World Cruises

[mhdubgal3645]

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

[Host Kat]

10 hours ago, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

 

Hello @mhdubgal3645 and welcome to the Cruise Critic message board!

 

To help you your new topic posted on an incorrect forum has been moved to the World Cruising forum where it will be on topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed world cruises frequent this forum and provide feedback here. It is a forum for world and extended length cruisers to share advice and experiences. Browse through the thread titles on this forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

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[At7Seas]

I am afraid the answer is yes, a single supplement is standard. Just the percentage varies massively. Some cruise lines even show available cabins for double occupation, while they say “sold out” as soon as you switch to single. It all depends on the policy of the cruise line and whether the ship is booked full or not. For my own booked world cruise I have to pay about 50% supplement, but short before it became fully booked it was 100% for new bookings. And I got quotes with much above 100% supplement as well.
 
Single cabins are very rare. During my own research for my world cruise I didn’t see any offer. I was only once at all in a single cabin when I booked last minute and got a cabin designed for wheelchair use, a normal sized cabin with just one bed at one side and a really huge bathroom. Even on NCL Epic, famous for their single studios, I decided to book a double cabin, simply because I got a better cabin at a lower price. Of course this doesn’t matter in this context, since NCL does not offer world cruises at all.

[Heidi13]

21 hours ago, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

For single cabins on a World Cruise, I suggest checking out Fred Olsen Lines. Before COVID they used to have single cabins on at least some of their ships. They have sold a couple of the older ships, so not aware what is currently available.

 

They operate out of UK and at least pre-COVID, had 1 ship that completed a World Cruise.

[At7Seas]

26 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

Fred Olsen Lines... used to have single cabins on at least some of their ships.

 

Well, right now the Bolearis will sail the world cruise. I trapped into the strange use of the word single by Fred Olson. If you select single it is not a cabin with one single bed as I thought, but they show cabins with two separate – or as they say single - beds, which I would call a twin cabin - but who am I? Of course you only see that as soon as you try to figure out the price for a single. Worse I regard the high single supplement they charge.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, At7Seas said:

 

Well, right now the Bolearis will sail the world cruise. I trapped into the strange use of the word single by Fred Olson. If you select single it is not a cabin with one single bed as I thought, but they show cabins with two separate – or as they say single - beds, which I would call a twin cabin - but who am I? Of course you only see that as soon as you try to figure out the price for a single. Worse I regard the high single supplement they charge.

 

Unfortunately, that ship is new to Fred Olsen, being an old Holland America ship they sold during COVID. I doubt it had any single cabins when operated by HAL, which is why you aren't finding any single cabins..

[mandymay]

On 10/19/2023 at 7:16 PM, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

So...............................

You need to bring your retirement forward to Jan 11th 2024 & book Seabourn Sojourns World Cruise(145 nights) in 2 halves, which brings the price down to under $55,000,solo.

[SargassoPirate]

On 10/19/2023 at 2:16 PM, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

I did a moderate amount of research before booking a WC for 2021.  You can figure out how that one went. After at least one more try,  I finally got one booked that is a go for 2024.

 

Conventional wisdom is never book a WC on a line on which you have not sailed previously. 

 

I often sail solo and just bite the bullet on the double fare, but I offset that by booking an inside, which I call Luxury Inside Suite.  I'm hardly ever in the cabin, and once I step out I'm on the same ship as those who paid a lot more.

 

Some cruise lines offer free laundry to their upper tier loyalty members, but in the mass market, I believe Princess is the only line that offers guest laundromats where you can take care of your own laundry needs.  Important for a long cruise.

 

WCs are by their nature expensive, but my upcoming WC ended up at just over $36K, solo inside, 111days. 

 

Good luck on your WC.  Half the fun is planning.

 

Also, as you retire, start a written bucket list and keep adding to it.

[At7Seas]

Since we are comparing prices now, my 2024 world cruise of 127 days I got for 21,367 € including all taxes, insurance, a transfer, beverage package, and 15 shore excursions. As I mentioned before the single supplement was relatively low. No need to retire earlier than planned, because it is fully booked since long.
 
But I agree with SargassoPirate in many things. I also go for a Luxury Inside Suite (nice expression), I sleep in my cabin, use the bathroom and it is the storage for my belongings. I am definitely not staying long times of the day there. My balcony is nearly 30 meters wide, has a bar, a pool, and it’s just two decks above…
 
Regarding laundry I want to add that there are also packages on several lines, I will get everything back washed, ironed, and folded for 80 Eurocent per piece, that price doesn’t really cause sleepless nights and you can hardly beat the convenience.
 
And yes, use a cruise line you already know or simply go and try them on a shorter cruise before booking the world cruise! Things tend to work differently to different people. There is a generally quite good reviewed cruise line for example that didn’t do anything really wrong, but was to me so terrible unimpressive and uninspired in every detail that they would need a unique itinerary to make me going with them again. Besides, I’ll do my world cruise with a line that is cracked down a lot, most commonly reported problem is that they serve mineral water instead of tap water in the MDR. But I think I will survive that again.

 

[sleepingcat]

On 10/19/2023 at 7:16 PM, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

Fred Olsen out of the UK has already been mentioned.  P and O UK (its part of Carnival ) also does world cruises and they use their smaller ships Arcadia and Aurora which are not new but still really nice.  We ve done half a worldie on Arcadia and loved it. Not sure about single cabins, but we met quite a few solo travellers on our RWC. 

[BVILady]

There is a website which lists the % of single-supplement (sorry not allowed to post the link here). It looks like for 2025, HAL, P & O and MSC have the lowest percentage rate currently, but remember with increasing demand the Percentage will go up. I do cruise with Costa a lot but their single-supplement for the 2025 World Cruise has reached 100 % now (at least for the US-market this website is catering to). I had gotten a great rate with Costa for 2023 and 2024 World Cruise. Better luck for 2026 as soon as they are posted. But check the ratio sea-days/port days and I am always most concerned whether the itinerary is what I am looking for. There are a few which look like the single-supplement is a low percentage (75 - 76 %)  but the price is well over $ 100.000,00 - so out of the question for me.

[At7Seas]

1 hour ago, BVILady said:

I do cruise with Costa a lot but their single-supplement for the 2025 World Cruise has reached 100 % now

 

Yes, Costa world cruises have some own rules indeed. The basic prices are pretty stable, while on short cruises prices tend to go up or down, just based on demand - or lack of demand. Our common 2024 world cruise edition was about a year to sail when it was sold out. And short before the single supplement went also up from 50% to 100%. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2025 cruise will be marked as “sold” as well. Economically pretty easy, if the demand is high enough they prefer to fill the cabins with two guests.