Despite consistent growth, there is a gap in the literature pertaining to cruise tourists’ motivation and experience. Although cruise vacationers may stay on the same ship at the same time, their motivation, perception, and experience vary. This merits further research to develop a comprehensive understanding of cruise vacationers’ motivation, perception, and post-consumption experience. This study explores the major cruise tourism motivations, perceptions, and holiday experiences through a content analysis of selected research articles published in 22 tourism, environment, and marine-related journals. The research findings generate 14 major cruise tourism motivational factors, and a huge majority of cruise holiday participants express overall satisfaction with their cruise ship vacation. As a pioneering study in this area, the research findings contribute to the current body of knowledge pertaining to factors that drive cruise ship tourism holiday consumption and cruise passengers’ post-consumption experience. A thorough understanding of cruise tourism holidaymakers’ motivation and experience, in turn, offers substantial planning, packaging, and marketing implications to cruise line companies and cruise tourism destinations. Study implications and limitations are discussed, along with avenues for further research.