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hours per day. Some ships offer the dining room fare in your room. Depending on the cruise line, room service can be only sandwiches and continental breakfast. If room service is a big deal to you, check with the cruise line before booking on a particular cruise or ship.

Special excursions are offered in each port. Tours of the locations are a popular attractions. You may want to snorkel, scuba, ride a glass bottom boat, ride a rapids, or any of many choices. These are priced between $25 and $100 per person. You should not really go for more than 1 or 2 per port. Personally, I would recommend not more than 1 excursion per port and about 2 or 3 per cruise.

Food is what most cruisers think of when amenities come to mind. There are buffet lines, pizza shops, hamburger and hotdog grills, a formal dining room, and specialty restaurants. All but the specialty restaurants are included. Usually, for a charge of $20 or so per person, you can dine on significantly different offerings than the dining room. These seem to be popular choices although it is hard to beat the 4 to 5 star dining in the main dining room.

Your room is cleaned and serviced at least twice per day. An in-room mini-bar refrigerator offers cold drinks for a reasonable charge. It is refilled every time your room is serviced. The on-ship charge account is a great feature to make your cruising experience easy. Your charge is good a bars, in the stores, and anywhere else where you can spend money on the ship. You can either settle your bill the day before you disembark, or let it go onto your charge card that backs the account.

A photo shop is provided to develop all of your pictures taken during most of the cruise. The charge for this service is not much more than you will spend if you wait until you're home. Photographers snap pictures now and then of your cruise experience. These are for sale near the photo shop.

Shopping is available when at sea. It is duty free. This will save you from 10% to 30% on your purchases. Perfumes, alcohol, clothing, and many other items are offered for sale.

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