Traveling Solo on Transatlantic Cruise

[shrifk]

I have cruised Transatlantic several years ago and it was wonderful.  My wife died last January and I am looking at a transatlantic cruise in Oct. 2025.  If there are other solos out there I'd like to hear from you.

[leaveitallbehind]

Very sorry for your loss.  Perhaps if you post this as well on the Celebrity Roll Call board you will get responses from those who sailing on your itinerary.  Search the ships and sailing dates to locate your itinerary from the following link.  If one doesn't exist for your planned sailing date you could start one:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/127-celebrity-roll-calls/

Edited April 15 by leaveitallbehind

[Justpackingmybags]

I did a solo TA last year. Do it! I wasn’t on an X ship, but on Sky Princess heading to Fort Lauderdale for the winter. We had a very active pop choir on board that I joined and really enjoyed. I’m ok with my own company so I was as social or anti social as I wanted to be. The crew really looked after me and I felt really spoiled! 
it’s not easy making the decision to cruise following bereavement, but it’s worth investing in yourself. It gave me time to decompress after 2 weird years. Good luck. 

[Mark+Anne]

So sorry for your loss! My husband died in Nov of 2020 and I have been cruising solo ever since, including four transatlantics. My experience is that there were always quite a lot of solo travellers on each of these cruises, some were widowers/widows, some were leaving their partners at home for various reasons, but one thing all solos had/have in common....... everybody just loves to cruise! The above post from #leaveitallbehind is good advice. Find your roll call for the cruise you are interested in, sign up and you'll connect with other solos. Anne

[D. B.]

My wife and I cruise together a few times a year but she dislikes sea days so I do a TA solo every year.

  You will find others like yourself and will enjoy it.

[Liao]

I do solo TA every year and I love it!

[NutsAboutGolf]

Sorry for your loss; I'm sure she wants you to enjoy life and it sounds like you love cruising.  I'm going to type the following for ANYONE in the OPs situation who desires to be social, the following is NOT directly addressing the OP

 

- On embarkation day, there's a singles meetup

- Try to have as many meals as possible at a shared table at the MDR

- Spend some time with the smokers; most smoking sections are outside

- Conversation DON'Ts, avoid politics/religion/s3x, talking for straight minutes, or endlessly asking questions without answering your questions

- Conversation DOs, while a conversation will generally start with small talk such as where are you from and what do you do for work, those may lead to long conversations but once that's out of the way, a good way to make a connection is to find out what brings a person joy and share what brings you joy.  I'm much more likely to remember the "couple who loves tennis" than the "Nurse and Accountant from Ohio, couple"

[Ellaleah]

10 hours ago, shrifk said:

I have cruised Transatlantic several years ago and it was wonderful.  My wife died last January and I am looking at a transatlantic cruise in Oct. 2025.  If there are other solos out there I'd like to hear from you.

I am booked on the 10/30/25 Eclipse TA departing Barcelona with 3 other women.  We were each able to book individual cabins when the cruise was first offered.  I’m not sure if you consider us solos, but I do.

[ISABELLA]

I would say, you will never know if you will enjoy Solo TA till you try. And then you will decide if this is something you will repeat. I took several TA with my late husband and after with friends and I observed a lot of single people in their  50s-60s cruising.

Have fun and good luck.

[D. B.]

On 4/15/2024 at 10:00 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

Sorry for your loss; I'm sure she wants you to enjoy life and it sounds like you love cruising.  I'm going to type the following for ANYONE in the OPs situation who desires to be social, the following is NOT directly addressing the OP

 

- On embarkation day, there's a singles meetup

- Try to have as many meals as possible at a shared table at the MDR

- Spend some time with the smokers; most smoking sections are outside

- Conversation DON'Ts, avoid politics/religion/s3x, talking for straight minutes, or endlessly asking questions without answering your questions

- Conversation DOs, while a conversation will generally start with small talk such as where are you from and what do you do for work, those may lead to long conversations but once that's out of the way, a good way to make a connection is to find out what brings a person joy and share what brings you joy.  I'm much more likely to remember the "couple who loves tennis" than the "Nurse and Accountant from Ohio, couple"

Spend time with Smokers?

their breath and clothes smell to bad to make that an option.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, D. B. said:

Spend time with Smokers?

their breath and clothes smell to bad to make that an option.

 

The ship is moving, so usually you can sit upwind and one mainly only needs to spend time on the first day.  There will probably be some exposure to smoke.  If one is shy, it's a great opportunity to meet people and could be the lesser of all evils...Like most things, YMMV