To wonder how the fluffing hell you can 'fall off' a cruise ship?!

[katiefromtheblock]

I mean HOW? Just HOW?

I am an average height (5 ft 4ish) and the rail was up to my chest when me and DH went on a cruise ship 3 years ago. It was like this on the attached pic.

Disney Ships are amazing! I've been on 7 Disney Cruises, and am going on another one (The Fantasy) in December for my honeymoon. Can't wait!

Have also done NCL and Marella (the Pontins of cruiseships!), and we're trying Celebrity in February and going to Hong Kong.

I get seasick on a channel ferry but not on a cruise.
We had a storm (well the captain called it a hurricane) once on the Med in July. Plates flying, empty restaurants and 99% of passengers were sick. It was our first cruise and seasoned cruises were adamant it had never happened to them before.

A disney cruise would be my ultimate dream, love disney, love cruises!!!!

I'd bloody love to go on cruise, but DH is adamant that he would hate to be stuck on a ship with a bunch of people he may not like very much (putting it politely). I'm a total cruise virgin so would one of you experienced cruisers be able to tell me if I'd be okay going on one as a single person?

You'd be fine. They have groups for people sailing alone that you can attend and get to know others in the same boat - see what I did there - I'm a single parent and go with my kids and they go to clubs etc and it's fine. I'd definitely go alone when they're older. As for your DH, I always said I'd never go on a cruise, not my think at all, one three day Bahamas cruise and I was totally hooked.

I'm single and would love to go on a cruise but it's just ridiculously and prohibitively expensive as a single person. Most will be twice the "per person based on two sharing a room" even on lines that have single cabins (which aren't many). Cheapest I have ever seen has been 80% of the price for two people.

@thenightsky I'd honestly try to persuade your DH to go - get him to look at some cruise forums and hopefully he'll see that being "stuck with folk" is the very last thing you are, especially with the bigger ships where you might never see the same face twice. I've known so many new cruisers say what he does, and they come back completely hooked and ready for the next one

That said, it's also an ideal holiday for solo travellers in that they organise groups to join if you want to (and they're NOT "dating groups", honest!!). They'll often have meet-ups in a bar or lounge for solos, and some offer the chance to share a big table with other single travellers if this appeals

Importantly, though, none of this is forced on you in any way. Nobody will hammer on your door persuading you to join something (they mention meet ups and such in the daily programme instead) and if all you want is a secluded space where you speak to nobody, that's fine too

@thenightsky

You don't have to be stuck with anyone on a cruise. Most cruise lines have various dining options that mean you do not have to sit with the same people each time if you don't want to. I always like formal dining on a large table as the people I meet are interesting and delightful.

I love cruising as you can as much or as little as you like each day. Also each of you can go and do separate things without worrying. Lectures, films, games, shows, saunas, classes, lessons etc. Lots to do or do stuff all.

I'd ensure you pueck the right cruise and cruise line. I suggest Cruise Critic as an excellent place to start.

Pueck?

Pick

ShatnersWig what you need is a specialist cruise agent such as Victoria Travel (via cruise.co.uk which also has a great forum), Cruise Kings, etc - forget Thomas Cook and the like as IME they just don't think outside the box enough

Granted the single supplement can be an issue, but lines will often waive it for short periods or certain cruises and a proper agent will know about these opportunities

@Puzzled Oh I avoid the usual travel agents and have tried specialist agents but even they've had no joy for the areas I'd be interested in.

That seems a shame, Shatners - are your preferred areas and dates few in number or is there more flexibility?

And do river cruises appeal? Because they definitely have more "no single supplement" offers ...

See, I'd rather go tent camping than go on a Disney cruise, but I really don't like Disney stuff at all.

I have no interest in river cruises, I tend to think of those, rightly or wrongly, as a much older passenger! I'm 44.

In terms of areas - I wouldn't mind doing Norwegian fjords, possibly up to North Cape, the Baltics/Northern Europe, the med. Has to be a UK port start and finish as I don't want a fly cruise. Could do 7-14 days and most times of the year.

I didn't think I'd like a river cruise, either, but I was wrong! I'm in my late 40s. I just love cruising (Disney excepted, sorry Zany).

So glad this thread has brought out so many fellow cruise lovers .

@Left I'm a sea person! Can't explain it. My ideal would be the Baltics and have seen several cruises I like with stop offs in Tallin, St Petersberg, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam etc. With most of the Med, you tend to do a good few days at sea either on the way there or on the way back (which I wouldn't mind necessarily but probably not first cruise)

Was thinking maybe we should start a cruise chat thread...

@Holly Should there not just be a "General Cruise Chat" thread within the Cruises section under Travel?

See I'm only 42 and would never have considered a cruise, but a river cruise really appeals to me. I love Europe so to travel through Europe by river would be a wonderful experience, especially because I love history and the rivers would once have been the highways of europe. I'm also single, but I don't mind doing things on my own so that wouldn't really bother me.

Good idea about the "general cruise chat" thing, Shatners. Many of the threads have very little traffic so hopefully that might attract more?

I'm still looking for single deals and it seems the main lines who offer these regularly are CMV and Fred Olsen ... some might say that's a mixture of too old ships/too old passenger list (!!) so it appears you're down to registering your info so they can let you know when anything else comes up. I have a pal on the cruise.co.uk forum and she gets these all the time, so it's certainly possible in theory

Another cruise fan here too. Early 50s. Been on three so far- one round the med ( but had to fly out there and back), Transatlantic and then up to Quebec and a five night New Year in Europe.
Wasn’t sure I’d like it, as usually we are more adventurous travellers. Lovely food, love being at sea. Next year booked on Baltics for two weeks.
I’d certainly do it as a single person. Cunard have a few single cabins on QM2 and I think on the other two Queens but they sell out really fast!!

LeftRightCentre, the Disney ships are absolutely beautiful, and you don't need to be a Disney fan to go on them and appreciate them. There are actually a lot of adults who cruise Disney without kids, me included (I did start with my kids, but they're 19 and 20 now and I refuse to pay for them!).

They are gorgeous to look at, much prefer the classical shape of them to some of these huge great lumps in in the sea! The restaurants are lovely, the attention to detail is amazing. Yes they are Disney themed, but it is very subtle. Amazing customer service as you can expect from Disney. The only thing I wish they had was a buffet at dinner time, but other than that, they tick every box for me.

Saying that, the prices are now ridiculous - when I fist started cruising with them they were a lot cheaper, and we went on a special deal (cost me something ridiculous like £900 for me and 2 kids for a week from LA and around Mexico). The 14 night transatlantics used to be bargains until Disney clocked on that these were actually very popular with adult cruisers and massively hiked the prices.

I imagine our cruise in December will be the last Disney cruise unless prices get a bit more sensible.

I did enjoy our NCL cruise, although had several food incidents (am vegetarian, they seemed to find this massively hard to deal with. I was served pork in a specially ordered vegetarian dish one night :( ).

Looking forward to trying Celebrity next year.

All very odd...10 hours is a LONG time to tread water.. And as I have been doing Yoga for approximately 15 years I find it all rather confusing...apparently she had a huge row with hr partner, stripped off and fell /jumped overboard...all very strange... The most amusing thing is that straight after reading this is a side-advert for winning a cruise...

VeeBee, she wouldn't need to tread water, she could just float. There have been numerous attested cases of people surviving for longer, particularly in a relatively warm, calm sea like the Adriatic.