Hi Rescuedad,
Being a photographer I, personally do not need to take tons of pics. I pretty much see an image before I ever take it. Here is a link to the pics that I posted on this site from my Mexico cruise in March of '06 (
http://cruisemates.com/gallery/view.php?id=2746 ), have a look at those and enjoy..
I let Carnvial take pictures when we get off the ship at ports because I'm not trying to setup a tripod or interrupt someone else who is trying to enjoy their vacation by stopping them and asking them to take the pic. I think the backdrops that they have on deck are rather cheesy so I never stop for those.
For capturing memories of your vacation, the cruiseline photogs do a good job..