Hotel freebies: Ask at the front desk; most hotels can provide free toiletries, including shaving cream, mouthwash, and deodorant. You may also borrow charges for phones, tablets, and laptops.

Higher-end hotels often lend umbrellas to use for the day, transportation such as a local shuttle service, and even nicer pillows.

To help to avoid excessive hotel fees, check the fine print and/or call the hotel. Before making a reservation, ask whether any surcharges, such as resort fees or groundskeeping surcharges, will be added to your daily room rate.  Also, check or ask for any surprise fees, like porterage fees for carrying your bags to your room.

Bed bugs

Place your luggage on a folding luggage rack with metal legs from the moment you enter your hotel room-never on a hotel bed, carpet, or upholstered furniture. Bedbugs cannot climb metal. If there are not enough folding racks of this type for all of your luggage, a tile bathroom floor or the entryway will do.

Pull back a corner of your bedding when first check-in, and scan the seams of the mattress for tiny bugs or pepper-like droppings. If you find either, immediately request a new room.

Inspect your luggage carefully inside and out when you return home. Do this in the garage before the bags enter the living area of your home. Even if your hotel room was not infested, bedbugs might have climbed onto your bags in an airplane luggage compartment or carry-on compartment.

Use guidebooks and/or ask locals about good restaurants, bars and/or tourist attractions instead of the hotel concierge.

Use a credit card, not a debit card, when you book a hotel room. Debit cards do not always provide the same level of consumer protection for fraudulent charges or hotel security breaches. Use just one credit card for all hotel reservations, if possible.

As the COVID situation is fluid, destinations may require your vaccination card or a recent negative test for entry. Before departing, check your destination's COVID requirements. Keep your COVID vaccination card with your passport for international or your government-issued picture ID for domestic. Only laminate it if the card is full.

U.S. citizens traveling abroad must bring a passport that is valid for at least six months after returning to the United States.

Hot tubs on cruises or resorts

Cruise ships or resorts are places to relax and rejuvenate, but one of the most popular spots to rest, you may think twice about visiting. Public hot tubs contain approximately 100mg of feces that usually lives between our buttocks.  On top of that, warm water in a hot tub or spa is a breeding ground for bodily bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The more people who frequent a hot tub, the more you’re likely to share these GIFTS with.

But if you must enjoy the bubbles, include taking a shower or bath with soap beforehand. Do the same when you get out of the hot tub. Other precautions, like staying out of a hot tub when you're sick and avoiding getting water in your mouth.

If you're concerned about the water quality in your cruise's or resort's hot tubs/spas, take a look at the water. If it's cloudy, do not enter and leave because that tub needs cleaning. But clear water doesn't always mean clean, so when it doubt, trust your nose. Pools with unclean water will actually emit a strong chemical smell.

Mobile Passport Control

Mobile Passport Control (MPC) allows eligible travelers to submit their passport and customs declaration information through a free, secure app on their smartphone or other mobile devices. The use of MPC streamlines the traveler’s entry process into the United States by reducing passport control inspection time and overall wait time. Use of MPC is free and does not require pre-approval. Travelers who successfully use the MPC app will no longer have to complete a paper form or use an APC kiosk. As a result, travelers may experience shorter wait times, less congestion, and efficient processing.

CBP’s MPC app is a free application that can be downloaded from the Apple App store and Google Play and is currently available for eligible travelers to use upon arrival at MPC-approved sites.

• Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL)
• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
• Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
• Calgary International Airport (YYC)*
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
• Denver International Airport (DEN)
• Edmonton International Airport (YEG)*
• Dulles International Airport (IAD)
• Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
• Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)*
• Honolulu Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
• Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
• Houston William P. Hobby International Airport (HOU)
• John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
• Kansas City International Airport (MCI)
• Las Vegas Harry Ried International Airport (LAS)**
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
• Miami International Airport (MIA)
• Miami Seaport
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP)
• Montreal Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
• Oakland International Airport (OAK)
• Orlando International Airport (MCO)
• Ottawa International Airport (YOW)*
• Palm Beach Seaport
• Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
• Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
• Port Everglades Seaport
• Portland International Airport (PDX)
• Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
• Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
• San Diego International Airport (SAN)
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
• San Jose International Airport (SJC)
• San Juan Airport (SJU)
• San Juan Seaport
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
• Tampa International Airport (TPA)
• Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
• Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
• Winnipeg James A Richardson International Airport (YWG) *

New sites in February 2023

• Las Vegas Harry Ried International Airport (LAS) - 02/21/2023
• Calgary International Airport (YYC) - 02/28/2023
• Edmonton International Airport (YEG) - 02/28/2023
• Winnipeg James A Richardson International Airport (YWG) - 02/28/2023
• Ottawa International Airport (YOW) - 02/28/2023
• Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) - 02/28/2023

Book as early as possible

by Gene Sloan (the Points Guy)

Many cruise lines these days often offer its best pricing for any given cruise at the moment the sailing opens for booking. Then, as the cruise starts filling up, the line will slowly raise prices for the remaining inventory of cabins.

