It used to be that cruise lines ended their Mediterranean programs in mid-October and fled to the warmer Caribbean. No longer. A number of lines keep cruising that ancient sea during the chilly (but not bitterly cold) late fall and winter. But in this recession-wracked year, a number of them apparently are finding it difficult to fill their vessels in those cold-weather months.

That's the only explanation for the current pricing of cruises in the late fall and winter seasons.

As a first example, Online Vacation Center (800-329-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com) is charging only $699 per person in an inside cabin for an 11-night Mediterranean cruise on the MSC Fantasia leaving Rome on Jan. 6, 2010 and Jan. 28, 2010 (the ship goes to Genoa, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Casablanca, Morocco; Tenerife, Spain; Funchal, Portugal; and Malaga, Spain, before returning to Rome). That comes to $63.50 a day, a pretty awesome price.

It charges $799 (per person, inside cabin) for a similar 11-night Mediterranean cruise leaving Naples, Italy, on Jan. 30, on the MSC Splendida; or for an inside cabin for the 11-night sailing of the MSC Splendida leaving Naples on Jan. 19 (and going, among other places, to both Egypt and Israel).

Finally, it charges $999 per person for an upscale balcony cabin on the MSC Fantasia, sailing an 11-night itinerary from Rome on Jan. 17, 2010. (Desperation pricing.)

A variation on the just-slash-the-price approach is Online Vacation Center's decision to include round-trip airfare to Europe, and two nights in a deluxe hotel immediately preceding the cruise, as well as a 12-night Mediterranean cruise, for all of $1,649 in January, $1,699 in February, and $1,799 to $1,999 in March. The ship is the Norwegian Jade, lodging is in an inside cabin and the itinerary is round-trip from Barcelona, going to Rome, Athens, Ephesus (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt, a two-night stay), and Valletta (Malta), before returning to Barcelona. Five days of the 12-day cruise are spent simply at sea. When you consider that the round-trip airfare must be worth at least $700, and that two deluxe hotel nights in Barcelona must be worth $200, then you are really paying only about $700 for the 12-night cruise aboard an excellent ship. And oceanview cabins cost only $50 to $100 more.

Online Vacation Center isn't the only cruise discounter to use the lure of round-trip air to Europe to entice Americans to book a cold-weather cruise of the Mediterranean. Another firm called TravelThemesAndDreams.com (877-870-7447) includes round-trip air from New York's JFK airport to Athens, and from Lisbon, Portugal to JFK, in its $1,549 price for a 10-day Mediterranean cruise from Athens to Lisbon leaving on Nov. 21. And it also has included a four-star hotel overnight in Athens on Nov. 20 and one night in a four-star Lisbon hotel at the end of the cruise, for no extra charge. Clearly, America's cruise discounters believe that extraordinary features like air and hotel accommodations are needed to overcome a reluctance to cruise in chilly weather.

It's clear that the cruise lines overestimated the appeal of a late fall/winter cruise of the Mediterranean and have thus been forced to offer sacrificial rates to fill their ships. People who take advantage of their plight will enjoy a bargain vacation.

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