Tips for cruising on a budget

NEW YORK — The cruise industry bills cruising as a great value. For one upfront price, your accommodations, meals and trip are paid for.

But most cruisers end up spending more. Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, says her rule of thumb is to assume she'll spend half the amount of the cruise fare on incidentals. She recommends an online cruise budget calculator to help estimate all your costs at www.independenttraveler.com/travel-budget-calculator.

Wendy Perrin, consumer news editor at Conde Nast Traveler magazine, also cautions that "the cruise fare you see advertised is not the price you'll end up paying. The advertised fare, which is usually for the smallest, windowless cabin, does not include mandatory taxes and port fees, mandatory gratuities, or highly recommended additional charges, such as cruise insurance." Perrin blogs about travel at perrinpost.com.

You'll also have to buy plane tickets to the departure port if it's not within driving distance. But there are ways to keep costs down. Here are a few:

CABIN SELECTION: The cheapest cabins will be inside — no balcony, no windows. This might sound depressing, but on many cruise ships, public spaces are so vast and appealing that you won't want to be in your room unless you're sleeping.

There are multiple decks with pools, atriums and libraries — all to be enjoyed for free — not to mention the scenic views. On an Alaska trip, you'll spend part of a day at sea cruising past an enormous glacier — an incredible sight, no extra charge.

FREE ACTIVITIES: Plenty of things to do on a cruise ship are free, like using the fitness center or catching live performances, from comedy to musical variety.

The Celebrity Solstice, which launched in November, features the first "Hot Glass Show" at sea, where glassblowers from New York's Corning Museum of Glass give free glassblowing demonstrations. The Solstice also has a deck with real grass called the Lawn Club where you can play bocce or croquet or putt golf balls for free.

On Princess Cruises, one way to lure you out of your room is a giant poolside screen, 300 square feet, that shows feature films (including first-run movies and family shows), concerts and even telecasts of events, from the inauguration to the Super Bowl to the Oscars. Princess calls the program "Movies Under the Stars," but there are broadcasts all day as well as at night. The screens are now on Caribbean Princess, Crown Princess, Emerald Princess, Ruby Princess, Grand Princess, Star Princess and Sea Princess, and they'll be installed in 2009 on Golden Princess, Dawn Princess and Coral Princess.