NancyW12

Don't feel the need to be polite, especially at meals. It is perfectly ok to ask for a solo table at a two top. You don't have to sit with the family with 3 kids and fill the 6th seat. They probably are just being polite too.

You don't need to hide in your room for any reason because you don't want to be a bother. It's your vacation. You are entitled to a table at the comedy club, a seat a the bar, and a solo table at a meal if you want one.

A solo vacation is the perfect time to go to the thermal spa, use the adults only sun deck.

Don't be hostage to the cruise lines scare tactics on shore excursions. Get off the boat and explore on your own. They don't dock anywhere unsafe- that would be bad for business. It is up to you to be aware, informed, and not do anything stupid, same as you would at home. But you go by yourself to places at home- do it at your ports too. If nothing else, try it at the first port of call and see if you like going rogue. If not, book some ship excursions when you get back on board.

It's ok to get 2 apps, 2 desserts. You owe no one an explanation. Have a great time!

Hello! I did this trip as a solo last August. I am a 51 year old female and never touched the ship's excursions. Instead, I had what I feel was a more local and authentic port excursion DIY, and a lot more fun!! As a solo middle aged woman, safety was always paramount.

Here are some things I did by myself- if you want more detail, let me know. Otherwise, I won't clutter.

Naples- I pre-paid for my Pompeii ticket online (SMART!!!- shorter line at the site) and took a local bus to the local train. It was all right there. On the way back, I took the subway back to the ship and had a lovely 1/2 mile walk the last bit. Total cost was about $15 transportation and the Pompeii ticket.

Rome- took the shuttle bus to the local train. I missed my stop and ended up at the Termini and ended up taking a Hop On Hop Off bus instead of the public transit, with a cab back to the station. All inclusive cost with train, cab, and HOHO bus- approx. $65.

Pisa- from ship to shuttle bus to local bus to train and back- 15E- charming, charming town!

Cannes- I hopped a train to Nice, looked around a bit, came back. 12E.

Palma- stayed on the boat.

Point being- when you wing it, you can decide if you are too tired that day (Pisa, after 2 days of 100+ heat). My total transportation cost for the entire cruise was less than most of the excursion fares. I traveled at my speed and ate meals that looked interesting to me. They will always find another seat on the ship for the next day's excursion, so why not try doing it yourself the first day and see if you like it? If not, sign up for a ship's tour after that.

If you are on the Epic and want a balcony, my suggestion is to buy whatever cabin rate is cheapest and then get a Thermal Spa pass- spa has a nice balcony! Studio space was fine for one person. The host tried hard on my Epic Mediterranean cruise, but the activities were timed poorly to all aboard. If you wanted to participate in the group things, you had to be back in port hours before in order to get cleaned up. Or, you could sightsee in the ports that you paid for and skip the group outings.

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 9:47 AM, CanadaGuyEh said:

oh thanks! Amazing!   And I haven't cruised with them yet but some even have the past customer deal so a person would get that as well!

As well, go to NCL.com and click the "Advanced Search" button. Set your parameters of length and where you want to sail and "1 guest". Then all the applicable cruises will price for one guest only. You can then sort the results by price and all the dirt cheap fares will come to the top and all will be for one person.

The great thing about NCL for solos is you don't always pay 2x the price. Most often, the room will be discounted after final purchase- such as $369 (plus taxes and fees) for a 7 day out of San Juan this week.

It's an 18 and over ship, so there is a market for what they are selling.

Now that the diehard dogpile seems to have finished, I stand by my statement.

The TSA will not let you through security until 3 hours before your flight at FLL on cruise ship days. They do not have the room to handle the crowd level airside so they hold people on the front side of the airport and let thru in waves. On a Wednesday, you can go thru anytime. On a Sunday, they have a TSA agent sitting at the entrance to security who will not let you thru until 3 hours before your flight.

There are very few seats on the front side of the airport so those who are able bodied will end up sitting on the floor somewhere or look like jerks for sitting while someone who needs assistance stands. And being both the cruise ship departure airport and a main airport in South Florida, there will always be a great number of folks who are elderly or need assistance.

Hope your phone is charged. The only plugs I could find on the front side of the airport were at baggage claim- sitting on the floor.

FLL is the only major airport in the USA I have been to that does not have an airline lounge affiliated with Priority Pass and I don't believe they have a Sky Club or an Admiral's Club (I could be wrong on that). With no Priority Pass lounge access, anyone flying Southwest, Frontier, Allegiant, etc has no lounge access (aka no place to sit and wait for 3 hours). There is no waiter served, sit-down restaurant airside. There is a small food court with approx. 100 seats that will stay occupied for the 3 hours one will wait for their flight (aka eating a hot dog sitting on the floor). In the gate area, there is seating, but not nearly enough to accommodate the number of people waiting for the number of flights departing.

The shuttle from the ship to FLL is more than the shuttle to MIA. The hotels are less in FLL. It's a toss up. Taking a post cruise excursion or renting a day room spends a significant portion of the fare saved by flying to FLL instead of MIA.

