Score Luxury Cruises at Bargain Prices

Finding the right kind of cruise involves more than running the numbers. It also means finding the right cultural fit and match of sensibilities. AllThingsCruise.com, a cruise portal (and spinoff of CruiseCompete.com) matches a set of travel tools such as sections on buying travel insurance, applying for visas and so on, with a roster of cruise bloggers, an updated mix of cruise news and short videos that give a sense of what it's like to be on board a particular ship.

Another good site, Cruisecritic.com, showcases tips and guidelines about cruising, research tools for picking a cruise ship and pithy thumbnail characterizations of leading cruise ship lines. Princess is a company known for its nightlife, for example, while Royal Caribbean's freedom-class ships showcase enormous fitness centers. Crystal Cruises' "mid-sized ships offer a lovely balance of superb dining and services, with more big-ship amenities than are typically available on smaller vessels,'' Cruisecritic.com notes. Online travelers' reviews and forums round out the site's offerings.

A few parting words: while those "all-inclusive'' cruise packages do indeed encompass many things, they don't cover everything. Specialty shipboard restaurants, shore excursions and alcohol usually cost extra. As for the casino, need I say more?

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