Are any cruise lines charging a reasonable single supplement for a single room?
And are any of them out of NYC?
I previously shared witha stranger and want to avoid that again.
Two days ago a friend of Kim's said that she'd be interested in joining us on the NCL Baltic cruise we're booked on for this summer. I called our TA, which specializes in cruises, who checked with NCL. What NCL told them was that they no longer offer single supplements of less than 200%, and that the (cruise only) fare for our friend to join us would actually be $400 more than the fare we're paying for two! And for a cheaper (by one category) stateroom.
Our TA also told us that none of the major cruise lines now routinely offer supplements of 150%, even though I had just read in the April edition of Cruise Travel that they did. I then called both NCL and Carnival to check this out. NCL told me that they are charging the full double fare for all singles, and have been since January. Carnival told me that they offer single supplements only for Category 1A (upper/lower), the lowest fare on all their ships.
It sounds like the days of single supplements (with the possible exception of some of the luxury lines) are pretty much a thing of the past. If anyone can offer any information to the contrary, I'd be interested in your sharing it with us. Thanks.
We are taking my mother in law to Bermuda out of NYC. Her single supplement was only $99. So, there are deals out there.
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Marc
Silver Explorer (17nts) - Antarctica - Jan 12
Seven Seas Mariner (17nts) - Monte Carlo - Rio - Nov 12
Seven Seas Voyager (17nts) - Bangkok - Mumbai - Apr 13
Location: Wisconsin....about 100 miles south of the Frozen Tundra and 70 miles east of Camp Randall
Posts: 9,241
Re: Single Supplement
Check out the website: www.yourowncabin.com You have to subscribe, but it is well worth it for what they offer to single travelers in regards to supplements, etc.
I think the single supplement depends on the type of cruise, the time of year, etc. I don't think most cruise lines set a definite price and stick to it. I have cruised by myself on HAL four times and found their single supplements extremely fair. Alaska in the summer time was about 35% more and that's about the most expensive rate they ever quoted me. However, all these were for lower priced cabins, which is all I can afford anyway. I once ended up on Crystal because their single supplement was less than what Celebrity was charging for a similar cruise (Panama Canal in early December).
I am very leery of sharing a room with a stranger and that is why I would rather pay more and have privacy.
It's remarkable how stated "policies" can suddenly fall by the wayside when cruise lines find themselves facing the prospect of unsold cabins as sailing date approaches. A case in point: I booked a post-Thanksgiving cruise on Carnival Triumph almost a year in advance, to coincide with a family visit to south Florida. For the lowest category stateroom, (which due to Carnival's odd classification system on this type of ship ended up being a roomy outside cabin) I paid about $520 in actual fare, plus $170 in port charges. (The port charges are the same per head on every passenger, whether in the grandest suite or most modest inside.) On the shuttle bus ride back to the airport, I struck up a conversation with another single traveler: he'd booked his cruise just a week in advance-- and his fare was $420, or just 250 bucks once you deduct the port charges that don't go into the cruise line's coffers! (To add insult to injury, he also left their casino ahead nearly two grand for the week!)
In fact, he was triple-lucky-- he also somehow found a cheap last-minute airfare. Most of the time, most or all of the savings derived from making a last-minute cruise booking are eaten up by higher airfares. If there's a cruise port you can easily drive to, you're in a much better position to take advantage of those 11th-hour opportunities.
We will be taking y father in law on our next cruise ( Princess Sapphire out of San Francicso in Oct) and his room rate for an inside, regular room was about 1 1/2 the rate of a single.
Have a great cruise all!!
Single Supplement
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