In less than 3 weeks I am embarking solo on a 4-night Virgin Voyages cruise from Miami through Key West and Bimini Island. Immediately following, I am heading back to sea from Miami on a 7-night Norwegian Cruiseline cruise through the Dominican. The former is adults-only while the latter is for all ages.

I would love to mingle and meet people of all ages. I will also have the opportunity to spend two nights in Miami, one before the first cruise and one after the second.

I am posting to get some information and tips on how I can best make the most of these exciting voyages! As I mentioned, I would love to meet people and have a great time with others (especially solo travellers). Any suggestions as to how to best prepare and navigate my cruises?

Also, I like my beer and wine but I'm not what you would call a big / excessive drinker. That said, Virgin Voyages offer drink packages of $100, $200, or $300 in USD. I understand that you can use it like a pre-paid Visa card, until it runs out. The only benefit would be that they add an extra bonus credit if you purchase a package (more bonus money dependant on the size of the package). So it might be worthwhile for me to spend $100, (maybe $200 could be pushing it) up front for the 4 nights. As for NCL, I believe their most economical option is a $109USD/day all-you-can drink package! While it is my understanding that drinks tend to be pricey on cruises, I don't think the NCL package would be for me! If anyone has any info. on drinks etc., that would also be great.

THANKS

These would be considered, by me, very short cruises. For some reason, you who say they are not much of a drinker, are considering buying a drink package? Are you a tap water drinker, or insist on bottled water? Do you like to sit in a bar on ship or out on deck by the pool? We always have wine with dinner, drink water from the tap, take water from the ship in our container for drinking off ship. It is easy to calculate.

You might want to consider "getting your feet wet" on the first cruise and see how much drinking you do. Lots of non-drinking time while on a cruise, if you participate in activities, and do tours (any drinking while on tours is not part of your package), Contrarily, you are not talking about a large sum of money.

Most cruises have meet and greet events for singles. Sitting at larger tables for meals also adds to the number of people you will meet. Immerse in activities. Enjoy your cruises and try not to worry about these kinds of details. A cruise is time to relax and let it happen.

Visit Cruise Critic "meet and greet" sections for your specific cruises. This is a way to get to know some people before you even get on the ship! There might be a group of people who have set up a mingle party on ship for you to join.

That's my suggestions on your 2 base questions.

Welcome to FT.

Have a great time.

Thanks for the information Ranles. You made some good points. As far as the drinking goes, all I meant was that I wouldn't stand a chance of getting my money's worth with an NCL package at $109/day! However, on the VV cruise, a $100 credit for drinks over 4 days would disappear pretty fast. It would likely only be 2-3 drinks per day, which isn't a lot.

Never traveled with Virgin Voyages, but if you are interested in meeting others while on board, check with the guest services desk and inquire about schedules they may have for singles events. Also, inquire about table sharing in the main restaurant.

Lower your expectations about what lies ahead and hopefully your expectations will be exceeded. Enjoy your first cruise!

I have never sailed with Virgin but have done Princess/Carnival/RCL/NCL and all of them offered events for singles meet and greets. There is a daily schedule online that will tell you what and when they are. Try googling your ship and there are website that post old daily schedules for cruises. It might not be identical but it will give you an idea of what a day will look like. Just don't wear anything with a pineapple or flamingo on the cruise unless you are looking to swing

As for the drink package, I think you need to look at it as a math equation. For example, say you would drink 6 drinks per day on sea days, and 3 on port days. Multiply them by the drink prices (try googling to see if you can find), and see what your total comes out to. Then compare it to the price of the drink package and see what it is worth. Its really that simple (although a complex equation since not every drink is the same price)

Good advice. I would also add that, when doing the comparison, the baseline should be what you would NORMALLY drink on sea days and port days in the absence of a drink package. (Often passengers with a drink package may drink more than they normally would in order to maximize the value of the package, in which case the elevated consumption level should obviously not be used as a baseline for comparison.)

100%

If I had the drink package, I would probably at about 6-8 drinks a day. Without it I typically am at 1-2 per cruise.

