A significant number of travel agents now charge a service fee for their consultive services thus raising the price of a cruise. There are online travel firms which only provide discounted prices without any personalized service or contact with their online clients. Point of fact is that many of the so called mega or membership club travel companies offer minimal discounts. Their prime function is to sell advertising space.

There is a best of all worlds. Take your time to shop within your community and at the same time review online travel companies that not only discount prices but offer personalized service where you speak to the same travel planner whenever you contact their business. These agencies are on the internet, just take the time to search as savings on cruise prices can be applied to spending aboard that favorite cruise.

Best advice of all. Talk with your friends and ask for referrals as to their actual experience with their booking travel agent. Remember buying direct from a cruise line is perhaps the most expensive way to purchase that dream cruise.

One is the information about bringing wine on board, and paying corkage fees. It’s important for any cruiser to know that cruise lines vary widely in their alcohol policies, and what they charge for fees. For example, Royal Caribbean allows NO alcoholic beverage of any type to be brought on board – and even ominously state on their website that attempts to sneak alcohol on board can result in being denied boarding. Celebrity allows two (and ONLY two) bottles of wine (and ONLY wine) to be brought on board at embarkation (and ONLY embarkation), not at the ports. And they charge a $25 dollar (ouch) corkage fee to drink your wine in the dining room – an outrageous price when compared to land-based restaurants. In fact, most cruise lines charge at LEAST $15 corkage. Further, while their policies state that they will return any confiscated bottles on the last night of the cruise, this cannot be counted on – there are countless reports on CruiseCritic and other message boards of expensive bottles of wine and liquor never being returned.

Other cruise lines, such as Holland America, Princess, and others, have far less restrictive policies, allowing passengers to bring their beverages of choice into their cabins without these Draconian confiscations of passengers’ personal property.

I also disagree with the previous comments about the specialty restaurants. To use a bad pun – that ship has sailed: the extra-cost restaurants are here to stay. This leaves us with two options: eat in them, or don’t. The reality is that more often than not, these specialty restaurants really ARE significantly better than the food in the main dining rooms – especially on the larger ships, where the main dining rooms are serving literally thousands of mass-produced meals, whereas the specialty restaurants are much smaller, have their own kitchens, cook to order, and have the ability to function like a fine dining restaurant. My dining experiences in specialty restaurants have been some of my best dining experiences anywhere. To me, fine dining is non-negotiable on a cruise, so I factor the price of the specialty restaurants into my budget and eat there as often as possible.

I disagree that there is any way that we can put the genie back in the bottle and get the cruise lines to stop putting the majority of their efforts into the specialty restaurants. And we have to also recognize that there is simply no way that any dining room serving thousands of meals produced in bulk is ever going to measure up to a small, prepare-to-order restaurant.

Other than these, your article gave some great tips to newer cruisers who haven’t already experienced one of those eye-popping end-of-cruise bills.

I did not find out until the end of a cruise when I was in line to dispute incorrect charges on my bill. The gent in front of me told me that Holland America allows gurest to bring unboard, wine. I reviewed the fine print back home and it’s true. Having traveled mainly Celebrity and the mass market lines, I was surprised at this as those lines will prevent your from boarding if they find you smuggling it aboard. But, then, again, the fine print also does not guarantee a safe cruise to any of the scheduled ports and other such wording that replicates how airlines treat customers depending on current market conditions.