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How can you cruise better and cheaper as a solo cruise passenger? I often cruise solo and have 8 tips and things you can do as a single travellers to have a great cruise experience and find ways to do it cheaper. Cruising solo can be costly as most lines charge up to double occupancy rates even for a single occupancy of a cabin. Find out the best lines, where to book, times to go, what to do once on board and other tips I have discovered on my cruising journey to date.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 75 cruises at time of recording this.
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how can you travel as a solo traveler
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cheaper better and on the best cruise
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lines hi I'm Gary beverage this is
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another of my tips for travelers I often
0:09
cruise solo and I have learned hollow
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tips and tricks about how to cruise solo
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that I want to share with you right now
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starting with this one I often get asked
0:21
what are the best cruise lines to go on
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as a solo traveler well there's a couple
0:26
of buckets that I think you should look
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at first of all what I think are the
0:29
absolute best cruise lines for solo
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travelers well the absolute best are
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probably to cruise lines one of which is
0:37
the Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian
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Cruise Line on their bigger ships and
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their newer ships have created a whole
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solo traveler area now these are all
0:44
inside cabins so if you're not King on
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inside cabins this may not be for you
0:48
but they have a whole area it's card
0:50
protected so only solo travelers with
0:52
the card can get into the area you have
0:54
all these individual studio cabins and
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then they have a lounge where you have
0:59
seating area you have tea coffee snacks
1:02
they often have white boards and boards
1:04
where you can start to post things to
1:06
5:00 you would go on excursions so
1:07
Norwegian are really focusing on the
1:09
solo traveler big time the other cruise
1:12
line that looks after solo travelers
1:13
phenomenally well
1:14
is really catering for the 50-plus
1:16
travelers so saga cruises their new
1:19
ships saga spirit of adventure saga
1:21
spirit of discovery they have twenty
1:24
percent one hundred and nine cabins
1:26
onboard our solo cabins all of the
1:29
cabins have a balcony and you can get
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various grades you even get up to a
1:34
suite as a solid cabinet also onboard
1:35
they have specific events for solo
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travelers
1:38
so if example they have cocktail parties
1:40
for solo travelers and they have a meet
1:42
up every day knowing in the morning
1:43
afternoon when the ship is in port so
1:46
solar trams can get together and decide
1:47
to go off and do excursions together or
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explore together so those are probably
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the two absolute best cruise lines with
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seller traders because they really focus
1:55
on it then there's a second bucket which
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are cruise lines which are catering for
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solo travelers by having solo traveler
2:00
cabins most of the major cruise lines
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now have solar cabins on their newer
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ships the one big exception selling the
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time of recording is the biggest cruise
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line in the world which is Carnival
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Cruises currently don't have solo cabins
2:12
on their ships and they have about 40 50
2:15
% of all cruise passengers go on a
2:17
Carnival ship during the years so
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they're a really big one not to have it
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but all the other lines do so even
2:23
canard
2:23
on the entire fleet of introduced solar
2:25
cabins Royal Caribbean have it on
2:28
America on their new ships have solar
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cabins you'll find many of the big
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cruise lines have solar cabins the other
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big exception alongside Carnival is
