Cruising solo & last minute fare

[Shalie]

Hello,

 

My brother is considering joining Colin and I on our cruise - Dec. 11th on Pearl. He would be a single traveler. He can afford the fare for one person, but it appears NCL doubles it if a person is traveling solo. Will they still enforce this if he books at the last minute?

 

Regards,

Shalie

:)

[inlinesick]

cruise tend to be more expensive at the last minute, as for the fare well you double it minus the taxes.

[ColinIllinois]

Hello,

 

My brother is considering joining Colin and I on our cruise - Dec. 11th on Pearl. He would be a single traveler. He can afford the fare for one person, but it appears NCL doubles it if a person is traveling solo. Will they still enforce this if he books at the last minute?

 

Regards,

Shalie

:)

 

 

Yes.

 

With the exception of the Epic Studio cabins the solo traveler gets hit with the single supplement.

[MeHeartCruising]

Yep, unfortunately. I've traveled solo a few times on NCL and never saw a break given to me. I also keep my eyes open for last minute (within the next 30 days) good deals, but have never seen them give a reduced price for the solo supplement. Some other cruise lines will do that, but I haven't found NCL deals yet. This past summer on Royal Caribbean, I was able to find a last minute Mediterranean cruise that only charged me about 1.5x the price instead of 2x. Unfortunately, I don't think NCL does that.

[TravlGrl]

I have seen the "no solo supplement" fare for VERY last-minute cruises...like cruises departing in a few days. I've seen it for Bermuda cruises in September, but being that I'm not a solo traveler, I don't notice a lot of those sales, but that is one that I specifically recall. It's probably not a safe bet to count on it happening.

[PDXing]

I'm wondering what would happen if one were to actually call NCL at the "last moment," especially during their "down" seasons (fall, early winter, etc.) when they might have fewer customers, and specifically ask if the ship is full...if not, it wouldn't hurt to ask for a cheaper single/solo rate, even for one of those inside windowless cabins. You have nothing to lose, everything to gain...you may actually talk to a representative who understands good customer service...who understands that a vacant cabin is money lost for the company...and may be empowered to give you some kind of a bargain! The key might be to ignore the posted prices and actually talk to someone on the phone. If the representative says "no," try again in a day or two, talk to someone else. I'm thinking that it's such a good idea that I'm going to give it a try myself sometime in the future.

[cynbar]

I've read that every cruise has a figure for how low they will go per cabin on a certain cruise, and that's it. Unfortunately, it's been true for a long time that singles pay double (or, another way to look at it, the full price of the cabin which is usually divided in half for marketing purposes.) Occasionally, you see a slightly lower rate, but I have never heard of a cruise line totally waiving the single supplement. You can always try, of course, but don't encourage your brother to get his hopes up. It seems to be a myth that cruise lines will take anything just to fill a cabin --- probably because they feel many people would try for last minute, bargain basement fares if they were easy to get.

[Cruise-Crazy]

Carnival is the only place that has dropped the double fare for me going as a single. I have done the three day to Nassau for $99 a couple of times.

[elbodans]

first, please note: this may have been a fluke and will never happen again but...I sailed solo on the Gem NYC to Bermuda two weeks ago and did not pay double. in fact, i only paid $20 more than the lowest advertised price (for an inside cabin). I called (twice) and was quoted double (twice) and then continued to look online--up to three times per day. I did eventually find it with no supplement--online. I checked in the morning and it was double and checked in the afternoon and it wasn't (so it DOES happen on NCL--promise. I have the credit card bill to prove it.) But it may never happen again. So don't count on it. Which makes me sad because damn, that was a great deal! It also makes me sad because I now LOVE cruising (and NCL) yet I'll likely never have anyone to cruise with (my husband is a teacher and can only travel for six weeks in the summer when everything is hot, crowded, and expensive!)

 

Honestly, I feel as though one's best bet for dealing with the single supplement is to wait for a fare that's so great it's ok to double it. Multiple times on my Bermuda cruise I thought 'would this be worth having paid double?' and the answer was always YES!

 

EDIT: In my above story, you should note that I booked at only 9 days out. I live in the NYC area (ish) and thus did not need airfare, which is what made this do-able for me.

[Cruise-Crazy]

first, please note: this may have been a fluke and will never happen again but...I sailed solo on the Gem NYC to Bermuda two weeks ago and did not pay double. in fact, i only paid $20 more than the lowest advertised price (for an inside cabin). I called (twice) and was quoted double (twice) and then continued to look online--up to three times per day. I did eventually find it with no supplement--online. I checked in the morning and it was double and checked in the afternoon and it wasn't (so it DOES happen on NCL--promise. I have the credit card bill to prove it.) But it may never happen again. So don't count on it. Which makes me sad because damn, that was a great deal! It also makes me sad because I now LOVE cruising (and NCL) yet I'll likely never have anyone to cruise with (my husband is a teacher and can only travel for six weeks in the summer when everything is hot, crowded, and expensive!)

