Stonegeneral

Little late to the party on this one, and admitedly it was my first and so far only cruise experience....but had a studio cabin for my Nov cruise on Encore last year. The room is super efficient on space and the lounge is a great place to relax, grab a snack or a water/coffee, etc. The waterfront more than makes up for having your own balcony and I regularly took walks or grabbed a drink and sat at one of the waterfront bars to take in the view, you really won't miss having your own private balcony IMO. We had a great group of solo travellers on my cruise and bonded pretty quickly and went to dinners many times together. Some of our group rotated in and out, so if you want to go off and do your own thing, you could still slide back in for another dinner meet-up. I have to say it was a really positive experience and a great introduction to cruising.