Going on a Singles Cruise in my Late 20's

Yep, I did it! I went on a singles cruise at a young age of 25, (then again at 26, and most recently 27). Most people would think I’m totally crazy for doing something like this but I say screw them! I had a blast and made some amazing friends while at it.

As you know I’ve always been a solo traveler, and you also probably know my dating history hasn’t been all that great since starting my digital nomad lifestyle. What you probably don’t know is that a lot of my friends are actually 15-25 (sometimes even more) years older than me. I’ve always hung out with an older crowd, and when I started traveling, I automatically connected more with people that were older than me than people my own age.

My first singles cruise experience

It was 2015 when I was looking for something to do for New Years that particular year. I’ve always been a fan of spending New Years somewhere warm and exotic (because Chicago winters, well they suck). And the previous 5 New Years I’ve spent somewhere on an island. This year my friends weren’t able to come with me, so I decided to turn to my good friend Google and looked up phrases like “best places to go for NYE for solo female travelers” or “different things to do for New Years”. I’ve traveled solo many times before this, but this would have been the first time spending a new years solo (or with new friends haha).

After doing some intense searching I came across SinglesCruise.com. I’ve never done a cruise before so I was automatically intrigued by this idea, it nicely fit my “different things to do” category, and I would ring in the New Year doing something new. Then I looked up the different cruises that they had to offer, and sure enough, they have a New Years cruise leaving out of Orlando. I sat on the idea of booking the cruise for a while but finally decided to pull the trigger. Done! Booked!

Crap, what did I get myself into?

What to expect from a singles cruise

I literally had no idea what to expect from this cruise. Not only have I never been on a cruise before, I have no idea what to expect from a Singles Cruise. When you think of a singles cruise your mind probably goes to “oh it’s just a bunch of 60-year-olds going on a cruise to hook up”. Tell you the truth that’s what I thought too.

After I registered for the cruise I received a bunch of emails from the company explaining to me the next steps. I signed up for a username on their internal page and browsed around a bit at the people that were going on the cruise. Then I received another email to join the Facebook page. They have two separate Facebook pages; one was for the main group and a separate page for people going specifically on the New Years Cruise (each cruise they do has it’s own separate Facebook page). Once I was part of the group I browsed around a bit reading the different comments people are posting. What I noticed right away was that everyone was willing to help out, with anything. Have a question? An experienced cruiser will answer. Don’t know what excursion to do? Post online and try to get someone else to do it with you. It was a lot of nice back and forth that I loved from such a tight group.

The actual cruise

It’s now time for the actual cruise. I got to Orlando and stayed with a friend of mine prior to the cruise, I arrived there late at night and wasn’t able to make the pre-cruise party that everyone goes to. So I arrived at the ship, hopped on board, and went straight to the singles cruise registration. I was given a paper with all of the group activities on it, including cocktail parties, excursions, dinners, and more, as well as beads that said my name on them. (I thought the beads were totally tacky at first, but the more of these I’ve done, it makes a lot of sense to wear them. There are just way too many people on these things, this is an easy way to know who is part of the group, and an easy way to get to know everyone's names.) The singles group had about 250 people on this particular cruise, the Halloween cruises get up to 500 singles, and some of the smaller ones as small as 50.

After checking in I went to the first cocktail party that started shortly after we’ve set sail. I felt like I was back in high school again introducing myself to everyone for the first time and trying to find my “clique”. I usually don’t have a problem talking to people so this wasn’t difficult for me. What did seem a bit intimidating is that some of these people have been doing these single cruises for 20 years. And if it’s anything like high school, the “cliques” might be real.

After some mingling, I met some wonderful people that I got along well with very well. Everyone was extremely nice, super helpful and everyone was just there to have a great time. They were are all on vacation just looking for a good time.

Halfway point check-in

I still feel great about this cruise, I’ve met some incredible people and made some incredible memories. New Years has already passed and we still have a few more days to party. By now I’ve started to notice some of the drama that goes on in the group, as you can imagine. But I'm not a person that gets involved in drama so I stayed away from that. The stereotype of the cruise being a bunch of 60-year-olds trying to hook up is broken, it’s so much more than that. These people are slowly becoming family.

Fast forward 2 years later

Fast forward a couple short years later, two New Years Eve cruises, one Mediterranean cruise, one Carribean cruise, many reunions, and even more memories shared with hundreds of new friends. I wouldn’t change going on that first singles cruise for anything. Yes, I am probably the youngest one in that entire group, but who cares?

The friends and memories I’ve made will last me a lifetime. It’s really become more of a “family” for me now, I talk about my cruise friends/family more than I talk about my friends back in Chicago. There’s just something about this group that are all here to have a great time and enjoy each other’s companies that I absolutely love. What I love most is that no one cares who you are, where you come from, what your background is, everyone is just there to get along. Every single person is extremely nice and open to letting you in, with no judgment, even if you're a first-time cruiser or have done them for 20 years. There can be a CEO of a company talking to a plumber at your dinner table and at the end of the night we’re all going out for drinks. It really is a remarkable experience.

Did I find the love of my life?

So now the million dollar question. It is a singles cruise after all. Did I find the love of my life? Well no… At least not yet, I might have to do a few more of these singles cruises before I find mister right. There are, however, many people that have found each other through the group, dated, gotten married, and now cruise together with their singles cruise family. That hasn’t happened to me yet. But by putting myself out there I might be one step closer to finding Mr. Right, at least by doing a cruise I’ll know that he likes to travel, which is really important to me. For now I’m happy I made hundreds of new friends, made thousands of new memories, and checked off some amazing adventures off my bucket list.

Xoxo Ania Travels 💜