Tips when booking a cruise

There are several things you should do — or at least be aware of — before you book a cruise vacation. Here are some tips:

• Read before you buy. Become familiar with your cruise line's written policies and fine print, including those on itinerary changes, especially when booking online.

Travel agents who specialize in selling cruises are often aware of a particular line's track record. Ask for advice and ask to see the conditions.

Written into many cruise lines' terms is a clause that allows itinerary changes without prior notice.

• Consider seasonal weather patterns before you book. Hurricanes are common in the Caribbean in early fall, and ice tends to stay in the Baltics into early spring. Certain ports of call are more likely to be affected than others.

• When buying a trip from a third-party agent rather than booking directly with the cruise line or through a travel agent, make sure you're entitled to a refund if the ship doesn't call at a destination for which you have paid for a shore excursion. This isn't always the case.

• Consider travel insurance. Buy it, but before you do, figure out what kind of coverage is important to you.

Standard trip-cancellation insurance (the kind sold through online booking agents) doesn't cover you if your cruise line changes its itinerary and offers an alternative. This type of insurance, however, does cover airline-ticket changes if you have to make them in order to accommodate any changes in departure or arrival dates or cities.

Most cruise lines sell policies that will allow you to cancel your trip for any reason and apply your payment to a future cruise. These policies aren't recommended if the cruise line is on shaky financial ground.

• Pay with a credit card. Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, you can challenge a charge for goods or services that weren't delivered as agreed.

The appeal must be made within 60 days of receiving your first bill, a time limit that may have passed by the time you take your trip. Most Visa and MasterCard credit-card agreements come with added protection, a "delayed delivery clause," giving cardholders 120 days to file a claim for a refund, starting from the date the plane, cruise or tour was scheduled to depart.

Seattle Times Travel staff