Solo cruising with a pre-cruise hotel stay.

[GOQ]

I have done about 17 cruises by myself, Mediterranean, Canaries, Caribbean and Scandinavia. They have all included  a transfer from the airport to the ship, so it gives me a little bit of confidence as a solo traveller I won’t get lost and will be looked after by the tour/cruise operator.

 

I would like to be a bit more adventurous and have Australia, Brazil, more USA and Asia on my bucket list, however because these are long haul to far away places (from the UK) they seem to involve a pre- cruise stay of 1 or 2 nights in a hotel offering Room Only or Bed and Breakfast accommodation. 

 

Staying in a RO/BB hotel by myself makes me a little bit nervous as I would presumably have to go out and about looking for places to eat and drink in a strange foreign place.

Have any of you solo cruisers had experience of this sort of thing and how do you handle it.

 

[paddy Anne]

33 minutes ago, GOQ said:

I have done about 17 cruises by myself, Mediterranean, Canaries, Caribbean and Scandinavia. They have all included  a transfer from the airport to the ship, so it gives me a little bit of confidence as a solo traveller I won’t get lost and will be looked after by the tour/cruise operator.

 

I would like to be a bit more adventurous and have Australia, Brazil, more USA and Asia on my bucket list, however because these are long haul to far away places (from the UK) they seem to involve a pre- cruise stay of 1 or 2 nights in a hotel offering Room Only or Bed and Breakfast accommodation. 

 

Staying in a RO/BB hotel by myself makes me a little bit nervous as I would presumably have to go out and about looking for places to eat and drink in a strange foreign place.

Have any of you solo cruisers had experience of this sort of thing and how do you handle it.

 

I do it all the time. I live roaming foreign cities doing what I want when I want. If I don’t feel like sitting in a restaurant I do a patio to counter food to go. I love it!

[GOQ]

It would be nice to have your confidence.

My late wife used to handle all this adventurous stuff for me.

So I have to just do it, and work out some sort of strategy, guess do a bit of googling/you tubing. 

[niknot]

GOQ,

 

Don't worry, the more you travel the more confident you will become.

 

Most destinations have a tremendous number of day tours available to help you get your bearings in a city. Some are free walking tours offered by the local visitors bureau while others are businesses in which you just provide a tip at the end. Of course, sometimes the quality may vary. If you are willing to spend a bit more, this opens up your options considerably. If you take a food tour, you typically end up with a small group of friendly people that you get to know while exploring an area of the city and enjoying some of the food options offered there.

 

Your hotel can also make suggestions for restaurants near by. Higher end hotels typically have a concierge available so they would be able to make reservations as well.

 

When selecting hotels I typically take a look at google maps for the area around the hotel to see what is available. Convenience stores or a grocery store are always nice to have nearby.

 

Check out some of the port specific forums for suggestions in the various locations and keep asking questions.

 

 

[bluetardis]

I’m a solo traveler and book my pre cruise hotel stay via the cruise company. Doing this I have found the hotel is always near restaurants and shops. It takes the guess work out of where should I stay and transportation is included to the hotel, as well as to cruise port

[neeuqdrazil]

For countries where English is the primary language (US, Australia), you should be fine. Check YouTube for travel recommendations for the cities you intend to visit, and depending on the hotel, the concierge/front desk should be able to provide you with some guidance, even in non-primarily-English countries. Especially if the hotel is being booked by your cruise line, they should be used to dealing with questions from new visitors. 

 

Seconding the recommendation for taking day tours. 

[Honolulu Blue]

I've done some solo travel not involving cruises in various places in the world with a hotel stay.  I haven't found meals to be much of a problem - the airport almost always has places to dine or things available to snack on.  Often hotels will have restaurants on site or near their location.  If not, the staff will give you their suggestions/recommendations/available options.  

 

Have fun with wherever your travels take you.

[niknot]

A couple more things, some cruise lines do offer land packages as well. For example, Princess has some in Japan. 
 

Also, some tour companies have packages that include a tour and a cruise. Or even just a tour prior to the cruise.
Globes/Cosmos partners with Holland America and NCL. Of course there are many others.

 

With one of these options you would have everything taken care of, but you will definitely pay for it. 
 

Good luck

 

 

[paulco]

I’m usually solo,usually fly in 3 days early to explore.   I research neighborhoods etc.  Has always worked well 

[calliopecruiser]

I do it all the time, and I love it.......Depending on whether or not I've been there before, and how expensive a location it is, I stay 1-5 days at the front and back end of cruises when travelling solo (and I almost always travel solo).   NY city, San Francisco, Miami, Athens, Tokyo, Lisbon, Dubai, and once I did a 10 day road trip in New Zealand after the cruise.  Yes, I go out wandering the neighbourhood, and I find places to eat that look popular, are well rated on line, or just catch my eye.  Even if they don't speak any English (Tokyo was the toughest in that respect), pointing and some charades usually does the trick.  I research some sites or neighbourhoods beforehand, then go out and catch public transit or Uber and see them (I'm a big fan of public transit when I travel).

