Cougar Cruise?

Sexually-charged 'cougar cruise' sets sail out of San Diego

A bit of naughtiness hits the high seas today as what's billed as the first "cougar cruise" sets sail out of San Diego.

The controversial three-night escapade, which we first wrote about in September, is taking place on the Carnival Elation and is aimed at older woman who pursue younger men -- or "cougars," in contemporary lingo.

The International Cougar Cruise, as it's being called, was organized by the Los Gatos, Calif.-based Singles Travel Company and singles group The Society of Single Professionals, which chartered space for the event on the 2,056-passenger Elation. The voyage includes a single stop in Ensenada, Mexico and started at $125 per person, based on double occupancy and not including port charges and government fees.

CNN today reports the voyage has been a smash sell-out since it first started making headlines several months ago. There's even a waiting list.

"I've had to hire two more people part-time just to pick up the phones," Singles Travel Company executive director Ann Thomas told the news outlet. "I've never seen a response quite like this."

Singles Travel Company has promised three days of singles meet-ups, dancing and "partying" that draws its inspiration from Valerie Gibson's 2001 book Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men -- a pitch that's filled with innuendo. As the firm noted earlier this year in a press release, a cougar "knows exactly what she wants ... (and) what she doesn't want is children, cohabitation or commitment."

Organizers have noted 2009 is "the year of the cougar," according to a recent story in Newsweek. The term is going ever more mainstream with TV shows like Courteney Cox's recently launched Cougar Town on ABC and the Bachelor-like reality dating show The Cougar.

The voyage will be headlined by Miss Cougar America 2009, Gloria Navarro, crowned at the recent National Single Cougars Convention in Palo Alto, Calif.