TT on Cruise Ship

I spent 15 days cruising from LA to Hawaii and back on Sapphire Princess. This is the first ship I cruised where ping pong tables were in enclosed area and there was no sea breeze. On other ships, the tables were outside the deck and wind was blowing. Apparently ping pong players knew about this nice location of the tables that there were enough ping pong players who brought their own paddles.

There was TT tournament everyday at 9:30am. The prize was a water bottle each day at sea and a deck of cards when it was "shore" day.We had to use the ship's hardbats for tournaments.    I brought my own hardbat but I had to use the ship's hardbat. No matter what, after the ship's all other activities, there was always time for ping pong, which other ships couldn't offer. I practiced with a 2000 player everyday for one hour and also played with others who brought their own paddles. I also got to practice with my own hardbat with others.

I also heard Diamond Princess had the same built for ping pong area.

I share this so ping pong players will cruise on ships with good ping pong area and hopefully the demand for table tennis play will cause the cruise ship companies to pay attention to where ping pong tables should be placed. Obviously, having the opportunity to play ping pong is very important to me.

This interests me.   I thought that cruises and ping pong were incompatible because of the breeze.  What is wrong with the ships hard bats?  Won't they accept a hard bat that meets the specification of hardhat.org?

Edited by tt4me - 12/23/2013 at 3:04am

I cruised on Celebrity Silhouette last year. They have indoor table tennis tournaments(double & single) almost everyday. You can use your own paddles. I played with guys using pips, j-pen and c-pen there. It's a lot of fun.

Edited by chroot - 12/23/2013 at 11:16am

Several years ago I cruised on Carnaval Jubalee to Mexico. They had 2 tournaments. Since that was my first cruise I brought my sponge bat and soon realized none of my shots where landing. The tournament was outside with an overhead awning. I noticed everyone else was using hardbats..so I was surprised at this. I soon realized why everyone was using hardbats. It seems inverted rubber and sea mist do not mix lol. Thank goodness I had brought my Hock also and went on to win 2nd place in the first tourney and 3rd in the second.

Love those double handed backhands...

what happens if ball falls in the sea, who's point is it?
does the captain stop the boat to pick ball?

if you're gonna dive and retrieve the ball you will end up shouting "let!" 2-3x before hitting the water  

I've been on Royal Caribbean and Carnival, and both of the cruise ships had enclosed areas in which to play. Royal Caribbean had a tournament, which required you to use the house equipment. I didn't mind that at all. Carnival just had a few tables with folks casually playing.