Swap your bucket and spade for a mop and bucket.
This norovirus malarkey happens a lot more frequently than you might imagine. No cruise line would seem to be immune.
See what I did there
I've read about it striking on smaller ships as well as the largest ones, so I'd guess its hard to guarantee
avoidance, unless you go for the best ship / line you can afford and take plenty of hand sanitiser.
Sounds like you want a clipper ship or windjammer or whatever they're called these days. Smaller. More exclusive. Some may be adult only. Especially appealing if you grew up watching the Onedin Line
I didn't. Principle is the same as the bigger ships. New port most mornings. I think that they tend to concentrate more on getting the essentials right. Like accommodation. Food. Think Small Luxury Hotels of the World, but afloat. Preferably a line with US / European / British officers. I believe that these cruise lines tend to target higher net worth passengers. Because they're sometimes smaller ships, they can get into ports where the biggest ships can't. I read an account recently, of a typical day in one of the smaller Caribbean islands, which typically had two or three enormous ships docking a day. At the same time, or over lapping. Sounded like every Boxing Day sale day on Oxford Street, all rolled into one.
I was sent on an educational cruise when I was 15. On an old British and India Line steamer called SS Uganda. Stopped at Gibraltar, Canaries, Madeira, Coruna and one or two other places I've forgotten. Was great fun at that age. Kids from all the developed countries. All tightly kept in check by the Masters at Arms. (ex-RN petty officers) Sailing across the Bay of Biscay was a bit like being on a fairground roller coaster and nearly all the passengers were seasick. I wasn't, so I enjoyed the huge seas. But, it was obvious that being that ill at sea was a miserable experience. I made friends from the US and Canada on that trip that I kept in touch with, hosted and visited for years afterwards.
A year or so later, SS Uganda was dodging Argentine bombs in The Falklands as a hospital ship and a year or so after that, she was scrapped. I did a transatlantic cruise once into New York from Southampton on the QE2, which was a fabulous way to arrive in New York. Very few kids. Relaxing.
If I was booking something again, it would either be a Cunard ship, or much more likely, one of the smaller windjammer type ships and I'd go as up market as possible.