Bear in mind that I am in Grad School and my commitment to a cruise is directly related to if the cruise is planned outside the semester lines. I voted for option 2 because I believe we should go with a more "mature" cruise company.
The leisure cruise market is full of families and children, and if the more mature of us want to blow off steam or drink and have a good time, we will be limited by the type of cruise.
Norweigian is very supportive of the gay cruise market, it seems a fine choice for a "fun" partying cruise. Carnival is full of little knee-biting kids and their stressed out moms and dads, and frankly I am too impatient of that crowd to give Carnival my business. I could talk endlessly about the best choices for a gay cruise, but it usually boils down to Norweigian, Holland-America, and Crystal for me.
~Jeff
aka Lorenius