My top Tips for Cruising Solo with P&O Cruises
If you’re reading this, then there’s a chance that you’re considering cruising solo with P&O Cruises. Maybe you’ve got one booked, maybe you haven’t yet, or maybe you’ve got no intention of booking one and just want to learn more. Whatever the reason you’re here today, I’m glad you are, so let’s jump in to the world of cruising solo with one of the UK’s most popular cruise lines!
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In this post today, I’m going to share with you some of my ‘top tips’ for cruising solo with P&O Cruises, based on my experiences over the last couple of years. I’ve cruised on most ships in the fleet: Arcadia, Aurora, Azura, Ventura and Britannia. The only 2 ships from P&O that I still need to get onto are Iona and Arvia, so ‘watch this space for those two, I guess - surely it’s only a matter of time?! Anyway, let’s started on my tips to help your solo cruise be the best one yet - I’m confident you can apply these tips to a cruise on any P&O ship!
Tip 1. Get involved in P&O’s solo traveller events!
Don’t worry - you might be looking forward to a calm and relaxing solo break away, without the need to socialise with other people - your attendance at any events or activities during your cruise is entirely voluntary - you’re not ‘required’ to go to any solo events - you can keep yourself to yourself if you’d rather that! However if, like me, you really enjoy meeting other solo travellers, P&O are pretty good with helping to facilitate this.
I’ve been on some cruises in the past, where there’s nothing to help bring solo passengers together. However, on most of my P&O Cruises, there have been solo catch ups, which allow solo travellers to get together. This usually takes the form of a morning coffee, allowing those who wish to get to know each other a little better. It’s amazing when the cruise line organise a solo coffee each morning of the cruise, as it then allows solos to plan other things throughout the day. I usually find this works much better than just a solo drinks meet up at night, as it can often mean you have friends to hang out with at the pool, go and play deck games with, or kill a few hours with on a sea day.
I always really like to attend these solo meetings, as I’m always fascinated by the people I meet on the ships. I tend to find you will usually find such a mix-match of people at these events, and everybody has a story. So, go grab a coffee and ask someone their story - you might just make a new friend! another tip - if it’s a solo coffee morning, you’re probably going to get a free coffee - now we’re talking!
Tip 2. Does the Main Dining Room (MDR) have a solo travellers table? Check!
Ok, this one isn’t as clear-cut at tip 1. For the solo traveller meetings, they’ll be detailed in your daily schedule that you receive to your cabin each day. However, you’ll often find that the ‘solo table’ in the MDR is much more unofficial. This usually isn’t orchestrated by P&O, but you’ll often find that solo travellers who meet during the cruise will decide to sit together at dinner.
If you’d like to join other solo’s for dinner, but haven’t met any yet, why not pop down to the restaurant and ask the host (or Manager) on duty if they’re aware of any groups of solos. I’ve done this before on multiple cruises - I sometimes get a polite ‘no’, and other times I get taken over to a table and we have such a great laugh throughout the cruise! My recommendation is that you’re not going to lose anything by asking - go for it!
Tip 3. Go to the Speciality Dining restaurants!
Ok, this one is one that I feel really strongly about! I meet so many solo travellers who opt to avoid the Speciality Dining venues as they think they’d feel quite awkward dining in a room full of couples. Yes, Speciality restaurants are great venues for ‘date night’, but please, don’t let this put you off!
P&O Cruises have some fantastic Speciality restaurants, and you’ll kick yourself if your anxieties hold you back from giving them a go. You’ll often find it much easier to get a more private table in these venues, and you’ll also find the staff are often less rushed as they’re generally responsible for fewer tables. This means that they’ve got a little more time to stop, ask you how your day is, and make you feel comfortable. I tend to find that the ‘extra charge’ dining venues onboard P&O ships are some of the best value at sea too, so don’t worry about being ripped off for sub-par food on here!
If you’re not sure what venues might work for you, I can recommend Sindhu on any P&O ship - this is the Indian option, and I’ve never had a bad meal in there (and it’s usually a staple on every P&O cruise that I take! Another great one is the Beach House - this is a much more casual dining venue, and you’ll usually find it in an area close to the buffet restaurant. In here, you can get some brilliant steaks and seafood - look at what I got while cruising on Azura…:
Tip 4. Get involved around the ship, as much or as little as you’d like to!
One of the top questions I get asked, especially by my friends who have never cruised before, is “Don’t you get lonely?!”, and my genuine answer to this is that I’ve very rarely felt lonely on a cruise ship. I genuinely think this is thanks to the activities that run for most of the day - I love that I can either take part in loads of events and be a bit of a social butterfly, or I can sit back, relax and be in my own little world.
