Holland America leading the way in adding the sport to cruise ships
USA Today.com/The Arizona Republic — April 1, 2018
SOUTH CHINA SEA – Pickleball, one of the fastest growing sports in America, is now starting to make a splash on the high seas.
Pickleball paddles and ball on the Holland America Volendam.
The sport, hugely popular in Arizona, especially in active-retirement communities, has recently been added to the stable of sports offered on all 14 of Holland America’s ships. And the line’s newest ship, the Nieuw Statendam, which debuts next December, will feature the game as well.
Other cruise lines, including Princess and Regent Seven Seas, also have added pickleball to some of their ships.
And resorts in warm-weather destinations also are getting in on the action. (See link: https://danfellner.com/2022/10/07/pickleball-in-the-caribbean/).
Pickleball is a racket sport that combines elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. Paddles are made of wood or composite materials; the ball resembles a wiffleball. The sport can be played with either two or four players, although doubles is far more common.
A pickleball game on the Volendam.
Pickleball was invented in the 1960s in Washington state, but only recently has seen a huge growth in popularity; it now routinely attracts more players than tennis in 55+-housing developments. In fact, the U.S.A. Pickleball Association (USAPA), which is headquartered in Surprise, calls it “the fastest growing sport in North America.”
Erik Elvejord, Holland America’s director of public relations, says adding pickleball to the company’s ships was a no-brainer “because of many requests we were getting from guests.”
As an avid pickleball player myself, I was pleasantly surprised to see “meet for a game of pickleball” in the daily program on the first day of a recent 14-day Asian cruise on the Holland America Volendam.
I quickly ventured up to the ship’s sports deck and saw that Holland America had retrofitted a court that formerly had been used for mini-tennis to pickleball. The costs for the cruise line were minimal – put down some yellow lines on the court, buy paddles and balls, and lower the tennis net a few inches. The courts are surrounded with netting to keep stray balls from landing in the ocean.
The nets may not quite be to exact specifications and the swirling winds can blow a well-executed shot off course. But despite some of the onboard challenges, I was delighted – after years of cruising — to finally have the chance to experience the game at sea while working off a few extra calories from the Volendam’s overly tempting desserts in the process.
The Holland America Volendam docked in Shanghai, China
Jack Thomas, the national president of the USAPA and a Scottsdale resident, says it’s about time cruise lines started hopping on the pickleball bandwagon.
“I think the cruise industry has figured out that pickleball is a very inexpensive way to attract and entertain their passengers and will soon become a must-have onboard activity,” he says. “It is super easy to learn to play, great fun for all ages and creates camaraderie among fellow shipmates.”
Tino Carrillo, the Volendam’s assistant cruise director who overseas all of the ship’s onboard sports – table tennis, shuffleboard, basketball, and pickleball – says the latter has been a hit with the ship’s mostly older clientele.
“You typically play doubles, so it’s less tiring than some other sports,” he says. “It’s more accessible for everybody. It’s something fresh and new that more and more people are enjoying playing.”
This particular sailing of the Volendam started in Hong Kong and ended in Shanghai, with stops along the way in the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.
Many of the ship’s nearly 1,400 passengers – representing 34 countries – had never heard of the sport. But there was a hardcore group of pickleball fanatics who would show up on sea days for open play or tournaments. And some passengers came out of curiosity to check out a game they knew only for its rather peculiar name.
“My wife and I are in the early stages of planning our first cruise adventure,” says the USAPA’s Thomas. “We are not even considering ships without pickleball.”
Shanghai’s impressive skyline at sunrise.
© 2018 Dan Fellner
