Q: We’re soon going on our first cruise without kids and grandkids. Now that we’ll be alone, we want to enjoy ourselves with everything aboard. Our upcoming cruise is on Royal Caribbean, and we’ve heard from friends that casinos on cruise ships are a lot of fun. The only line we’ve travelled so far is Disney, and their ships never had casinos. What can you say ... plus and minus ... about gambling at sea?

A: If you don’t go overboard ... not from the ship, but gambling in the casino ... it is OK to spend some fun time and modest money in the ship’s casino. They usually only open the casinos after the ship leaves U.S. ports, from about 5 pm to midnight or so. Do all the other shipboard fun stuff before you hole up in the casino at night.

Craps, roulette and the card games at sea are the same as you’ll find in any land casino, so you should know the rules and odds. Generally speaking, your odds are about 25 to 30 percent of winning, with the “house” always heavily favored.

Q: Where do travel agents go when they’re on vacation?

A: Many take advantage of free promotional trips, such as to resorts in Mexico, Hawaii and Florida. Hotels, cruise lines and airlines offer freebees and discounted vacations so that the agents will recommend them to clients.

Additionally, some agents reluctantly spend their own money, and here are answers we received to our question. MLJ of NJ says he goes to New York City to see all the latest Broadway and off-Broadway plays. PRS of CA loves Vegas, the 24-hour town where she can shake the office blues and just have fun.

Q: When we’re on vacation, we try to book hotel or motel rooms near busy railroad yards. Some friends think we’re nuts, but to us there’s nothing so soothing at night than to hear the tooting, chugging and rattling of trains going by. What are the favorite night sounds of other travelers?

A: We agree. You are nuts, and so are we about train sounds in the night. When we’re in downtown Reno NV, we stay in hotels right next to the railroad yards, and the night sounds lull us to sleep. On the other hand, many people we’ve asked said they prefer hotels or motels right on the ocean front. They like being near surf and rocks, and along with sea gull calls, it all makes heavenly music for them all night long.

Q: We’re going to London next week on a free flight we earned as frequent flyers. We don’t have much money to spend. How can we make it stretch?
 
A: Are you kidding? That Blighty burg is one of the most expensive in the world. Last year, we booked a cheapo room on Ebury Street. It was an old converted town house, and our room was three flights up and so tiny we couldn’t move around it without standing on the bed. But it did have a nice tiny window view of the charming trash cans out back. Price 100 pounds, or about $180 U.S. bucks.