For me, the experience was not worth the hassle and I won't repeat that choice. You may find sitting on the floor for 6 hours to be worth $50. I did not and won't do again. To each his own. But no, I was not wrong or in error in my original post.

It's less stress to me to simply go by the cabin price and quit worrying about "single supplement". If you rent a hotel room, you pay the price for the room. They don't quote you a price for one person vs. two people, just the room price. Do we bitch about that? Nope. We rent the hotel room. It's the same thing. You are not paying twice as much. You are paying for the room and then putting one person in it instead of two. That's all.

On the internet, the fares from FLL seem so much less expensive than those from MIA, but consider these factors as well:

- higher transit fees to get to the airport

- you might arrive at FLL and check-in whenever, but FLL will not let you thru the TSA line until 3 hours before your flight. If your flight is at 2pm, you don't go through the line until 11. There is no place to sit on the front side of FLL and the only wall plugs to charge your phone are in baggage claim.

- once you get thru TSA, there are no sit down restaurants or airline lounges airside in FLL. You will be sitting on the floor and eating a hot dog waiting the three hours for your flight.

- someone else on Cruise Critic will then suggest you get a day room from a hotel in FLL or take a cruise excursion to kill time until your flight which will negate any fare difference you might have saved from MIA

How about looking again at the fares from MIA?

Studio cabin on the Epic . I had crappy pillows and left a note for my steward (along with $5) if she could find some "squishy" pillows. She came back with pretty much an entire Haven bed set. LOL

I left her $40 at the end of my 7 day cruise- 20 American for on the boat and 20 E for in port. Because that's how my money broke down at that point LOL. I tipped about $10 cash to the bartenders total.

On ‎10‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 8:47 AM, wdsted said:

People walk out on these shows because they are not theater goers and don’t know or care that when they do this they are negatively impacting others’ enjoyment and being rude and disrespectful to the performers.  There is hardly anything more annoying on a cruise than this behavior.  Find something else to do if you’d even consider doing this.

I don't know- there was this other thread today that thought wasting food at the buffet was the most annoying and mannerless thing one could do on a cruise.

Me? I'm going to vote for the foul mouth drunk in the hot tub over either of the other two.

10am is just fine! I took the NCL transfer in August. We left the pier at 6:15 and arrived at the airport at 7. The Air France counter didn't even open up until 7:30 and had everybody thru in about 45 minutes. It was just fine.

Was on the Epic with a UBP and am a very light drinker. I can tell you I drank the living daylights out of club sodas- well past the equal of the tip amount. Forget about the booze, just get it and drink what you want regardless.

Many times, I will get off the ship, go to the local coffee shop and get a cappuccino and free wifi, meander to find some local lunch, and go back to the ship.

A few random thoughts to go with this:

I flew into FLL because it was cheaper by about $100 than Miami. I had to pay for a shuttle to get to port (more than what an Uber would have cost from a Miami hotel). Stayed in a worse hotel than I could have gotten in Miami for the same price. When it was time to go back to the airport, FLL will only let you through security 3 hours before your flight. Once on the other side, there is no lounge and no full service restaurant. All of the cruise ships dumping their passengers in FLL, Miami passengers who flew thru FLL because it was cheaper, every cruise line telling you not to book closer than 6 hours from disembarkation- makes for a LOT of passengers jammed up at FLL. Expect to spend some time sitting on the floor at baggage claim where the only wall plugs in the place are located. Now we're talking about spending $50 or so to rent a motel room from 8am-2pm because there's nowhere else to go. I implore you, take a look at flying out of Palm Beach or Miami as well. All told, you will likely get a better experience for the same or less money.

Call me crazy, but I liked it. I impulse purchased at the Termini station. It gave a great overview, had an audio tour, and I got on and off when and where I chose.

For a solo, the price was about the same as the cabs would have been. The Metro was further spread out than I expected and difficult to find the stops. I don't find myself stumped too often, but Rome got me. I already had a BIRG ticket but bought the HOHO anyway.

Solo, cheapo traveler here. I have very mixed feelings about you Haven people (smile) On one hand, I appreciate the fact that you are willing to pay $7000-10,000 for a room for a week and book that room 2 years in advance because that exact room is that important to you. That allows me to pay $359 for my inside sail away room for the same departure. Are you getting 20-30 times more the experience than I? I don't think so- you might. As someone mentioned upthread earlier, I buy a spa pass. I spend the week in the thermal suite and find my bliss. That makes me a bad revenue passenger- I don't go to the casino or shop in the stores or go to the art auctions- I just float there in the bubble tub and smile. I listen to Haven folks here discuss how much to tip the butler and how disappointed/angry/upset they were that they were not properly recognized by a bartender for being a Haven guest and that they were not given priority seating to (fill in the blank). To someone like me, that complaint sounds self indulgent and snotty, but to the person who paid 30 times my fare, they likely felt justified.

Different perspectives.

As far as paying double, etc- I sailed solo on MSC years ago with no problems. Now there are a number of people with stories about how they can't book on that line as a solo or the solo trip is that much more expensive. Guess what? Same on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. The easiest, most sane way is to simply approach a solo booking as the cost of the cabin for the trip rather than per person. After all, you buy the hotel room and the car- you don't pay by the bed or the seat. NCL offers some amazing deals to solos and downright steals fi you can go last minute. I did a cruise on the Pearl for $50 a day. You can't eat for $50 a day on vacation, much less a room and transportation.

