If you have traveled solo recently how did you handle dining ?

[gailellen12]

One of the aspects of solo cruising that I most enjoyed in the past was joining in with other cruisers in the main dining room. I wonder if people are still welcoming solos to their tables; or were you just more comfortable dining alone? Thanks in advance

[beachluvr65]

I have done both.  When I am seated, I tell the host/hostess that I am open to them seating other singles at my table. sometimes They do and sometimes I eat alone.

[bouy]

Typically for me if the cruise offers set seating I request a large table 6 to 8 and seat with others . If they don’t then I’ll eat by myself . I did a cruise in January and was supposed to be at a large table but they were keeping people within their groups due to Covid which in that case I was completely fine with it 

[JsMom2]

Pre COVID I always asked to be seated at a large table.  First cruise post COVID was last August, and I was informed I’d have to eat solo.  I wasn’t too happy about this, as the buffet was closed for dinner.  So my choices were to eat alone or pay for room service!  Well I became a big fan of dining solo!  The wait staff was so attentive and I was able to get in and out on my time table, instead of waiting for everyone else.  Have done 2 more solo since then, and 2 with my daughter who doesn’t like the main dining room.  I may have a hard time going back to sharing!

[nferr]

I just finished an 11 night cruise on Royal Caribbean solo. I had the unlimited dining package and most nights and also lunches on sea days I ate in the specialty restaurants on my own. It was great, most of the time I was in and out fairly quickly and I always lingered a bit with a specialty coffee and an after dinner drink. Never felt awkward at all. A couple of times I ate in the buffet when I wanted to keep it lighter. Never went to the main dining rooms at all.

[Ekane2018]

Had a solo cruise in November & kept running into the same woman, also solo, at dinner. Due to covid we couldn't share a table but the crew would seat us at two neighboring tables for two people, across from each other.. so it was like we were sitting diagonally at a table for 4!

[Ombud]

The hostess or host checks me in at the door (PRINCESS). It's always "1 to share" at dinner but I prefer a solo table by the window at lunch. And I stop to say "hi" to my HW (food allergies) if I see him. He comes by shortly afterwards so I can order the next day's food. Unfortunately if I book same night on the MC App then I'm assigned to that weird dining room at the far back of the ship, deck 6, with other solos. Prefer off the piazza so I can go straight from Vines to dinner

 

So basically the 8/15/21 & 12/9/21 had little change from pre-covid. I did wear my mask until I sat down

 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Ombud

[OllieMom]

Did they allow you to share a table?

[OllieMom]

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

The hostess or host checks me in at the door (PRINCESS). It's always "1 to share" at dinner but I prefer a solo table by the window at lunch. And I stop to say "hi" to my HW (food allergies) if I see him. He comes by shortly afterwards so I can order the next day's food. Unfortunately if I book same night on the MC App then I'm assigned to that weird dining room at the far back of the ship, deck 6, with other solos. Prefer off the piazza so I can go straight from Vines to dinner

 

So basically the 8/15/21 & 12/9/21 had little change from pre-covid. I did wear my mask until I sat down

 

 

Did they allow you to share a table? 

[OllieMom]

I like alone time but do enjoy dining w a group.  Anyone dine w a solo’s  group recently?

[Ombud]

36 minutes ago, OllieMom said:

Did they allow you to share a table? 

Yes. Generally 4 others. I declined the assignment to a table of 5 others solos as I don't like that location 

Edited February 19, 2022 by Ombud

[OllieMom]

 

On 2/18/2022 at 7:48 PM, Ombud said:

Yes. Generally 4 others. I declined the assignment to a table of 5 others solos as I don't like that location 

I’m so confused.  It’s been a few years since I have cruised Princess. I thought it was all my time dining now.  How do you get assigned to a solo table? 

[Ombud]

In the MC App you can select that you're willing to share a table as well as the time you want to eat. You don't have to but you have the option to do so. I had picked to eat at 6pm every night. So it put me into the 6 aft dining room which is assigned TD seating on the Emerald and Majestic Princess ships. Anyway it was in August and December 2021. Same table, same tablemates, same wait staff

 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Ombud

[Traveling Mike]

I just got off a B2B cruise on the Symphony and Reflection.  I did dine solo and was very comfortable.  The nice thing is I was able to do dinner in about 1 hour and off to more adventures.  Being solo also allowed me to dine with people I met on the cruise.  Then it would be a nice slow dinner with good conversation.

[Missymo]

I am new to the solo traveling.  Have been on the Edge twice so far since the restart and in my instance I was seated solo, but there were  tables for two on either side of me.  I was able to converse with others or not.  It happens I became very friendly with some of the couples going forward and still speak to a couple of them. 

[pduncan]

On 2/18/2022 at 7:14 PM, OllieMom said:

I like alone time but do enjoy dining w a group.  Anyone dine w a solo’s  group recently?

 

On 3/3/2022 at 9:37 PM, Missymo said:

I am new to the solo traveling.  Have been on the Edge twice so far since the restart and in my instance I was seated solo, but there were  tables for two on either side of me.  I was able to converse with others or not.  It happens I became very friendly with some of the couples going forward and still speak to a couple of them. 

