I travel often, but just took my first luxury cruise. The food was great, and it was easy to relax, but there was 1 unexpected drawback.

Even as a seasoned traveler, it took me nearly five decades to get on a cruise ship at all. I had never been particularly curious about cruising and had some pretty unflattering ideas about what it involved: heaping buffets of dubious food, brightly colored drinks, crowded decks, and a style of travel that seemed much too packaged for me.

Then, this summer, I spent nine nights traveling through Northern Europe and discovered that much of what I thought I knew about cruising was wrong.

My husband and I sailed aboard Crystal Serenity from Southampton to Copenhagen, a voyage on which I would celebrate my 49th birthday. And this was admittedly a very cushy introduction: I stayed in a Sapphire Veranda Suite with a walk-in closet, veranda, and butler service.

So I'm certainly not suggesting my experience represents every cruise. But as someone who typically takes complicated, high-effort trips, I found these were the things that surprised me most about my first one.

I'm accustomed to doing a lot of work when I travel. I tend to build ambitious itineraries involving multiple cities, hotels, trains, flights, restaurant reservations, and activities. I love that kind of travel, but there are a lot of logistics involved — and as the mom and travel planner in chief, I'm usually the one managing them all.

Cruising took an astonishing amount of that effort away. I unpacked once, put everything in the closet, slid my empty suitcase under the bed, and didn't deal with it again for nine nights. While I slept, ate dinner, or watched a show, my hotel was effortlessly transporting me to another country.

The rest felt similarly organized. An on-ship newsletter featured printed itineraries that told me exactly what would be happening on board the following day. Excursions were coordinated around the ship's arrival and departure. Restaurants, entertainment, and activities were steps from my room.

I hadn't realized just how much mental and physical energy I normally spend administering my own trips until I didn't have to.

Cruise food, in my imagination, was mostly about quantity: enormous buffets of mediocre food feeding thousands of people at once.

What I encountered on Crystal was very different. The main dining room didn't repeat dishes, so you could always count on something new to try. Beyond that, my favorite meals came from places that I'd consider hot restaurants even in my buzzy hometown of Los Angeles. Umi Uma, created by Nobu Matsuhisa, served sophisticated Japanese food and sushi. Osteria d'Ovidio offered seriously high-end Italian cooking.

Obviously, this was a luxury ship, and I wouldn't assume every cruise serves food like this one did. But it thoroughly dismantled my assumption that cruise dining necessarily meant choosing among endless ho-hum chafing dishes at a buffet.

I couldn't believe I sometimes preferred staying on board to sightseeing.