Single Accommodation

[bob brown]

Checked out the NCL Studio and boy are they small. Not even room for a chair. Hardly room to get out of bed. The one way window into the corridor is kind of spooky. I may travel solo but I can't imagine choosing this cabin no matter what the price. JMHO. Carole

Yes, they are small. But did you see that they share an exclusive lounge with other single cabins?

As the song from "Cabaret" says: "What good is sitting, alone in your room......":)

[Cinder Again]

It's discrimination pure and simple no different than discriminating against somebody for the color of their eyes. Of course if lines discriminated against any other group of people, there would be all sorts of court cases. Why aren't singles given the same protection?

I get what you are saying, but others are right too. The cruise line expects to make $X for each cabin. One person in the cabin rarely makes up for what 2 people might spend. (Although I swear, I do my best:D)

What I'd love to see them do, is have a signup for singles, so they would offer us the empty cabins for a single price, if the ship isn't filled. It could even be last minute, since a lot of us are either retired, or flexible. I always hear about great last minute prices, but I never see them, or at least they've never been offered to me! I KNOW they could fill any empty cabins with grateful singles. Some money is better than NO money, right? And you would create a lot of grateful, loyal to HAL singles...I'd cruise 4 or 5 times a year, if I didn't have the single supplement to deal with...Now THAT would be an excellent Mariner benefit!!!

[Mary Ellen]

It's discrimination pure and simple no different than discriminating against somebody for the color of their eyes. Of course if lines discriminated against any other group of people, there would be all sorts of court cases. Why aren't singles given the same protection?

Are you saying there shouldn't be any single supplement? I know I pay the same price for a hotel room if there is one person in it or two. Would you feel better if the cruise lines just priced per cabin? Now, meals are different, but I think you'd be surprised at how little cost/pp goes towards food on a ship. Also, with only one person/cabin that is one less person for onboard revenue. Cruise lines make a fair amount of their profit from that onboard spending. The single supplement goes towards offsetting that loss.

[GeriatricNurse]

Are you saying there shouldn't be any single supplement? I know I pay the same price for a hotel room if there is one person in it or two. Would you feel better if the cruise lines just priced per cabin? Now, meals are different, but I think you'd be surprised at how little cost/pp goes towards food on a ship. Also, with only one person/cabin that is one less person for onboard revenue. Cruise lines make a fair amount of their profit from that onboard spending. The single supplement goes towards offsetting that loss.

 

And cruising solo with HAL, I make sure that I spend ALAP (As Little As Possible) onboard during the cruise!:mad:

[bonsarsam]

Hello

 

Last year my family (2 adults and 2 kids) + FIL travelled on HAL Westerdam. We like to stay in cat J because it is only 1 flight to the MDR, with kids you always run back to the room for something. We stayed in J1049 (4) and my FIL stayed in J1019. This was a surprise for him, we booked this cabin for him because it was on the same floor as we were down the hall. I think his room was the same as ours, I did not see cabin because he was alway ready before we were. I have 2 kids aged 1.5 and 5 at the time. Single supplement was quite a bit. We paid about $1600 for four and we paid a little over $900 for a single interior room. We should have booked a double and had one of his daughters come too for probably $100 more. It is the past. He had a great time with our family, he loves spending time with the kids.

[casamariposa]

I hope that HAL Executive HQ monitors these threads. As a woman of a "certain age," I've been traveling for over 50 years. When "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay," I treked through Europe and Latin America lugging my belongings effortlessly (is that why they call it LUGgage?). I traveled by state run bus service, second-class train compartments and stayed in second-class hotels. I had neither time nor money. Now I have time and just enough $$$ to take one cruise annually, if I'm careful what ship or itinerary I select.