Notice that I had refrained from suggesting bringing healthcare costs into the equation!

Hi. I'm a TA who has MANY Virgin clients and sails Virgin myself.

There is a bar calculator at this independent site: https://vvinsider.com/bar-tab-calculator/
Lots of helpful information.
If you find near the end of the cruise, you have too much bar tab, you can buy drinks for new friends, if you see crew off duty you can offer to buy them drinks, or you can start drinking expensive drinks you would otherwise never try like $50 shots. Avergare glass of wine price on Virgin is $9.00, average cocktail is $14, average bee is $8.00.

For mingling, you will get invited to a solo traveler meet and greet the first night. There will be a note in your stateroom. Often it includes dinner. Go! They often then set up chat groups for other get-togethers.

Other suggestions for meeting others:
Go to Gunbae early in the trip. You are seated with 6-8 people and they have a fun ice breaker.
The Grog Walk (extra fee) is good for meeting kindred souls as is Looto Gigante (lots of fun)
Also, go to games in the social club like trivia and speed jigsaw puzzles.. You will usually be placed with 4-6 others and you'll have a chance to meet others.

Finally, there are often roll call groups on Facebook, Cruise Critic, and the Subreddit r/virginvoyages.

Have fun!

I was unexpectedly invited to a cruise by an acquaintance on the assumption that the second passenger is almost free (which I'll search for or post a question about in another thread; don't reply about that in this thread). Since I know nothing about cruises except that I have had little desire to go on one, I called a friend who goes on them regularly - not because she's fond of cruises, but because they go the places where she wants to take plankton samples. Her advice: you'll get pressured to pay for the "Free at Sea" package, but don't get it. In addition to all the alcohol you can drink it may get you in to their extra-fancy restaurant and give you unlimited internet. (Without it you may get 100 minutes for the whole voyage.) The thing is, you don't need the internet; that's not why you're going. If you do need it, every town has a cellular connection and the libraries have free internet. You'll have a fine time without the extra-fancy restaurant. And as for drinking, you'll probably enjoy yourself more if you're not pouring booze over your breakfast cereal.

Other advice she gave me: Unless you have kids and actually *want* the bumper cars and water slide, avoid the huge ships. The smaller the ship the better. My acquaintance wants to go to Alaska so the experienced friend recommended the Norwegian Joy, which carries 2000 passengers. Holland America used to have smaller vessels but unfortunately they sold them off. The friend also said to avoid the shops and the casino.

A lot of places (at least in Alaska) have gotten painfully touristy, but if you walk five blocks you'll get to the real town. Also, at least as far as Alaska goes, if you're particularly sensitive to seasickness you might prefer a vessel that sails up the Inland Passage. Your physician can prescribe you an anti-nausea patch.

Enjoy your trip!

Be advised that short cruises such as the first one you are on often get loaded up (heh) with passengers who use the drink package to the max to get totally plastered, then repeat the next day. This is sometimes known as “Booze Cruise “. The adults-only format of your first cruise suggests that these folks are expected. Sorry for being redundant if you were aware of this already. Seven days is long enough to reduce the percentage of those folks and you will just get people who are trying to squeeze a nice break into their work or school vacation. A rule of thumb which shouldn’t be depended on too much is the longer the cruise, the older the passengers. You have already received tons of good advice on meeting people.

Just a note: Bimini is tiny without much to do unless you book an excursion. We didn't and just rented a golf cart. Covered the island in about an hour without much to see. Still fun but just a caution to maybe plan something for that day.

Except the Virgin Voyage Bimini Beach Club, included in the cruise fare, is delightful. They have a free tram from the ship to the Club. Great beach, lots of pool spaces, plenty of loungers. And the food is free and delicious. Loved the red snapper!

We didn't travel on Virgin. I can understand why they have a specific included activity since you really do need it in Bimini.

I don't drink as much as I used to. That sounded better in my head. However, I have never been able to justify drinks packages. If my goal is to get my money's worth, I would be hammered anytime I was concious. if I want sedation, I'll go with gummies.