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Solo cruise to Alaska


rocketlegs
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I have 2 friends cruising on a 7 night cruise in Alaska and I plan to go with them in my own cabin. However choosing 1 person in the cabin doubled the price for me. How can I cruise without paying this exorbitant single price?

 

The cruise is RC May 18, 2018 7 night inside cruise to Alaska from Vancouver.

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Get a roommate.

 

Most lines will charge double for solos. There are some exceptions from time to time - last minute sale, solo cabin, second person 50% off (so you pay 150% instead of 200%), cruise line offering small or no solo supplement (don't hold your breath for one of those), etc.

 

I often cruise with Holland America who usually charges 160-165% for solos in interior or ocean view cabins but for Alaskan cruises it is 200%. Royal Caribbean's normal solo fare is 200% for a double cabin.

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Yep, single supplement is a killer. Nearly all cruise lines charge between 150-200% of the fare for this. You may be occasionally able to find a lower single supplement, but not on HAL for Alaska. Either ask your friends to change to a cabin that can accommodate 3 people (which usually means a bunk bed), arrange for another friend to accompany you in your cabin, or suck it up and pay the supplement.

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I have 2 friends cruising on a 7 night cruise in Alaska and I plan to go with them in my own cabin. However choosing 1 person in the cabin doubled the price for me. How can I cruise without paying this exorbitant single price?

 

The cruise is RC May 18, 2018 7 night inside cruise to Alaska from Vancouver.

On the one hand, it's irritating to pay seeming twice the price; on the other hand, motel rooms also almost always cost the same for one or two people - they don't give you half off because you're staying by yourself. I think the issue is that cruise lines advertise half price for the cabin so psychologically that makes it more difficult for us to accept. So it's not really an excessive price since the cruise line is losing use of the cabin. You'd probably be upset if you showed up paying half price and found you had a surprise roommate. Actually that happened to me once at a corporate apartment - quite a surprise; I definitely wasn't expecting company.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always find someone to go with me on RCI, but the winner for no supplements is NCL, I just returned Monday from a late booked, Friday evening booked, sailed Monday, on the Sun. Third trip to Alaska this year- 2 on NCL 1 on RCI

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I always find someone to go with me on RCI, but the winner for no supplements is NCL, I just returned Monday from a late booked, Friday evening booked, sailed Monday, on the Sun. Third trip to Alaska this year- 2 on NCL 1 on RCI

That's excellent! I know there are a couple of other NCL cruises with 0% now (not to Alaska that I know of.) I still wish there was an automated way to be notified when these offers come up, although like most people I'm not currently in a position to take advantage of something on such a short notice (too far from a port.)

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I have seen Alaska cruises that charged 100% but that was a last minute cruise, it was this year in May. I guess most people don't go there in may so they had a lot of extra cabins. But the truth is Alaska is very popular and for the most part you will pay 200% no matter which line you travel with.

 

It is so much easier to find no single supplement fee for Caribbean and Europe cruises, especially with NCL.

 

The only time I paid 200% is on my very first solo cruise, which actually was to Alaska.

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That's excellent! I know there are a couple of other NCL cruises with 0% now (not to Alaska that I know of.) I still wish there was an automated way to be notified when these offers come up, although like most people I'm not currently in a position to take advantage of something on such a short notice (too far from a port.)

 

I totally agree with you, late bookings with NCL are the cheapest. In the past 3 years I have scored some insanely cheap cruises with last minute bookings. That's is why I only stick with NCL.

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I have cruised NCL solo only three times, all to Alaska. The first one was May and I got 150%, the other two (one May one September) were 200%, but I can't wait until too close to departure since I have to buy airfare too. I haven't always gotten the cheapest 200% fare either. Recently I was looking at two cruises. One went down farther ($40/$80) after I bought, but the other one I had considered buying sold out entirely. So you always take a chance when you wait, even in shoulder seasons. If you have the flexibility to either go or not, and not have to arrange time off at work or air travel, and especially if you aren't fussy about the itinerary, I know there are sometimes amazing solo values out there!

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I just went on a NCL this past June to Alaska and had no single supplement fee. That being said, I booked it maybe 2.5 weeks before the cruise departed. Like people here said, you can get really good deal on NCL cruises (and not just having to stay in the studios that some of their ships have) last minute even to Alaska. While I loved Alaska, the ship experience itself wasn't great, but for the price, I would do it again.

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