Why I'm unlikely to ever "Cruise" (At least on a large ship)

[RooFlyer]

Yes a single person in a cabin will usually pay the same cost as 2 people would pay between them to share a cabin. Not always though. NCL has some dedicated single cabins, for example. OTOH a solo cruiser generally earns status twice as fast, because the cruise lines recognise the extra money that solo cruisers pay. (Not that cruise line status means that much really).

So you pay for the cabin, irrespective of one or two occupants? It's not the concept of 'single supplement', ie abt 1.5 to 1.75 times half price of a couple?

 

[Bolthead]

For our ten cents worth..... My wife and me love cruising however it is not the only form of travel we do. We way up the destination, cost and time of year and then determine which form of transport we will use for a trip. Obviously cruises can only cater for coastal destination. (except for a few exceptions) We often will use a cruise as a teaser for an area that we are not sure about but will then go back if we love it to explore the area in full.

I can't agree with the negative comments regarding cruising. My brother was a non believer once and he only relented to appease his wife's wishes. That was only 3 years ago and since then they have been on 10 cruises. (11 soon) He now carries on about it more than I do... You don't have to go near a buffet on the majority of cruises I have been on. There are so money other options. As for price gauging.... be lucky if we spend more than $200 extra on any cruise. We don't do ship excursions if we can help it and often will arrange our own. Via Cruise Critic ( Cruise Reviews, Cruise Deals and Cruises - Cruise Critic ) you can setup a thread and invite others to join your own private tour. I have done that twice.

If you don't like cruising, that's cool.... more room for us.

 

[Bolthead]

So you pay for the cabin, irrespective of one or two occupants? It's not the concept of 'single supplement', ie abt 1.5 to 1.75 times half price of a couple?

Depending on the cruise line. You always pay per person on the majority of cruise lines however as previously mentioned some cruise lines have dedicated smaller rooms for single travellers. As well (and I am sure this will also vary between cruise lines) you can have up to 4 people in a standard cabin and the 3rd and 4th person pays almost half the fare of the other 2 passengers. As for the cost I am not sure but I thought on Princess for instance you have to pay for 2 people. (I am happy to be corrected)

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

So you pay for the cabin, irrespective of one or two occupants? It's not the concept of 'single supplement', ie abt 1.5 to 1.75 times half price of a couple?

I looked into a Qantas cruise recently and the singles price was actually slightly more than double the twin share. It was a sale fare, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[Kremmen]

I think the queue issue has been overblown. I don’t tolerate large queues very well and walk away if it’s an issue. Only occasionally is there a line up that is similar to what we all tolerate at airports.

Queuing hasn't been a big issue in my experience. The worst has always been the one for getting off the ship at the end of the cruise, compounded by it being way too early in the morning.

Unless you have unlimited money and a team transporting you by sedan chair to your personal hideaway, you'll be making compromises. Which parts of travel you dislike may figure highly in those choices. I really hate packing/unpacking. Although I enjoy flying, the time taken getting to and from airports can also be extremely tedious. Cab? Bus? Train? With a cruise, you unpack just once and get transported from place to place without any of those hassles. Sure, you might have to wait 10 mins to leave the ship, but that's bliss compared to the alternative of checking out of a hotel and getting to an airport.

There are some other little advantages. Generally, you can take your luggage on board and off yourself, so that means not having it thrown around as with air travel. (Won't work if you have huge cases that won't fit in the Xray machine.) Yes, the cruise lines extort money for alcoholic drinks, but most allow you to take a bottle of wine with you and smuggling a little extra on board isn't hard.

 

[tgh]

Single supplements are a moveable feast, some are 0 and some are 100% and in many cases they change with the booking levels.
Vacations to go specialises in the mainstream and have a seperate section for singles.
Silversea quote on a case by case basis, but the normal fare +25% before discounts is common.

