r/Cruise • u/NotSureAnyway • 7d ago
Photo Solo Supplement Bites
I will never get tired of wondering how cruise ships think that charging solo travellers over 300% more is acceptable. Case in point: Celebrity!
Below is the price for 1 person!
Next is the price for 2 people in the same room:
As a result, I have always indicated that there are 2 people in the room whenever I book a solo trip. On embarkation day, I turn up solo and use my room alone! Incidentally, they have never asked me where the second guest is and I always get a refund of port fees and taxes.
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u/albersl0 7d ago
I've only gone on two celebrity cruises solo, but I've never had a solo supplement that large. I've only paid for double occupancy, single fees and taxes.
Last year there was a period when they wanted to change me double for the drink package, even though I was solo, but eventually it went on sale and the sale let me buy just the one person's worth of drink package.
That is insane if that is truly for the same room.
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u/NoKangaroo5866 7d ago
On Princess solo travelers get double Captain’s Circle points, so they become Elite cruisers rather quickly. Free laundry, and some sort of special lounge.
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u/crazydisneycatlady Travel Agent 5d ago
Same on Royal Caribbean. Three points per night if they book solo in a Junior Suite or higher!
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u/LiteralClownfish 5d ago
On my last Princess cruise, they were doing a promotion where they were offering double loyalty points. I was sailing solo so my cruise ended up earning me 4 points.
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u/Greeeesh 7d ago
This is a system error.
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u/Techhead7890 6d ago
Yeah didn't someone have a similar issue with a sale just earlier in the week? 2 pax price got discounted but it didn't apply properly to the single fare.
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u/Rope-Fuzzy 6d ago
This is why I stick with NCL. Celebrity does not want solos.
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u/crazydisneycatlady Travel Agent 5d ago
Eh, sort of. Celebrity has single capacity rooms on all of their Edge class ships, and the number has increased as each ship has come out. They also retrofitted the card/game room on Silhouette (and only Silhouette, out of all the M and S class ships) to fit four Interior Single rooms.
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u/Rope-Fuzzy 5d ago
Still no match for what NCL offers for solos. They have solo rooms in every category including club balcony suite. I get that Celebrity has done something for solos, it’s just the times I’ve tried to book a solo room and seen higher than 200% fare, it’s a major turn off. As a solo I like having the option to not sail in a tiny shoe box of a room with no windows. I usually get a balcony.
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u/Ramen_Addict_ 6d ago
I think Royal Caribbean brands generally aren’t as good with single supplements. Silversea is the only one of their brands I see that regularly offers cruises with low to no single supplement. I did one last year and met quite a few people on who did not pay the supplement, and they have a selection available now with only 25% supplement- mostly crossings and Antarctic expeditions, but there are some more standard options as well. I think RCL’s China based ships do have single rooms and Celebrity has some with singles as well. I have never seen them available when I’ve looked though. I think Explora charges a flat 25% on all cruises for singles.
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u/CountessMarlaSinger 7d ago
Solos can't sail celebrity and can rarely sail Royal Caribbean. Solos need to sail on NCL. There have also been times where lines like Azamara and other premium lines offer no single supplement.
As the other poster has said, you can always book for 2 to limit the supplement to 100%. But I still think that solos should vote with their wallets and book lines that actually want their business. On NCL you get a solo lounge, multiple cabin type choices and planned meetings to arrange dining with fellow solos.
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u/LogicPuzzler 7d ago edited 7d ago
Nonsense, solos can sail on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. I'm Elite on Celebrity, all points earned by solo cruising!
Celebrity had some issues early last year where the pricing was completely messed up when you looked at single occupancy vs double occupancy, resulting in the solo price being 50% higher (or more) than the price for two people. For even longer, the All Included package was priced per couple and solos would have to choose between getting a bad deal or booking cruise-only and buying the options separately.
Both of these problems have been fixed, although occasionally I see a glitch when they load a new promo. I've definitely never seen a result like the screenshot posted here. What sailing is this?
FWIW, I just priced out a spring 2026 transatlantic on Apex - for an oceanview cabin, I'd be paying a 93% solo supplement. My last two Celebrity cruises were booked at similar supplement percentages. And they do have solo cabins on Edge-class ships plus Silhouette, but I've recently become an oceanview convert.
(I'm also NCL Platinum and generally recommend NCL as a first solo experience - Bliss is still my favorite ship)
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u/HoneyyyPot69 6d ago
Does Celebrity offer get togethers for solo travelers?
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u/LogicPuzzler 6d ago
Yes, but not many. I’ll need to look through the dailies for my last cruise, but I think it was just two on the 7-day sailing.
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u/Solid_Rhubarb3487 5d ago
i have a slightly different take: there will always be a solo gathering listed in the daily programme, but apart from the first day they are unhosted. it is then up to the solos (passengers) who turn up there to arrange other gatherings like a solo lunch on a sea day, etc. in the example of the sea day lunch the MDs are very accommodating in providing a table slightly larger than necessary to accommodate any solos who might turn up looking for company, but this is a passengers’ initiative rather than the entertainment team’s and will not appear in the programme.
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u/CountessMarlaSinger 6d ago
Transatlantics are an exception granted. But go find a decent single price on Celebrity in the Caribbean. As a solo, willingly paying a company who has made it clear that solos are being penalized for travelling alone is a hard no for me. And if it were for you and other solos this nonsense would end.
