Bargains have become the featured message of all travel marketing. Companies have stopped trying to put a happy face on the current travel situation. This past week, the travel press published actual statistics on the drop in vacations caused by the current economic slowdown, and that reduction has been severe. It has set off some of the most substantial discounts that I can remember.
 
1) DISNEY: Start with the mouse people who, until recently, never discounted by a penny. Several weeks ago, when travel began dropping, Disney turned like on a dime. Now, if you will buy a four-night stay at one of Disney's budget priced hotels in Orlando and also purchase four days of admission to the Disney theme parks, Disney will give you another three nights of free-of-charge accommodations and three more days of free admission to the parks (all this from mid-February through June). What this means is that a family of four can now enjoy seven nights of lodgings and seven nights of theme park admissions for a total of $1,375 -- a remarkable price. Go to www.disneyworld.com, and click on the words "Buy 4 get 3 free."

Disney's cruises have joined the game. The company that operates the
Disney Wonder out of Port Canaveral is offering 3-night sailings on which kids go free (something that has never happened before) from January 22 to May 28. Go to www.disneycruise.com/kidsfree, or phone tel. 888/DCL 2500.

2) CLUB MED: This was to be the year when Club Med became an upscale chain of luxury resorts. The new president of that international group is the son of a former President of France, the elegant Henri Giscard d'Estaing, who was obviously brought up in the lap of luxury. About a year ago he proudly announced that Club Med would no longer be operated for low-income singles but would appeal instead to affluent families and other well-fixed people, upper class and deluxe.

Then the economy tanked, and Club Med reversed itself, like the driver of a car going sharply into reverse. Out went the luxury, in came the bargains!

Earlier this month, it began offering seven nights for the price of three at several of its Caribbean resorts. And though that particular bargain has elapsed, the French resort chain is now offering a discount of 50% off for the second member of a couple. And thus twosomes can now go to a number of Club Med resorts (in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominican Republic, Cancun, Ixtapa, French Polynesia and Florida) from mid-February on, for what is essentially a 25% discount. During the same validity period, children sixteen and younger now stay for free at Club Med's Sandipiper Resort in Florida, at Cancun, Ixtapa, Punta Cana, and Guadeloupe. Phone 888/webclub or go to www.clubmed.com.

3) TO EUROPE: By going to www.virginatlantic.com or even to www.1800flyeurope.com, you can fly this winter to London or Dublin for $399 round-trip.

4) TO IRELAND: Just as exciting, those one-week fly-drive programs to Ireland that used to sell, several years ago, for $499 per person, have now re-appeared at -- guess what -- the very same price: $499 per person. Go to www.sceptretours.com, and you can obtain round-trip air transportation to Ireland, three nights at a good hotel in Limerick, three nights at a good hotel in Dublin, and a car for four days and three nights, including full Irish breakfast each morning, for a total of $499 per person, January through March.

5) ON CRUISES: But the top bargains this winter and spring are on cruises. There are so many giant cruiseships creating such an abundance of capacity for what is now a diminished demand, that the cruise industry is coming up with almost unbelievable prices to fill their ships. I've written about these so extensively that I won't repeat the examples here.

Now how should you respond? I suggest you heed the advice of the late William Saroyan in the preface to his play, "The Time of Your Life":

"In the time of your life, live -- live so that in that wondrous time, you shall not add to the sorrow and misery of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

If you have any cash at all, you'll seize one of these travel opportunities -- and live