If you cruise by yourself, you have probably been told to book a solo cabin and call it a day. Cruise veteran Gary Bembridge says that is one of the worst ways to get a great fare, and he has the pricing quirks to back it up. He runs the Tips For Travellers channel and says he avoids paying the same as two people by skipping solo cabins and skipping the cruises that advertise no or low solo supplements.
His reasoning is simple. Cruise lines are less keen on loads of solo travelers because they lose the profitable spending a second person would bring: drinks, specialty dining, excursions, Wi-Fi and the casino. So he uses seven tactics to get around that problem, starting with why solo cabins are not the bargain they appear to be.
Why Solo Cabins Get Pricey
A solo cabin, Bembridge explains, does not automatically mean a great solo fare. It simply means a cabin designed for one person rather than double occupancy. Solo cabins are limited on each ship, and cruise line dynamic pricing raises the fare as each one sells and the number remaining drops. You get the best price when they first go on sale and all are available, but as they sell out the fare keeps rising, often above the price of a regular inside, oceanview or even balcony cabin at double occupancy rates. He says he has seen that a lot recently.
His examples are specific. Holland America is introducing new balcony solo cabins on its Vista and Signature class ships, and when they went on sale on the Oosterdam and Zuiderdam, high demand sent prices rocketing until they cost more than other cabin types. He also often sees Norwegian Cruise Line Inside Solo Studios, a dedicated area for solo cabins, costing more than a regular inside or oceanview cabin at double occupancy rates.
If solo cabins appeal to you, he says, know which ships have them, ask your travel agent or sign up for cruise line newsletters so you are alerted when new itineraries go on sale, and book the moment they do. Then always check the prices of other cabin grades to make sure the solo cabin is actually cheaper.
Book Early, Chase Flash Sales, Or Pick The Slow Weeks
Booking far ahead, when itineraries first come on sale, is one of his favorites. New sailings launch with offers and discounts, and cruise lines have not yet hit the cap on the number of solo travelers they will allow on a sailing. He says lines set a maximum number of solo cabins per sailing, and at launch all are available. He booked a Ponant expedition cruise to the Antarctica Ross Sea on the day it went on sale, with a small 20% solo supplement. Only days later, solo friends tried to book and were told there were no solo slots left.
You can test this yourself, he says. He searched a Celebrity cruise for two people and saw many cabins and grade options. When he changed the search to one person, most of those cabins disappeared and prices soared. At the other extreme, booking very late, around four weeks before sailing, can turn up deals, but he generally avoids it because last-minute flights and pre-stay hotels usually wipe out the savings.
Flash sales are among his most successful tactics. He follows cruise lines on Instagram and Facebook and signs up for newsletters so he catches sales that often run over weekends or major holidays, many bundled with perks like all-inclusive packages or onboard credit. One of his Patreon members, Nancy, messaged him that a flash sale saved her $2,200 on a Japan cruise she already thought was a good deal, and it included $800 of shore excursion credit.
The ones he loves as a solo traveler are the discount-off-second-passenger sales. When he made the video, Celebrity was running 60% off a second passenger and Virgin Voyages 80%, which cuts the solo supplement down to 40% on Celebrity and just 20% on Virgin. He has used 70% off a second passenger on a Celebrity New York to Iceland sailing, and 80% off on a Virgin Brilliant Lady Caribbean cruise later this year.
Sail When The Ship Needs You
Cruise lines also need solo travelers to fill ships in their softest weeks, and Bembridge suggests going deeper than the usual shoulder-season advice of April, May, October and November for the Caribbean and Mediterranean, or May and September for Alaska. He looks at the week right after New Year, the weeks after other major holidays, and early December in the run-up to Christmas, when people are home from Thanksgiving and not yet taking vacation. The first and final sailings in Alaska, the Mediterranean and the Norwegian fjords are also less in demand, and so is the Caribbean during hurricane season.
Repositioning cruises are the second area. These move ships between regions at the start and end of each season, such as the Caribbean to Europe, or Australia back to North America via French Polynesia and Hawaii. Because of the sea days and length they are harder to fill, so even with no solo discount they are often half the usual price per night, which effectively wipes out the solo supplement.
More Ways To Shrink The Solo Supplement
He suggests checking whether your favorite lines have a solo cruise page on their website. Many do, especially luxury lines like Seabourn, Silversea and Crystal, and river lines such as AmaWaterways, Riviera, Avalon and Tauck have selected sailings with low supplements. Riviera even runs a solo-only ship, the MS George Eliot, though he says to compare its price against other sailings. He also searches across consecutive weeks: on a recent Avalon river cruise, looking across two months showed one week was significantly cheaper because most people did not want to travel then.
Value lines can cancel out a hefty solo supplement elsewhere. He names MSC Cruises, Costa, Margaritaville at Sea, Marella and Ambassador in the UK, and regional lines like Celestyal in Greece. He also warns not to focus only on lines famous for solo programs. Norwegian is widely recommended for its solo studios, dedicated lounge and activities, but it can cost more to cover those perks, so weigh how much a solo program matters against price. Older ships generally have lower fares than newer ones; on the same Caribbean itinerary, Royal Caribbean’s new Icon Class ships cost significantly more than its older vessels.
Finally, he says to let someone else hunt for you. Agencies focused on solo travelers, such as VacationsToGo.com, SoloHolidays.com and Passion for Cruises, list sailings with low or no solo supplements. He also describes friends who sail in casino-comped cabins: one, Mary, sails solo up to 25 times a year that way, and now budgets only a few hundred dollars per cruise for gambling, well below the cost of her cruises. Bembridge adds that gambling has risks and should be approached with care.
More Stories You May Like
- Grandma Faced Her Fear of Flying for the First Time in 15 Years and Her Family Cheered Her All the Way Onto the Plane
- Shopper Tracked the Same 20 Groceries at 20 Portland Stores Every Month for 13 Months, and Then WinCo Lost Its Cheapest Store Crown by Just 21 Cents
- Man Shares His Two Cents on American Tipping Culture and Why He Thinks the System Has Gotten Out of Hand