To get the best price on any particular sailing, you should book right when the voyage opens for sale. This means planning far in advance, cruise lines sailings will open for reservations around two years before the trips are scheduled to take place.

Booking far in advance can pay off in more ways than one. One big advantage to booking ahead of time is that you’re more likely to get the exact cabin type you want.  The least expensive cabins and most expensive suites often sell out quickly.

Worried you might miss out on a deal by booking a cruise far in advance? Here’s the good news: If the cost of your cruise drops at a later date, you can usually get your fare reduced to match the lower price. You can renegotiate the price until you've paid in full for the cruise; that final payment is typically due a few months prior to the sail date.

Book off-season for the best deal

As is the case for resorts on land, the floating resort ships can be significantly less expensive during the “offseason” travel months of September, October, and November.

These are months when kids are typically back in school, and family travel — a huge market for cruise ships — drops off significantly, resulting in diminished demand for the line's ships. In the Bahamas and the Caribbean, it’s also hurricane season, which keeps some people away from both land resorts and cruise ships in the region.

In addition to the fall months, the offseason period cruises generally includes parts of January and February, but it varies by region. Traditionally, the summer months of June, July, and August are considered to be the high season in many cruise destinations like the Caribbean, Europe, and Alaska. The periods around major holidays — such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day — also are considered the busy season for cruising and bring higher prices.

Pre-book dining, drinks, and internet packages

You'll get the best price on dining and beverage packages if you book them in advance of your cruise. This is cruise lines often run online sales on these packages in the months leading up to a voyage.

Once you're on board, you'll find that packages for dining, drinks, and internet will be higher than what you could have paid in advance.

Book your entertainment in advance, too

When sailing, you may be able to use the line's online portal or app to pre-book shows in advance. We're talking about the Broadway musicals and ice shows found on these vessels.

This is important to do if you want to be sure to get a seat for a specific show on a specific night. Given the many thousands of people on these ships on any given sailing, it’s not uncommon to find that some shows book up in advance.

If you don’t sign up for shows in advance, a backup strategy is to do so just after you board a vessel. Alternatively, you can wait in a standby line at onboard theaters on show nights. If some people with reservations don't show up (something that happens often), the gatekeepers will let people without reservations in on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sign those waivers in advance

While you're booking restaurant reservations in advance, it's a good idea also to sign a waiver for any onboard activities that you'd like to try that require one. If you do this in advance of sailing, you can jump right into onboard activities as soon as you board the ship.

Consider travel insurance

It’s not always smooth seas when it comes to cruising — or any sort of travel. We hate even to bring it up, but you might need to cancel your cruise in advance due to the sudden onset of an illness. Or, maybe you’ll fall ill during the trip and need emergency medical attention. Maybe your flight to your ship gets canceled, and you miss the vessel’s departure.

These sorts of things happen all the time to cruisers, and they’re all the sort of situations where you might benefit from having travel insurance.

Fly to your cruise port a day or two early

This may be the most important piece of cruise advice. Take it to heart, or you may end up missing your ship — something that happens to cruisers more often than you might think.

Many cruises depart in the afternoon, so it might seem fine to fly to a port on the morning of departure. But all it takes is a moderate flight delay to upset those plans. If you’re delayed in your arrival at the port, the ship will not wait for you.

Book your flights to arrive the day before your cruise to build wiggle room into your travel schedule should something go wrong. Make the most of your overnight by exploring a little in the departure port city before you board the ship.

If you’re traveling overseas for a cruise, we recommend traveling to the port two or even three days in advance. Not only will you ensure that you don't miss the ship, but you'll also have time to recover from jet lag. European cruises, in particular, can be port-intensive, with lots of touring, so you want to be refreshed and ready to hit the ground running right after the cruise begins.

Check in as early as possible

Check-in for sailings can open as far as 45 days in advance, and it pays to go through the check-in process as early as you can. That's because early birds in the check-in process have their pick of arrival times at the ship.

You now have to pick an arrival time when heading to the ship, and passengers who check in early get the widest array of arrival slots from which to choose. If you check in far in advance, you'll probably find the earliest arrival slots still open. If you wait, you might only find late afternoon arrival slots still available.

Getting an early arrival slot means that you can board the ship earlier than other cruisers and have more time to enjoy its attractions before sail away.

Pack your bathing suit in your carry-on

When you first arrive at your ship, you'll be greeted by porters who will whisk away your luggage. It will be delivered to your room later in the day. This is a great convenience, as there’s no need to haul your bags through the entire check-in progress. But it also means you might not have access to your luggage for many hours on your first day on board.

