One of the benefits of cruising is that you can make new friends.
Some people make a real effort to do this. Before their trips they join cruise message boards and Facebook groups, seek out people with similar interests and make plans to meet up.
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As a person who often cruises solo but is married, I tend to make friends more by finding people on board who share similar interests. Maybe I befriend a group traveling together at the casino bar or perhaps someone who enjoys live music and bourbon at one of the performance venues.
Every cruise line I have sailed with has offered solo and single events, but they're usually guest-led and don't generally seem to help people make connections. I have found making friends easy to do, but I'm outgoing and my job makes talking to people on cruises easier.
Some cruisers, however, are looking for more than just new friends. One cruiser looking for a love connection recently wrote to Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald and shared an interesting idea.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival asked about helping make love connections
"John, please may I introduce myself? I am 45, an independent Californian single mom of two teens with a great job, my own house, and no real need for a man to look after me," she wrote.
"I cruise with my boys, and I cruise solo, too. When I do cruise on my own, I always think that this would make me a real catch, but it seems it’s the opposite."
The passenger then suggested that Carnival could take steps to be more of a love boat (a moniker used by its sister line Princess, which was the setting for the 1970s show).
"Internet dating is time-consuming, and I hardly have time to go out," she continued. "My question is please can Carnival have an addition to their app that will give the opportunity for single cruisers to meet?"
Heald did not dismiss the idea but responded with his trademark humor.
"Thank you for cruising with us so often, and honestly, I do not know how anyone meets anyone these days except on their eyephone," he wrote.
"Years ago, we used to have a singles meet and greet, a proper ice breaker with the entertainment staff there to host it. Over the years, we have, for whatever reason, let this slip away."
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Heald knows he's misspelling iPhone. Carnival still has singles events but they are no longer staff-led. The cruise line puts a time and location on its schedule, and singles can show up.
"I am not sure if we would ever have a 'singles meet' on the app. Maybe we could and should call it Plenty of Fun in the Sea or Funder," he added.
Carnival draws the line at one kind of meetup
Many people responded to Heald's post with jokes about just looking for cabin doors with an upside down pineapple on them. That's a signal denoting that the people in the cabin are a couple looking for a third person to join them.
After the first post about the upside down pineapple on cabin doors, Heald was quick to jump in.
“Thank you for mentioning that, those are definitely no longer allowed on the ships and they will be removed from any cabin door. Thank you for reminding me to mention that,” he said.
It has always been unclear whether people are using that symbol as a joke or as a serious invitation.
If they are serious, it behooves the cruise line not to allow that type of signaling because once someone enters another passenger's cabin, what happens next can't be seen.
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Carnival is not making a comment on swinging; it's simply giving itself some legal protection by forcing passengers to actually meet rather than having random people enter each other's cabins.
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