Sports and other Competitions aboard the Ships

Cruising is a great way to get away from all the cares of daily life at home. However all aspects of home are not lost while on vacation. Aside from lots of good food, you can participate in many sporting events while on the cruise. Some of these are individual sports while others are team sports. These sporting activities can be just for the fun of it or competitive in tournaments that last just a couple hours or thru the entire cruise.

Often there will be shuffleboard tournaments, mini-golf tournaments, table tennis tournaments, volleyball tournaments, and at times dodge ball tournaments. To some extent what is offered is partly based on the demographics of the passengers aboard the cruise. I find on cruises with younger overall populations the team competitions are more intense and frequent.

On Royal Caribbean in particular I’ve seen competitions for speed climbing the rock wall as well as surfing competitions. Rock walls are aboard all of their ships while the “flow-riders” are only on Freedom Class and larger ships.  Allure and Oasis are equipped with two each allowing one to be just for stand-up riding with the other dedicated to lay down surfing. (I really enjoyed it when I tried it in July 2011.)

Aside from the physically demanding sports competitions you will find other competitions aboard the ships. One where you will often find many are trivia competitions. Often they are a great place to meet other cruisers.  Aside from trivia there may be sign making contests, karaoke contests and many other ways for both individuals and teams to win particular events.  These are all set up to be fun for both the participants and spectators. Karaoke in particular is set up to be entertaining for large gatherings of people, not just the participants.

The competitions are typically all free to enter and often have trinket prices given to the winners.  Thus, it is worth trying one out yourself and seeing if you really enjoy them. When you find one you like, use it as an ice breaker on future cruises to meet someone new.