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With the explosion of online travel agencies, booking a cruise online is easier than ever. Taking a cruise can be one of the most enjoyable modes of travel possible, and the experience of booking the cruise is usually painless enough that you can devote the majority of your energy to the trip itself, as it should be. The online cruise agencies only make this process even easier.

The first question is safety. Setting up a cruise online is as safe as ordering any other sort of item from an Internet site. Standard operating procedure dictates our credit card number and other personal information is secure and protected. Technically, most maintain the appropriate Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology. Check the privacy policy to make sure your personal information is not shared with outside third parties.

Most sites nowadays are insured and bonded as well, and any reputable travel agency will give you references to prove this upon request. If you have any doubt, answer. And if their answer is ambiguous, try another website.

The price online is almost always exactly the same as it is in a real travel agency. First, in case you haven't heard, don't ever go by the prices listed in a cruise line's brochure: With the exception of some of the specialty lines, everybody offers heavy discounts as a matter of course, often forty percent or more off what they advertise. Nowadays that is especially true, as the cruise lines struggle to fill their ships in a dry travel market.

The bottom line is that today's cruises are dirt cheap.

And you would do best to go through a website that specializes in cruise ship travel. They are much more able to accommodate niche needs and special requests and have a much more extensive database of possible cruises. They also often have substantial discounts.

Some of the best cruise sites include:

Cruise.com
(www.cruise. com; 800/800-9552, 800/303-3337, or 888/333-3116)

Cruise411.com
(www .cruise411.com, 800/553-7090)

Cruises Only
(www.cruiseonly.com; 800/CRUISES)

Icruise.com
(www.ic ruise.com; tel 888/909-6242 or 212/929-6046)

Thanks for reading and happy sailing!

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
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