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113 Stories|227 Ships|22 Cruise Lines
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Trending:#balcony#funny#great view#crew insider#quiet#interior#hidden gem#unforgettable

Stories tagged #solo travel

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Confession1mo ago
MSC Cruises · MSC Seashore · Deck 8, Cabin 8044
#solo travel#funny#interior

I went on a cruise to avoid my family reunion

Every year my extended family has a reunion at my aunt's lake house. Every year I attend and spend three days smiling through passive-aggressive comments about my career, my relationship status, and my cooking. This year I told everyone I had a work trip that could not be moved. I booked a solo interior cabin on MSC Seashore and spent the reunion week floating through the Mediterranean eating pasta and reading novels. My cousin texted me a photo of the lake house and said 'You are missing the fun!' I was standing in a piazza in Rome with gelato and a clear conscience. I will probably do this every year now. The lake house will manage without me. My aunt's potato salad was overrated anyway.

— Reunion Refugee
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Story1mo ago
MSC Cruises · MSC Seashore · Deck 11, Cabin 11044
#wildlife#unforgettable#balcony

The whale breach that nobody else saw

Early morning, Deck 11 balcony, somewhere off the coast of Portugal. I could not sleep and went out to the balcony at 5am with coffee. The ocean was completely still — mirror-flat, which is rare in the Atlantic. I was watching the horizon when something enormous broke the surface about two hundred meters from the ship. A whale. Full breach. It launched itself out of the water, twisted, and crashed back down sending spray in every direction. I screamed. Nobody heard me. There was not a single person on any visible balcony. No other witnesses. I did not have my phone. No photo. Just me and this whale in the pre-dawn Atlantic. I sat there for another hour hoping for a second breach. It did not come. I am the only person who knows it happened.

— Lone Whale Witness
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Story1mo ago
MSC Cruises · MSC Seashore · Deck 7, Cabin 7220
#solo travel#interior#quiet

I wrote my entire novel in an interior cabin

I booked a fourteen-night transatlantic crossing on MSC Seashore specifically to write. Interior cabin 7220 was my office for two weeks. No window, no distraction, no wifi (I intentionally did not buy the package). I wrote from 6am to noon every day, ate lunch, walked the ship, read in the afternoon, had dinner, and slept. The cabin was a cocoon. The darkness helped me focus in ways I cannot explain. The hum of the ship became my white noise machine. By day twelve I had written 68,000 words. The novel is being published next year. My editor asked where I wrote it and when I said 'an interior cabin on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic' she laughed. The cabin cost less per night than my apartment rent. Best investment in my writing career.

— Atlantic Author
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Story1mo ago
MSC Cruises · MSC Seashore · Deck 10, Cabin 10066
#solo travel#unforgettable#balcony

The Italian grandfather who taught me to watch the sea

Solo trip on MSC Seashore, Mediterranean itinerary. My neighbor on the balcony next door was an Italian man in his eighties named Giorgio who was on his forty-seventh cruise. Forty-seventh. We could hear each other through the divider and on the first morning he said 'You are looking at your phone. Look at the water instead.' I put my phone down and looked at the water. He started narrating what he saw: the color changes as we passed over different depths, the pattern of the ship's wake, the way clouds form differently over warm and cold currents. He had been watching the sea for twenty years and he knew it like a language. We had coffee on our adjacent balconies every morning for seven days. I have not looked at my phone on a balcony since.

— Giorgio's Student
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Confession1mo ago
Carnival Cruise Line · Carnival Celebration · Deck 6, Cabin 6310
#funny#solo travel

I told my coworkers I was at a conference

I told my office I was attending a professional development conference in Miami for a week. I was on Carnival Celebration sailing to the Bahamas. I even created a fake conference schedule in case anyone asked for details. On day three, my manager texted asking how the 'keynote on innovation' went. I was lying on a pool deck with a frozen drink composing a detailed fictional review of a keynote that never happened. I texted back three paragraphs about disruptive synergies and paradigm shifts. He said it sounded inspiring. I was watching a man in a Hawaiian shirt attempt to limbo. That was my inspiration. I have since used all my actual vacation days and will not need to do this again. Probably. The Bahamas were outstanding.

