Rock star and TV talent judge Steven Tyler was recently severely injured when he slipped and fell in his Paraguay hotel shower. Astronaut John Glenn and other people have had similar accidents. It should be a warning to all travelers. Many hotel shower stalls have slanted floors and can get very slippery when soapy.

Additionally, outside the shower, the bathroom floors are often made of very slippery marble blocks. It often happens that the more upscale hotels have the the most dangerously slippery shower stalls and bathroom floors.

If you’re elderly or otherwise unsteady on your feet, when you check in to a hotel, ask for a handicapped room. They usually have elbow-high bars on shower stall inside walls.

We won’t advise travelers to cancel their plans this season because of this problem, but we’re getting many complaints about confusing prices. For various reasons, airlines, hotels, cruise lines and other travel-related sources quote one price in their ads, and then heap on all kinds of extra charges when the customer gets the bill.

Those $99 flights, cruise cabin or hotel room promotions look good with all the colorful photos and promises. By now, seasoned travelers know that the quote is virtually meaningless, because actual charges will go up at least another 25% when it’s time to pay the bill.

There are many reasons for those extra charges, and you’ll understand as you dig deeper into the figures and your pocket. Therefore, if you don’t want a big shock, get the full price before you book. When you inquire with an online or hometown travel agency, or book on your own, insist on the total truth. Get the total out-of-pocket costs you’ll have to pay. Then take the very best deal you can get.

We were on a recent cruise from San Diego to Acapulco, and just an hour after we left port, we called home by cell phone. The five-minute call cost $19.50. When we argued with the phone company that it should have been free, we were told the call cost so much because it was made from a foreign country.

We didn’t realize that once we had crossed that invisible line from California, USA, into Baja California, Mexico, the same rate applied as if we had called from Beijing, China. We believe it actually cost E.T. less to phone home from Earth to his planet.

Next time you’re on a cruise and want to phone home or take a call from someone at home, be sure you know the pricing rules. Actually, it’s cheaper to hold your call phone use until the ship docks in the foreign port. It's usually less expensive to call there than from a ship.

Better yet, before you go on a cruise, check with your cell phone provider to be fully informed about all charges you’d incur when you use the phone anywhere beyond the basic limits of home.

Additionally, before you sail, check with folks at home or office about priorities of calling and receiving calls, and keep them to a minimum.

Dire warning to avoid bank account attack!!!  If you’re on a cruise with tattling, twittering and tweeting teens, be sure they know the rules and limits to avoid running up astronomical charges by making never-ending calls on their cell phones and other electronic gizmos.

There are always annoying incidents of multi-hour delays at airports. Flights grounded on the tarmac for grueling hours while passengers steamed and fussed, forbidden to get off the reeking plane to find clean bathrooms and other basic human facilities.

The anger inside a recent Middle East Airlines flight scheduled from London Heathrow was described as something out of "Lord of the Flies", as stranded people went berserk and threatened physical attacks on the crew.

There were other more creative things they could have done. So, next time it happens to you, here are some suggestions on how to pass the stretched-out time more pleasantly:

1. Start a game of strip poker. This won’t get the plane off the ground any sooner, but if the flight attendants join in on the game, no one will care.

2. Join hands and sing coom ba ya until the flight crew goes nuts and opens the cabin door and jumps out screaming for help.

3. Over the intercom, play a speech by Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin or any other politicians. Soon, everyone will fall asleep and they won’t notice the delay any more.

4. Carry on with carry-ons. Take down all the bags from the overhead bins and use them for a pillow fight, pitting passengers vs crew.

5. Remember “Lord of the Rings”? After eight hours and the food supply runs out, drag the fattest passenger to the galley’s microwave oven.

If you do it right, you'll never have to complain about a delay again!