I have been on 3 cruises as a solo this year (2 Princess and 1 NCL) and am getting ready for a 25 day solo in April. I always go to the first sea night Solo Cruisers gathering, and frequently a core group evolves to dine together most nights. It’s a great way to build up a small group of folks you recognize around the shipmand sometimes expands to sharing other meals, excursions, etc. I’ve met some very nice and interesting people this way. 
 

Edited March 9, 2022 by pduncan

[Missymo]

13 hours ago, pduncan said:

 

I have been on 3 cruises as a solo this year (2 Princess and 1 NCL) and am getting ready for a 25 day solo in April. I always go to the first sea night Solo Cruisers gathering, and frequently a core group evolves to dine together most nights. It’s a great way to build up a small group of folks you recognize around the shipmand sometimes expands to sharing other meals, excursions, etc. I’ve met some very nice and interesting people this way. 
 

Didn't know that there was solo gatherings. Is this on all ships?  Im going Celebrity, will have a look at the newsletter , hopefully find it.  Thanks.for the information.  

[rkacruiser]

7 hours ago, Missymo said:

Didn't know that there was solo gatherings. Is this on all ships?

 

There is variation from ship to ship whether solo gatherings are scheduled.  Some ships do a better job than others in making these gatherings known.  Some are scheduled at times, that at least for me, are inconvenient.  Some are hosted; some are not.  Based on my experience, the hosted ones are more successful than those that aren't.  I used to attend these.  I had mixed experiences.  On long cruises, they were beneficial for me.  On short cruises (4-7-10-11 day cruises), these gatherings were a waste of my cruise time.  

[Traveling Mike]

7 hours ago, Missymo said:

Didn't know that there was solo gatherings. Is this on all ships?  Im going Celebrity, will have a look at the newsletter , hopefully find it.  Thanks.for the information.  

I just got off the Celebrity Reflection.  The Solo gathering was worthless.  They had one every day but it was at the Martini Bar at 5:00 pm with no leader.  The Martini Bar is packed at 5 pm so there is no way of knowing who is solo and who is waiting for dinner.  Big waste of time.

[PhD-iva]

I cruised solo last November w Oceania on the transAtlantic from Rome to Miami on Riviera. The first night there was a hosted get together for the solos followed by an invitation to eat dinner together for anyone who wished to. We had a real great group of people about 15 or so who would come to every hosted get together. On the 16 (?) day voyage there were five or six hosted get togethers. Alcohol was provided at each get together and two bottles of wine were provided for each table of 4 to 6 at dinner. We had a great time and I made some good friends ! 
Previous to that I cruised solo on Uniworld‘s eastern Danube river cruise. That was in August 2021 and there were still many restrictions. Wherever you sat at the first dinner, that is where you had to eat for the rest of the itinerary. I was lucky that two sisters invited me to sit with them the first night. It worked out fine, however I generally like to use mealtimes to get to know more people. But it was a sign of the times and certainly understandable.

Edited March 10, 2022 by PhD-iva
Edit

[kasaba]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:38 PM, pduncan said:

 

"I always go to the first sea night Solo Cruisers gathering, and frequently a core group evolves to dine together most nights."
 

Does Royal Caribbean (3 night Bahamas) have a Solo Cruisers gathering like this? 

[HarborHermit]

Even pre-Covid I preferred to dine alone. My last two cruises were totally solo, and the only time I sat at a shared table was one morning at brunch where I would have had to wait another hour to be seated by myself. Getting fed was more important than nursing my introversion. LOL!

 

That being said, when I used to cruise as part of a group it was nice to meet up with friends to catch up on the day's activities.

[3113Timmy]

I cruised solo on the Cruise and Maritime Discovery when I was 33, visited the Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland and Iceland. Had a wonderful time.

 

I was probably in the five youngest guests of that whole cruise. There were five or six of us singles under 65 and we would be seated together on the same table and we would all listen to each other's life stories and empathize with each other's difficulties. One of us had just lost his wife to cancer at 40. It was a great healing experience for all of us! 

[eileeshb]

On 2/19/2022 at 12:14 AM, OllieMom said:

I like alone time but do enjoy dining w a group.  Anyone dine w a solo’s  group recently?

I was on NCL’s Epic a couple of weeks ago and there was a solos group for dinner pretty much every evening, the solos host even got 2 tables for us at one of the specialty restaurants but the shop had less than half capacity on that sailing. Normally they’d never get a solos group into a specialty restaurant but solos have organised them at the meet-ups on other sailings I’ve done.  Usually the solos group goes to dinner in one of the complimentary main dining rooms after the evening meet-ups, you don’t have to go every night on my last cruise is was a different group every evening but in previous cruises there’s been a pretty regular group of 10 to 15 with 2 or 3 changes each evening. On one cruise there were a bunch of platinum level solos so they brought different other solos for each of their complimentary dinner for 2 vouchers at the specialty restaurants.