Of the many questions I get on cruising, one of the most difficult for me to answer is the quandary of the solo cruiser. For the well partnered among us, I’ll elaborate. When you see a price for a cruise, it is usually based on double occupancy. If you select “1” for the number of travelers when you book a cruise, you are likely to pay for 2. Of course, this is not always the case, and I have seen some cruise lines offer a cabin for a “single” price from time to time. In all cases, I’ve found those sales accidentally. Further, some cruise ships, NCL Epic comes immediately to mind, are equipped with single occupancy cabins….an innovation which is making an appearance on more ships. And that is a good thing.

Provence, France. Trying out panorama feature on iPhone 4S.

For those times where there is no special pricing or a single occupancy cabin, Celebrity Cruises has introduced a benefit for its Captain’s Club members. If you’re sailing solo you’ll now receive double Captain’s Club points. Here’s the text from an email I just received from Celebrity.

Captain’s Club is happy to announce a new benefit for solo travelers. When you sail with us as a single traveler in a stateroom, you will earn double the amount of Club Points*, based on stateroom category and number of nights sailed. This applies to all sailings on or after July 1, 2014, and to all Captain’s Club members including Preview members.

While I think I might prefer the lower price if sailing solo, that just doesn’t happen very often. At least there’s some recognition here for solo cruisers.

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