Cougars and cubs. Not on Carnival Cruise Lines!

[Cleo]

It seems the one of the Cruise Lines down here doesn't want anymore cruises with older woman and younger men. Odd since all the cruise lines here are really hurting for business.

From this news site,

Older women and younger men? Not on Carnival Cruise Lines
Cougars and cubs -- older women mixing it up with younger men -- are no longer welcome on Miami's Carnival Cruise Lines.

BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN
MBRANNIGAN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Apparently cougars put on more of a party than the Fun Ships can handle.

Carnival Cruise Lines has turned away a singles group that promotes cruises and other social events for cougars and cubs -- older women and younger men who, um, court each other.

Nearly 300 cougars and cubs sailed on a ``very successful'' group cruise onboard the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation in December 2009, according to Rich Gosse, executive producer of CougarEvents.com and chairman of The Society of Single Professionals.

But when the group's travel agent, SinglesTravelCompany.com, tried to arrange another Carnival trip, the Miami cruise line said no way.

``We have decided not to have any future groups on our ships booked on this theme,'' Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said.

De La Cruz insisted that, ``there were not any particular issues on board,'' during the December cougar cruise, which was put together by the singles' travel agent, not the cruise line. ``However, we simply made the business decision not to have future groups book on this theme.''

Stewart Chiron, a Miami cruise expert and chief executive of CruiseGuy.com, figures cougar cruises simply don't fit Carnival's family image. The line markets itself around the idea of ``fun,'' and has shed the hard-partying image of early days.

``Carnival has distanced itself from being Spring Break USA,'' Chiron said.

The first International Cougar Cruise included a group cocktail party before dinner each night, help hooking up for shore excursions, and ``the requisite hot tub party, of course,'' said Gosse, who is based in San Rafael, Calif.

ON TV

The cougar theme may not make it on Carnival, but it has turned up in TV shows, the movies and gossip columns, signaling that cougars are hot. ABC-TV is promoting its sitcom Cougar Town, which debuted last September and is set on Florida's West Coast, with T-shirts saying ``40 is the new 20.'' New York Yankees' star Alex Rodriguez, who is 34, was linked to Madonna, who is 51, and Ashton Kutcher married Demi Moore in 2005, when he was 27 and she was 42. Matt Damon's character wooed a cougar -- played by Ellen Barkin -- in Ocean's Thirteen. Indeed, Gosse noted that more younger men signed up for the December trip on Carnival than older women.

He admits being a bit bewildered that Carnival would turn away business, but said he had no trouble finding other cruise lines to welcome the group. ``It's fine with us. Other cruise lines are delighted to have our business -- especially in this economy.''