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Princess Cruises they are the fourth
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biggest cruise line in the world based
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on passengers and they don't have solar
2:43
cabins either MSC Cruises which is the
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fifth biggest cruise line in the world
2:47
on their big new ships they also have
2:49
solar cabins so you'll find that a lot
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of the big cruise lines do have solar
2:54
cabins all those you've seen not all of
2:56
them the third bucket of those are
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cruise lines that don't have solar
3:00
cabins but do welcome solar travelers on
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board so for example I've been on a
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couple of the ultra-luxury lines on
3:06
different cruises where they haven't had
3:08
solar cabins but what they have done on
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certain cruises during the year is
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they've offered dramatic discounts where
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you only pay perhaps 10% or up to 25
3:16
percent surcharge so I've been on silver
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sea I have been on Seabourn and I've
3:20
been on ponent
3:22
where they do offer those really small
3:24
premium discounts so that's the third
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bucket is cruise lines they don't have
3:28
specific Kevin's catering view but they
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do have big discounts so those are the
3:32
best cruise lines as a solo traveler if
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you want to go cruising my second tip
3:37
around how solo travelers can travel
3:40
cheaper and better and on the best
3:42
cruise lines is to work with a company a
3:44
travel company that really focuses on
3:47
the solo traveler and in the cruiser
3:48
area there are two that I always take a
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look at one of which is more catering to
3:53
the US market and that's vacations to go
3:56
they have a whole section focusing on
3:59
solo travelers what they do is they run
4:01
a whole series of cruises both on
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existing cruises or very specific
4:06
cruises but what they do is they
4:07
guarantee that you will pay the lowest
4:09
price and they will try and match it
4:11
with other seller travelers often to
4:13
share a cabin if possible but they are a
4:15
great place to look at if you're looking
4:17
for solo cruises because they know all
4:19
the best deals at any particular time in
4:21
the UK there's a company called rol
4:23
cruises and they also have
4:26
a real big focus on solo travelers of
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course many other travel companies do
4:31
have a focus on the solo traveler
4:32
because they are growing and creasing
4:34
scoring but that's the second big tip is
4:36
work with a travel company that focuses
4:38
on cruising for the solo traveler my
4:41
third tip of course is to then sign up
4:44
for newsletters for different blogs and
4:46
sites that look at solo traveling more
4:48
generally if there's a couple of really
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good blogs for example solo traveler
4:52
blog.com singles travel in TL comm solos
4:57
holidays doctor at UK my fourth tip as a
5:00
solo traveler there's one that I really
5:02
like to focus on if I am travelling by
5:04
myself and that's to go on smaller ships
5:06
not bigger ships the reason for that is
5:08
smaller ships you have greater chance to
5:10
meet people get to know people people
5:12
are more like to talk to you so it's a
5:14
bit like being in a small town versus a
5:16
big city it's much easier to be
5:18
integrated so I always found on smaller
5:19
ships you don't get lost in the crowd
5:21
and also it's really important because
5:23
the excursions are a little bit smaller
5:25
the events are a little bit smaller and
5:27
people just notice you more unless you
5:29
traveling by yourself and they will
5:30
start to engage with you much more so
5:32
that's a big big tip for me is look at
5:35
smaller ships I think you'll find it a
5:36
massive big difference as a solo troll I
5:39
certainly much prefer solo traveling on
5:41
smaller ships another really important
5:43
tip is choose the time of year you
5:45
cruise as a solo travel I recommend you
5:48
look at slightly out of season so just
5:49
the beginning of the season the end of
5:51
the season so you'll find for example
5:52
you know episode of March April time may
5:55
be heading into June a little bit if
5:58
you're looking at the Mediterranean or
6:00
you look at September October time again
6:02
in Mediterranean and the kind of the
6:03
equivalents for the Caribbean the reason
6:05
for that is you'll find that's when the
6:07
best deals are so even if you're going
6:08
on a cruise line that has a larger
6:10
surcharge the prices overall are not
6:12
going to be as great also you're more
6:14
like these are fine that's when you have
6:16
