The Cruise Ship Experience.

 Hey cruisers! Are you ready to undertake the “Final Challenge”? To don a space suit, descend into a 400,000-gallon tank of water and work on a replica of the International Space Station? To push the very bounds of the cruising experience, to boldly go where few have gone before and to fork over 32,995 smackers for the pleasure?

Yeah, me neither. But kudos to the folks at Crystal Cruises (which is offering the Moscow/Star City adventure this summer) for coming up with it. After all, when it comes to shore excursions, how many walking tours and snorkeling trips can you do?

Fortunately, you don’t have to settle as more and more cruise lines are expanding their shore-based offerings. Some are over the top, others are still under construction, but all are designed to provide new experiences and beat the been-there-done-that blues.

Old battle, new front
No doubt the trend is another front in the arms race the cruise lines have always waged over onboard amenities and experiences. Hey, let’s put a glass-blowing studio on our ships, says Celebrity. Oh yeah, counters Cunard, well, we’ve got a planetarium. Big whoop, replies Royal Caribbean, we’ve got a merry-go-round, zip line and enough adrenaline-fueled amenities to host the X Games.

(In July, the Norwegian Epic will set sail with the first Ice Bar at sea; next January, Disney will unveil the AquaDuck, a “water coaster” in which guests will ride rubber rafts through a 765-foot-long acrylic tube. Combine the two — a little ice-cold Stoli for liquid courage, anyone? — and I think they’d actually have something. But I digress ...) Top 10 cruises in 2010

Back on land, the most noticeable enhancements — especially for those who can’t see putting 33 large on their sail and sign cards — are probably the ones the cruise lines are rolling out at their private islands and cruise terminals in the Caribbean. True, none of them are likely to push the boundaries of the cruising experience; on the other hand, they won’t drain your retirement fund, either.

Last September, for example, Royal Caribbean opened an alpine coaster at Labadee, its private island in Haiti. Seated in two-person carts, riders ascend a roller-coaster-like track to a height of 680 feet before swooping back down to the beach through a series of dips and curves at 30 m.p.h. It’s all over in three minutes or so, but at least your wallet will only be $35 lighter.