ABOARD THE VIKING STAR — You cruise a lot. You've noticed a growing number of extra charges on ships for everything from room service to yoga classes. You're going to love the Viking Star.River cruise giant Viking's first ocean ship, which set sail this week from Istanbul on its maiden voyage, is bringing the "no nickel-and-diming" philosophy that runs through the river cruise industry to the world of ocean cruising — and in a big way.For starters, Internet access is complimentary. For readers accustomed to resorts on land, that may not seem like such a big deal. But in the ocean cruising world, it's revolutionary.Ocean cruise lines love to charge exorbitant fees for Internet service. On some ships, it's as much as 99 cents a minute, and it's not uncommon for cruisers to spend $100 or more on a sailing just checking emails. But on the Viking Star, emails just flow in to your smartphone throughout the day, just as if you were at home — no muss, no fuss. USA TODAYFirst look: Inside the year's hottest new cruise shipThat one differentiator alone will make you love this line.

But it's just the tip of the iceberg. Also included in the fare for a Viking Star cruise is a tour in every port — another hallmark of river cruising that has never caught on with ocean lines.Ocean cruise lines love to tout all the wonderful places they'll take you in their brochures. But for the most part, they just drop you in each port on the schedule with little insight into what to do and see. Sure, you can sign up for a line-run tour. But they're invariably pricey. Otherwise, you're on your own.Viking founder Torstein Hagen has said the Viking Star was designed to focus on destinations in a way that has been lost across much of the cruise industry in recent years, and that includes giving passengers a solid orientation to every place the line takes them.Hagen also has ordered beer and wine to be included with lunch and dinner at Viking Star restaurants -- another common-on-river-lines, rarer-on-ocean-lines offering. Bucking the trend at such lines as Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival, there's also no charge for room service available 24 hours a day.

Also complimentary are the ship's two specialty restaurants, Manfredi's Italian and The Chef's Table. Homes For Sale In Fredericton Nb AreaIn addition, cappuccinos, lattes and other espresso drinks from restaurants and bars around the ship always are complimentary.Staffy Cross Beagle Puppies For SaleUSA TODAYHead of new cruise line: We won't nickel-and-dimeIndeed, other than alcoholic drinks at the bars and spa services, it's hard to find things on board the Viking Star on which to spend money. Wolf Puppies For Sale In Phoenix AzEven the little things. There's no charge to use the washers and dryers in the launderettes found on every passenger deck, or to watch a movie on the interactive, in-room televisions.The exquisite thermal suite in the Viking Star's spa, which has a salt-water-filled thermal pool, hot tub, sauna, chilled "snow grotto" and other Nordic wellness-themed features, is complimentary to visit.

On many ships, a day pass to the spa can cost up to $50 per person. Yoga and pilates classes at the adjacent fitness center also are included in the fare. You'll pay as much as $30 a class on some ships.Even soda and snacks from the mini-bars found in most cabins are included in the fare. Three of five cabin categories also come with complimentary alcohol in mini-bars. The top three cabin categories also bring complimentary shoe-shining and pressing. Complimentary dry cleaning and laundry service is available to customers in the top two cabin categories.Transfers between airports and the ship also are included.Of course, passengers do pay for it all. They just pay up front. The Viking Star's inaugural season of eight- to 50-day cruises in Europe and the Baltic started at $2,499 per person, based on double occupancy, a higher starting price than the mass-market lines that have the most extra charges.That said, the Viking Star isn't a mass-market product. Elegantly designed and intimate, the 930-passenger vessel offers the sort of sophistication and service that is found on upscale lines Oceania and Azamara, neither of which include a tour in every port or Internet access for all passengers (Oceania soon will begin offering unlimited Internet access to passengers in top suites; unlimited Internet access on Azamara costs $69.95 per day).

USA TODAYCarnival testing extra charges for room serviceSpecialty restaurants on Azamara cost $25 per person, except for passengers in some suites. Specialty restaurants on Oceania ships are complimentary, but the line charges $34.95 per day for unlimited wine and beer with lunch and dinner.The value of what Viking is doing is about more than dollars and cents. A noticeable result of the all-inclusive mentality on the Viking Star is that there's no hard sell on passengers through announcements and fliers to run up extra charges — something that is common on many ships and often takes away from the tranquility of a cruise vacation. Without the pressure to drive on-board revenue, Viking also can afford to keep its ships in ports later than other lines that rely on spending at extra charge eateries and drinks with dinner to hit revenue targets.For a deck-by-deck look at the Viking Star, click through our 'first look' tour in the carousel at the top of this story. For a peek inside one of Viking's 12 new river ships, click through the carousel below.

