What is a fair Single Supplement

[pcur]

On 5/2/2021 at 5:13 AM, PhD-iva said:

I feel the pain! I’m booked as a solo on Regent’s 15 JAN 2022 Buenos Aires to Santiago cruise. The single supplement was 50%, but I’LL BE ON REGENT! 
I’m hoping to find a GF to travel with me since DH now refuses to travel. 🤯 

I was able to talk his SIL to accompany me on an Oceania cruise Rome to Venice in April 2023. Prices seemed crazy low (for Oceania), now I realize we’re in Rome during Settimana Santa (Holy Week). Crowds and high prices. We’re pondering our options......

I was in Rome on Ash Wednesday on a cruise, and then back again on Good Friday after the cruise.  Crowded, yes, but not unseemly, on Wednesday.  Plan your time, and go out as early as you can.  Plus, if you are going to the Vatican, I'd suggest getting tickets for the very first group in the morning.  Also, we got a hotel about 1/2 block from the Vatican Museum entrance.  On Good Friday we walked around the Vatican and went into the Basilica when it opened at 7am.  We were able to see everything with no crowds.

[Gr8Mariner]

This conversation has focused on NCL, RCI, and Celebrity. None of their current solo cabins seem to be ADA compatible. Does any other line have an ADA  Balcony Staterooms with less than 200% ?

 

 

[farmersfight]

On 12/19/2020 at 6:34 AM, farmersfight said:

 

Good to know, thanks. 3 of my 5 booked solo cruises are with RCL. As a future solo cruiser, I am already finding more reasons to go with RCL (i.e. their studio balcony cabins on their Quantum-class ships. Imo, RCL "hit the nail on the head" with these cabins because just because you are a solo, you can still love to be booked in a balcony cabin).

 

Also, RCL frequently runs their 60% off the 2nd guest sale which essentially lowers your solo supplement to 40%. I have booked multiple balcony staterooms under this promo.

[coastcat]

6 hours ago, Gr8Mariner said:

This conversation has focused on NCL, RCI, and Celebrity. None of their current solo cabins seem to be ADA compatible. Does any other line have an ADA  Balcony Staterooms with less than 200% ?

 

 

I’m not aware of any single-occupancy cabins on mainstream lines which are ADA compliant. Solo cabins are small. You’d have to look at ships with suitable cabins and then pounce on any reduced supplement fares (which may be scarce for the first year or so).

 

The luxury lines frequently have low single supplements, although the smaller ships mean fewer ADA cabins available. 
 

This would be a good question for CC’s Disabled Cruise Travel forum.

[FenixRising]

On 11/23/2020 at 2:16 PM, Traveling Mike said:

1.       Now the question for you is what is a fair Single Supplement?

 

I am late to the party but here is my $.02 worth.

A fair single supplement is 0%. Anything more is punishing people for traveling solo. Making people pay for non-existent passengers is ridiculous.

[MelbTone]

20 hours ago, FenixRising said:

A fair single supplement is 0%. Anything more is punishing people for traveling solo. Making people pay for non-existent passengers is ridiculous

No, it makes perfect sense. Cruise lines are in business to make money and solo travellers occupying double cabins saves the cruise line very little (only food really: ~$30 per day?) but halves the onboard and excursion spends which are key revenue generators for the cruise line. Would the cruise line rather have me paying $3000 for my cruise, or a couple paying $3000? The latter, I'm sure.

[FenixRising]

1 hour ago, MelbTone said:

 Would the cruise line rather have me paying $3000 for my cruise, or a couple paying $3000? The latter, I'm sure.

I disagree. They would rather charge a single person $3000 because you are paying twice as much and only getting half of the services.

[MelbTone]

No, I stand by my original comment. The saving to the cruise company of having a single occupant in a double cabin is minimal. They lose what the second person would be spending - huge areas of ship real estate would not be given over to shops, casino, art gallery, speciality dining etc if these things weren't significant revenue generators.

[latebuyer]

Just wondering if people have any tips on finding deals? I’ve had luck booking early and looking for price anomalies where one date is cheaper for some reason. Also can’t you book celebrity without perks?

[PhD-iva]

On 9/28/2022 at 11:36 AM, latebuyer said:

Just wondering if people have any tips on finding deals? I’ve had luck booking early and looking for price anomalies where one date is cheaper for some reason. Also can’t you book celebrity without perks?

Yes, i’ve read that you can book celebrity without the perks, unfortunately since I no longer cruise on X, I can’t help you further than that.
But keep persevering. There is a way!

[shorne]

I hate single supplements as much as anyone else, but I understand why they are applied. It has to do with profit.

 

The cruise line typically makes little profit from two people in an ordinary room (let's disregard top-end suites for the moment). It may even lose money. Overwhelmingly the profits come from beverages, casinos, beauty parlours, shops, excursions, Internet service, and other things on which the captive passengers drop a lot of money. Cruise lines have abundant data on expenditures made by passengers in different categories; they know, for example, that two people travelling together will tend to spend more money on those ancillary things than two people travelling separately. For that reason (which again is separate from the fee for the cruise itself), double occupancy is much more attractive to the company than single. Something about the dynamics of travelling as a couple causes couples (broadly construed) to spend more money.

 

From our perspective, although we occupy a room that could otherwise have accommodated two paying passengers, we don't consume the food of two people, nor do we cause so much wear and tear to the facilities or make such great demands on laundry and other services; thus it seems unfair to charge us double. From the company's perspective, even if we pay double, we still bring in less money than two passengers in the same room. We are therefore undesirable even at a 100% single supplement.

 

One problem with that position is that it leads to discrimination. I've seen single supplements in excess of 100%, meaning that a single person pays more than two. If that is to be permitted, why not perform the same analysis by race or gender and charge higher fees to groups that tend to be less profitable? That would be unacceptable, but cruise lines get away with handling single occupancy in precisely that manner.

 

Offsetting our undesirability as individuals is our desirability as a group. There are many more single travellers than there used to be. Now that 43% of Canadian marriages end in divorce, this should be unsurprising. That's why cruise lines have shown more interest lately in us long-disdained single travellers: we're just too large a group to neglect. So single supplements are being reduced and other overtures are being made to attract us.

 

[quack2]

On 12/12/2020 at 11:09 AM, farmersfight said:

 

I agree wholeheartedly. You have to look at the total price not just the solo supplement. That's why I like that website (that we are forbidden to name here on CC) because it will list not only cruises with reduced solo supplements (25% or lower) but also deals for cruises > 30 days out and for last-minute deals for cruises < 30 days out.

That's a great website for solos.

[sambamama]

Really, a great single supplement is what you are willing to pay for it.  I agree in principle we should not pay more, but the reality we generally will have to.  I am not willing to pay double, however.  Sometimes the perks I  get subsidize the supplement.  For example, on HAL I get free laundry and 25% off the specialty restaurants.  I also get $250 shipboard credit on any 2 week cruise that is owned by  Carnival.  There may be free tips,  a drink package, and shipboard credit. I almost always book a guarantee, and I always have ended up higher than I booked-usually an outside if I booked inside, and a balcony if I booked an outside.