For years, solo travelers paid a hefty premium to take a cruise.

It was known as the dreaded “single supplement.” If you wanted a cabin by yourself, you were charged for two passengers.

Now, slowly but surely, the cruise industry is realizing that by discriminating against solo passengers, it’s ignoring a huge chunk of the market.

Consider this: 63% of American singles today have never married. In 1960, that figure was 28%. In 2010, Norwegian offered “studio” rooms on its ships for single travelers, and those rooms all sold out.

And now, more ships are doing the same thing. Even the Queen Mary 2 added solo cabins.

Here’s one caution though. The total number of single cabins is still a small percentage of the total cabins on board, and not enough to satisfy demand, so book early.