Having learned How to Train Your Dragon, Joseph "Jay Dub" Wade is now ready to share his knowledge with you. In another place and time, Robert "Macrame_God" Seeders gets cozy with ejaculate in a Hot Tub Time Machine.How to Make People Forget About Shrekby Joseph "Jay Dub" WadeEXPECTATIONS: In the past couple years, Dreamworks Animation has managed the Herculean task of climbing out of the creative chasm it dug itself during the mid-2000s with unfunny junk like Shark Tale and Madagascar. Now, with the help of Lilo & Stitch directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, Dreamworks hopes to teach youngsters a thing or two about training a dragon of their very own. Hey, at least it's not going to be "Mugging for the Camera: The Movie." REALITY: While How to Train Your Dragon falls a couple notches beneath Kung Fu Panda on my patented "Holy Shit, This is Awesome for a Kids' Movie!" scale, it's considerably better than last year's boring-as-shit Monsters vs. Aliens. The animation style and character designs look fantastic;

the flight sequences in particular are breathtaking. I can't say as to the quality of the 3D, though, because I'm a cheap bastard who hates 3D on principle. The plot is your typical "parents just don't understand" story, only this time instead of Fresh Princes, there are dragons. Way up north where the map reads "hic sunt dracones" sits Viking Island, which is under constant threat of annihilation by the many native species of dragons. The smallest, most useless of all the vikings is Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), whose father just happens to be the mayor of Viking Island, Beardface McBroadShoulders (Gerard Butler). One night, Hiccup accidentally shoots down a Night Fury, the stealth bomber of dragons. When he goes to collect his prize, he instead finds out how to tame dragons, and subsequently how to saddle and ride one into the stratosphere. Naturally, Beardface discovers this and plans to use his son's knowledge in his quest to DESTROY ALL DRAGONS.Like most Dreamworks animated films, Dragons mashes up a number of stock stories and movie scenes, but for adults and nerdy types, the real fun is in the telling.

There's the 'learning to fly' scene, which feels oddly reminiscent of Iron Man. The dragon school scenes feel ripped straight out of Harry Potter, and we get a couple scenes about how badass Vikings are, clearly capitalizing on 300, the last time Gerard Butler entertained anyone. I bring up all these references because, much to my delight, the movie doesn't. Similar story elements pop up all over the place, but the movie is refreshingly free of the sort of pop culture references that tend to ruin this kind of movie.Video Games: The Movie!Again, it's more Kung Fu Panda and less Monsters vs. Aliens. There are some laughs to be had along the way, sure, but Dragons is an adventure film first and a comedy second (and a how-to guide third). Aside from Hiccup's dragon doing its best Stitch impersonation and a joke about how big Hiccup's dead mother's boobs used to be, the movie is surprisingly sparse on the laughs. The ads for the film have been marketing the fuck out of Jay Baruchel's garbled, unfunny one-liners, so I'm sure it'll come as a surprise to many viewers when they find that the movie is actually quite the thrilling little action story.

The climactic battle between the Vikings and the biggest fuck-off dragon I've ever seen is brief and fairly predictable, but if you can't figure out how that ends, then you need to see more movies, my friend.Which finally brings me to the title of the film. It's called How to Train Your Dragon, emphasis on the "How To" part. Based solely on my analysis of the film, I've managed to pare the film's instructions on the matter down to ten brief lessons. (I can't verify the authority with which Dreamworks presents these lessons, so your mileage may vary.*)Get started when you're young. Adults fear everything they don't understand, which apparently includes resisting the urge to murder animals out of impulse. That scares the shit out of them.It doesn't matter what kind of accent you have. Dragons are either kind and indiscriminate creatures with no prejudice regarding accent, or they're tone-deaf brutes to whom everyone sounds like Jay Baruchel's warbling nonsense.Got a book on dragons? No one else will.

Despite being able to figure out catapults and sailboats and Thunderdome-esque cages, education is useless to Vikings unless it can be used to kill something.Learn the dragon's secret handshake After learning the 600 steps involved in this sacred and wholly random series of squiggly lines, the dragon will let you touch it.Build robot parts for your dragon. This only matters in the unlikely event that you break your dragon.A dragon will let you do whatever you want if you feed it enough fish.Learn to love sushi. Your dragon will probably want you to share in its bountiful meal of rotting fish. It'd be rude to refuse.Point sternly at your dragon and send it to its room. Because father/mother knows best.Invest in a high quality laser pointer Laser pointers effectively turn all dragons into dumb, curious kittens.Never let anyone find out that you have a pet dragon. Your friends will trample and kill you for it and your super-conservative dad will probably disown you for fraternizing with the enemy.