{"version":"1.9","identifier":"24d61fa9-9ec2-4002-a518-2e42034d6dcf","language":"en-US","title":"Solo cruising on Cunard: single staterooms, shared tables and the Atlantic crossing","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://crusiefrog.com/news/solo-cruising-cunard","datePublished":"2026-10-16T22:30:04.272676Z","dateModified":"2026-10-16T22:30:20.527548Z","authors":["Patrick Karsh"],"excerpt":"Cunard is one of the few premium lines with cabins built for one. Here is what sailing alone on its Queens is really like, and how to keep the cost down.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/24d61fa9-9ec2-4002-a518-2e42034d6dcf/0f689715b816593f0a4392a6bf471b15.jpg","keywords":["cruise_line"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Solo cruising on Cunard: single staterooms, shared tables and the Atlantic crossing","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"Cunard is one of the few premium lines with cabins built for one. Here is what sailing alone on its Queens is really like, and how to keep the cost down.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By Patrick Karsh · Published October 16, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/24d61fa9-9ec2-4002-a518-2e42034d6dcf/0f689715b816593f0a4392a6bf471b15.jpg","caption":"Queen Mary 2 in the port of Boston, September 2013 · Oceanhistory46, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","accessibilityCaption":"Queen Mary 2 in the port of Boston, September 2013","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"Queen Mary 2 in the port of Boston, September 2013 · Oceanhistory46, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"There is a certain kind of solo traveler who wants a cruise to feel like an occasion. Dinner at a set hour, a ballroom with a live orchestra, a library deep enough to lose a sea day in. If that sounds like you, [Cunard](https://crusiefrog.com/cruise-lines/cunard) is one of the easiest lines to sail alone, and one of the few where going by yourself is part of the tradition rather than an afterthought.\n\n## Ships built for sea days\n\nCunard runs four ships. [Queen Mary 2](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/queen-mary-2) is the big one: a true ocean liner of about 149,000 gross tons carrying roughly 2,700 guests, and the only ship still making scheduled Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York. [Queen Victoria](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/queen-victoria) and [Queen Elizabeth](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/queen-elizabeth) are mid-size at around 2,000 guests each. [Queen Anne](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/queen-anne), which arrived in 2024, is the newest and the most contemporary in feel, though Carnival has announced she will move to P\\&O Cruises in 2029.\n\nNone of these ships is crowded. Space per guest is generous, especially on Queen Mary 2, and the layout favors long promenades, quiet corners and places to sit with a book. For a solo guest that matters more than it might sound. You are never short of somewhere comfortable to be on your own, and you are never far from somewhere to find company either.\n\n## Single staterooms, at least on three ships\n\nCunard is one of the few premium lines with cabins designed for one person. Queen Mary 2 has 15 single staterooms with large oceanview windows, and Cunard lists single staterooms within its Britannia Inside and Britannia Oceanview grades on Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. The single Inside rooms run from about 152 square feet and the single Oceanviews from about 133 square feet, so they are compact but properly fitted out, not converted storage.\n\nCunard does not publish a fixed single-supplement percentage. In practice the single staterooms are priced for one guest, while a solo traveler who books a standard double cabin pays a supplement that varies by ship, grade and sailing. The honest advice is to compare the single-stateroom fare against the solo fare in a standard Inside or Oceanview on the same voyage, because the gap changes a lot between a seven-night Norway cruise and a sold-out Christmas crossing. Book early. There are only a handful of single rooms on each ship and they go first.\n\n## Where you eat and who you meet\n\nDining is where Cunard quietly looks after people traveling alone. Guests in Britannia grades eat in the Britannia Restaurant, and Cunard keeps a table reserved for you there every evening. You can take it alone, or tell the front-of-house team you would like company and be seated at a shared table. On a ship with a dress code and a fixed-ish rhythm to the evening, that shared table becomes a small social club within a day or two. Many solo guests end up with the same group all week.\n\nOutside the main restaurant, the Golden Lion pub is the natural solo hangout: fish and chips at lunch, quizzes and darts later, and a crowd that is used to strangers joining in. The Queens Room runs dance classes and fencing lessons by day and live music at night, and it has the largest sprung dance floor at sea on Queen Mary 2. Afternoon tea is served daily and is easy to walk into alone. On Queen Mary 2 the G32 nightclub stays open until the last person leaves. The Mareel spa sells day passes to the thermal suite if you would rather spend a sea day in a hydrotherapy pool.\n\n## Which sailing to pick\n\nThe transatlantic crossing is the obvious choice. Seven nights with no ports means the ship is the destination, and the daily program of lectures, dance classes, planetarium shows and formal nights gives a solo guest a reason to talk to people every hour of the day. It is also where the 15 single oceanview rooms on Queen Mary 2 make the most sense.\n\nIf you want ports, the shorter Northern Europe and Mediterranean cruises from Southampton on Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth tend to carry a strong British contingent of repeat guests, many of them traveling alone, and the atmosphere is sociable without being loud. World voyage segments draw a lot of experienced solo cruisers too.\n\n## Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere\n\nCunard is for the solo traveler who enjoys dressing for dinner, likes structured evenings and is happy to make conversation over a shared table. It rewards people who join in: a dance class, a quiz, a lecture.\n\nIt is not the right fit if you want a casual, anything-goes atmosphere, a lively singles scene or lots of organized solo mixers. Cunard does not run a formal solo meetup program, and the social life depends on you taking the first step. If you are in a standard cabin the supplement can also be steep on peak dates. Shop the single staterooms, book early and lean on that reserved table, and you will find Cunard one of the most comfortable ways to cross an ocean on your own.\n\nSources: Cunard \"Solo travelers\" page (<https://www.cunard.com/en-us/the-cunard-experience/solo-travellers>), Cunard \"How to choose your stateroom\", Cunard \"Queen Mary 2 in numbers\", Cunard ship pages for Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}