My room steward would not accept it. She said NCL employees are not allowed to accept and it goes back into the general stores. However, the ladies who run the spa work for Mandara and they were thrilled to accept.

I went to Walmart and bought a clearance rack Bubba cup for $6. No, the bartenders won't wash it out for you. in fact, they still make the drink in the plastic cup and you have to pour it into the Bubba cup.

I tried to give mine to the room steward and was told NCL employees could not accept it. However, the ladies in the spa, who are not NCL employees, were happy to take it off my hands.

I am a 51 year old female solo traveler.

Forget the ship's tour. I did Pisa for 15 euros round trip!! You can also do variations of that to Florence or Lucca for not much more. Frankly, I was exhausted by that point in the trip and just did Pisa. Here's how:

- take the shuttle to the local bus stop outside of port

- buy the 2E bus ticket to the local shuttle drop off point

- walk across the street from the shuttle drop off point and enter the tobacco shop. Buy 2 local bus tickets (1.50E each) to get you to the train station and back and also buy your regional train tickets (Pisa was 2.80E each way).

- walk back out the door and take a right (away from your bus). Walk right one block to the square and up one block to the bus stop directly in front of H&M.

- grab any bus headed to STAZIONE.

- when you get to the train station, grab the next train to Firenze (Florence). Pisa is the first stop and it is 20 min from Livorno.

- exit the Pisa train station to the noisy side (if you end up in a neighborhood, go back in and exit the other side).

- go to the tobacco shop and buy a local bus ticket (1.50E)

- look for the bus stop outside the train station. There will be a lot of people there. Get on the bus with the stop marked TORRE

- get off where everyone else does.

I had also purchased a bus ticket for the trip back to the station but chose to make the lovely 1 mile downhill walk instead. It was wonderful and quiet and allowed me to enjoy this charming little city. Had a nice lunch along the way and went back to the ship.

Do it yourself travel is easy if you take the time to find the information. At 100E less than the ships tour and 50-80 less than a private tour, it allows me to travel more often and more local. try it!

I am an unapologetic Rick Steves enthusiast- let me tell you why.

13 years ago when I took my first overseas trip with my brand new passport (London and Paris because they spoke English in London and I could only jump off the cliff so far/Paris because London was so expensive we hopped the Chunnel train and went), I found his books to be simple and easy to understand. They were written in a way that gave a very novice traveler the confidence to try. Sure- the maps are goofy. Sure- everything costs 25% more than what is listed. Sure- Rick's idea of an inexpensive hotel and mine are worlds apart. But, his book gave me the confidence to go.

13 years later, I have traveled to 4 continents, taken many solo trips including Machu Picchu, and I still buy his books. I use his walking audio tours. And I spend a lot less money. I enjoy the ability to travel on a local level and engage in basic human interaction- the ability to share a vaporetto with a group of nuns in Venice, a chance encounter on a local Italian train that resulted in a 15 minute a capella performance of La Boehme, the experience of being on a bus in Naples when the transit police got on and watching my bus babysitter (appointed by the Neapolitans at the original stop to make sure I got off at the right place) get a ticket for fare jumping. None of those experiences could be planned or purchased with a private guide or a ship's tour. Sometimes, you just have to do it yourself and Rick Steves does an amazing job of that.

Is he perfect? Nope. But he got me going places and I don't take that lightly.

Yup- learned that one the hard way! I did an inside guarantee on the Pearl and got the room next to the ice maker. I would not have been able to change it but did look at the floor plan afterwards so I could lean for the future. That came in handy with the Studios. Since you can choose your cabin, stay away from any that are right at the door to the lounge and next to a white space (crew area= noisy)

I would be very surprised if you don’t have the old menus. In the past, changes to the menus have usually been slow to reach Europe.

 

My guess would be that any changes to the Epics menus will happen over the winter.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Beg to differ-

I clicked thru to that other link and saw the picture of the weirdly paired roast beef dinner I had on the Epic the first week of August (Europe). They had comment cards out for many of the dinner services. The food was good but there were some odd pairings, like corn on the cob with prime rib and a sirloin steak with baked potato was beef sliced similar to roast beef and then a Yukon Gold potato with a smige of butter and sour cream on it- nothing like what I had in my mind when I ordered it. Perhaps Europeans have a different picture than Americans when those dinner descriptions are used. They did have a fantastic cheese plate listed as an app that I kept thru dinner and ate as a cheese course at the end. I suggested they list it as a dessert instead f an app. Why would you pick up a corn cobbette with your fingers in a nice dining room?

I arrived at 10 last time just to sit in what was a glorified airport waiting room with hundreds of other people. This time I got breakfast at a local café, took a taxi to port, arrived at noon, and walked right on. I didn't think thru the "already ate" thing so ended up in the MDR with an appetizer until I could dump my luggage. Then grabbed a lounge chair in the quiet zone and read my book until sail. It was fabulous!