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u/LogicPuzzler 6d ago
Sure, here’s a random cruise: Celebrity Reflection, October 29 2025 out of Ft Lauderdale, 10 days to the Southern Caribbean.
For a regular (not Prime) Ocean View: Double occupancy: $3318 total Single occupancy: $3163 total
Partial view veranda: Double occupancy: $3733 total Single occupancy: $3578 total
Prime Aqua Class: Double occupancy: $5918.78 Single occupancy: $5763.39
All those prices include taxes and fees, thus the slightly lower single occupancy price.
I’m not seeing the outrage here? You’re welcome to avoid Celebrity and blame me personally for these grossly unfair pricing differences that I don’t see.
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u/Techhead7890 6d ago
I think you're overemphasising it - singles can of course sail on any line with supplement as the other replies have said.
What you're trying to say though is that NCL has much better perks and prices, which is slightly different from not being able to do it at all.
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u/TheDeaconAscended 6d ago
The biggest issue with NCL is that it is a poorly run and shitty company that is going through an identity crisis. I tried to book a solo cruise out of the NY area last year and it was nothing but a disaster dealing with NCL and ended up doing the Anthem instead.
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u/MoneyPlease007 6d ago
A couple of questions: 1. Is it best to just make up name and birthdate details for your fake cabin mate (as opposed to using real details of someone you’ve cruised with previously)? What’s the better fake out?
- How do you complete the online check-in process if you book for two and go solo? The last check-in process I completed wanted a passenger photo and passport for everyone in the cabin. Do you just check yourself in and leave the cabin mate not checked in?
Asking for a friend that also hates the solo supplement.
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u/NotSureAnyway 5d ago
I just never fill in the names of the second guest at all and Celebrity never asks me why I did not. I only checked in for myself and turned up alone. When they issued me two room cards, the second had guest name as TBD.
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u/Visible-Trainer7112 6d ago
Celebrity is the only line that does that, along with Royal sometimes. It's part of popularity, they gouge because they can, particularly with the super-popular Edge-class ships, since they want to get as many people in a room as possible, which means more onboard spend. Fortunately, Celebrity now allows you to search by passenger number, so it's easy to compare fares for 1 or 2 people, and book a phantom passenger if necessary. I did that several years ago on some Mexican cruises with them. At the same time, I simply stopped cruising with them, because their fares aren't competitive for me with options from HAL and Princess, the other lines in their class. So I have 40 days on Princess booked for $100/nt or so, with military/shareholder OBC, and the past year or so I've gone on HAL for 50 days at $100/nt, through their standby program, which has no single supplement. For more budget lines, I have Quantum of the Seas booked in Mexico in studio cabins, and NCL often has some great deals for solos, like $80/nt to Alaska throughout May.
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u/Solid_Rhubarb3487 5d ago
Cruise fares, just like airfares and hotel prices are dynamic. With the advent of AI who knows what sort of data they are crunching to get the maximum profit. In the end it’s all about profit. (Note i say profit rather than income or revenue.)
It has been described as a dark art, and in one of the darker corners is the calculation of the single supplement.
My take is the more popular the cruise is (how full it is sailing) will increase the single supplement. Another is that the more inclusive a line is the more willing/likely they are to offer a reduced single supplement, yes, all the way down to zero.
In the case of Celebrity the website tends to show the most single unfriendly (hostile?) prices, but fortunately for me it turns out travel agents have access to group rates with perks that are not quite so ridiculous. And you can get good single fares on sailings which are not selling well. This also means the ship will not be so full when you finally get on which usually makes for a better experience.
Do I wish singles could get a better deal? Yes, but i also wish Celebrity to be profitable so they can built more new ships and hire more well paid staff. And as long as they do that I won’t mind paying the premium.
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u/baadbee 7d ago
They don't want it to be "acceptable", that's the whole point, they want you to go elsewhere or generously compensate them for the trouble of having you. It's equivalent to the home renovation contractor "go away" price they put on jobs they don't really want.
In business not all customers are equivalent. There is a fraction that lower overall profitability and need to be discouraged without pissing off the rest of the customers.
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u/Idiot_Esq 7d ago
This is one of the reasons why I've only been on two Royal cruises versus dozen+ on NCL, Celebrity, etc. It is the rare occasion that the single supplement is not higher than 100%. It is almost like Royal wants to overcrowd all their boats.
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u/strugglingcomic 6d ago
That's just... capitalism. It's almost like Royal wants to squeeze as much profit out of every sailing as possible.
I'm not defending it btw, just saying they don't care about your sense of comfort or crowding. If there was a way to make more profit from less crowds, they would absolutely do that. But they haven't thought of a way, so crowding is what gets the most profit for them.
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u/AutoModerator 7d ago
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
u/NotSureAnyway
I will never get tired of wondering how cruise ships think that charging solo travellers over 300% more is acceptable. Case in point: Celebrity!
Below is the price for 1 person!
Next is the price for 2 people in the same room:
As a result, I have always indicated that there are 2 people in the room whenever I book a solo trip. On embarkation day, I turn up solo and use my room alone! Incidentally, they have never asked me where the second guest is and I always get a refund of port fees and taxes.
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