Let’s face it. In many households, “golf” is THE four-letter word. It can be embraced by the male, despised by the female. In the man’s perfect world, it would be a shared passion.
In many households, “cruise” can also be a four-letter word, if you know what I mean. It can be embraced by the female, despised by the male. In the woman’s perfect world, it would be a shared passion.
Here’s how you can turn both of them into a three-letter word…YES!
Anybody who has cruised knows that golf is sometimes part of the shore-excursion calendar. Anybody who has cruised also knows that most shore excursions typically run from $40 or $50 per person to $200 — yes, there can be high or low exceptions.
Golf shore excursions is a product cruise lines, more and more, are encouraging with the idea of keeping both halves of the couple happy. Just as an example, Celebrity has a program called Guilt-Free Golf. You get the idea. He plays, while she spas.
Princess Cruises has golf simulators on some ships. Norwegian like Celebrity, is aligned with Elite Golf Cruises…which means a golf academy onboard, golf clinics, rentals and personalized ($$) lessons. Among Royal Caribbean’s tee-time stops are Atlantis (Bahamas) and Dubai.
At what price?
I found packages that ranged from $99 to $320. All include transportation and liability insurance, and most include an on-course guide. Right, somebody to read the greens. The $99 courses were both a little on the short side (6,000 yards or less) and the $320 was Atlantis, where any female worth her shopping genes can easily spend five hours in the complex, spa or not.
Then, for the upscale golfer, there’s the upscale Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines. Joining the golf program, presumably for one cruise, costs $550. To start.
Any golfer who has paid $150 or so to see Mayan ruins, old churches or colonial mansions would probably be thrilled to spend about the same amount, or even a little more, to play golf instead.
But it’s a tough job. Golf opportunities aren’t on every ship, and they’re not always easy to find on a cruise line website. The trick is to find out what cruises have them, which Jack Nicklaus or Robert Trent Jones Jr. course you’d like to play, and then make the sales pitch over a romantic dinner with a nice Bordeaux.
Even if it’s a tough job, maybe it won’t be a tough sell.