When Norwegian Cruise Line in 2010 debuted the cruise industry's first area dedicated to solo cabins, with a lounge and happy hours for their occupants, it launched a new age for the solo cruiser.
More than 10 years on, the industry is entering what might be the golden age of single-occupancy cruising, with a host of cabin styles and ever-increasing ways for lone cruisers to avoid the dreaded single supplement.
Solo cruisers in the coming years will find more cabins with balconies, a style once almost impossible to find; ocean views; and access to amenities like butler service.
New cruise ships with single-cruiser cabins
Oceania Cruises last month revealed that its next newbuild, the Vista, set to debut in early 2023, will introduce the line's first solo cabins, and they will have balconies. Those staterooms up the ante not just on amenities but on size: 25sqm. Even among the newest solo cabins, finding one larger than 18.5sqm is difficult.
Lindblad Expeditions' newest ship, the Endurance, will also offer the line's first solo cabins with balconies. Previous ships have had solo cabins, but without balconies.
And two new cruise brands are adding solo cabins to the mix.
Atlas Ocean Voyages says its Solo Suites will be the industry's first with suite amenities, including butler service, when they debut in 2022. Photo Credit: Atlas Ocean Voyages
Atlas Ocean Voyages says that its Solo Suites, to be added to its first ship, the World Navigator, next March, will be the industry's first solo cabins with suite amenities, including butler service.
"With the new Solo Suites ... Atlas is catering to that underserved [solo] traveller," said Atlas president Alberto Aliberti.
Virgin Voyages will also debut with two types of single-traveller staterooms: One an inside cabin category and one with a porthole view.
John Diorio, associate vice president of sales for Virgin, said that research indicated that the brand would attract "a fair amount of solo travellers. Not everyone travels as a couple, and we knew it would be important to provide this offering."
Oceania's senior vice president of sales, Nikki Upshaw, said that the line added the cabins based on feedback from both travel advisors and their clients.
"When designing Vista, we incorporated that feedback into every aspect of the guest experience, including the accommodations," she said.
A rendering of the Studio Lounge that will be featured onboard the Norwegian Prima. The ship debuts in August 2022. Photo Credit: Norwegian Cruise Line
NCL's original solo-cruiser concept
No other line has quite matched Norwegian's revolutionary solo studio complex that launched on the Norwegian Epic. The block of solo cabins grants the occupants access to the Studio Lounge for single travellers to meet and mingle over complimentary happy hours and espresso drinks.
The line now offers the studio area on seven ships, and its newest vessel, the Norwegian Prima, will have it when it debuts in August 2022.
But other lines have jumped on the single-traveller trend over the last decade.
Many of Royal Caribbean International's newest ships have studio staterooms for solo travellers, some with virtual windows and balconies (LED display screens with live images of the sea and ports) and others with 5sqm, open-air balconies.
Cunard Line built single cabins onto the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria and added them to the Queen Mary 2 in 2015, both oceanview and inside. Holland America Line's newest ships — the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and the upcoming Rotterdam — each have 12 singles cabins, all with ocean views.
Source: Travel Weekly