Michael1973

The ship was the Carnival Glory. The group was just over 100 people. I'm told that's fairly small for a singles group, but I'm in the category that prefers smaller groups.

We did have a meet & greet event, though it was not indicated to be mandatory. But it was here that I first ran into the loud music. As noted above, for me loud music is fine if it's a rock concert or a dance club, but this was where I should have been making connections with the other group members and it made me uncomfortable not being able to hear anything.

Regarding the hosts, it's not that they weren't outgoing, just poorly organized. In a few cases, the ship did not provide them everything they needed, but in other cases they just seemed clueless as to how the activities should be run, which to me took some of the fun out of it.

Regarding the group members, it seemed like 90% of the men were traveling solo, while more like 70% of the women came with friends. And there were some people who I hardly saw at any of the activities. It just made me wonder why they'd book with a group if the plan was to hang out with their friends most of the time.

That's just one person's experience. Thanks for sharing your insights.

I recently returned from my first singles cruise group and had mixed feelings about it. And it seemed like several people in my group felt that previous experiences were better, so I'm now curious to hear from others on the subject. Overall, I liked the idea of being with a group and having our own private activities. However, there were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way.

First, the group as a whole didn't seem to bond very well. Some people did, but many others (especially the women) seemed to form small cliques and spend most of their time together, in some cases staying away from many hosted activities. Someone in my group said previous groups spend lots of time together as a unit. I'd have preferred more of that.

Second, there were a few hosted parties where they had loud music blasting. I don't do well in social situations where I have to strain to hear people talking. And if the whole point is to mingle and meet people, then the whole experience is lost on me.

Third, I felt at times like our group hosts had no idea what they were doing. They were very nice people, welcoming and easy to talk to, but many of the events seemed extremely disorganized. One of the hosts seemed to be constantly checking with the other as to what was going on. If I were hosting a large group of people, I would make it a point to know everything in advance.

I would like to do this again someday, and based on conversations I had within my group, it sounds like I could have a better experience, but could people weigh in on this?

Thanks for this information. I'm guessing that the Halloween cruises have themed activities? I'm not really into that, but that wouldn't deter me from trying it. Can you tell me what sorts of on-board activities they had, Halloween related and otherwise?

Another thing that's making it hard to decide is the itinerary. The summer cruise makes 4 stops, one of them being a place I've already been to twice. Whereas the fall cruise only makes 3, and again one is a repeat location for me. But I really can't get excited about going to the Caribbean in the summer. I'm in the northeast, and we only get about 5 months of really good weather here. So why would I want to be away during any of it?

I'm still weighing my options. But I'm feeling better about the all ages options now. Thanks again.

I'm giving some thought to trying a singles cruise in the near future, but I'm going a little crazy trying to determine the best one. There are many things to consider, among them the time frame and the average age range of the other travelers.

First, can someone confirm for me that an "all ages" cruise tends to be mostly ages 50+? I saw that somewhere on this board. I'll be 42 this year, and would prefer not to be the youngest person in the group. This of course will limit my options considerably.

I'm also wondering about the time frame. I'm leaning towards doing something in the Caribbean. I found one with an itinerary that I liked, but it's in August and I can't see doing a tropical vacation when it's warm and sunny at home. At the same time, next winter seems like an eternity away!

My problem is, I feel like I'm being too picky, but I want to get the maximum enjoyment out of the experience. The idea of the singles cruise is very appealing to me, but it seems like each one I look at has at least one thing about it that I don't like.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

It appears I've violated some of the forum rules with my post above. Being new here, I was unaware and I apologize. I will start a new thread, as I have a better idea of what I want to ask at this time.

I'm looking into the possibility of doing a singles cruise. I want to make sure I consider all my options before booking anything. To date, I've only managed to find two websites that specifically focus on singles cruises, as opposed to ones that lists all cruises imaginable. The sites are singlescruise.com and *************.com. Each has a pretty good selection, but I'm extremely picky as to what I want, and would like to know if there any other sites I could look at. The search engine on this site has "singles cruises" as an option, but doesn't actually work when you select it.

The thing is, I'd been hoping to try it this year, but the best options (based on my criteria) seem to be after New Year's, which seems like an eternity. I am willing to wait that long, but again I want to make sure I'm not overlooking any other options either.

Thanks,

Michael