deals taking place because the cruise
6:18
lines find it harder to fill the ship
6:20
also you're probably going to find
6:21
there's more solar travelers onboard as
6:23
well for that reason so looking at this
6:25
sort of shoulder seasons almost slightly
6:27
out of season is really important as a
6:30
set of traveler for finding the right
6:31
cruises finding the right deals so for
6:33
example I was talking about earlier on
6:34
the big out of luck Alliance I've been
6:36
on I've always done those slightly out
6:38
of season in the beginning or end of the
6:39
season
6:40
because that's when they do those big
6:41
promotions if you are a seller traveler
6:44
and you are looking for company you like
6:47
to travel with someone another thing you
6:49
could do is travel partnering that
6:51
something doesn't appeal to me to share
6:52
a cab with someone that I don't really
6:53
know in fact I don't even like sharing
6:55
cabins with people I do know half the
6:57
time but there are hallways that you can
6:59
meet travel partners one of the way to
7:01
do that is take a look at some of the
7:02
cruise sites because they do have either
7:05
forums or areas where you can actually
7:07
meet people to go on similar cruises
7:10
with and share a cabin some of the ones
7:12
to look at are like cruise mates calm
7:15
cruise trend calm silver surfers calm
7:19
cruise mate finder and meetup comm which
7:22
is more related to the area living in
7:24
their loft and have this was a group
7:26
around solo traveler so there are ways
7:27
that you can find people to share a
7:28
cabin with I have a whole bunch of tips
7:30
around things to do once you're on board
7:33
as a solo traveler first of those really
7:36
really important is use cruise critics
7:38
so go to cruise critic sign up for the
7:40
roll call you'll find there also find
7:42
out if they're going to have a meet and
7:44
greet a mingle session those are really
7:45
great because you can be talking to
7:47
people on your cruise they will know
7:48
that you're traveling solo so you can
7:50
also connect with them if there's not a
7:51
meet-up but a lot of the cruise lines
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there's a cruise critic Meetup where you
7:55
can go to that event you will see this
7:57
other set of travelers you'll get to
7:58
know people and could integrate with
8:00
them so that's a really big big
8:02
important plus the second thing is most
8:05
cruise lines with solo travelers have
8:07
meetup so they'll have a meet-up at the
8:08
beginning often hosted by the cruise
8:10
director not always that's a great
8:12
chance for you to understand who else
8:13
the solo travelers and then you can then
8:15
if you click with them you can then
8:17
arrange to do things with them with
8:18
excursions go to events go to the
8:20
theater whatever it is thirdly get
8:23
involved go to the various activities
8:25
the events the quizzes because that's a
8:27
great way of meeting people so if there
8:28
is a little deck games or quizzes or
8:31
anything that's going on go along there
8:33
you'll start talking to people because
8:35
people on cruises like to talk and it's
8:36
a great way of connecting meeting people
8:38
and hopefully clicking with people that
8:40
you're going to get on with another
8:42
really good thing to do once you get on
8:44
board is make friends with the cruise
8:46
director or people in the entertainment
8:47
team now they will often host the solo
8:50
get-togethers but even if they don't if
8:52
you get to know them
8:54
we'll also help connect you with other
8:55
solo travelers but also they'll keep an
8:57
eye out for you so if you come into the
8:59
vent there always make sure you can get
9:00
partnered up or whatever they are a solo
9:02
travelers best friend
9:03
cruise director and entertainment team
9:05
go on excursions as well because that's
9:08
a great way of someone to talk to people
9:10
until you forgot the same interests and
9:11
I found often I've been on excursions
9:13
people to start talking to you as you're
9:15
going around and I've made some really
9:16
good friends on board through going on
9:19
excursions also importantly is about
9:21
eating the hardest thing about a set of
9:23
travelers actually the evening meal
9:24
because it's such a big deal couple of
9:27
things I would recommend is actually go
9:29
for anytime dining as opposed to the
9:31
fixed time dining the reason for that is
9:33
when you're going into time dining you
9:35
arrive there and say you want to be
9:37
seated at a table with other people that
9:39
way you get to meet loads of different
9:41
people and again you might connect with
9:42
them if you're on a fixed dining table
9:44
you're always going to be the same
9:46
people and so you're not gonna get to
9:47
meet as many people so anytime dining
9:49
asked to serve other people is a really
9:52
big plus I've done that a lot on solo
9:54
cruising I'm not the most sociable
9:55
person on a cruise and I find that a
9:57
good way of actually getting to meet
9:58
people and talking to them solar
10:00
travelling is becoming a huge huge trend
10:03
and hopefully these tips and things I've
10:05
learned have helped you I've loads more
10:07
advice and tips about cruising in my
10:10
videos so why don't you watch another
10:11
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