Norwegian Epic cruise ship unveils single cabins for solo vacationers

Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, the Epic, made national television by serving as the setting for NBC's coverage of the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular on New York City's Hudson River, with appearances by Justin Bieber, LeAnn Rimes, a couple of cast members of Eclipse, and Nick Cannon. But there's one more newsworthy event on board the new cruise liner: cabins designed for solo travelers. They may make vacations cheaper.

Usually, when you want to take a cruise vacation alone, you have to shell out and pay as if there were two people traveling in your cabin. That's because until now, the short-sighted cruise industry cost itself business by designing cabin pricing to be "per person, double occupancy." If you wanted to go alone, you had to pay for yourself, and then either for a second, non-existent person (to compensate for the empty space) or pay a steep "single supplement." Either way, the cost keeps lots of people from cruising, either because they want to go alone or because they're the odd person out in a group.