My family ... DH, myself, our two sons ... have an opportunity to go on a three-night cruise. We have never been on a cruise. We have never particularly wanted to do so. This is a family thing that would be completely paid-for, however, so we feel that we at least need to consider it.
DH has tremendous qualms about taking the boys, who will be ages 7 and 5 at the time. DS1 has special needs that make him much younger intellectually, has a great love of water and, occasionally, little common sense.

DS2 is very, very adventurous, with little fear of anything.
You can see why DH would have qualms.

I suppose that I do, too, but I wanted to do some research to find out what a cruise ship is like with kids. Is it safe? I know a lot of families cruise, so it seems like there must be extensive safety precautions. But we've never even looked into this before, so I have very little idea what it's like.
Any advice or perspective would be greatly appreciated.