How to Meet Women on a Cruise

To meet women on a cruise, start before you board by choosing a sailing that single women actually take. Then spend the first two days in the busiest parts of the ship: the pool deck in the afternoon, the main bars before dinner, the nightclub after the late show and the group tours on port days. A cruise ship is a small town that lasts a week. The single women and other singles you say hello to on the first night are the ones you will keep running into, so being out early matters more than any line.

Not every cruise has single women on it. A week at sea during school holidays is mostly families with kids. A long, expensive itinerary through the fjords or around the Mediterranean tends to skew toward retirees and couples.

Shorter sailings of three to five nights, spring and summer weekends, and ships known for their nightlife draw a younger crowd: groups of friends, birthday trips and bachelorette parties. Theme cruises built around music or a hobby pull in people who already share an interest with you. Some companies sell singles cruises outright. Look at the photos and reviews from the exact sailing you are considering, not the brochure, and you will get a good sense of who books it.

Embarkation day and the sail away party are your best look at the passengers. Notice who boards together. Two women with matching sunglasses and a shared cabin are probably friends on a trip. A mother and her grown daughter are a common pair on cruises, and both are often happy to chat. A woman who has breakfast with the same man every morning is not single, however friendly she is.

Check the daily schedule on the ship's app or the printed planner. Many ships hold a get-together for solo travelers on the first or second evening. Go, even if you are not traveling alone. It is a room full of people who came to meet someone.

Morning. The gym, the jogging track on the top deck, the coffee bar near the atrium. People are quiet, so keep it brief.

Afternoon. The pool deck and its bar, the adults only sun deck and the deck games. This is the easiest time of day to start a conversation, because everyone is relaxed and nobody has anywhere to be.

Before dinner. The lounge with live music, the atrium bar, the spot on the top deck everyone visits for the sunset. Women who have dressed up for dinner are out early and in a good mood.

Late. The crowd leaving the evening show, karaoke, the casino bar and the nightclub. As the night goes on, groups thin out and more people are left without the friends they came with.

On port days half the ship goes ashore. A catamaran trip, a snorkeling tour or a beach club puts you next to the same twenty people for hours with something to talk about. Pick the excursions that suit a younger, social crowd over the bus tour of historic churches.

The people you meet ashore become the people you sit with back on board. A woman you shared a boat with in the afternoon is easy to greet at the bar that night.

Groups form fast on a ship. By the third evening, most people have found their crowd and their usual table. A man who spent the first two nights in his cabin finds the social map already drawn.

So go out the first night, even if it is only for an hour. Say hello to a lot of people. Women who met a fun, easy guy early in the trip tend to invite him along for the rest of it.

The woman you ignored at the bar is at the next table at breakfast. The couple you were rude to know the women in the cabin next door. The crew talk to each other. On land, a bad impression stays behind when you leave the bar. On a ship it follows you for a week.

Being decent to everyone, staff included, is the cheapest thing you can do for your trip.

If walking up to a stranger is what stops you, that hesitation boards the ship with you. Fix it on land first. Cold Approach runs its Bootcamp in Miami and New York, out in the bars, cafes and streets rather than a classroom, and a coach is there for every approach you make. The Group format lasts three consecutive days, and each coach works with three students at most. Private is 1-on-1 and can run one, two or three days. A complete beginner fits right in, since helping men past the nerves of the first hello is what the coaches do best.