Seems Carnival Cruise Lines was not very impressed when it hosted a pack of cougars and cubs on Carnival Elation last month.
Those are the names given to older women out to have no-strings-attached fun with younger men - and the men who are up for it. CougarEvents.com had arranged for 300 of them to be on the ship.
By all accounts all was fine, but clearly the self-styled Fun Ship operator has decided there is such a thing as too much fun because when SinglesTravelCompany.com tried to book a group on a Carnival ship, the cruise line said no.
The Miami Herald quotes a rather piqued Stewart Chiron, chief executive of CruiseGuy.com, as saying couger cruises don't fit Carnival's "squeaky clean image".
Maybe not, but that's great news for Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line, which apparently have no qualms about allowing man-hungry female cruisers on board.
The paper reports that the singles will now be on a Mexican Riviera cruise on Royal's Mariner of the Seas in May while the cougars are booked on a three-day cruise from Miami on Norwegian Sky from December 3-6.
You have been warned. Or should that be alerted? Personally, I'm more intrigued by ABTA's pre-Christmas forecast that naked cruising is one of the emerging trends for 2010.
I can see all sorts of benefits, not least the fact that you can leave the DJ and cocktail dress at home. I guess also you really can be sure there are no strings attached and if there are, at least you'll spot them!
You'd want to be cruising somewhere warm, though, and I hope the cruise lines have the foresight to go easier on the air-con in the dining rooms. All those naked bodies is one thing, but naked bodies sitting around covered in goosebumps?
It would quite put you off the Baked Alaska.
Jane Archer
