Reader LZ inquired about ways to avoid single supplements on cruises, taking The Rapid Traveler far out of his expertise. Some day he will country collect through the Caribbean and intends to cruise to Antarctica if he can find the time, money and ship to visit all seven ‘countries‘ on that continent. But he has as yet never been on a cruise other than the Three Gorges Yangtze River cruise in China, which touts have been saying every year since the mid-90s to be the last year to enjoy the scenery.
Cruises typically charge exorbitant single supplements, which can as much as double the per person price. All those email offers with low, low rates are for double occupancy. Change to one person and the numbers skyrocket.
There is no surefire method for escaping this gouging but widely esteemed Vacations to Go maintains a comprehensive list of cruises with no or low single supplements (free registration required). Many of these are last minute as cruise lines unload unsold inventory while others are months out.
Another site of interest is Connecting: Solo Travel Network devoted to single travel of all kinds. Their list is strong on cruises with sharing options. To see beyond the next see months requires paid registration, currently US$28 for a lifetime membership which provides access to their various resources and half of which goes to lending through Kiva.
Unfortunately, the Vacations to Go list is far from comprehensive. I’ve stumbled on many discounts that are unadvertised. Royal Caribbean & Celebrity put out a list every week if you search for their “Tuesday” sale and another good resource is on the Cruise Critic boards, where readers share the deals they’ve found: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=851324
Thank you for passing the word about Connecting: Solo Travel Network (CSTN). CSTN has been the most comprehensive, non-biased source for single and solo travel information since 1990.