Some cruise lines tack on fuel surcharges

Cruising

Rising fuel prices will have you digging deeper into your wallet at sea as well as the gas pump. In recent months, some cruise lines have begun levying fuel surcharges, adding an extra $5 a day on average.

Among them are American West Steamboat, which operates a paddlewheel fleet in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. It implemented a $5 per person per day fee on upcoming departures, retroactive to all booked passengers. Should gas prices fall to spring 2005 levels, American West will reimburse passengers for the imposed fuel surcharges.

In the fiercely price-competitive cruise market, not all lines are keen on visibly topping off the cruise bill. For now, surcharges are being used mostly by smaller cruise lines, with perhaps slimmer profit margins, and upscale lines for whose passengers the increase may matter little.

The luxury Radisson Seven Seas Cruises and Crystal Cruises were the first to initiate fuel surcharges. Radisson levies a flat $5 per person per day on its 2006 cruises, up from $2.85 last year. Crystal is adding $4 per person per day.

In some instances surcharges can be much more than $5 per day, as popular Internet travel site CruiseCritic.com discovered. It found a $365 per person fuel and air-tax surcharge buried in the fine print of an ad for a nine-night Silversea cruise from Egypt to Athens last month. No fuel surcharges have been announced by mass-market lines ... yet. According to Princess spokeswoman Karen Tetherow, there are "no plans at this time" for fuel surcharges. However, Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison said, "The price of fuel is so volatile we certainly can't rule [it] out."

Get ready for crowds and higher airfares

Airplanes will grow more cramped and the skies more congested, the Federal Aviation Administration predicts.

Driven in part by lower fares, the number of airline passengers will rise 45 percent from 738.6 million in 2005 to 1.07 billion in 2017, the FAA said in its annual forecast released last week (which typically covers a decade). Many passengers will fly on smaller planes as airlines replace jumbo jets with smaller aircraft, the FAA said.

"Fares will be down, crowds will be up, delays will be longer," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. "You're more likely to be in the middle seat, or next to someone in the middle seat, or sitting at the gate because you got bumped off the airplane."

For domestic flights, there will be a blip upward in ticket prices this summer, the FAA says. That's because schedules have been cut, due partly to the bankruptcies of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines.

But beginning this fall, the FAA predicts, ticket prices will start to fall. Not all air fares will be bargains, of course. Last-minute purchases or fares on routes with little competition will still be high.

California

New life for old train station out in the Mojave Desert

An abandoned railroad station in the California desert has been reborn as a visitors center for the National Park Service and will be formally dedicated March 25.

The Kelso Depot, 125 miles west of Las Vegas, an old Union Pacific station, has not been used for passenger service in 20 years, although freight trains still pass through. But the station reopened last fall as the main information center for the Mojave National Preserve, which includes portions of the Sonoran, Mojave and Great Basin deserts.

The depot is a palatial California Mission-style building with a red tile roof and elegant stone arches. It appears like a mirage beside three towering palm trees in the shimmering sand.

In addition to educating visitors about the park, the depot, halfway between Interstates 15 and 40, will serve as an oasis for travelers. The nearest town, Baker, is 35 miles away.

The dedication is open to the public and will include nature walks at Kelso Dunes — golden mounds of sand that rise 700 feet high, about 10 miles from the station. More information: 760-252-6101 or www.nps.gov/moja.

Don't let the bedbugs bite Down Under

If you're traveling to Australia soon, there's something you definitely don't want to bring home with you. Numerous hotels — from economy to luxury — are reporting an outbreak of bedbugs in recent months.

The outbreak has cost the industry about $100 million a year in cleaning, according to a study by the Institute for Clinical Pathology & Medical Research at Sydney's Westmead Hospital. The insects nest in mattresses, under floorboards and in carpets.

Closer to home. exterminators in New York City have reported an outbreak of bedbugs in Manhattan homes and hotels.

Seattle Times staff and news services