Cruises - Single woman on first cruise -- advice please

I am a 50 year old young single woman considering taking my first cruise this fall. Any suggestions regarding cruise lines, cruise destinations, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

This may not be the site for cruise info
the following link will allow you to check out cruisers opinions of all types

http://www.epinions.com/trvl-Cruises-All

This seems rather challenging; you need to pick carefully. Most of the singles cruises are for younger folk, and on most other cruises, it's much older ladies and couples.

I'd suggest finding a special interest group for an interest you already have, and going on a cruise sponsored by that group. Many groups sponsor such cruises, the only negative being that they tend to be the only cruises for which they try to charge close to list price. Alternatively, maybe an alumni group from a college you went to?

In short, pick a cruise that will keep you busy following an interest you already have, and if you are possibly also seeking a romance (shipboard or longer) and it happens to come along, that will be a pleasant bonus.

Without investing much time and $$, you can do a weekend deal out of San Pedro just to check out a large ship. But you've already thought of that, right?

You might get better suggestions if you were a bit more specific about your objectives. What is important to you? Destination? Partying? Seclusion?

I am a young woman who took her first cruise in April 2002. It was the most fun I've had in years. For the most part I am a single travelor and on this particular trip I had more luck than sense. Meaning, I threw caution to the wind and took risks that I normally wouldn't take. The cruise was taken on Carnival out of Galveston and booked at 3 weeks prior to departure. Rather than paying the single supplement I opted to sign up for the 'single-share' option where to cruise line finds a same gender, same age range, same smoking preference cabin mate. If the cruise line fails to match you with that cabin mate then you have the cabin all to yourself. As LUCK would have it, I was upgraded 2 cabin types, and had NO cabin mate. Met lots of interesting folks, shared dining table with some charming and somewhat eccentric couples, became good friends with some other divas and simply had the time of my life!!! It didn't take long for the men (young and old) to figure out that I was an unaccompanied cruiser either. By the time it came to disembark, they practically had to pull me off the ship!! This was not a themed cruise of any kind. I simply went into this adventure having that 'what's the worse that can happen' attitude. At the very worse they could've assigned a klepto, psycho, PMSing, transexual as a cabin mate, right? But I knew what the risks were going in. Lightening may not strike in the same place but for the price...I had the time of my life. Good luck.

Naw, it couldn't involve all that, a transsexual probably wouldn't have PMS.

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

BTW, I love the right kind of cruise, my GF and I and my two college-age kids are doing the politically incorrect thing soon and taking Windstar from Lisbon to Dover via French ports -- it's really cheap for a Windstar sailing thanks to (a) it being a smallish positioning cruise and (b) the fallout over visiting France.

But if I was taking a cruise alone, I'd try to make sure that if it turned out not to be as exciting as the last poster related, I'd have something to keep me otherwise occupied , at least during the days "at sea."

I must admit that I have never cruised alone but I would suggest that it was no accident a previous poster had a great time on Carnival. Despite its old reputation, it is not just full of drunken 20 somethings. And, it provides the most fun environment of any of the lines. The cheerfulness of the staff is contagious and people greet each other all over the ship. We recently went on Legend to the Baltics and, even though most people were our age (60), it clearly was the FUN middle agers. Friendliness is a requisite and, if I were going alone, I would go on a Spirit class Carnival ship. We have cruised on most of the major lines so we do have experience. Avoid NCL if you are alone - you won't meet people even at dinner long enough to get acquainted. Freestyle is not a good idea for you. See if you or your travel agent can arrange to assign you to a dinner table with other singles. If you can talk a girlfriend into going, you might have more fun. We just cruised to Bermuda on Celebrity Zenith and had two single women about your age at our table. They had a great time together. Don't get your hopes up to meet a man - the single women on board out number the single men by a lot. If you really want to meet men, try an adventure cruise, like Antarctica. There we did have more men.