You gaze at the price of a lengthy''repositioning'' cruise -- say, starting in the Caribbean and ending in the Mediterranean -- and you're attracted by what appears to be a sensationally low price (often as little as $50 a day, on a glamorous ship). But at the same time, you realize that you'll need to fly back from the Mediterranean or London to the U.S. at the end of the cruise. Since the cost of that round-trip airfare is an unknown figure, you sigh with despair and look for another vacation.

Larry Fishkin's new cruise discounter, TravelThemesAndDreams.com, became the first such company this year to include airfare within the cost of nearly all the repositioning cruises it offers. And because his company is able to negotiate sharply reduced rates from the airlines (especially this year), the total cost has become an attractive buy to a great many Americans. From all reports, TravelThemesAndDreams.Com (it also can be reached at LeisureLarry.com) is doing extremely well in this first year of operation (Fishkin ran the pioneering cruise discounter called CruiseLine, Inc. for many years, until he sold it a dozen years ago to a conglomerate.)

Here are three airfare-included repositioning cruises currently sold by that company with the long name:

• An attractive $1,499 per person for a 12-day trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise aboard the upscale Celebrity Summit, sailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Barcelona, Spain, on April 18. You get not only the cruise, but air transportation from New York to San Juan and later from Barcelona to New York, as well as a four-star hotel overnight in Barcelona at the end of the cruise (April 30). You also receive, for no extra charge, transfers from the airport to the port in San Juan, from the port to the hotel in Barcelona and from the hotel to Barcelona Airport.

Extra government fees and taxes: $349.

• A stunning $899 per person for a 13-day trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale, to London (Southampton), leaving on April 12 aboard the Independence of the Seas (the newest version of the newest generation of Royal Caribbean vessels). You get the 13-night cruise, an arrival transfer from Southampton to London, a four-star London hotel overnight on April 25 and one-way air transportation from London Heathrow to New York (JFK). The ship, after leaving Fort Lauderdale, takes six full days to cross the Atlantic to Ponta Delgada, Portugal, and then (with intermediate days spent simply at sea) goes to Madeira, Portugal, to Vigo, Spain, and finally to Southampton.

Government fees and taxes: add $349.

• An equally remarkable $999 per person for a 14-day trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise from the Dominican Republic to London (Harwich), leaving Santo Domingo on April 19 aboard the Vision of the Seas, including one-way air transportation from JFK New York to Santo Domingo on April 19, and one-way air transportation from London back to JFK New York on May 4, as well as one-way transfers from the Santo Domingo airport to the port of Santo Domingo, and from Harwich to your London hotel, as well as an overnight stay in a four-star hotel in London on May 3. The ship leaves Santo Domingo, then spends a full day at sea on its way to St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, and then spends five full days at sea crossing to Madeira, Portugal, proceeding then to Lisbon, Vigo and La Coruna, Spain, before spending another day at sea on its way to Harwich in the United Kingdom.

Government fees and taxes: $349.

Pretty neat, eh? By including airfare and even hotel accommodations in one total price for the cruise, you have a perfect idea of the total cost. And that total cost is quite remarkable indeed.

If you're interested, go to www.travelthemesanddreams.com or www.leisurelarry.com, or phone that cruise broker at 877-870-SHIP.

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