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Meeting other Single Cruisers


JasonMS
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After several cruises, both by myself and with my son, I have to say it is difficult to meet other singles or single parents on a cruise ship.

 

I've gone to the singles events and found few people actually attend.

 

Am I missing something?

 

Is it possible to meet someone on a cruise?

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Of course that is possible. But it depends on the cruise line. NCL has for solo travellers on the bigger ships solo cabins and also a solo lounge where you can meet people as well as when you attend the meetings. As a solo traveller on NCL I always meet nice people.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

As bellagio referenced, I would highly recommend NCL to anyone wanting to cruise solo and have a good chance of meeting other solos/singles. I would also limit my options to the ships that have studios. I haven't sailed any NCL ships without studios, so while I'm sure they still make an effort with singles, the studio scene on the big ships has to make a big difference I'd imagine in attracting/organizing singles. Outside of that, like in the "real world" your best chance of meeting singles unfortunately is whatever "club" the ship has at night...which isn't really my scene. You could also search the singles travel companies' sites and find when they're doing cruises. Even if you don't want to go through the company and pay the up-charge, there's nothing to prevent you from booking on the same cruise. You may not have access to some of their private events, but there are only so many pools, bars, etc... on the ship for them to hang out at!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Being single myself, sometimes I consider wearing a t-shirt that says "Single and looking", but I don't. This will be my first NCL cruise, sailing in a studio cabin, so I'll see how these Solo meet and greets go in October.

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I did my first solo cruise on Carnival's The Sensation last November. I was amazed that they didn't have any singles meetings as they seemed to have meetings for so many other groups. Fortunately I had requested to be seated at the "singles" table and did have a good time with 7 other single people.

 

I will be doing my 2nd official solo singles cruise on NCL's The Escape 4/14. I will be in a Studio cabin down the hall from the Lounge. I am really looking forward to meeting other solo/single people just to hang out and eat dinner or see a show. I have heard good things about NCL's solo program so I will let you all know about it when I get back.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Going on Carnival pride out of Baltimore on June 10, 2018 this is my second cruise, I’m in my late 30’s I’m taking my teenage daughter and her friend and I have other family members booked as well, I’m hopeful that there will be other singles or solos to mingle with in the evening .

 

 

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The Singles Travel agencies are great for meeting other singles. I've also heard that the hot tubs after midnight are good places to mingle as well, however some ships close the hot tubs after 10

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  • 2 weeks later...
Being single myself, sometimes I consider wearing a t-shirt that says "Single and looking", but I don't. This will be my first NCL cruise, sailing in a studio cabin, so I'll see how these Solo meet and greets go in October.

 

If you are sailing on NCL, big ship or small you will always find other solo cruisers. NCL is the best when it comes to bringing solos together. They have hosted meets every single day at around 6.

I have done many solo cruises on Carnival and NCL, Carnival is terrible when it comes to solo cruises. Their solo meets are not hosted, so you will not find anyone during the solo meet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
If you are sailing on NCL, big ship or small you will always find other solo cruisers. NCL is the best when it comes to bringing solos together. They have hosted meets every single day at around 6.

I have done many solo cruises on Carnival and NCL, Carnival is terrible when it comes to solo cruises. Their solo meets are not hosted, so you will not find anyone during the solo meet.

 

Yeah, I've done a solo cruise on Carnival Legend six years ago, went to their singles event and thought I was in the wrong place as it was poorly arranged.

Looking forward to the meet & greets on NCL. 😁

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I just returned from a 7 day Carnival cruise and almost daily there was a singles social listed in the what's happening, but when you show up to where they are supposed to be at there is nothing or no one there. That is the one area that they really drop the ball on and needs improvement. Even if they are not going to have someone there hosting, they could at least have a sign and designated area so that the singles there for it would know they are in the right place and if others were in this area they were probably singles themselves. Instead you don't know if someone was there for the singles social or if they were just waiting on their other party to arrive. I was very disappointed with this on my cruise. Maybe they will get better with it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I will be doing my fourth cruise shortly on my own. Fred Olsen I found good for meetimg solo travellers of a similar age- 50s/60s. P&O not as organis3d really but do keep putting this on m6 feedback forms.Feedback here sounds as if you are all younger than that though.

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Check out the solo cruisers board as well. In particular there is a roll call thread where solos indicate the cruise they've booked. A group of 15 of us met through that thread last fall, one set up a FB page, and we met at sail-away on a Princess cruise last fall.

 

As others have suggested NCL is great too with the solo lounge and studios.

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Check out the solo cruisers board as well. In particular there is a roll call thread where solos indicate the cruise they've booked. A group of 15 of us met through that thread last fall, one set up a FB page, and we met at sail-away on a Princess cruise last fall.

