Newspaper Clipping - "How to make your cruise an affordable vacation"

Here is an article from the local paper. Most of it is common sense, but in
the excitement of booking a cruise, something may be overlooked...




How to make your cruise an affordable vacation
By Teresa McUsic
Special to the Star-Telegram


Last week, my husband and I took to the Seven Seas -- well, the Gulf of
Mexico -- for an anniversary cruise that was wonderful and surprisingly
affordable.

Five years ago, we did the same thing, but we had to fly to Miami to catch a
ship (airfa $600). We also went a couple of days early to avoid the rush
of going from plane to ship (hotel, food, cabs: $250).

This time, our only expense to get to the ship was a tank of gas ($35) and
parking at EZ Cruise Parking in Galveston ($50 for the week).

Galveston is now the sixth-largest cruise port in the United States.
Galveston and the Houston port combined to account for 518,000 of the 9
million North American cruise passengers in 2004, according to the Cruise
Lines International Association.

If you like the idea of staying in the equivalent of a three- or four-star
resort hotel, with plenty of staff members around to help; eating
five-course dinners with all the lobster, shrimp or steak you can handle;
and either lazing around the hot tubs or pools or taking up one of countless
free activities on the ship or shore -- you can do it for less than $200 per
couple per day.

Despite the all-inclusive nature of a cruise, however, there are many ways
to spend extra money.

Here are the Savvy Consumer's 10 tips on avoiding those extra costs:

1. Shop around. We wanted a big ship -- the larger vessels roll better on
the sea -- so we went on the Grand Princess, a mammoth 17-story, 109,000-ton
"floating hotel" that holds 2,600 passengers and 1,100 employees. Seven-day
cruises can be a better bargain, if you have the time. We shopped online, at
Sam's Club, with a local travel agent and directly with the Princess line.
Our best price: an online travel agent in Arizona who got us the tickets for
$1,200 for an inside cabin.

2. Watch for add-on fees. Many of the offers we found looked lower until we
looked deep into the material and found a $200-plus addition per person
called "taxes and port fees."

3. Check for automatic tips. Princess and some other cruise lines have taken
some of the hassle out of tipping every waiter or housekeeper you come
across each day by adding $10 per person per day to your bill, a charge that
is not included in your upfront payment. What's good about it: It takes away
the hassle of having a tip in your swimsuit or of not knowing how much to
give and to whom. What's bad about it: For a seven-day trip for two, it's a
$140 charge.

4. Take your own wine/liquor if allowed. Alcoholic drinks are not included
in your fare, and on our ship, a piña colada cost $7, including a 15 percent
tip. We brought an extra suitcase of wine and a couple of glasses from the
dollar store. Two wine tips: Wrap the bottles with beach towels or bubble
wrap to avoid breakage, and check to make sure your cabin will have a small
fridge. Also: Soft drinks generally cost extra, and the free coffee on most
ships is notoriously bad.

5. Be aware of excursion costs. If you want to visit ancient ruins or go
scuba diving, it will cost $25 to $130 per person. For some, this makes the
vacation memorable. For us, taking in a white sand beach and a crystal-clear
ocean was more than enough onshore entertainment.

6. Know that onboard luxuries have a price. Most ships offer massages, spa
treatments and some dining at extra cost. But there's plenty of free
entertainment, which on our trip included a nightclub for dancing, hot
tubs/pools/saunas, comedy acts, musical revues and movies on a giant screen
over one of the pools at night (with blankets and free popcorn). Our ship
also offered free cooking and ballroom dance classes and cheap yoga ($10)
and computer ($25) classes. Watching a sunset didn't cost anything.

7. Check the itinerary for docking vs. tenders. Hurricanes in the gulf last
year knocked out several docking facilities, which meant that much smaller
tenders had to be used to get passengers to and from shore, which can take a
lot of time. Either go in knowing you'll have to be patient or find another
cruise where docks are available at all ports.

8. Use online cruise reviews. Several great sites will give you up-to-date
honest reviews of your ship and your destination from both professionals and
travelers. Try www.cruisereviews.com, www.cruisemates.com,
www.cruisecritic.com or www.cruisereport.com.

9. Talk to people onboard. Some of the best ideas for activities onshore
came from fellow travelers or crew members. As we were walking into Playa
del Carmen, one passenger told us to go to Fifth Avenue for a lovely outdoor
pedestrian street of shops. A staffer warned us that there were no beaches
at Belize and that the vendors were very aggressive, so we avoided the port
completely and hung out on a near-empty ship.

10. Consider trip insurance. That issue came up when I cracked my ankle a
month before the cruise. Because we had not purchased insurance, we could
have stayed home and gotten a 25 percent refund on our tickets -- in essence
paying 75 percent of the cruise cost for nothing. The cruise line also would
have let us transfer one ticket to another name, but not both. Since I
wasn't interested in my husband taking someone else on our anniversary
cruise, I went with a walking cast. It was still a great trip, but it would
have been better a month later. Our insurance would have run around $200,
though, so consider that in your risk calculation.




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