Boy toys - beware the foxy little cougars!

Older women can prowl the high seas for boy toys on the world's first 'cougar cruise'
BY NICOLE LYN PESCE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 18th 2009

Hello, boys! Now 'cougars' - women over 35 who seek younger partners - have a cruise vacation just for them. (LWA/Getty)

Come December, what’s being billed as the world’s first international “cougar cruise” shoves off from San Diego for a three-night getaway tailored to energetic older women on the prowl for younger men – and the “cubs” all-too-happy to be their boy toys, according to ABCNews.com.

Cougars are described as a female over 35 who dates younger men. High-profile cougar couples include Madonna and Jesus Luz, or Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.

Now these empowered middle-aged women can prowl the open sea.

“When people go on a cruise, all of their inhibitions go overboard. If you want to meet somebody of the opposite sex, this is the best way to do it,” Rich Grosse, who came up with the trip idea along with the Singles Travel Co., told ABC News.

“These cougar women tend to look younger and feel younger and have higher energy than most women their own age,” Grosse, the chairman of the Society of Single Professionals, told ABC News. “They just can't date men their own age. The men can't keep up with them.”

For their first femme fatale foray, Singles Travel Co. has just booked a block of cabins aboard a regular Carnival Cruise Lines ship leaving San Diego on Friday, December 4, sailing to Ensenada, Mexico, and returning to Cali by 8 a.m. the following Monday.

Rates begin at $258 for those willing to put up with a roommate, and up to $582 for someone who wants one of the best cabins all to themselves.

But while the maiden voyage will set sail with other vacationers, the experience promises to be more enticing for those seeking a May/December romance.

A “singles social director” will be onboard to coordinate cougar-cub singles events, dancing, and to keep the alcohol flowing, according to ABC News.

And the new Miss Cougar America herself, Gloria Navarro, will be the guest of honor on the debut cruise.

“I'm proud to represent a new breed of women who are strong, independent, successful and just looking for somebody who is going to be a little more exciting than your average 40-and-up man,” Navarro, 42, who was crowned at the National Cougar Convention in August, told ABC News.

“I’m looking forward to getting dolled up in the evenings and going to the parties,” she added.

“It's like they say in Las Vegas: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Same thing on a cruise boat,” Grosse said.

“People don't have their bosses, their neighbors, their co-workers and their family looking over their shoulder. They can let the inner child out on a cruise.”

Or pounce on someone else’s.