What is "solo Balcony"

[Asawi]

Ships are sailing more or less full now. This means they don't have to pull people in by taking away solo supplement to the same extent as when starting up post pandemic.

How good a deal the solo rooms are can be a matter of opinion I guess. I have mostly looked at insides They are slightly less than regular insides. but in many cases they are also the least desirable rooms in the category.

[julig22]

7 hours ago, mistertomatoe said:

I am not seeing as many great deals for solo as before. Is it just me? Seems like they are pricing most cruises only slightly below double. 

So this is a cruise I've booked - I booked a regular OV because I wanted to use my points to upgrade - and currently there is a fairly big price difference there ($3098 deck 4 or 5 vs $2099, deck 4). Insides are the same price. And look how the balcony prices out. For an extra $1, you can get a solo balcony, decks 8 & 9, forward only. No choice of cabins in either case, "regular" priced cabins are guaranteed only at the moment. This is the Star, I don't think they have solo studios, so no added benefit to booking solo.

[yakcruiser]

7 hours ago, mistertomatoe said:

I am not seeing as many great deals for solo as before. Is it just me? Seems like they are pricing most cruises only slightly below double. 

It's not just you. They're knocking a $100 or $200 off double occupancy rates but have almost eliminated reduced solo supplements.

[Rnlucas1]

On 10/2/2023 at 3:36 PM, eileeshb said:

That doesn’t sound right.. you shouldn’t be seeing solo rates or cabins unless you specifically selected a single traveller by going into the filters.
also since when does NCL have solo balconies? 
the only scenario I could see where a balcony may be restricted to a single guest is if the part of the ship it is in doesn’t have sufficient lifeboat space for 2 guests due to to 3 or 4 guests in all the other cabins in the area

NCL began booking solo balconies and  oceanview staterooms  in Jan. 2024...

[hallux]

1 hour ago, Rnlucas1 said:

NCL began booking solo balconies and  oceanview staterooms  in Jan. 2024...

and you'll notice people advised of that if you continued past the post you quoted.  Actually - they started booking them prior to that but the first sailings were Jan 2, 2024...

[Rnlucas1]

6 hours ago, hallux said:

and you'll notice people advised of that if you continued past the post you quoted.  Actually - they started booking them prior to that but the first sailings were Jan 2, 2024...

Yes,  the solo  bookings were for cruises beginning in Jan. 2024...

Thanks for your clarification....that is what I meant

[living at the beach]

Solo balconies are not all in poor locations. I have one booked on the March 3rd Breakaway mid ship on deck 12. I had a solo interior on the Viva in January. In each case the price was much less than booking those categories as a single person and I got to get into the solo studio whenever I wanted . Which in addition to being a nice quiet area has a complimentary fantastic cappuccino, espresso, machine and juices, pastries, fruit in the morning. Nice way to get that first cup of coffee without dealing with the crowds 

[kaysha2004]

On 10/2/2023 at 3:49 PM, dbrown84 said:

hmmm, rather than booking a cabin for 2, wonder how many would get 2 solo balconies, if the price works out to be the same?  If nothing else, you'd both then get the $50 excursion credit.  And for those situations where one person is a drinker and the other isn't, you can save on the drink package gratuities for the non-drinker.  Of course, you can both just sleep in one

If there was a thumbs down reaction emoji, I would use it.  Please don't ruin it for genuine solo travelers that have been punished by paying double for balconies.  The solo balconies are only a couple hundred less than balcony pricing for two, so it's still not a great deal for us solos, but it's better than the only choice being a tiny, cramped inside room.

[Rnlucas1]

12 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

If there was a thumbs down reaction emoji, I would use it.  Please don't ruin it for genuine solo travelers that have been punished by paying double for balconies.  The solo balconies are only a couple hundred less than balcony pricing for two, so it's still not a great deal for us solos, but it's better than the only choice being a tiny, cramped inside room.

Actually, on the cruises that I have looked at, many solo balconies are running at $500-600 dollars less than regular balconies. It is a pretty significant difference.....

[mistertomatoe]

4 hours ago, Rnlucas1 said:

Actually, on the cruises that I have looked at, many solo balconies are running at $500-600 dollars less than regular balconies. It is a pretty significant difference.....

 

What does that come out to as far as solo supplement? Less than 150%?

[Rnlucas1]

11 minutes ago, mistertomatoe said:

 

What does that come out to as far as solo supplement? Less than 150%?

Looked at another cruise where there was an $1149 difference between regular balcony and solo balcony on a 7 day NCL Hawiian cruise. The amount also depends on the deal offered such as 50% off second person, length of cruise, date of cruise etc.  I do not know what the percentage is but it seems reasonable to me...May not be reasonable to others.....

[dbrown84]

8 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

If there was a thumbs down reaction emoji, I would use it.  Please don't ruin it for genuine solo travelers that have been punished by paying double for balconies.  The solo balconies are only a couple hundred less than balcony pricing for two, so it's still not a great deal for us solos, but it's better than the only choice being a tiny, cramped inside room.

And if there was a finger up emoji, I would use it.  Not to mention your post making absolutely no sense, probably because you're responding to an old thread so all context is lost 

[kaysha2004]

3 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

And if there was a finger up emoji, I would use it.  Not to mention your post making absolutely no sense, probably because you're responding to an old thread so all context is lost 

My post in #83 includes the text to which I am responding, exactly I'm doing here.  Your post appears above this post.