To Cruise Solo, or Not to Cruise Solo

Only you can decide

It is a bright sunny day in Southern Spain, as I sit high in the East Bar overlooking the pool on the Arcadia cruise ship.

Today is Thursday, so it must be Malaga. We arrived earlier this morning, although the expected destination was due to be Cartagena, further along the coast. That port was cancelled due to bad weather, so looking over the ship’s rail for the next two days, the city of Malaga rises from the sea. Well, I say rises, Malaga is surrounded by hills and looks fairly flat.

I boarded the P&O line ship, the Arcadia on Saturday at Southampton in the UK. Within a short while I had lost track of which day was which. I can tell it is Thursday, because the daily printed newsletter delivered to my cabin tells me so.

Despite my advancing years, this is the first time I have ventured aboard a cruise ship. Many friends and members of my family have cruised in the past and raved about it. I thought it was time to dip my toe in the water, metaphorically at least.

Unlike the friends and family who enthused about the many trips they had taken, I am a solo traveller. The Arcadia is an adult only ship, which I chose to avoid lots of noisy kids. According to the crew, there are 1,826 passengers aboard and of those, 147 are first time cruisers. Cruisers, is that the right word? Repeat offenders on the ship at 1,679, means that those new to the experience number only 20%.

How many of the travelers are solo is difficult to know, although I’ve met a few around the breakfast and dinner tables. The first was a lady from China, half my age and taking time off work after 15 years, before returning to study in the UK at the London School of Economics. My father went there after the war; I doubt he would recognise the place today.

There are several other ladies I’ve met who have left their husbands at home while they take in the sea air. Quite what the husbands think about that tends not to be a topics for conversation. Another of the solo ladies is on her fifth trip of the year, with her first three in 2024 firmly booked. There are a few male solo cruisers, maybe some have left a wife behind, but it seems there are more solo lady travelers than there are guys.

An interesting experience as a solo, is the formal evenings. This is not for me, I barely own a suit these days, let alone the full black tie garb. The ladies dress in their finery, with the gentlemen immaculately turned out in their formal black dinner jackets with matching bow tie. The interesting part, is what this does to them.

During the daytime, everyone is dressed informally, polite to each other when passing in the corridors and happy to chat while waiting in line. However, when folks dressed in all their best come across me, still casual like many others, their personality changes. They no longer give way in a corridor, walking two or three abreast and expecting the ‘low-life’ casually dressed passengers to move out of their way or hold open a door. As for a polite nod of the head or a thank you as they stride past, those good manners were left back in their staterooms as they donned the posh frocks. It is quite unpleasant.

On formal nights, I have yet to see a single person in black tie mode.

The cruise line offers shore excursions at each port, which range from a free shuttle bus to the edge of the port, through to full-day high-priced adventure activities and everything in-between.

These trips can be good for solos, as you mix with a range of couples and other singles on the bus from the port to sometimes multiple destinations.

On one such trip from Lisbon, we walked around as a group of ten or so through a winery, learning about the history of the vineyards and tasting of a couple of wines in the inevitable shop at the end of the tour. The wines were rather good. These shore excursions gives the solo traveler the opportunity to chat with others, commenting on the vines, the large barrels of maturing wine and which one (or two) to buy from the vineyard shop.

This excursion included a stop at a fresh fish and fruit market in Setúbal, with the widest range of fish species I have seen under one roof. And, being December, the inevitable Christmas Market was busy with customers.

My first solo cruise has several more days to run, with calls due at Cadiz, Gibraltar and Vigo, before returning to Southampton in the middle of next week.

Is solo a cruise something I would do again? After the first two days on a fairly rough sea on route to Lisbon, I’d decided this was not for me.

However, I appear to have picked up and studied several cruise brochures in the past couple of days and, somehow, a few of those on offer seem to have acquired a tick next to them.

The 99-day around the world trip in January 2025 has a certain appeal . . .

What do you think? Should I go?