Be sure to pack anything you might need for the first hours of your cruise in your carry-on bag. This means things like medication, for sure, and a phone charger, but also a bathing suit, hat, sunscreen, and other items that will let you head straight to the pool deck to start the fun.

Bring extra toiletries

Yes, you’ll be able to find sunscreen, painkillers, and Band-Aids on ships. But it’ll cost you. The line knows you’re a captive audience and prices its shipboard stores accordingly.

We recommend always cruising with a small “go bag” of over-the-counter medicines in your suitcase that contains cold medicine, seasickness pills, and the like. You'll probably never use it. But you also won't get hit with crazy charges should you develop a headache and desperately need ibuprofen.

While we’re on the topic of sundries, don’t forget extra batteries or memory cards for your camera if you are bringing one.

Skip the buffet on your first day on board

There’s nothing more jammed than the ship's buffet on embarkation day. Everybody heads straight to it after they board.

To avoid the first-day buffet crowds, make a beeline to one of the secondary dining options that typically aren't nearly as crowded.

Try the marquee attractions on departure day

To make the most of these activities, head straight to them on the first day of your sailing. You'll often find that they are less crowded on embarkation day when many cruisers still are getting oriented than later in the sailing when the attractions have been widely discovered.

Watch sailaway from this secret spot

You should be able to watch the ship sail away from port from an amazing location that normally isn't open to passengers: the helipad on the bow.

Many passengers don't know about this secret spot for watching sailaways. It offers a truly wonderful vantage point. Some ships may allow passengers to walk out onto these helipads around the time that a ship is departing. It's not always open for the rest of the cruise.

Always carry your ship's contact information with you

When going ashore, always bring your ship's contact information with you. Those details are usually printed in the Cruise's newsletter that’s delivered to your cabin each night. If something goes wrong when you’re away from the ship, you’ll want to get in contact with the cruise line right away.

The newsletter should also list contact information for the port agent in every destination you visit. Should you have a problem in port and not make it back to the ship before it sails, the agent can help you figure out next steps.

Keep your phone in airplane mode

Some of the biggest cruise ship horror stories you’ll find on the internet are tales of cruising newbies who racked up thousands of dollars in cellphone charges while on ships. This can happen when you leave your phone turned on and, say, watch videos on the internet. Many phone plans — even international plans — do not include talking, texting, and data on cruise ships, and you’ll pay exorbitant roaming rates for such services that will show up weeks later on your phone bill.

You can buy a Wi-Fi package, which will let you make FaceTime calls and stream videos over Wi-Fi without using phone data.

Don’t book a cabin near an elevator

Not every cabin is created equal. When choosing a room, we recommend staying away from those near elevators and just above nightclubs and other late-night venues. They can be noisy. Cabins just below the pool deck and near the anchor also can be problematic, as well as cabins near casinos.

Don’t tip twice for drinks and spa treatments

Many first-time cruisers don’t know this and write in a hefty tip at the “additional tip” line on bills at cruise ship bars and spas. If you're unsure, ask if a gratuity has already been included before adding another 15% or 20% to the total. Otherwise, you may end up tipping twice.

The most important item to always have while onboard a cruise

While cruising, you get a credit-card-style room key that serves as much more than that.

Your card serves as your room key, but it's also how you pay for purchases online and proves your identity.

The easiest method to carry your key card is to wear your card on a lanyard. It's the easiest way to have your card on hand whether you're in the pool ordering drinks, in the casino, and when you get off the ship (where your card proves who you are by bringing up your picture).

On embarkation day, all the cruise lines sell lanyards in various places and in at least one onboard store after that. It is cheaper to purchase online before your cruise. It's best to buy a lanyard that has a detachable pouch because you will often have to hand over your card.

Tips to be a smarter  Traveller

1. Bring your own headphones

It will stop you from buying a set onboard, but they will be more comfortable. Those sold by the airlines aren’t exactly top-quality.

2. Ask for a free upgrade

Making it known that you’re celebrating a special occasion means you’ll get special treatment, do it. Of course, it doesn’t always work, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get – and you have nothing to lose!

3. When entering the security line, head to the left checkpoint

Going automatically right when you get to security, go left and for the one furthest away from you on that side. Most people are right-handed; they go for the right checkpoint. Going left, you’ll play the system and likely end up getting through it all faster.

4. Bring a portable charger

Airports have plenty of charging stations, but the chances of landing a seat next to one are low. Instead, bring a portable charger with you.

5. Bring wet wipes and hand sanitizer

Make sure you travel with a pack of wet wipes and hand sanitizer. Use them at every available opportunity to try and keep germs away.

6. If you don’t like turbulence, book an early morning flight

Most turbulence tends to occur in the afternoon, so booking a flight in the early morning could mean a smoother ride. It won’t eliminate the chance of it happening totally, but it will lessen the odds.

