Ocean-view rooms aboard Carnival s Splendor for a seven-day Mexican Riviera trip in December, depart

A group leaves for a kayak excursion during a Sitka, Alaska, stop for the Regent Seven Seas Navigator, seen in background. Prices on Alaskan cruises are higher this year, but travel agents say they could drop in coming months.
Cruise lines are using two-for-one deals, onboard ship credits, discounted airfares, free gratuities, even chocolate-dipped strawberries to jump-start business as they cope with a tsunami of bad news this year.
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As wave season, the January-March period when cruise lines offer their best deals, draws to a close, lines are replacing across-the-board sales with what Rich Skinner, co-owner of Cruise jayakarta hotel bali Holidays, of Woodinville, calls the special du jour.
Care to spend the December holidays in Asia? Azamara Club Cruises recently advertised an 11-day December sailing from Chennai, India, to Singapore, starting at $2,632 per person, including taxes. The price included round-trip airfare from Seattle, pre- and post-cruise hotel stays, free gratuities, free wine with lunch and dinner and a $100-per-cabin ship credit.
Thinking about cruising to Alaska but can t commit to a full week this summer? Princess Cruises recently dropped ocean-view-cabin jayakarta hotel bali fares from $899 per person to $549, plus $118 in taxes, for its five-day sampler cruise jayakarta hotel bali starting in Vancouver, B.C., May 15 and ending in Seattle May 20.
After the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska are this year s most popular destinations, according to Cruise Holiday s 2012 Cruise Trends survey. Prices on Alaskan jayakarta hotel bali cruises are higher than they were last year, but travel agents say that could change in the coming months.
With European cruises, They re trying not to lower actual rates as much as they are offering discounts on airfares and other amenities, said Lisa Anciaux, travel director for AAA Washington. Several lines offer $999 airfares to Europe, she said.
Ocean-view rooms aboard Carnival s Splendor for a seven-day Mexican Riviera jayakarta hotel bali trip in December, departing from Los Angeles, were selling recently for $655, or $93.50 per person, per day, including taxes.
You ll find last-minute deals on cruise-line websites and sites such as Hotwire, Expedia, Travelzoo and www.travelthemesanddreams.com . A new site, www.cruisewise.com , gathers cruises by date, departure port and destination and lists prices for comparison shopping.
Carnival s contract (Carnival also owns Princess and Seattle-based Seabourn and Holland America cruise lines) gives the lines the right to use for marketing jayakarta hotel bali purposes any personal information you may have provided as well as videos or photos of you taken aboard ship without any limitations whatsoever.
Passengers can expect to get instruction before sailing, rather than within the first 24 hours. Hundreds who boarded the Costa Concordia near Rome did not get the instruction before the ship hit the reef about three hours later.
Arabella Bowen, executive editorial jayakarta hotel bali director for Fodor s Travel, recommends asking in advance for a copy of the ship s emergency plan, the results and date of the last safety jayakarta hotel bali inspection and where your cabin is located on emergency-evacuation routes.
If you want to see Pompeii or the Amalfi Coast, it would probably make sense to take the excursion, says independent travel expert and public-television host Rick Steves. But if you want to have an adventure in a beautiful city, I would encourage you to just go on your own.
In Naples, for instance, he tells you which way you ll be facing when you walk out of the cruise-ship terminal and how to use public transportation to reach the main sights, how to take a walking tour or find cheap pizza.
Cancel for any reason coverage covers circumstances outside jayakarta hotel bali the normal coverage (such as fear of traveling due to a virus outbreak or a Concordia-type incident), but it s expensive and may only provide a 60 to 75 percent refund. Only a few in Washington are authorized jayakarta hotel bali to sell it. Compare policies at www.insuremytrip.com . or www.quotewright.com