Your questions, our answers

Response to a few questions we've had:

Technology: Yes, they have it, and it sort of works. Online access is slightly flakey but generally OK for e-mail; it costs 50 cents per minute. If you buy it in batches of $50 each, the price drops to 33 cents per minute.

On cell phones: They do work on board. Royal Caribbean says they have agreements with T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular, but the guy sitting next to me says his Sprint phone also works. The signal is much clearer today at sea than the signal I got last night. Price is determined by your cell provider. Mine is T-Mobile; they're charging a whopping $4.99 per minute. The gentleman next to me is paying $1.99 on Cingular, he says.

Shore excursions: Yes, they're expensive. Some are priced over $100 each; others cost around $40 or $50. Multiply that by a family of six, and you're into some serious dollars. A woman in the cabin next to me says she already spent $16,000 to bring her family of six on the cruise...and as she puts it, they aren't rich people. So it's important to make the shore excursions count.

About 40 percent of the guests on Royal Caribbean's big sailing the Caribbean go on excursions, says the excursions director. My advice: Take the ones that offer unique experiences that you can't do on your own.

At each port we're going to check out options on-your-own, so you can get an idea about what makes the most sense for you. We'll let you know; check back at the end of our trip.