From my own recent experience, and the reports of numerous other recent passengers, it's fairly obvious that the cruise lines have become heavily dependent on on-board spending.

The prices they charge for the actual cruise experience -- the transportation, your cabin, your meals and snacks, various forms of entertainment and recreation -- are bargains.

Currently, a great many one-week cruises are sold for as little as $599 and $699 per person for inside cabins (at least through various discounters authorized to charge that little by the cruise lines themselves) -- and those rates are lower than you'd encounter in any other vacation activity. With more and more giant cruise ships joining the world's fleet each year, you also can expect those low rates to continue on into the near future.

But nearly everything other than transportation, room and board, and basic entertainment, is charged separately, even a visit to the ship's doctor. I've had reports that parents bringing their children to the ship's medical center to be treated for a simple rash are told that they will need to pay a basic fee of $100 to have the doctor look at that rash.

Of all the extra charges on a cruise, a fee for medical services seems the most improper. For reasons of common humanity, emergency medical treatment should be absorbed in the basic cruise cost, and the ship's doctor should not be regarded as a profit center.

A second frequent charge is improper because of its size. I'm referring to the 65 cents a minute that most cruise lines now charge for the online use of passengers' computers or the cruise line's computers. For passengers whose commercial lives require that they stay in contact with home, that charge can be ruinous. Many airlines now make Wi-Fi available in flight for only $12.95 per three hours -- a mere fraction of what cruise ships demand -- and the cruise ships' price seems a bad example of greed and overreaching.

Other on-board charges are at least a bit more reasonable. Shore excursions are of course sold by the cruise lines, and it appears that the charge has now become an average of about $55 per person for a simple half-day tour and $85 for a full-day excursion that doesn't include lunch. Tours involving unusual methods of transportation (like a helicopter) or elaborate meals cost considerably more.

Increasingly, most younger cruise passengers (and astute older ones) are passing up the cruise line-created tours and using public transportation or their own two feet to sightsee the port cities at which their ships land.

Tipping has become a rather strange item. Virtually all cruise lines now charge about $11.50 per passenger per day to cover tips that supposedly are distributed fairly to all crew members, while advising passengers that they can -- but are not required to -- give additional tips to crew who have been unusually attentive or helpful. This means that even when you pay as little as $599 or $699 for your seven-night cruise, you will be charged an additional fee of nearly $80 for tips.

In actual practice, most cruise passengers add another $100 to $150 for tips that they personally hand to their two dining-room stewards and to their room steward -- and given the hard work of those individuals, it would be improper not to give them these additional tips at the end of the cruise.

Accordingly, you should add at least $180 per person for tipping to the anticipated costs of even the cheapest one-week cruise.

Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks -- even the merest Coke, or a glass of mineral water -- are charged separately to the cruise passenger. You avoid these latter charges by limiting your beverages to plain water or fruit juice, all free of charge on nearly all cruise ships.

What other items are separately charged to your bill? Obviously, your losses at the casino are an extra expense, and you should avoid that absurd activity like the plague. The services of beauticians aboard the ship, and of spa or fitness experts giving special instruction, are charged separately. The smart passenger uses the free-of-charge treadmills, stationery bicycles, weights and jogging tracks instead.

Laundry and cleaning cost more, as does after-midnight room service, the latter a recent addition to the services that used to be free but no longer are.

And finally, there has been an explosion of extra-charge ``specialty restaurants'' aboard most cruise ships, luring passengers to pay a charge of $25 to $35 per person for access to smaller eating places and special menus. Having tried several of them, I'd pass them up and rely instead on the main dining room, whose plates usually are indistinguishable (to me) from the standard fare.

Prudent passengers can keep their cruise expenses within reasonable limits. Profligate passengers will pay through the nose.

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