LosGatosObserver.com

Gloria Navarro shortly after she was crowned 2009's Miss Cougar America at the International Cougar Convention in Palo Alto.

Singles Travel Company, based in Los Gatos, gained international attention last month when their first sold-out cougar-themed cruise set sail.

275 single men and women looking for mates inhabited the Carnival cruise ship Elation for three nights in December 2009, garnering a huge amount of press along the way for the local travel company.

“I had to hire more staff to answer the phones,” Singles Travel Company owner Ann Thomas says, pointing to her email account which is full of unread emails. “I’ve had reality show producers call, and press from all over the world.”

A ‘‘cougar,’’ for people not in the know, is defined by urbandictionary.com as ‘‘a hot looking woman in her late 30’s to mid 40’s who dates younger men because she is still hot enough to get them.’‘

The term has become an infamous pop-culture reference over the past few years, even spawning an ABC network sitcom titled ‘‘Cougar Town,’’ and the TV Land reality dating show ‘‘The Cougar.’‘

However, with so much media attention focusing on the nautical cougar-fest, Carnival Cruise Lines announced in early Jan. 2010 that they would no longer be allowing travel agencies, like Singles Travel Company, to book couger-themed cruise trips.

“The media made it out to be a sex party and Carnival has been trying to build their image as a family cruise line,” Thomas says.

All the buzz hasn’t stopped Singles Travel Company from expanded their cougar-themed trip packages though, and they’ve even booked two new upcoming cruises.
“It was really a lot more innocent than it was portrayed,” says Gloria Navarro, 2009’s Miss Cougar America and figurehead of the first cougar cruise.

She says the cruise activities included fairly typical past times, like pool parties, cocktail hours and a dinner together. The group wore wrist bands identifing themeselves as cougar-friendly while on the ship, she says.

“We had more cubs than cougars,” Thomas says, specifically 200 cubs [the younger men] and 75 cougars. The group had a wide age range, from a 21 year old cub to a 67 year old a cougar.

Thomas says that Carnival Cruise Lines has filed no complaints stemming from Singles Travel Company’s first cougar cruise. She sees their decision to discontinue cougar-themed cruises as more of an image issue.

“I can understand why they would choose to ban cougar cruises after the all the press, but there is a double standard for men and women,” Navarro says. “You see older men with younger women all the time.” 

Norwegian Sky and Royal Caribbean cruise lines are hosting Singles Travel Company’s next two cruises, and according to Thomas, they have not voiced any concerns thus far. 

Thomas says her company’s first cougar cruise was inspired by the large turnout at the first International Cougar Convention, which was held last year in Palo Alto. Navarro was crowned at that event.

“Cougars are strong independent women, who have had their family and maybe even been through a marriage, but are just looking to have fun without the baggage men in our age group tend to have. Cubs [the younger men cougars date] aren’t frat boys, they are typically fresh out of college professionals who aren’t ready for marriage,” says Navarro. 

Navarro, 42, is a business consultant proffesionally and has recently penned a book on the subject of her own cougar-hood. Due to be published in six weeks, ‘‘How to Unleash the Cougar In You’’ will detail how Navarro embraised her inner cougar, and how being crowned 2009’s Miss Cougar America changed her life.

“Now when I meet a guy, I can just tell him to Google me,” Navarro jokes.

She says that the book will be an instructional guide for women like herself, “soccer moms who are looking for adventure and someone fun to share it with.’’

“This isn’t a new thing, Cleopatra was the first cougar. It seems like when I talk to men [about being a cougar] many of them tell me they had a relationship with an older woman at one time. It’s a lot more common than people realize,” Navarro says, adding that she now typically dates men who are between the ages of 27 and 37.

Navarro says she did not meet anyone special on the last Singles Travel Company cougar cruise, but she is still on the prowl and continues to keep an eye out. 

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