adaymerced

I'm really interested in sailing in one of NCL's ships with the studio, but as a larger man, I have a bit of trepidation about the size of the shower.

For folks who have gone, how big are the showers, and if they are fairly small, does anyone know if the gym has showers that I might use as an alternative?

Booking online for a solo can be a bit confusing as it's set up to default to double occupancy. For most sites I've booked on you have to manually enter that you only want one person in your cabin and that should take care of it. Depending on the site it's not always obvious where to do this and occasionally you have to really search out the option, but it's always there. Usually under how many people in your cabin.

Unfortunately, I'm not travelling on this voyage. But might I recommend also posting on the Roll Call thread for your cruise. I have really good luck connecting with folks on that one.

I'm sailing on the NCL Epic next March. I've sailed on RCL and Carnival previously, but never on NCL with Freestyle Dining.

I'm sailing in one of the Studio's and wanted to keep my schedule flexible in case I connect with some of the other solo's and meet folks to go to Dinner with. But I also want to explore the specialty dining restaurants (whether as a solo or with others).

They have an ultimate dining package, which gives you one of the restaurants every night, but I wasn't sure how flexible it would be around changing plans if I meet someone and want to change to a different restaurant during the voyage.

Has anyone done the Ultimate Dining Package before and can give some details?:)

I took my first solo cruise when I was 30 so I know the experience you're talking about. I do think you'll likely meet folks in the Studio Lounge to have dinner with and at the singles meetup. My experience with the singles meetup was that it was mostly folks who were a lot older than I was at the time, but I just put it out of my mind and met some great people.

I've done a lot of solo cruising, and what I find is that if you leave yourself open to it, it's pretty easy to connect with people for activities/meals/etc. if you want. Also, when people travel in a large group, they tend to not mind if you tag along. I've been "adopted" by multiple families on cruises. I've had the situation that, as a solo, I had to be careful not to offend a group I had connected with because I had multiple invitations to dine on the same night.

I had to make peace with the awkward questions, but it's usually just when you first meet someone and the question doesn't continue to come up throughout the cruise. Once people kind of know you're travelling solo they'll internalize it. But there's not really a successful way that I've found to forego the initial awkwardness other than to keep in mind it's only awkward if you see it that way. Other's might be awkward about you travelling solo, but there's no need for you to be.

The other thing I've found useful is to develop connections with multiple "groups" that way you always have an out if you're feeling uncomfortable or just need some solo time.

Hope it's all helpful. I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Always call and ask

Money is Money and I am sure NCl has more than you (nothing personal)

LOL! I think it's safe to say NCL has more money than I do. I don't take that personal. I wish I had enough money to make it personal!

I booked in a Studio on the NCL Getaway for my birthday in August last year. Since then I've moved and started a new job and a half dozen other things. After the move I discovered that the travel date wouldn't work anymore. To be honest I completely forgot to call Expedia (who I booked through) to change the date until I got the reminder for my final payment.

I was out of town and didn't get back until past the due date (May 19). I called them this morning and rebooked on NCL Epic for next March. No problem so far.

I assumed I might lose the original deposit for missing the final payment deadline. The Expedia agent tried to get NCL to transfer the payment to the new cruise, but they wouldn't go for it and said I had to forfeit it as a penalty for missing the final payment.

I booked the new one and put down a new deposit. The new cruise is under the same booking number.

Here's my question: Do you think it's worth my time to call NCL directly myself to see if they can apply the original deposit to my new reservation? The fault was entirely my own, so I don't plan to call and yell at them for being unfair. I simply figure maybe I'll talk to the right person and through the force of pure niceness see if they can apply it to the cruise. It's about 125 bucks.

It's kind of a question around am I being a jerk for asking for something that I clearly don't deserve or is it simply asking for NCL to do me a favor that they have no actual requirement to grant me?

Thoughts . . .

I'm most definitely male!

Norwegian Getaway on August 2, 2014! I'm 45.

I just booked a birthday cruise in a studio on the NCL Getaway for next August. I've cruised solo a lot before, but not on my birthday.

My birthdays are usually pretty hit or miss as I don't really make plans for myself and friends usually make plans for me if I don't, but they're rarely things that I want to do. I figure being on a ship in the Caribbean will be a nice way to turn 45.

