Life at sea:
Shipboard options require planning, budgeting

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas offers ice skating, boxing, surf-riding, a techy arcade, onion rings and lots of ice cream. 
                                                                                     New ships for 2008
                                                                                                                 How to budget a cruise
 
By David G. Molyneaux

While sitting in the Caribbean sun atop the massive new Liberty of the Seas, you might get an afternoon hunger for ice cream.

But which ice cream? And how much do you want to pay?

 

Molyneaux photos   Ben & Jerry's on Liberty of the Seas

You could saunter inside and take
an elevator to the middle of the 4,000-passenger Liberty, world's largest cruise ship that is big enough to be a small city. Royal Caribbean's signature indoor Royal Promenade, longer than a football field, features a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop with a nice little set of tables and chairs for watching other passengers stroll past. Most items are less than $5 a portion.
 
Or, you could tootle aft to the popular indoor/outdoor Johnny Rockets diner for a  milkshake at $3.60, though you would have to queue up in a constant line of passengers bent on buying burgers, ogling enormous onion rings as they wait for a seat.
 
Or, you could amble over to the free soft serve machines on the pool deck, taking the tack that it's hard to turn down free ice cream after paying a thousand dollars or more for your week at sea out of Miami.

This is the new world of cruising on the competitively priced big ships, where the joys of options on the newest vessels come with the need to make choices, particularly about how you want to spend your time and money.

Whether it's ice cream, burgers, coffee or dinner, you may feast for free because such sustenance is included in the cruise price. Or, you may choose something a little special at an extra cost.

If you want dinner in the top specialty restaurant, you'll need a reservation, perhaps days in advance.

Some cruisers now anticipate a hefty shipboard account, and they bring their calendars for planning out the days. The simple world of cruises past, where passengers  trooped aboard and ate in lockstep, waiting to be called to tea, bingo and dinner every night, is mostly gone.

You can still opt for a humdrum life aboard ships, but these days, even if you want simplicity, you have to work at it.

Mass-marketed cruise lines such as Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean have loaded their new ships with extras, topped by specialty restaurants and fancy spas. This trend of adding options is bound to continue as the most popular lines compete for new passengers with rock bottom pricing, while adding dining choices, activities and amenities for younger cruisers and more upscale guests at an extra charge to boost the revenue.

 

Fountains and geysers at the H2O Zone water park on Liberty of the Seas.

Suites, supper clubs, super splashes

Multiple choices begin with your cabin selection. Bedding down is not just choosing between an inside or outside cabin. Many outside cabins now offer a private balcony at a price that is about double the price of an inside cabin.
 
Top suites on some of the newer ships go for as much as $2,000 a day per person, which is enough money to buy a week's cruise for two people in a lesser cabin on the same ship. And all inside cabins are not equal. On its largest ships, Royal Caribbean offers inside cabins with windows overlooking the Royal Promenade, while other inside cabins have four solid walls.

Innovative options aboard some of the more economical cruise lines:

Carnival: On all its new ships, passengers may dress up for a reservations-only supper club, with prime steaks, chops, seafood, a top wine list, and live music for dancing. Carnival's supper clubs are not for everyone. Many passengers would find the dinner too time-consuming (course by course), the room too dressy (men are requested to wear jackets) and the meal too expensive, with a surcharge of $30 per person, which includes tip but not alcoholic beverages.
 
Norwegian: Taking a run at a younger, hipper traveler, including singles, NCL has designed a free-spirited style of vacationing without structure and schedules, especially at meal time. NCL has packed each of its new ships with 10 or more restaurants, some of which levy a surcharge of $20 per person. The Norwegian Pearl, on Caribbean cruises out of Miami, and the new Norwegian Gem, cruising out of New York City this winter, sport a rock climbing wall as well as a four-lane bowling alley built into a sultry lounge called Bliss. Bowling costs $5 per game.
 
Royal Caribbean: Since May of 2006, Royal Caribbean, the cruise industry leader in the concept of turning behemoth ships into active floating resorts, has launched the world's two largest cruise ships, twins Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. Independence of the Seas debuts in spring 2008.

On these ships, Royal Caribbean is also the leader in offering onboard options, both free and at a surcharge.
 

Passengers surf on Liberty's FlowRider

Included in the price of the cruise, for instance, are nightly ice skating shows and activities such as ice skating, practicing in a golf simulator, climbing a rock wall and attempting to ride the gush of water that spews from a surf simulator called FlowRider. (This activity always draws a crowd to watch passengers test their surfing skills and occasionally lose their shorts.)

Activities for a fee include boxing training (the PowerBox condition class is $15 and a one-on-one training runs $210 per three sessions) or for indoor play, a huge techy Arcade where games range from 75 cents to $1.45 per play. You could spend a small fortune in this place.
 
A week on the option-heavy Liberty of the Seas can add up to a hefty onboard account, though the occupants of inside cabin Number 6305 can count on at least one break. In this cabin, the view out the picture window facing the interior Royal Promenade is obscured by the rumps of two cows that stand on the sign over the Ben & Jerry's ice cream store. Folks in that cabin are compensated for their view with a free ice cream every day in the shop under the rumps.

If price is not your primary concern, consider the Royal Suite, with  piano, at $10,000 per person for two people. Or the Presidential Family Suite, with four bedrooms, four baths and a huge private deck. For this suite, Royal Caribbean charges $14,000 per person for the first two people, with lower charges for other family members up to a total of 14. Some sleep in Murphy beds that fold out of the ceiling. 

Top suites sell out months and months ahead of the cruise date.

Molyneaux, editor of www.TravelMavens.net, writes about cruising, golf and journeys of discovery on his blog, www.TravelMaven.typepad.com.

(updated, 22 dec 07)