7. Bring Your Own Spare Sandwich Bags

If you’ve already packed all of your liquids, you might buy something last minute at the airport. If you’re planning on going to a beach, putting your tech inside a clear bag can actually protect them while you use it.

8. Check in 24-hours before your flight

You can check in online up to 24 hours prior to your flight time. Using this option, you don’t have to stand in line to have someone do it for you; you can smoothly go through with your electronic boarding pass already printed.

9. Take a photo of your checked luggage

When it comes to luggage, there are tons of passengers that have the same bags. There are things that you can do to make your suitcase look more identifiable, so it’s easier for you to spot. It’s best to get out your phone and take a quick picture of it before you check it. That way, you’ll be able to refer to the picture while you’re standing at baggage claim, so you know you’re definitely picking up the right one.

10. Freeze Your Liquids to Bring on Planes

If you really want to bring a drink onto the plane and don’t want to mess around with buying one, then you can always freeze your bottle of water first. The only con is that it must still be totally frozen when it goes through the checks with you. If you’ve got a long trip to the airport, this one might not be for you.

11. Fly red-eye

If you hate crowded airports, book a plane that leaves late at night and arrives early the next morning. Also, it may be a cheaper ticket.

12. Check ahead to see which restaurants and shops are at the airport

Not all airports have a great choice of restaurants and shops. Quite often, fast food restaurants dominate the space, which can mean a poorer quality of food and a  waste of money. Check ahead before you embark on your journey. If you know what’s there, you’ll have more time to plan and look at menu options.

13. Bring an Empty Water Bottle

If you always find yourself buying a bottle of water when you check in, then don’t. Bring an empty water bottle with you and fill it up once you get through security. You can use the money you would have used to purchase the expensive bottle of water to use for your vacation.

14. Always wear red clothing

18. Sign Up For TSA Precheck or Global Entry

If you’re eligible and don’t mind spending between $85 to $100, you could apply for TSA Precheck or Global Entry. This means you can skip past the long security lines. For more information regarding TSA Precheck and other programs, visit my agency's Facebook page: Facebook.com/AutismSpecialCareFamilyTravels.

19. Pack your liquids and electronic devices at the top of your carry on bag

It is easier on yourself by storing your liquids and electronics near the top of your carry-on. This option, they’re a quick reach away when you have to take them out to go through security.

20. Get a portable weight checker to avoid overweight baggage fees

Buy a portable weight checker. Check your bag at home to make sure it’s within the limit.

21. Don’t listen to your music while waiting at the airport

Airlines do make important announcements.  They might come over  the loudspeaker and offer a voucher for people who agree to take the next flight (a common practice if a flight is oversold). Flight delays and transit warnings are two other important announcements you could miss.

22. Use the TSA app to find out wait times

People just hope for the best when they get to the airport and are gauging security times. If the line looks long, you’re in for a wait. If it doesn’t, hurry up and get over there, so you can get through. If you want to be more prepared when it comes to security lines, download the TSA app.

23. Pack the most important belongings in your carry on

When you’re traveling, make sure you pack your most important items in your carry-on. This includes daily medications, phone chargers, important documents, underwear, toothbrush and toothpaste, and any valuables.

24. Carry a power strip

It can be hard to find an outlet in the airport. And, even when you do find one, you really only get one outlet. Bring a power strip with you to the airport; that way, you can charge your phone, Airpods, laptop, and tablet, all at the same time.

25. Rent a car through the website rather than wait in line

Book a car online at the rental website instead of waiting in line. You’ll have better availability, and you can even save money if you prepay. Also, you won’t have to wait. Plus, when you book online, you can check to make sure the car fits your specifications and budget.

26. Download or print your boarding pass and airport map

Consider downloading and printing your boarding pass and a map of the airport before you even get there. You can skip the kiosk line at the airport and go straight to baggage check. Printing out an airport map is also a good idea if you are traveling to a bustling airport.

27. Switch to glasses from contacts

Flying with contacts dries them out, making your eyes irritated. When you’re 30,000 feet in the air, the atmospheric pressure, oxygen, and humidity are reduced, causing your eyes to dry out and wreaking havoc on your contacts.

Unless you want to keep reapplying contact-safe eye drops the entire time,  switch to glasses. You will likely have to pack your contact lens solution in your suitcase, not your carry-on. Your lenses, go with you in your carry-on.

28. If you are not a member of TSA forecheck or Global Entry, start emptying your pockets when in the security line

Empty your pockets before you get into the scanner line.

29. Pack a lot of snacks

Snacks are expensive at the airport. The markup is crazy, and you might find yourself paying three times more for snacks and drinks than you would otherwise.

30. Take the seat near the Emergency Exit, and opt for the 2nd row instead of the 1st one

Purchases made overseas that total more than $800.00 are subject to an import duty tax.