As is my pattern with cruising solo, I put out a note to my friends that I'm planning a cruise next August, and if they'd like to join me they're more than welcome. If they book themselves another cabin, I'd love to have them, but I like having my own space on the ship.

In the past when I've put this out there, more often than not I still end up going solo but occasionally people will join. When I've tried to do a group trip from the start, arranging a common date is always a nightmare and inevitably it ends up not happening.

omgosh! I totally do this. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one!

To be fair, I have gotten into trouble with this one. Particularly when I first start dating a woman.

Her - "Oh, I want to see that!"

Me - "You should. It's great!"

Her - "You saw it without me? Why didn't you ask me to go?"

Me - (sheepish grin and embarassed silence)

Maybe this is why I'm still single?

I love cruising solo, and have done it for 6 of my 9 cruises. That being said, there are moments that are particularly awkward. I'm curious if other folks have similar experiences.

I prefer to be seated at a large table for dinner. I feel a bit like a third wheel sitting at a table for 4 when there's just me and a couple. That can be VERY awkward.

What is really awkward is when you're eating alone, and someone (out of the kindness of their hearts) invites you to join them and you politely decline. Sometimes they don't take no for an answer. I was having a burger at Johnny Rocket's on Freedom of the Seas and on the last chapter of a pretty good book when a family sitting next to me invited me to join them. I was pretty much finished with my meal and just finishing the last few pages of my book, so I said "No, but thank you." and then the Dad and I got into an extraordinarily polite battle of wills. He kept insisting and I kept declining and so forth.

Some folks just can't imagine why someone might want to be alone, even for just an instant, rather than join a family they don't know composed of two tired adults and three sugar filled kids.

As to the shows, I attend a lot of theatre in real life solo, (live and film) so I have over the years grown less self-conscious about this. So much so that I often go see something solo even if I know someone has expressed interest in seeing it with me. But sometimes on the cruise, people really want you to join there group, which is usually fine. But occasionally it's a collection of loud drunks who are interrupting the show and you really don't want to be grouped in with them.

I always feel awkward at the pool or hot tub though. Especially if I forget my sunglasses I feel like kind of a creeper just sitting by the pool alone. I become paranoid that people think I'm there to stare at girls in bikini's. Also similar experiences in the hot tub.

And some excursions are a bit rough to do solo, as they are often built with the idea of having someone help you with things and you get kind of "spotlighted" for being alone.

Do folks have similar experiences?

i was on the epic in january, my first time on ncl. i sailed rcl and carnival several times solo. the living room experience is overblown in my opinion. all it attracted were tea toddlers. after the first night there was no one there except for a few in the morning for coffee. it is a very boring place. rcl, and carnival is a much better line to cruise solo.

Well, while I'm not completely averse to alcohol, I'm not much of a drinker myself. So having a bunch of tea teetotalers there wouldn't be a problem for me.

I'm on the Epic in a Studio the first week of December. Please let us know how you like the Studio.

I've done both Royal Caribbean and Carnival as a solo, but this will be my first time on NCL. I'm actually looking more forward to the Living Room for the Studio just so that I can finally get a sense of what other solo's are on board. While I've never minded traveling solo, it will be nice to be able to identify other solo travelers to compare notes.

Have a blast!

I'm a 42 year old single male, with no kids and never been married.

I've been cruising for about the last ten years. The first cruise I went on I did solo, mostly because the thought that I couldn't had not occurred to me. When you reach my age and you haven't been married yet, most of your travel has been solo, so I kind of stopped noticing a while ago.

I have gone with friends as well. In ten years of cruising, I've been seven or eight times, and about a fourth of the time I've gone with friends or family. I will say, that even when I go with someone else, unless we're dating, I will spring for the solo cabin if I can afford it. I went with two friends once, each of whom I got along with great, but who didn't get along with each other very well. So it was nice to have my own cabin to return to when they started bickering.

Interesting thing about me, I work in Higher Education and last year (2011) I had the opportunity to work as the Assistant Dean of Students for Semester at Sea. So I lived on the M/V Explorer for 4 months as we circumnavigated the globe and visited 14 countries. You would think that would be enough cruising, but I'm booked in one of the solo cabins in NCL epic in December!:)