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calliopecruiser

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  1. What blurring? Single is unmarried, and solo is a description of someone currently without company. If it makes you feel any better - even though I cruise solo, I don't go to solo gatherings.
  2. The first - Sydney to Auckland. More sea days, and I haven't seen the southern island. The second cruise has more time in Hobart, which I would like, but also overnights in Napier, which holds no interest for me.
  3. I don't think so, but I'm not sure I'd know.......I just do what I need to do to get where I want to go. Give yourself lots of time, and if you are concerned about getting ripped off by local transport, you can always book a driver service for a pre-arranged price.
  4. I consider myself travelling solo, even if I know other people on the cruise. I might have friends on board, but I make my own arrangements, have my own cabin, and choose my own excursions (or not). The last time I was on the same cruise as friends, we sometimes chose to dine separately, each eating with different people we'd met on board.
  5. .That's nice, because good food is really important to me; my last 2 cruises were somewhat lacking in the service sector (didn't ruin the cruise, but were not what I was hoping for). You know me......entertainment isn't a big issue, but food and service are
  6. Cruising is the best way to start travelling solo, because everything is arranged for you -- you don't need to plan where to go to dinner, or worry about walking into a bar alone; there's entertainment options all nearby if you want them, but safe and quiet places to go if you don't. You will see the same people around the ship so often, they won't be strangers for long, and that will make it easier to strike up conversations with them, and you will all have some shared experiences (which are great for starting conversations). I think a 10 day trip is a good one to start solo cruising -- cruises of 7 days or less tend to have more of a party vibe, and cruisers are more likely to want to hang with the people they came with. In a longer cruise, more cruisers are (in my experience) more laid-back, willing to talk with other travellers, and less focused on being busy all the time.
  7. I'm interested to hear about your experiences as solo on Explora, which I'm also considering (solo). I don't cruise for anything less than 2 weeks, though - preferably 3-4, but they do have some interesting itineraries and I hear great things.
  8. Been there, but a lot of it is very specific (food/decor/entertainment), rather than an overall experience vs. other lines. .
  9. I'd love to hear about these new entrants to the luxury category.
  10. I do some floor Pilates exercises and stretches that I learned years ago (I still take a twice weekly private Pilates class, but use equipment these days rather than floor stuff). Thoracic rotations, Psoas activations, and a variation of a "Figure 4" stretch with my feet on a wall. OK, sometimes I can't do it against the wall until I've done it with my feet on the ground first a few times to stretch my Piriformis enough. I prefer to do them in the gym if there's a decent amount of floor space available, but I can do them in my cabin as well. I also walk the stairs if it's 2 flights (sometimes 3) rather than take the lift. I'm there to relax, not do chores (i.e. exercises), so I do just enough to maintain.
  11. Crystal also has a few cabins priced for solo occupancy -- they're actually the same cabins as the doubles, but they are more forward, and they're priced lower than the single supplement would be on the double cabin.
  12. I agree about the different clientele on a longer cruise, and I very much recommend it. Nothing would get me on a 3 or 5 day cruise, and that goes double because of the time it takes to travel there and make. The more cruising I've done, the longer I like my cruises - now, anything less than 2 weeks seems a waste.
  13. Wow, you and your family have been hit with a lot recently! I doubt anyone can match your situation, but maybe collectively it will help. It sounds like some time away might be just the thing you need. I am a single woman in my 60s, also from Ontario; I've been travelling alone for over 25 years, including cruising alone for the last 10. In those 10 years, I've met more than a few married women cruising solo, and I have made some very good cruising friends as well - now I share cruise thoughts with them to see if any of us have an interest in taking the same cruise so we can meet up on board. Sometimes we do (I'm meeting a friend aboard a Panama Canal cruise this spring) and sometimes we don't (I did a Middle East cruise last year knowing nobody aboard). Some of my cruising friends are solo women, some are couples. I have had the feeling of suddenly taking an emotional hit on board and feeling badly, but I did not ever think about the railing -- I went to take a nap on deck in the shade (purposely not in my cabin), and almost immediately lost that "bad" feeling. Cruising helps me to relax, and so it did. But if you do want to talk to people, there's usually no shortage of them at bars and lounges....Even though you don't drink alcohol, there's no end of things you do drink at the bar, from soda water and lime to a virgin margarita. Actually sitting AT the bar is a good way to start chatting with people, if you want to. Most cruise lines will have some amount of solo events - usually not my thing, but it does allow to at least see who else is sailing solo. My thought is that I don't care if the people I meet are sailing solo or not, and it's not only solo travellers who want to meet other travellers. Dining alone every night can be a drag, especially in a more formal atmosphere like the main dining room, but it's not the major part of my day. Some cruise lines allow you to be seated with other people who are looking to share their table, and I really like that. It's usually easier at breakfast and lunch more than dinner. If a ship-sponsored excursion is what you want, then do it.....Don't let other people tell you that there are better or cheaper excursions that you can arrange yourself. Sometimes being on a cruise vacation is about not having to arrange anything by yourself, so if it fits the bill of what you want, then do it. Or if not even getting off the ship at a port is what you want, then don't - I love sea days most of all when cruising, and sometimes don't get off the ship in port. I cruise for cruising, not port stops.
  14. I didn't know that was an option - I thought t was data only. However, even with just data, you can make voice calls and send text messages with the WhatsApp app to other WhatsApp users. Just get your friends and family to get What's App, even if only for the time you are away. It's also very common in just about everywhere in the world except for Canada and the US (and maybe Aus/NZ), so if you want to text with people about reservations, etc, they'll be using WhatsApp.
  15. I just bought and used my second Airalo and has as good an experience as the first time. Will do it again for my Panama Canal trip in April.
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