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First a cruise for swingers. Now a voyage for . . . cougars.That’s right, a bit of naughtiness will be hitting the high seas in December as what’s billed as the first “cougar cruise” sets sail out of San Diego.Los Gatos, Calif.-based Singles Travel Company and singles group The Society of Single Professionals are co-sponsoring the three-night escapade aboard a Carnival ship, which is aimed at older woman who pursue younger men — or “cougars,” in contemporary lingo.The International Cougar Cruise, as it’s being called, kicks off Dec. 4 on the Carnival Elation and will include a single stop in Ensenada, Mexico. Prices begin at $125 per person, based on double occupancy and not including port charges and government fees.Singles Travel Company promises three days of singles meet-ups, dancing and “partying” that draws its inspiration from Valerie Gibson’s 2001 book Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men — a pitch that’s filled with innuendo. As the firm notes in a press release, a cougar “knows exactly what she wants,” the book says, and “what she doesn’t want is children, cohabitation or commitment.”Singles Travel Company executive director Ann Thomas notes 2009 is “the year of the cougar,” according to a recent story in Newsweek. The term is going ever more mainstream with TV shows like Courteney Cox’s soon-to-debut Cougar Town on ABC and the Bachelor-like reality dating show The Cougar.The voyage will be headlined by Miss Cougar America 2009, Gloria Navarro, crowned at the recent National Single Cougars Convention in Palo Alto, Calif.

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