On the Internet, cruise shoppers can
hunt up bargains, look at photos of ships and cabins, browse through deck plans,
scan the latest cruise-line news, read ship reviews by cruise veterans and ask
for advice on what to wear or how much to tip. Even the results of Coast Guard
inspections are posted on the Web.
It is also possible to book a cruise online, but studies suggest that
travelers who use their computers for research usually pick up the phone when
it's time to put money on the table. Neil Gorfain, one of the owners of the
Cruise Outlet (www.thecruiseoutlet.com), a cruise-only agency based in Hamden,
doesn't blame them. ``There's too many complexities to it,'' he says. ``That's
why we basically require people to telephone us.''
First-time cruisers can find plenty to learn at About Cruises
(cruises.about.com), a well-organized site in the About.com network. It has
practical articles such as ``Planning Your First Cruise'' and ``Hurricanes and
Cruises,'' plus a rich set of links to cruise-related sites all over the Web.
The Savings at Sea section of the Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel site
(www.frommers.com/deals/savings_at_sea) also focuses on educating would-be
cruisers, especially by giving penny-pinching tips. The site also offers
last-minute cruise deals through i-cruise.com, one of the Internet's larger
cruise agencies.
There's no single site with the best bargain-cruise shopping, but most
cruise-agency sites post at least some sale prices and last-minute deals, and
many will quote prices by e-mail. The Cruise Outlet keeps one of the most
extensive databases of cruise prices on the Internet
(www.thecruiseoutlet.com/cruise_search.html), which provides a valuable overview
of pricing trends and bargains. Subscribing to e-mail newsletters sent out by
cruise agencies also can help consumers stay informed about bargains.
Selling cruises is the whole point behind the MyTravelCo site
(www.mytravelco.com/cruises), owned by giant Travel Services International. But
there is no charge to look at its panoramic photos, deck plans and menus for
several major cruise lines. Princess Cruises takes the photo concept even
further with live Web cams (webcam.princess.com) that broadcast photos from all
10 of its ships.
There are no commercial tie-ins at cruise2.com, which declares itself an
independent and nonprofit enterprise. It is an enormously popular and somewhat
disorganized site, flush with cruise ratings and reviews and busy message boards
-- some where travel agents and passengers barter for cruises and others where
passengers trade advice.
Message boards, where people swap opinions and advice about everything from a
ship's midnight buffet to the room decor, are the heart of many a cruise site.
At Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com), for example, there are individual
boards for the major cruise lines, and each gets dozens of posts daily. The site
also has a section on ports of call and shore excursions, topics neglected on
many cruise sites. It was launched on America Online in 1995, making it an
old-timer by Web standards, and is still available on AOL at keyword CRUISE
CRITIC.
Although they aren't as busy as some, and the topics range well beyond
cruising, the message boards at fodors.com (www.fodors.com/forums) are
particularly easy to use and seem to attract a knowledgeable set of
contributors.
For sheer volume of messages, nothing can top the Usenet newsgroup
rec.travel.cruises, which gets hundreds of postings daily. Newsgroups are part
of the Internet beyond the World Wide Web -- and beyond the experience of many
Web users. Learning to navigate this vast set of public forums can be
worthwhile, though, for those who want quick advice -- and lots of it.
Those who want to get started with Usenet newsgroups will get a hand at
Liszt's Usenet Newsgroups Directory (www.liszt.com/news). The Insider's Guide to
Newsgroups on CNET (home-internal.cnet.com/internet/0-3805-7-1564164.html) is
also helpful. Now that many cruise ships have e-mail access, it's not unusual to
see a newsgroup message posted by passengers during their cruises.
Back on the Web, many sites collect reviews from cruise passengers who rate
and describe their experiences. Sometimes the opinions vary wildly. On the
Epinions site (www.epinions.com/trvl-Cruises) one passenger gave the Carnival
ship Fascination the top rating of five stars and titled her review ``Cruisin'
in Paradise.'' Just below it, another reviewer gave the ship one star and called
his review ``HOJO'S Goes To Sea.''
By averaging the ratings from passengers into a single score between 1 and
100, Epinions evens out those disparities and gives its users a meaningful basis
for comparisons. At CruiseOpinion.com, this process is practically a science.
Passengers are asked for their level of satisfaction on dozens of criteria, from
dining-room service to cabin amenities, and the scores are averaged for each
category. The reviewers' comments are also provided.
Nervous -- or just careful -- cruisers can see the results of Coast Guard
inspections on the Port State Information eXchange site (psix.uscg.mil). This
may be less informative than you might think, unless you are enough of a sailor
to know what a Geislinger coupling is.
The terminology is a bit easier to understand at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program site
(www2.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/vspmain.asp), where visitors can look up the results of
health inspections on any cruise ship that docks in the United States.
Lots of cruise sites have news sections, but most lean toward happy news:
ship launchings, new routes and other press-release fodder. The real scoop about
engine trouble and people jumping overboard can be found in the news sections at
Cruisemates (www.cruisemates.com) or Cruisin'
(www.stutt.com/cruising/home.html).
Gorfain believes that the cruise Web sites to survive the next few years will
be the ones that make the effort to keep their content updated and to provide
extras like news and reviews. ``Just to have a Web site is not the answer,'' he
says. ``That doesn't mean a thing.''