying greatly depending on the type of cruise that you take, the destinations that you sail to, the duration of your cruise and the accommodation that you book.
Taking a Mediterranean cruise for 7 days staying in a standard cabin and booking on an all inclusive package can be a very affordable way of experiencing the luxury that a cruise holiday can afford you without breaking the bank.
When on a luxury cruise holiday it is not only your surroundings and facilities that are luxury quality it is also the food and the service that you can expect to be top class.
Many cruise ships employ some of the worlds leading chefs to arrange menus and to ensure that the food is top quality and nothing more than the customers would expect.
Eating on a luxury cruise holiday can be like dining in a 5 star restaurant for the duration of your holiday but if you would prefer to eat a little less formally there are always a couple more restaurants on the ship that you can try out.
Mediterranean luxury cruise holidays are growing in popularity each year with more and more families trying them out for the first time each season.
These luxury cruise holidays are so good that many families sign up for their next cruise whilst still onboard the ship and on their current vacation.
Destinations such as Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus are extremely popular on the cruise circuit with the luxury cruise ships stopping at any number of resorts within these countries.
If you wanted to experience a luxury cruise holiday further a field then the Caribbean is always a popular destination with travellers and the cruise companies.
Resorts such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, Jamaica and Antigua are ever popular ports of call for a Caribbean luxury cruise holiday.
Although not as popular as Mediterranean or Caribbean luxury cruise holidays the Baltic or northern cruise routes are growing in popularity with those people who want to have a different type of cruise vacation and perhaps visit an area that is usually of the tourist trail.
These luxury cruise holidays usually call at such places as Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Northern Russia.
These luxury cruise holidays give the passengers a chance to experience such things as whale watching and icebergs at first hand.
Not something you can necessarily do every day at home.
So there you have it, the low down on what you can expect from your luxury cruise holiday and where you may want to visit whilst on your cruise.