Are single cruise fares fair?

Whilst checking a cruise price for my family I got side tracked when I saw the price for a single traveller. The cruise I checked was showing £2850pp for a couple or £5699 for a single traveller. That means there is no discount whatsoever for travelling alone. Imho I think that is very unfair. I was wondering what happens when regular cruisers lose their partners, do P&O (or other cruise lines for that matter) treat them as special cases and offer a discount?

If you are travelling in a balcony or lower on P&O or Cunard, you pay a supplement between 40% and 80% on the full fares. What makes it even more unfair is that cruise prices offered by P&O and Cunard include port fees and taxes and in some cases, the air fare. Solo travellers get charged the single supplement on these in many cases - typically the late saver fare or the fly/cruises. Celebrity and Holland America, take any taxes or fees off before adding on the single supplement - not sure if this only applies to non-European cruises as I've only done long haul with them. Also, some offer OBC per cabin rather than per passenger - very annoying when you are paying double and only get OBC for one.

Even when solo cabins are available, these do not offer much of a saving over a standard cabin with supplement added.

Over the last 15 years or so, I've seen the single supplement go from 20% to a more typical 60% on P&O (75% on Cunard) but both still are offering this sort of supplement on the early saver fares unlike a few years ago when solo travellers were not allowed to book an early saver.

The pricing for single cruisers on PandO is very variable and seems to depend on how sales for a particular cruise is going.

Most of the time there is no discount on saver fares but I have just booked (in Dec 16) a select fare in a HA balcony grade for £1679. Cruise departs March 7th on Ventura for 14 nights.

The price for two people was approx £2600 so I felt that was quite a saving

But looking today the price for one is £2468 while for two its £2598. (HF)

You just have to keep checking prices

I've just booked for me and my husband and our son (27) ,,he wanted to come to Norway,,and I was quite shocked at the price for him. I've booked him a balcony cabin the same grade as ours but even so the single supplement they put on the basic price made me gulp! It's about £550:mad:,,that's the bar bill! We've treated him cos he's a hard working teacher who's just bought his first house so he's skint now! Our daughter doesn't want to come but it would almost have been cheaper to book 2 people in his cabin. T'aint right,,t'aint fair,,t'aint proper,,but there's nothing I can do about it. From their point of view they are losing out on a paying passenger in the other bed in the cabin.

Fair to whom?

the cruise lines would think it is fair to them or otherwise they would not offer single fares. Actually some don't, you pay 100% supplement!. P&O offers range upwards from 40% depending on the popularity of the cruise and my 'other' cruiseline has supplements of around 40%, however once the designated single cabins are booked you have to pay 100%. I presume P&O do the same but as they normally don't designate double cabins as singles there must be a hidden limit for each ship/cruise. Also, not all single cabin occupiers are solo cruisers, some will be part of a larger party and pricing has to be low enough to deter those larger partied form booking elsewhere?

With increasing numbers of people in a single situation I think there is a large potential market out there for the cruise line that manages to make money out of it. Cruising is a good holiday choice for solo travellers.

The travel industry in general seems tough on single travellers. Not just cruise lines, certainly not just P&O.

Davecttr's last paragraph rings true to me. There must be a huge potential market

As a single person who always cruises on his own, I do find single supplements very annoying. P&O ships have very few cabins designated as singles, and even if I get one of those rather than a twin cabin a single supplement of about 60-70% seems typical. I suppose from P&O's point of view, if a solo traveller is in a cabin that they could have sold for double occupancy, then their revenue is reduced.

I've noticed that some other cruise lines do now seem to be making a greater effort to appeal to solo travellers, with more single cabins and some "no single supplement" offers. Maybe that's a sign that they are struggling to fill their ships, and would rather have one person in a twin cabin than leave it empty. P&O don't yet seem to be making much of an effort to woo the solo traveller, though. Perhaps it's because they are doing good enough business not to need to?

We are in the same boat (no pun intended), my son is 24 and he has a balcony cabin all to himself, but he does pay towards it, he has offered to have an inside one but like your son, he works hard and we only have one holiday a year. What would be nice is for ships to have some single balcony cabins next to double balcony cabins. I know ships have single balcony cabins now but I expect they get booked very early and there is clearly a market for the single/solo traveler and for the cabins to be situated in a good deck position.

Also single/solo passengers only eat their portion of food, sit in one seat for the entertainment and in my sons case his cabin is kept spotlessly clean.

What I hate is that the single cabins are nearly all inside or outside, so I end up paying a huge amount for a balcony. Actually if I've got to pay more, I'd rather have a double cabin to myself and loads of room! But yesterday I realised that it might be cheaper to pay for my friend and ask her to contribute what she could afford..

Fred Olsen frequently do outside cabins at no single supplement. When we travel with our single friend, she goes for that deal and we usually take an inside cabin. Pretty good deal. Don't know why the other cruiselines don't do it.

I lost my husband when I was 48, not young, but young enough. We enjoyed cruising and I have continued to cruise ever since. I work and choose this type of holiday more often than not as it is a very safe environment for a woman on her own. I have used a few different cruise lines and they tend to be all the same regarding single person prices. One year I took my niece as the difference between 1 or 2 passengers was only £100. I have had a single cabin, only once, but find that the locations are not where I would choose to be on the ship. I carefully look at the options with my travel agent when looking to book and go with a cabin at a price I am happy to pay. On the other side of this, as a single traveller I find I get well looked after in all the bars, restaurants and the staff really make the holiday. I don't get involved in any of the solo traveller things as I find most people are happy to talk to you even if you are travelling alone. I don't mind paying a fair price, but removing the cost of the food/port charges etc. does not seem to be done on each occasion.

I think it's unfair to charge so much extra for a single cabin after all the solo traveller doesn't eat as much as two or cause as much work for the staff to deal with

Sent from my iPad using Forums

The deal on Fred is for a double cabin - no single supplement. Its only available when cruises are first launched for a couple of months. That's why we book early. Having said that, we have also had some good deals on P&O for our friend. Inside cabin and paying 80% often works OK at the beginning when the discounts are available. I think this coming September she has paid £120 per night for a 17 day cruise. Normally it would be £150 or more.