 

My college degree is in Economics, so I honestly understand why the cruise companies have to squeeze every penny to keep afloat. HAL can charge less and become unrecognizable, or charge a lot more and compete unsuccessfully with Seaborn and Regent. However, they should consider the changing demographics. The older customer set that I used to meet on my early (1970's era) HAL cruises are no longer around or able to travel. It used to be that solo traveling women were referred to as the "Merry Widows," as they indeed were in a publication from my local auto travel club. Well, they are still on board and they're terrific. However, in addition to them there are more and more never-marrieds or divorced who have no qualms about traveling alone or sitting at a table with couples and making conversation. On the Maasdam last Fall, I became friends with the two couples I was seated with. On the other hand, I was on a TA cruise on the Noordam last Fall, and the powers that be placed eight of us (4 men, 4 women) traveling solo together at a table in the dining room. A brilliant move. There was a wide range of ages and interests, and it was fascinating. These people had been traveling for years. Some purchased tours, some did not. Some purchased wine with dinner or cocktails before, some did not. But everyone spent money on something on board. I've already purchased $800 worth of tours for my 30-day Rotterdam cruise next years. (I'm traveling in steerage!) As a poster mentioned, single, older women may not want to go it alone in an unfamiliar place. I was fearless when I was younger, but I'm much more cautious now.

 

I know this post is lengthy, but my point is that singles do spend money aboard...in different ways. And since the stewards, especially the cabin stewards, are not seeing a double gratuity added to the bill for my cabin, I purposely budget to give them something extra, especially in the middle of a long cruise when they are looking forward to some shore time. I'll put off buying new luggage or a new blouse for formal night in order to take care of the staff, which has always, consistently treated me well. Life is a matter of choices.

 

Please, HAL, don't squeeze us out!

[onthegogirl]

Great post! Says it all. Carole

[bepsf]

Now I've reached the point where there is no reason not to enjoy what I have saved for all those years. It's my little attempt to keep peace in the family.

If there's nothing left when I die, there's nothing for the relatives to fight over. :p

 

Makes perfect sense to me

Spend what you earn - 'cause after you're gone, you'll never hear them say "Thank You".

[MATHA531]

Are you saying there shouldn't be any single supplement? I know I pay the same price for a hotel room if there is one person in it or two. Would you feel better if the cruise lines just priced per cabin? Now, meals are different, but I think you'd be surprised at how little cost/pp goes towards food on a ship. Also, with only one person/cabin that is one less person for onboard revenue. Cruise lines make a fair amount of their profit from that onboard spending. The single supplement goes towards offsetting that loss.

 

Well obviously some sort of single supplement is justified. Say 2 friends are travelling together. They might surely prefer two singles then to share a cabin. The single supplement should be there to deter that sort of thing, I do agree. But there is no justificaton, whatsoever, for a 100% single supplement. Say 30% to me is about right and fair.

[Mollynme]

A word of advice -

It's best to book early if the single supplement is 50% (or sometimes even less). If/when the ship looks like it will fill, they will increase the single supplement to 100%.

I enjoy cruising so much that I try not to think about the supplement and rarely take the time to calculate what it actually is. However, it was really brought to my attention when I made the mistake of booking my October cruise in August. I booked as a solo but when I added my SIL to my booking 2 weeks later, I paid less than $80! (I think that was just the additional taxes.)

[Ulmer!]

What!?!

The 200% single penalty isn't designed to make me try to find friends who want to cruise? LOL

 

In all honesty, if I want to go on a particular sailing bad enough, I shell out the extra. Perhaps I don't do as many shore excursions, gambling, drinking, or spa treatments as I might if the travel budget hadn't been eaten up by the fee - but I still take the trip, meet great people, see wonderful places, and am lucky to be taken care of by the kindest/most generous people at sea.

 

Besides - if I waited until my friends started cruising ... I might still be waiting!

[Faith77]

Sometimes I've lucked out with ok deals--my best deal was a rountrip NY-Canada cruise on a big Carnival ship a few years back for $700.

 

In the last few years I've only taken longer (10+ days) land trips and cruises. A long weekend (3-5 nights) doesn't make sense to me any more with airfare, hotel or cruise fare etc. So traveling less but on longer trips is one way for me to stretch my vacation funds.

 

I've found that most land (tour, writing program, health/spa) and cruise trips I consider have some kind of ss. The decision is to go or not go and, if I can, I look for the best possible deal and go. Faith