— Conference Escapee
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Confession1mo ago
Carnival Cruise Line · Carnival Celebration · Deck 8, Cabin 8550
#funny#interior#solo travel

I ate room service breakfast in bed every single day

Seven-night cruise. Seven consecutive mornings of room service breakfast eaten entirely in bed in my interior cabin in the dark like some kind of cruise ship goblin. I did not go to the buffet once for breakfast. Not once. The room service menu is limited but I did not care. Coffee, eggs, pastries, fruit, delivered to my door. I would eat in bed watching movies on my laptop in pitch darkness while the rest of the ship was having their organized fun in the sunshine. My family thought I was at the gym. I was not at the gym. I was in bed eating eggs at 10am in a room with no windows. It was the most relaxed I have been in five years. I have no regrets and I will do it again.

— Cabin Goblin
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Story1mo ago
Carnival Cruise Line · Carnival Celebration · Deck 7, Cabin 7200
#solo travel#interior#unforgettable

My first cruise at 65 — better late than never

I spent my entire career saying I would cruise when I retired. I retired at 64. At 65, I finally did it. Booked the cheapest interior cabin I could find on Carnival Celebration because I did not know if I would even like cruising. Cabin 7200, Deck 7, no window. I walked in and thought: this is smaller than my walk-in closet at home. For about ten minutes I regretted the decision. Then I went topside, stood at the railing, watched Miami disappear behind us, and cried. Not sad tears. Relief tears. I had been promising myself this for thirty years and I was finally here. The cabin did not matter. The ship did not matter. The ocean mattered. I have booked three more cruises since. I still book interiors. The ocean is the view that counts.

— Late Bloomer Sailor
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Confession1mo ago
Royal Caribbean · Wonder of the Seas · Deck 9, Cabin 9412
#solo travel#balcony#quiet

I skipped every port to stay in the cabin

Seven-night Caribbean cruise. Five ports of call. I skipped every single one. My partner went ashore and explored while I stayed on the ship in our cabin or by the pool. Here is my confession: I told everyone I was 'feeling under the weather' each port day. The truth is I just did not want to leave. The ship with two thousand fewer people on board is paradise. The pool is empty. The buffet has no lines. The spa has immediate availability. I read three entire books on that balcony while the ship was docked. My partner would come back sunburned and full of stories about ruins and markets and I would nod enthusiastically from my deck chair having not moved in six hours. I am not ashamed. I am at peace.

— Port Skipper
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Review1mo ago
Royal Caribbean · Harmony of the Seas · Deck 6, Cabin 6320
#interior#quiet#great sleep

Interior on Deck 6 — the sleep cave I needed

I travel solo and I cruise to sleep, eat, and read. Interior cabin 6320 is exactly what I wanted: pitch black, dead silent, and cold. The AC on Harmony interiors works almost too well — had to bump it up two degrees from default. Deck 6 is low enough that you feel very little motion, which matters to me because I get mildly seasick on higher decks. The corridor is quiet because most people on Deck 6 are experienced cruisers who also chose low-deck interiors on purpose. The cabin has decent storage for one person. USB outlets on both sides of the bed. No complaints. The only reason it's not five stars is the bathroom door occasionally sticks and needs a firm pull.

— Barnacle Hermit
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Review1mo ago
Princess Cruises · Enchanted Princess · Deck 11, Cabin 11415
#solo travel#interior#quiet

Solo traveler review — the best inside cabin for one

Booked a solo inside on Enchanted Princess. 11415 is a standard inside but positioned in a quieter section away from the elevator bank — important for solo travelers who often end up in whatever cabins are left. No noise at night whatsoever. The ship has solo travelers covered better than most — there's a solo meetup group organized by the cruise director's staff, and I met five other solo travelers on day one who I ended up spending most of the trip with. The cabin itself: perfectly functional. Bed is comfortable, bathroom adequate, storage sufficient for one. The virtual porthole (exterior camera view) in some Princess interior cabins was NOT in this one, FYI.

— Solitary Pilot
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