 

I have done several long solo land trips (not part of a tour group), a couple before I started cruising solo (3 weeks in Portugal, 2 weeks in Spain, 4 weeks in Italy).  It's not hard if you think of it as an adventure that might not always work out smoothly, but will always be interesting.

 

A few thoughts:

• Learn at least a half dozen words in the local language, including please, thank you, excuse me, and sorry.  Probably also learn to say "do you speak English" in the local language.  You can use Google Translate for a lot of stuff, but showing people you're willing to learn at least a few words in their language really helps.  I'll admit, I kind of failed at that in Japanese; fortunately, they're big on pictograms.
• Ask at your hotel for the local phone number for police emergencies (here it's 911, but it varies worldwide)
• Trust your gut, and that goes for everything from deciding on a restaurant to judging safety. 
• Have a general plan, but don't be afraid to "go with the flow" of what looks interesting that you never knew about, or something you thought would be great but isn't and you want to leave early.  In Tokyo, I found something in a different neighbourhood every day to see, and that got me to see different neighbourhoods.  In Dubai I thought I'd love wandering the souks (local markets) but I hated them and left quickly for an early lunch. 

[eileeshb]

I generally fly in a couple of days early and depending on flight time I may stay a night after the cruise too. I would recommend joining the cruise roll call both here and on Facebook to see if anyone else is arriving early.

check the home ports section of this forum for recommendations from other cruisers and also trip advisor.

I always check trip advisor hotel reviews before finalising a hotel booking when possible. And those reviews will often include tidbits about the neighbourhood the hotel is in and what is close by. There are also forums on trip advisor that include participation from local residents who will give advice in response to any questions. 

I do a lot of online research and pin places on google maps, you can download maps for offline usage and you can also download languages in google translate. 
the worldwide emergency services number is 112, most countries have another one that’s better known to their populations but with the advent of mobiles someone decided there should be number common across all countries and 112 was the one picked. 
 

[GOQ]

Thank you all for your useful advise.

 

I am sort of used to getting off the plane, collecting luggage then straight onto a transfer directly to the ship.

I have been doing a bit of "Youtube" both of potential destination cities and of passenger experiences of long haul flights. Taking into account the effects of long haul travelling time and jet lag it I have come to the conclusion it might just be better to have a day or two in a hotel pre-cruise in which to recover.

 

Thanks

[neeuqdrazil]

I can definitely recommend getting in at least a day beforehand, especially if travelling solo. 

 

My last cruise in the beforetimes, and my first cruise in the current era, both involved flying in the day before departure. The first was to London - the cruise departed on Sunday, and I flew in overnight on Friday night, arriving at ~6AM on Saturday morning. I had a wonderful day running around London like a madwoman, then hopped the train to Soton to the hotel there.

 

The second was an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. The cruise departed Wednesday, so I flew in Tuesday morning, arriving early afternoon. I did some running around (visiting those oh-so-important yarn shops), got takeaway Vietnamese to eat in my hotel room, then boarded the next morning.

 

In both cases there were significant time differences (5 hours for London, 3 hours for Vancouver), and having the day beforehand to acclimate made the cruise much more pleasant. Just don't get off your plane in the morning and go to bed - try to stay awake until a 'reasonable' bedtime in your new time zone to avoid jetlag as much as possible. 

 

In both situations I was travelling solo, and perhaps because I'm a public transit user at home, I felt perfectly comfortable riding public transit in both London and Vancouver. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by neeuqdrazil

[laedw]

Some cruise lines have designated hotels that they use.  I travel solo a lot and when I book the cruise I ask for hotel recommendations and usually book a hotel with them.  The hotel also provides shuttle service to the cruise terminal.  I ask the concierge or hotel staff about nearby restaurants and I google nearby sites before going to the hotel.

[eileeshb]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:04 PM, GOQ said:

Thank you all for your useful advise.

 

I am sort of used to getting off the plane, collecting luggage then straight onto a transfer directly to the ship.

I have been doing a bit of "Youtube" both of potential destination cities and of passenger experiences of long haul flights. Taking into account the effects of long haul travelling time and jet lag it I have come to the conclusion it might just be better to have a day or two in a hotel pre-cruise in which to recover.

 

Thanks

For my first cruise I flew in 2 days early as it was a  transatlantic flight and my first time in Miami. There was another Irish first time cruiser and he had booked to fly in the day before the cruise but had flight delays that meant he missed his original connection to Miami and only got to the city about lunchtime so made it to the port with only a couple of hours to spare.

I’ve stuck with flying in 2 days early for cruises involving a transatlantic flight, last time out a bunch of the North American cruisers on the roll call made late adjustments to their flights as they anticipated possible cancellations at their home airport due to storms.  There were a few that wound up driving to their connecting airports. 
Basically I consider possible weather impacts at each airport in my route and add extra cushion accordingly.