Taking a cruise is a fun way to travel, but keep these tips in mind – TwinCities.com

(Pioneer Press: Kirk Lyttle)

It’s difficult for me to believe that it was just 10 years ago, while on a family trip to Mexico, that I said to my eldest child, “Don’t you feel sorry for those cruise ship passengers? They have these artificial entertainment options crafted just for them that you and I saw in their natural setting last year.”

The entertainment in question involved a number of agile Mexicans scaling a pole and then, once they’d reached the top, seeming to dance while turned upside down. This was taking place outside a shopping center in Mazatlan. My daughter and I had seen the real thing in a park in Mexico City during the three-week bus tour of central Mexico we took with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls when I was still teaching there.

Now I am one of those cruise ship passengers I originally felt sorry for — but have found I really enjoy it, so much that I’ve cruised three times in the past year. Like many retirees, I have a bucket list. Chile and Argentina were on it. After good-naturedly traipsing around the world with me, my husband, who is 76 and 10 years older than I am, keeps setting new rules governing the travel he will do. The latest addition to his list? “I have to be able to drive there.”

I knew he wouldn’t want to drive to Patagonia in South America. So I started checking out options of seeing the area on my own or with a girlfriend. Safety was a concern so I felt a tour was in order.

The land packages I looked at seemed cost prohibitive — in the $4,500 per person range.

So when I read an article like this one in another newspaper that advertised a cruise of the area starting at $1,400, I jumped at it.

I asked my book club if anyone wanted to go with me. Another retired college professor said yes; it would be her first cruise. She, too, has taken two more in the past year. Obviously we enjoyed the experience.

We also learned a few things along the way.

Advertised prices not the true costs

All of our recent cruises have been with the Holland America line. My friend took one to Alaska with her husband; I took one around Nova Scotia with mine. She and I also cruised in January around Southeast Asia. After our first cruise in Latin America, she and I had learned to add the following to the advertised base costs:

Extra for airfare. Expect this to double your costs.

Extra for any visas required by the countries you’re visiting. They can run $100 and up.

Extra for room upgrades if you want to be able to see out a cabin window. This mattered a lot to my friend.

Extra for alcoholic beverages — sodas, lattes and the like. We frequented the onboard coffee shop.

Extra for gratuities for the staff. (This amounted to $11/per day/per person in our cabin for that first, two-week cruise).

Extra for use of the Internet in the onboard library.

Extra for phone calls using the cabin phone. (I spent $75 calling home from South America.)

Suffice it to say, that first trip cost three times the advertised $1,400 fee. It turns out I could have taken a land package for the same price. So why did I take two more Holland America cruises within the year? It’s a wonderful way to travel for those of us of a certain age.

Other advantages

— The food was fantastic. Think five-star dining three times per day (four if you make afternoon tea a ritual, as we did). I like not having a set time to eat although that option existed for those who preferred it. This allowed us to be seated with a variety of different people. Most were extremely well traveled, very knowledgeable and adventurous. Often they were from other countries, too.

If you want to burn off some of those extra calories consumed, there was a gym onboard, as well as exercise classes and a pool. In good weather, you can walk around the deck.

The onboard educational opportunities were great. I learned to tango on one trip, did tai-chi on another, took advantage of some of the free cooking classes, attended lectures about the countries we were seeing and received tips for touring on one’s own and shopping while onshore.

The quality of the entertainment onboard ship was extraordinary. It was like going to a Broadway shows night after night. I did skip things that didn’t interest me, such as jugglers and magicians. But on those nights I went to the cinema to take in first-run movies, or films about the areas we were visiting. Or I went to one of the many lounges onboard to listen to music, including excellent classical music in one lounge and show tunes in another.

Generally speaking, the shore excursions were very well organized and informative, though the English-speaking guides in Asia weren’t as easy to understand as those in Latin America.

Cost-cutting tip

— The Holland America cruise I took with my husband around Nova Scotia, starting in Quebec and ending in Boston, originally was advertised in a newspaper travel section for $699. When the cruise line started pitching the same trip to us online for $399, we pushed the “go” button. Eventually we each paid another $50 to upgrade to a room with a view, which we thought was still a steal. It was early in the season. Of course, they still were working out some of the kinks, making some noisy repairs, for example. You can save money traveling at the end of the season, too.

If you belong to Costco, check into its Travel Services. When my traveling companion and I invited friends to join us on our Asia cruise, one quoted savings of $500 on the same room using Costco. Also, third and fourth passengers can often travel for free. My girlfriend took her grandson along on the trip she and her husband made to Alaska.

Stay out of the onboard shops, at least until the last day. Waiting until then, I bought $100 rings for $10.

You can plan your own shore excursions or skip them entirely. Some stops provided beautiful seaside boardwalks we could enjoy for free. Many people traveled with guide books, such as “Lonely Planet,” and rounded up others onboard to share a taxi to the sites they wanted to see. I was willing to pay what Holland America charged to insure I’d be back to the ship when it was time to leave. To me it was like an insurance policy.

Get the insurance

Don’t leave home without it. We bought our insurance through the cruise line. And make sure the kind you get will pay to bring you home in the worst case scenario. I led a university-sponsored tour to Greece several years ago. An elderly gentleman who planned to travel with us did not purchase insurance and when he got sick and was unable to go, he was out several thousand dollars. I confess to having made the same mistake when I booked a cheap trip to Mexico with one of my daughters some time back. Then my husband was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Fortunately, his surgery went well. We were happy that friends could use our tickets, but I vowed I’d never book a trip without insurance again.

More places for the bucket list

There are many places I’d still be happy to see, including Alaska and Panama, and many I’d be glad to visit again, including Ireland and Greece. But when you get to my age and you and your spouse have both dodged cancer, you prioritize. Russia and India are still must-sees for me. I’m looking at Viking Cruises for Russia and planning to purchase my tickets at the beginning of 2016 to travel at the end of the season, knowing I can save by doing so. You can be sure I’ll also consult with Costco this time. I had always ruled out Viking Cruises because of the costs, but I’m told they include everything and I know now from experience that not all cruise lines do.

Pat Ferguson Hanson, a published author, is retired from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where she taught communications and journalism. The first 10 years of her career she was a member of the U.S. Foreign Service.