 

Honestly, I feel as though one's best bet for dealing with the single supplement is to wait for a fare that's so great it's ok to double it. Multiple times on my Bermuda cruise I thought 'would this be worth having paid double?' and the answer was always YES!

 

EDIT: In my above story, you should note that I booked at only 9 days out. I live in the NYC area (ish) and thus did not need airfare, which is what made this do-able for me.

 

Nice deal. :D

[tel2]

HI! We have a good friend who is recently divorced. He has cruised with us a couple of times since his separation. He is pretty aggressive, and annoyingly insistent, but when we are all going to book last minute, he searches out cruises that are close in time but appear to have alot of availability, and then he calls ncl directly and tried to make a deal. Always on something less than 30 days out. In every case, he has gotten a very very good deal. Always more than the price it would be per person double occupancy, but always far less than double.

[time2cruise1]

NCL does from time to time drop the supplement on select cruises. I booked a balcony on the Gem transatlantic for $599, $499 for the sun western. The biggest risk to NCl is people taking advantage of the promotion. On the Gem TA many couples just booked 2 adjoining cabins for the price of of one.

 

I think a 150% rate would be a fair answer and remove the abuse.

 

 

I did read NCL was selling ocean view cabins for the Breakaway TA with no supplement.

[che5904]

The biggest risk to NCl is people taking advantage of the promotion. On the Gem TA many couples just booked 2 adjoining cabins for the price of of one.

.

 

I would never have thought of that. Makes sense thought, gave them more room.

[MeHeartCruising]

My "too-good-to-be-true" story was this summer on a Mediterranean cruise I purchased with Royal Caribbean. I booked it about 20 days prior to sailing and was able to get a 6-person family ocean view (facing the front of the ship) cabin for a really great price. Oddly enough, their website would not let me book into a balcony cabin at all, even if I wanted to pay the full single supplement. So I was a solo traveler in a cabin built for 6 with 2 nice big windows looking out the front of the ship. All for about $1750 for 12 nights.

[PDXing]

HI! We have a good friend who is recently divorced. He has cruised with us a couple of times since his separation. He is pretty aggressive, and annoyingly insistent, but when we are all going to book last minute, he searches out cruises that are close in time but appear to have alot of availability, and then he calls ncl directly and tried to make a deal. Always on something less than 30 days out. In every case, he has gotten a very very good deal. Always more than the price it would be per person double occupancy, but always far less than double.

 

 

I am really liking the whole idea of this!! I think, when dealing with any kind of customer service (or customer no-service) especially involving a commodity like a room that might go empty on a ship, it takes "gentle/mannerly/persuasive" persistence...quite possibly the kind of thing that could never be done through a website or emails, but with phone calls, maybe a few of them. Eventually you may get that customer service representative who is truly empowered to give a better rate to a solo traveler. I have to admit that I've never tried any of this myself "yet," but I'm going to stretch my wings on this and give it a go sometime down the road. I'll report back! I'm hoping that there will be more responses on this...anyone else who has had some success with snagging that lower price as a solo traveler !

[Bars7816]

And just think if you turn out to be a total lush, you can drop a few hundred dollars in NCL's coffers by frequenting the many many bars on ship!:D Everyone wins!!

[PictureChris]

Booked the Sun 3 days ago for the 11/26/11 sailing, no single supplement whatsoever. OV for 514 total with a 75OBC via expedia.

 

Same price was available on the NCL site w/o the OBC.

[Lancer1568]

Hello,

 

My brother is considering joining Colin and I on our cruise - Dec. 11th on Pearl. He would be a single traveler. He can afford the fare for one person, but it appears NCL doubles it if a person is traveling solo. Will they still enforce this if he books at the last minute?

 

Regards,

Shalie

:)

A good many of the Spirit sailings out of New Orleans lately have been offered with NO single supplement at all. Also saw same thing on Gem and Jewel sailings to Bermuda in October. Just keep going online and try to book for one person and sometimes it will just quote the regular rate. Usually you will not see this until 3 to 4 weeks prior to sailing unless ship is really lightly booked.

[dtiger]

My boyfriend went on the Dawn 2 weeks ago to Bermuda with no single supplement but I only booked his on a Wednesday and he went on the cruise that Friday. I'd looked a week before and they were still charging double for the cabin so it was very last minute.