My very first cruise was in 2003 on the NCL Sun. I really enjoyed it--the now-ex, not so much. With that, the next 2 cruises with the now-ex were on Carnival, both which were good. After that, we wound up splitting up, meaning I was free to choose any cruise line that I wanted for this birthday cruise. I really wanted to give NCL another shot, plus I was intrigued by their Studio cabins. Now that I was single again, I had the perfect opportunity to try one, so...

I booked my Studio cabin. I figured that I probably wouldn't be spending a ton of time in the cabin, so an inside cabin wouldn't bother me. Connected to the Studio cabins is a Studio lounge, where solo travelers can meet up and hang out. For peace of mind, only those in Studio cabins have access to this area of the ship; a keycard is required to access the whole Studio cabin section and lounge, as well as our own individual cabins. There is a Solos coordinator who handles dinner and show reservations for those groups of solo travelers who would like to go together. Paquito was our coordinator for this trip and he did a great job taking care of everything.

The food was excellent. I ate mostly at the buffet, Taste, and Savor. I did also try Tropicana and O'Sheehans. With the quality of the food at the complimentary restaurants, I saw no real need to go to the premium restaurants. One thing I would like to note is that the Tropicana can get really noisy between the live music and the ambient noise. I would've liked to have gone more than once, but as someone who has sensory processing issues, I just couldn't handle it. Read more