 

[Rod James]

We are going on our 7th cruise later this year around Europe. Each day in a new city. Tours arranged for you or organise your own. Unpack once. No getting to and from airport numerous times. The bigger ships are better than small as you have more places that you can be to be on your own, if you want that. Specialty restaurants are cheap ( 3-4 courses with wonderful choice of food) for $29.
Please,to all of the "negative commenters " give it a try .

 

[serfty]

...
Not sure what they mean by illegal entry considering it was definately Princess that posted this cruise to my history....I have always booked direct with Princess until recently. (use Cruise Pilot now)

I would suggest English is not the first language of the author of the response.

 

[Bolthead]

I would suggest English is not the first language of the author of the response.

Yes, either that or their spell checker didn't work. I made that same statement to my wife when we first received it.

 

[serfty]

Australian Frequent........Floaters. Inaugural Cruise 2018

 

[Bolthead]

We are going on our 7th cruise later this year around Europe. Each day in a new city. Tours arranged for you or organise your own. Unpack once. No getting to and from airport numerous times. The bigger ships are better than small as you have more places that you can be to be on your own, if you want that. Specialty restaurants are cheap ( 3-4 courses with wonderful choice of food) for $29.
Please,to all of the "negative commenters " give it a try .

We rarely (reluctantly) go to the specialised dining unless it is included as a freebie. We prefer the 'Traditional Dining' as opposed to the 'Anytime Dining'

For those that don't know the difference 'Traditional Dining' was the only choice once upon a time. (AFAIK) When booking you could choose the allotted time, (usually 2 or 3 choices) age group and number at the table you wanted to eat with. Now days most cruise lines include as well as Traditional, 'Any Time Dining - ADT' This allows you to choose any time and any size table you feel at the time. The only problem I see with 'ADT' is sometimes you have to wait for the table you want, especially if you are eating as a couple of single. You tend to meet a lot of people but not get to know them as well. These days for 'Traditional' you can choose the time, (once again normally up to 3 choices) and the size of the table. Certainly on the cruises we go on you can't choose the age any more. Like I previously mentioned we prefer 'Traditional' as you tend to bond with the other passengers more and in some cases they can become life long friends.

 

[roseworks]

My thoughts were the same but age creeps up so we tried a smallish ship’Windstar’ Venice to Rome .
Couldn’t wait to get on and couldn’t wait to get off but after reflecting on it it is great to arrive by sea not a hire car, driven around or pay a taxi driver to sight see, food and booze ok
The irritating aspects I am ready to ignore the next time . Depends on personality but small numbers is a prerequisite for us ,We saw the huge ships off load at Dubrovnik and Venice and Vanuatu, difficult. Seabourn in October for us with a cheap Etihad business fare.

 

[get me outta here]

It was before the hijacking (and subsequent sinking in the mid 90s). I would not have boarded otherwise > a hijacking.

That's a name I haven't heard in a long time, was this before or after the hijacking?

 

[van]

We have done 12 cruises in the past 12 years. All ships have been under 2000 pax on HAL & Princess. Never had any problems embarking/disembarking or onboard price gouging. Ship based excursions are expensive so we arrange our own before sailing. The small ships can visit exotic ports that the bigger ships cannot reach eg we tied up in the heart of St Petersburg, Yangon and cruised the Kiel Canal. We do our own bookings and have not used a travel agent in years.

 

[Bolthead]

Why was the title changed?

Don't know however I noticed this on other threads.... maybe the OP or a moderator changed it.

 

[p--and--t]

I feel the same as Serfty, confined space with hundred, if not thousands of people. Let me smother myself with my pillow in my sleep!

My sister loves them, drags all her bogan friends on them with her. No thanks. I need privacy, space and quite. Even big resort hotels don't do it for me, rented a private villa with staff and it was wonderful.

Edit. And our last scuba trip, we ended up hiring a dive boat for the two of us, 8 other people on the boat was too many.

Ummm so loaded onto a jet with 300+ others in Y class without enough leg room to be able to move, some strangers shoulder on each side of you touching yours and having to pay $6.50 for a 300ml bottle of water is somehow a vastly superior experience to having a luxury cabin with a great night's sleep, someone making your bed, cleaning your room and bringing you breakfast in bed or on your private balcony, and sophisticated 5 course silver service meals???

