Tauck is trying to get solo travelers to reconsider their choices if the cost of singles supplements for traveling alone has been holding them back.

The tour operator is targeting single travelers with a broad-based reduction or elimination of singles supplements across a wide range of its tours in Europe and North America and on river cruises in Europe.

Tauck completely removed its singles supplements on all of its Category 1 cabins on all of its riverboats in Europe, a total of 220 departures, according to the company. The company is also cutting the singles supplements by as much as $1,000 on Category 4 and 5 cabins on 15 river cruise programs.

Tauck also cut up to $400 off the price of a number of its European land tours and up to $300 off North American land tours.

Seabourn Cruise Line has been awarded the 2015 Good Taste Award for “Finest Cruise Line Dining” by culinary magazine Saveur.

The inaugural Good Taste Awards were celebrated by the magazine at a reception in New York City on Oct. 13, and Seabourn — along with all of the other winners — will appear in the October issue.

This is not the first award Seabourn has won from Saveur, either, as the company was also named the "Best Culinary Cruise Line" in the magazine's Culinary Travel Awards in 2013 and 2014.

Luxury line Regent Seven Seas Cruises is getting even more all-inclusive with the addition of free unlimited WiFi access for every passenger.

Regent on Wednesday announced the new perk would be available fleetwide starting in late 2016. The company currently offers free unlimited WiFi only to passengers in top suites. Passengers in lesser cabins get 200 to 500 minutes of free WiFi access per cruise, with the time depending on the voyage length.

Regent's move comes just six months after the debut of Viking Ocean Cruises, a new upscale line that has been making waves in the industry with a "no nickel-and-diming" mantra that includes the promise of free Wi-Fi for every passenger. Viking's free Internet offering is similar to Regent's in that there is no time limit for any passenger.

So, you have decided to take a cruise and are ready for the best vacation of your life. All you need to do is actually make a reservation and put a deposit down on this trip.  You decide to go to the cruise line’s website to find an available cabin and book it online or call that nice lady pictured on the company’s website. You will make a reservation and be on your way. Even though they are telling you that you are getting a good deal on the cruise, how can you be sure?

In fact, it is more than likely that you are NOT getting the best possible deal!  Why? Because you are not taking advantage of the best ally you have when trying to score a great cruise deal, a travel agent.  Here, we outline why we use a travel agent and why you should too.

Is newer better when it comes to Disney ships? Readers, we want to hear what you have to say!

In this, the sixth of our new series of Cruise Ship Smackdowns, we're pitting one of Disney Cruise Line's two new vessels, the Disney Fantasy, against one of its original two ships, the Disney Magic.

Click through the photo tours of the two vessels in the carousels above and below, then go the comment area to tell us: Which one would you prefer for a cruise vacation -- and why?

The dining room doors swing open and passengers swarm to the Arctic Buffet, an elegant send-off for those leaving the ship next morning. On offer is the bounty of the north, from reindeer in cream sauce to fresh Greenland halibut, and tables of desserts from cheesecake to cloudberries and cream.

I’m set to dig in when the public-address system interrupts the meal. The captain, we’re told, has spotted the northern lights. After five cloudy nights on our winter voyage, the celebrated aurora borealis that lured passengers to Norway in the dead of winter has finally made an appearance.

What to do? Feast on a gourmet spread or partake in a celestial wonder?

I take a bite of smoked sea trout, and make my choice. Dinner can wait. I head to the windswept deck.

Going on your first cruise can be a little daunting as some things are handled differently from a land vacation. But, being a cruising newbie doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared.

Before I took my first cruise I had many worries. Would I feel trapped? What if I didn’t like the food? What if I got bored? (Hah!). I wish I’d seen tips for first time cruisers myself as it would have helped set my mind at ease so much.

More than 20 years ago, I spent several weeks in Budapest. It was part of a seven-month ad-hoc journey that I made around parts of Eastern Europe, which was then not long out of communism. Every day I spent in Budapest was defined by journeys either alongside or over the river Danube: to go anywhere in that sternly grand city was to encounter the river constantly.

In those weeks more than two decades ago in Budapest, I do not recall seeing one cruise boat on the river. Earlier this year, I returned to the city to join a week-long river cruise that started there, and was to end in Passau, in Germany.

The taxi driver got lost en route from the airport, and so we travelled pretty much the entire length of the Danube from the Pest side, searching for the right dock.

I spent the time staring out the window at a riverside I hardly recognized. It was studded with river cruise boats, docked all the way along. I don’t know why I was surprised. The Rhine was being cruised long before commercial river cruising came to Hungary.

The fun doesn't stop just because the sun has set. That's the idea behind Crystal Cruises' itineraries that will pass by some cities during the day and overnight in key ports, where passengers might take in local entertainment or dine in a top restaurant.

 "Crystal’s itineraries will also intentionally deviate from traditional river cruise routes to avoid congestion of other vessels in port," a company statement said about its itineraries, which will start in March 2017.

Crystal also plans to add more active excursions for passengers who want to explore cities by bicycle or Segway. Passengers also will have access to a tender to seek out more private destinations, an unusual feature for a river ship.

Mother Nature will do one of her best shows in late September and early October, with cruise ships providing views of coastal New England and Canada during the colorful fall foliage display. You'll visit prime leaf-peeping destinations such as Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine and the narrow channels of Quebec's St. Lawrence Seaway, where you'll see colorful leaves on both sides.

Standing at the bow of one of expedition cruising's hardiest ships as it crunches northward through a carpet of ice, Cecilia Donnelly is almost giggly with excitement. And who can blame her.

The steel-reinforced Fram has just arrived at the edge of the Arctic ice cap, and for the moment, at least, the 67-year-old retiree from Riverside, Calif., can lay claim to being one of the northernmost travelers in the world.

"This is fantastic!" Donnelly gushes as the 318-passenger Fram smashes into a car-length ice chunk, sending a shudder through the vessel. "In all my dreams, I never thought I would make it to the edge of the North Pole."

Fantastic, indeed. And an increasingly sought after experience. A growing number of adventurous travelers are signing up for expedition cruises to the realm of ice and polar bears at the top of the planet, prompting expedition cruise operators to offer an ever larger array of Arctic itineraries.

Lee Wachtstetter, an 86-year-old Florida widow, took her daughter's advice. She sold her five-bedroom Fort Lauderdale-area home on 10 acres and became a permanent luxury cruise ship resident after her husband died.

Mama Lee, as she's known aboard the 11-year-old Crystal Serenity, has been living on the 1,070-passenger vessel longer than most of its 655 crewmembers — nearly seven years.

"My husband introduced me to cruising," she recalled. "Mason was a banker and real estate appraiser and taught me to love cruising. During our 50-year marriage we did 89 cruises. I've done nearly a hundred more and 15 world cruises."