 

As others have suggested NCL is great too with the solo lounge and studios.

 

Just wanted to clarify about NCL, even the ships that don't have solo lounge and studios, they will still have a hosted meet for solos just like they do on big NCL ships. The only thing is, they do the meetings in a different location. But the meetup is still ever single day. Its really wonderful how they bring people together.

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Hello all This is going to be my first time taking a cruise. I am looking to meet single women 45, 55, 65 any suggestions?

 

NCL, there are plenty of solo cruisers that age and they also have plenty of younger and older.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do you find there’s a younger or older crowd of singles?

 

As bellagio referenced, I would highly recommend NCL to anyone wanting to cruise solo and have a good chance of meeting other solos/singles. I would also limit my options to the ships that have studios. I haven't sailed any NCL ships without studios, so while I'm sure they still make an effort with singles, the studio scene on the big ships has to make a big difference I'd imagine in attracting/organizing singles. Outside of that, like in the "real world" your best chance of meeting singles unfortunately is whatever "club" the ship has at night...which isn't really my scene. You could also search the singles travel companies' sites and find when they're doing cruises. Even if you don't want to go through the company and pay the up-charge, there's nothing to prevent you from booking on the same cruise. You may not have access to some of their private events, but there are only so many pools, bars, etc... on the ship for them to hang out at!
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  • 3 months later...
If you are sailing on NCL, big ship or small you will always find other solo cruisers. NCL is the best when it comes to bringing solos together. They have hosted meets every single day at around 6.

I have done many solo cruises on Carnival and NCL, Carnival is terrible when it comes to solo cruises. Their solo meets are not hosted, so you will not find anyone during the solo meet.

 

Where are the hosted meetings held on NCL? I'll be travelling with my daughter 22y/o. Is there a forum here on Cruise Critic to find out info? Thanks.

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  • 3 months later...
On 9/2/2018 at 10:35 AM, bubblegummermom said:

 

Where are the hosted meetings held on NCL? I'll be travelling with my daughter 22y/o. Is there a forum here on Cruise Critic to find out info? Thanks.

Check the Freestyle Daily...It will be listed there.   It will usually start at around 5:30 PM, last about a half hour to an hour, after which all who don't have other plans, are invited to join the group for dinner in one of the main dining rooms, where they have one or two large tables reserved....very nicely done.

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7 hours ago, bob brown said:

Check the Freestyle Daily...It will be listed there.   It will usually start at around 5:30 PM, last about a half hour to an hour, after which all who don't have other plans, are invited to join the group for dinner in one of the main dining rooms, where they have one or two large tables reserved....very nicely done.

Thanks for the response...we will be on the lookout !

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  • 4 weeks later...

I stayed in a Studio room on the Getaway in 9/2018 and the solo meet-ups were awesome.  We had a huge group of solo's and many of us did not want to eat early so we would go to the meet-up and coordinate what time and place would would meet later to eat together.  So there were typically 2 different seatings of solo diners per evening.  This does not count the solos that were interested in specialty dining.  We often met up later for entertainment and often for excursions as well.  I highly recommend NCL because they do a great job for solos/singles.  Keep in mind that not all solos are single however.  Some are married and just cruise alone.

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  • 5 months later...

In my experience if you are looking to feel a sense of community with single cruisers you need to pay a premium to go with a group that is for singles.

 

People here mentioned NCL. I typically go with NCL simply due to the price (I love bargains). That said, not every ship is the same. I would assume the ships that have the studio cabins would be the easiest to meet singles since they do have a coordinator for singles. I myself have not been on the ships that have studio cabins but I have been on other NCL ships. I went on the Jewel many years ago when I was 21 and in college. There were definitely a lot of young single people, but I only found them in the club at night (not really my scene but if you want to meet people that are young and single that's your best bet). A couple of years ago at  31 I went on the Sun for an Alaskan cruise. These typically do attract older people and don't have a party atmosphere. That said, I found the age range was very mixed. As far as singles I didn't meet that many. They advertised in the daily a solo meet. I went and there wasn't a single person there. A few days into the cruise I went into the hot tub and I met 2 single guys who came together. They asked me why I didn't go to the solo meet. I told them what happened and they said that there were some people there but that there was no coordinator for it so there really wasn't a group. One of the guys normally does the studio cabin and says typically there is a solo coordinator. I've met people on most cruises I went to. I went on a date off the ship with one (we lived within an hour of each other), and I "hooked up" with one of the guys I met in Alaska and we talked pretty frequently for over a year after the cruise. I later found out he died 😞

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