Don't get me wrong I love flying and have well over 1000 flights under my belt to over 70 countries but I have also done a dozen cruises.

It's horses for courses.

Sometimes a flight itinerary visit to several cities in a short space of time is nothing short of pure hell with delayed flights/ tight connections, little sleep, and packing/unpacking and waiting around airports and panicking over late taxis overweight luggage etc, etc etc etc etc.

A tour of the Baltics by air in two weeks would be a nightmare. The cruise was absolute magic a new city out the window every morning as I finished breakfast and went for my shower. I never take ship excursions and organise a private driver to be waiting for me at each port if required.

Whereas a cruise around South America only seeing an occasional insignificant port with heaps of sea days in between would drive me insane.

Horses for courses.

 

[Denali]

Ummm so loaded onto a jet with 300+ others in Y class without enough leg room to be able to move, some strangers shoulder on each side of you touching yours and having to pay $6.50 for a 300ml bottle of water is somehow a vastly superior experience to having a luxury cabin with a great night's sleep, someone making your bed, cleaning your room and bringing you breakfast in bed or on your private balcony, and sophisticated 5 course silver service meals???

Don't get me wrong I love flying and have well over 1000 flights under my belt to over 70 countries but I have also done a dozen cruises.

It's horses for courses.

Sometimes a flight itinerary visit to several cities in a short space of time is nothing short of pure hell with delayed flights/ tight connections, little sleep, and packing/unpacking and waiting around airports and panicking over late taxis overweight luggage etc, etc etc etc etc.

A tour of the Baltics by air in two weeks would be a nightmare. The cruise was absolute magic a new city out the window every morning as I finished breakfast and went for my shower. I never take ship excursions and organise a private driver to be waiting for me at each port if required.

Whereas a cruise around South America only seeing an occasional insignificant port with heaps of sea days in between would drive me insane.

Horses for courses.

Personally, hadn't done Y in many years and have never paid for a bottle of water, ever. You seem to be flying the wrong way

 

[ellen10]

I know it is a different type of cruising, but does anyone have experience (good or bad) with river cruising?
I must admit that I have looked at them with interest, as I don't do sea sickness well.

 

[Meggsy]

We, wife and I, last went on a cruise on the fun ship Fairstar in 1986 where she suffered terrible sea sickness, while I had a ball. Have finally convinced her to give it another crack on a modern ship and are heading off on a Holland America Line cruise in the Med in a few months time. Really looking forward to this part of our trip. Having considered all of the shore excursion options booked through HAL we were a little shocked at the prices so we have decided to book private shore tours for half the price or do our own thing at some ports.

 

[OZDUCK]

We, wife and I, last went on a cruise on the fun ship Fairstar in 1986 where she suffered terrible sea sickness, while I had a ball. Have finally convinced her to give it another crack on a modern ship and are heading off on a Holland America Line cruise in the Med in a few months time. Really looking forward to this part of our trip. Having considered all of the shore excursion options booked through HAL we were a little shocked at the prices so we have decided to book private shore tours for half the price or do our own thing at some ports.

Pfft 1986. The last ocean "cruise" we were on was the Kota Singapura in 1977. It was an old Dutch built, Indonesian registered & Russian chartered ship that was used for the "Ship/Jet" trade - ship Fremantle to Singapore, then plane (British Caledonian charter) to Gatwick, which was a lot cheaper than flying from Perth to London. We traveled through a lovely cyclone and my wife spent two days in the cabin too seasick to move - but she is very susceptible to seasickness. The largest vessel we have been on since then is the car ferry across Cook Strait in NZ.

I could see myself doing a Baltic cruise for the ease of access to St Petersburg etc but have no desire to do cruise across the Pacific or Atlantic. I have seen to many river cruise boats in Germany, tied up 3 or 4 deep and with all 1,000's of passengers being bused to the same places at the same times to really be a fan of them.