ONBOARD THE NORWEGIAN EPIC -- On Deck 11 here, 5:30 p.m. means one thing: cocktails in the Living Room.
The Living Room, for anyone who hasn't sailed on the Norwegian Epic, is a private lounge, exclusive to occupants of the line's studio cabins, the industry's first major block of staterooms marketed to solo travelers.
I stayed in a studio cabin last week while onboard to attend the CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. conference.
After only two days, I was convinced that the studios were "ingenious," which is the word Cruises Inc. agent Cheri Diekhaus of Freehold, N.J., used to describe them.
Diekhaus and I were two of 128 people staying in the studios.
She noted that the rooms were "very efficient," albeit "a little tight," with only 100 square feet.
And I agreed with her that the TV is in an awkward position: One has to sit across the bed and lean on the wall to watch it, though at least the wall is padded.
But overall, the studios work. While I missed having a couch (solely to throw my clothes on), this room has everything one needs.
The sliding closets are shallow and a little difficult to get into at first -- you have to shimmy along the foot of space between your bed and doors -- but the rooms are incredibly efficient, with as much storage as I think is possible to put in 100 square feet.
Especially considering that the space also has a double bed, a full-size shower and an enclosed bathroom with a solid door, a feature lacking in the standard balcony cabins.
This was not lost on CruiseOne agent Vermelle Smith of Jacksonville, Fla., who noted the irony that people travelling by themselves had solid bathroom doors, while people sharing balcony cabins had translucent doors.
The size of the rooms is what gives the Living Room a lot more prominence, and it is a big part of the studios' draw.
This common area, with TVs, a bar and plenty of seating, is where Norwegian Cruise Line put the genius into the project.
A few dozen studio passengers wandered into the Living Room on most evenings for the Solo Travelers Gathering at 5:30. Others might meet up in the morning and have breakfast together; there is a self-service snack area with yogurt and cereal as well as an automatic espresso machine.
One night, a group of young people were gathered in the Living Room to watch the Yankees game and have birthday cake.
The Living Room message board another day said, "Hi Solos! I hope Roatan was good for y'all. If you are coming to the Legends show tomorrow, please meet outside the Epic Theater at 6:30 p.m. so we can try to sit as a group!"
The "solos" gathered at the Living Room's private bar one night, talking about their day and the night before.
One solo warned the others about the Svedka Ice Bar: "It was freakin' freezing; we left after 20 minutes." Another reminded the group it was Lobster Night on the ship.
One studio occupant made a strong argument for the rooms not being that small, and also cemented the importance of the Living Room. Chuck Mancuso of Orange County, N.Y., was a fellow solo who wasn't traveling solo at all.
Mancuso and his wife had booked the studio before they were marketed toward single travelers.
NCL offered them a complimentary upgrade to the next cabin category, an inside cabin, but they declined it, along with the three other couples they were sailing with, because they wanted use of the Living Room.
"We get together here every day, we plan our evening; you can't beat it," he said of the space. "It's our own space away from the hustle and bustle downstairs."
Mancuso said he and his wife have had no problems with the room size.
"It worried me at first. My bathroom at home is 10 by 10," he said. "But we organized it, and it's no problem."
Mancuso and several other people were fond of the small touches, like the mood lighting, which has four settings: a red-hued love setting, a night setting with a blue glow and bright, white daytime light, plus a setting that rotates through the first three settings. They also pointed to the large, round window, which only looks out into the corridor.
Having the window "open" doesn't mean you see anything but the light from the hallways, but it definitely minimizes the sensation of being in an inside cabin.
Not all solos were glowing with praise. A young German traveler was disappointed that the solos were on the older side of the spectrum, having expected a group of fellow 30-somethings.
But for many agents onboard, the mature single set is exactly what they have in mind for the solo cabins. Many members of that segment have traditionally wanted to cruise but balked at paying the single supplement.
For Diekhaus, the cabins open up new business possibilities she hadn't previously thought of.
"My thoughts immediately went to forming a group of single travelers," she said. "I never reached out to them because it was so expensive to cruise alone. NCL is going to attract a lot of single travelers."
In an industry that has previously made travel for singles expensive, that is exactly what NCL was hoping to hear.