My challenge to you here would be that you should try something you’ve never done before on your next cruise - try to push yourself out of your comfort zone a bit. This looks very different for different people but, for me, this meant trying my hand at shuffleboard during one of the Sea day activities. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, but I had such a great laugh with people I’d never met before, and several of them now follow my YouTube channel (hello them you if you’re reading this - you know who you are!). Honestly, take it from me - get involved - it’s all good fun at the end of the day!
Remember, while there are activities to get involved in that help you socialise, there are also some great things to do onboard that allow you to relax and enjoy your own company. For me, I love the cinema, so you can imagine my absolute delight when I realised that P&O do an outdoor cinema on their warmer itineraries! There I was, mid-December, floating around the Canary Islands watching Elf at the poolside cinema to get in the festive mood before going home for Christmas - what a dream!
Tip 5. Choose your room carefully!
Welcome to the painful part of solo cruise travel: selecting which room you’d like to stay in. Why is it painful, I hear you ask? Well, solo travellers are often still stung for a ‘solo supplement’, where you pay extra, essentially as a fee for travelling solo. This fee typically applies when a solo traveller opts to book a cruise ship cabin for single occupancy that could have been sold to two people. For example, a standard balcony cabin.
It’s worth shopping around for room prices, as the whole cruise industry operates on a ‘supply and demand’ basis. This means that the prices of rooms will increase (or decrease) based on the percentage of rooms that remain on a particular ship. Think about it - if there’s hardly any solo traveller cabins on the ship to begin with, they’ll reach an 80% ‘sold out’ status much faster than a regular balcony cabin, and therefore the price will be much higher. In this example, it might be cheaper for you to book a much ‘better’ room, rather than booking the solo. I meet so many people who don’t even check, as they just worked with the assumption that the smaller cabin would be cheapest.
Don’t get caught out - do your checks before you book, and you might just get lucky! On my last cruise on Britannia, I chose a solo balcony but met fellow solos who’s paid less for a solo balcony - worth doing your homework!
Tip 6. Take your favourite bottle of wine to relax with back in your cabin
If you’re anything like me, you might sometimes hate going and sitting in a bar on your own when you travel. I’m sure they’re not in reality, but I always feel self-conscious as I’ve got it in my head that everyone’s watching me (ridiculous, I know!). For that reason, I love to have a drink before dinner (or maybe even after dinner if I’m having a chilled night) back in the comfort of my own cabin, where I can just switch off and chill out.
If I’ve got a drinks package on the ship, then great - I’ll pop to a bar nearby and take a drink back to relax. However, if I don’t have the package (this is most of the time for me when I cruise, to be honest), I’ll have a look at the alcohol policy before I board to see if I can take anything on with me. For P&O, you were previously able to take a bottle of spirits on with you, but that’s now been banned. Instead, you’re still able to take a bottle of wine onboard with you on embarkation day - perfect for treating yourself to a nice bottle without having to pay restaurant prices onboard. Note: this won’t have a corkage fee applied if you drink it in your cabin, but take it out anywhere else and you should expect a charge.
If you’d like to learn more about what alcohol limits each cruise line has, and what they allow you to bring onboard with you, head over to my post covering exactly that: my full review of all cruise lines alcohol policies.
Tip 7. Know your ‘escape’
If you’ve never travelled solo before, you might be worrying about the fact that you’re going to be on a ship with lots of people you’ve never met before. For most people, that won’t be daunting in the slightest. However, I like to be sure that I have my own ‘escape’ on every single cruise that I go on.
Now, this can be a whole host of things - my ‘escape’ is sometimes that I go for Afternoon Tea if I’m feeling stressed and want to relax (that’s if I’m cruising with Cunard), or maybe I go and use a sauna as my little quiet space (if the ship has an ‘included’ sauna). With most P&O ships, my ‘escape’ is to book into ‘The Retreat’. This is a private sun deck, usually at the front of the ship, that’s closed to the rest of the ship, and only open to those who pay for the privilege of entry. If I’m cruising on a colder weather itinerary, I wouldn’t bother with this as there’s no indoor space, but this is an absolute god-send on a warmer cruise, where you just need to recharge your batteries for a few hours, ideally in the sunshine.
A top tip from me on this one - this space is beautiful, and feels far more ‘premium’ than other areas of the ship. You can eat in here too, so you don’t need to leave to go to the buffet if you’re just looking for light food! They also serve an Afternoon Tea in here (it’s basic - packed lunch style), but a big ‘thumbs up’ from me!
So, there’s my 'tips to hopefully help you enjoy your solo cruise with P&O Cruises even more. I’ve done quite a few solo cruises with this cruise line now - let me reassure you - these guys know exactly what they’re doing, so you’re in very safe hands from what I’ve seen up until now.
If you’d like to learn more about P&O Cruises, or explore options for your next holiday, you can do so over on their website. Just click here to be taken straight there!
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