Solo Cruises

As solo cruising has grown in popularity lately, you will find more other solo travelers on your ship than ever before. On many of the types of cruises offered by Panache Cruises, you’ll find smaller ships with a more intimate and friendly atmosphere, this means that you are likely to meet friends who might be part of a group or a couple too.

You will find a variety of people who are taking their own solo cruise. Some you will find are happily married, having left their spouse at home. Perhaps it’s been on the individual’s bucket list to take a solo vacation or solo cruise and they want to tick it off. Health problems might limit travel for one half of a couple or perhaps a cruise has only ever appealed to one of them. For some people, those who might be single by choice, divorced or even widowed, a vacation alone might be the only way you get to go away or see the world. So in that instance, a singles cruise can be perfect.

This will depend on what cruise line you choose and even what stateroom type you choose for your solo cruise. In the case on many river cruise ships, they actually offer cabins specifically designed for those on solo cruises and these will be a little smaller than a standard cabin for two. Steps are taken to try to ensure that guests don’t have to pay the full fare of two guests in order to secure a suite suitable for a solo cruise.

There are measures in place that can help you to avoid dining alone if you would rather eat in company so you need not let it put you off going on solo cruises. Many of the more luxury cruise lines allow for open seating across all the dining rooms so you will not be allocated to a set table to eat with the same guests every night. Instead, you can ask the maître d’ at the entrance to seat you with others who are open to it and who might also be travelling alone.

With a full range of activities available on board, from quizzes to cards, to lectures to gym classes, you can get as involved in these as you like. You will have the ability to join or share tables at dinner and with different events which introduce you to others, you’ll never feel lonely.

You can be safe in the knowledge that cruise vacations are quite simply some of the safest in the world. Being in such a confined space means that criminal activity is less likely as the culprit will still be on board the ship, making it much easier to be caught! When it comes to your time ashore, the excursions will be extremely well planned out and organised so that you are safe. Transport will be provided to and from the ship and in many cases, you’ll find they are fully guided.

You can opt for one of the single occupancy staterooms on a river ship – there are a limited number available on several of the cruise ships so you pay purely for yourself. If you can’t secure one of these, you will have to go in a stateroom designed for two people and the cruise line could end up charging you more for this. Some of the cruise lines offer reduced single supplements to make the price more favorable to guests travelling alone.

‘No single supplements’, ‘zero solo supplements’ and similar phrases all mean that there are no additional charges for booking a double occupancy cabin as a solo traveler. Many cruise lines charge for double occupancy no matter how many people are in the cabin. Others add a percentage to the rate so you might pay 150% (1.5 people) for a double occupancy cabin. However, some cruise lines offer reduced or no single supplements to make the price more favorable to guests travelling alone.