Pickleball

[craigwitt]

Was just checking to see if anyone has played pickleball on the sports court on any royal Caribbean ships.  We are on the Explorer of the seas this fall and wanted to try to play some.  Any information would be helpful!

 

Thanks Craig R. Witt

[Biker19]

52 minutes ago, craigwitt said:

Any information would be helpful!

Do a search for pickle ball in thread titles and you should find info - likely the ship will have some sessions. 

[Guest maddycat]

We were on the Anthem in Dec. and watched a couple of pickle ball games.  The times were listed in the daily compass.

[Another_Critic]

My brother and I played on Adventure last September.

[arste]

We have played Pickelball on the Brillance, Adventure, Oasis and Allure. 

[njcruisebunny]

We played on the Adventure in May as well.  RCCL personnel didn't know how to play so the participants helped each other out and watched the lines.  It was extremely windy on the ship but we had fun anyway!

[OCruisers]

14 minutes ago, njcruisebunny said:

We played on the Adventure in May as well.  RCCL personnel didn't know how to play so the participants helped each other out and watched the lines.  It was extremely windy on the ship but we had fun anyway!

 

This seems to be the biggest problem ....  It's really up to those who know how to play to help those who don't.  

[FlowBroTy]

Mariner OTS had it and so did Harmony OTS.

[travelbugforever]

I will be on Allure February 16 and would love to play pickleball. Do I need to bring a raquet

and balls?

[arste]

1 hour ago, travelbugforever said:

I will be on Allure February 16 and would love to play pickleball. Do I need to bring a raquet

and balls?

 

We were on the Allure in December.  They do provide paddles and balls.  

However, we always pack our paddles when we cruise.

[travelbugforever]

56 minutes ago, arste said:

 

We were on the Allure in December.  They do provide paddles and balls.  

However, we always pack our paddles when we cruise.

ok, thank you. Are there proper lines on the courts? Thank you in advance.

 

[arste]

55 minutes ago, travelbugforever said:

ok, thank you. Are there proper lines on the courts? Thank you in advance.

 

They have 3 courts lined out where the basketball courts are.  They are enclosed on the sides by glass so you don’t have as much of a wind problem like other ships.  Just make sure you find the sports activity director the first day and tell them you want court time.  That way they will put it on the compass everyday.  People will come. Crowd gets bigger each day.  Have fun!

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, travelbugforever said:

Are there proper lines on the courts?

Not really, you just use lines that are close enough.

[NavyCruiser]

From Galveston, Liberty has PB while Enchantment doesn't.

Played one day on the Liberty last cruise last Nov. 

Ship provided cheap nets, paddles & balls. 

2 courts. 

Court lines are drawn out on the basketball courts.

Nets were cheap & light, kept moving from the high winds.  We had to weigh side posts with more weights.

Courts were next the the Flowrider & Waterslide on high decks, so was pretty windy.

We play at our home club with 8 courts avail, so never a wait.

Used to playing nice friendly PB, but when we showed up at 9am start time, there were already 25+ players playing, 2 courts = 8 players max, so there were plenty of players waiting.  Many hard-core players brought their own paddles. 

There were no staff members to organize PB play.

We didn't know how get in line & got scolded by a PB Nazi because we didn't know that we were supposed to dig through the ship's equip bag & "stack" your paddle to get in the wait line.

There were many skill levels from absolute beginners to hard-core Pros wannabes, so with the high wind it was pretty chaotic play.  So not so fun for us.

We didn't return play any other days, rather wait to play when we get back home.

So not to be critical here, but just wanted to gives u a heads up when u show up for your first PB play onboard...

Have fun!

[travelbugforever]

15 hours ago, arste said:

They have 3 courts lined out where the basketball courts are.  They are enclosed on the sides by glass so you don’t have as much of a wind problem like other ships.  Just make sure you find the sports activity director the first day and tell them you want court time.  That way they will put it on the compass everyday.  People will come. Crowd gets bigger each day.  Have fun!

Ok, thank you for the suggestion and info. The wind could ruin the game. So glad to hear that  the courts are enclosed with the clear glass. I know what to expect now.

[travelbugforever]

11 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

From Galveston, Liberty has PB while Enchantment doesn't.

Played one day on the Liberty last cruise last Nov. 

Ship provided cheap nets, paddles & balls. 

2 courts. 

Court lines are drawn out on the basketball courts.

Nets were cheap & light, kept moving from the high winds.  We had to weigh side posts with more weights.

Courts were next the the Flowrider & Waterslide on high decks, so was pretty windy.

We play at our home club with 8 courts avail, so never a wait.

Used to playing nice friendly PB, but when we showed up at 9am start time, there were already 25+ players playing, 2 courts = 8 players max, so there were plenty of players waiting.  Many hard-core players brought their own paddles. 

There were no staff members to organize PB play.

We didn't know how get in line & got scolded by a PB Nazi because we didn't know that we were supposed to dig through the ship's equip bag & "stack" your paddle to get in the wait line.

There were many skill levels from absolute beginners to hard-core Pros wannabes, so with the high wind it was pretty chaotic play.  So not so fun for us.

We didn't return play any other days, rather wait to play when we get back home.

So not to be critical here, but just wanted to gives u a heads up when u show up for your first PB play onboard...

Have fun!

Geez, sounds like a terrible experience. I would have been disappointed. Someone should be there to keep track of the players and really try to organize by experience. I will be on Allure and observe before playing if it sounds similar to this. Thanks for your info.

[travelbugforever]

15 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Not really, you just use lines that are close enough.

Okay, thank you.

[travelbugforever]

17 hours ago, arste said:

 

We were on the Allure in December.  They do provide paddles and balls.  

However, we always pack our paddles when we cruise.

Okay, I will pack mine also. Thank you.

[NavyCruiser]

4 hours ago, travelbugforever said:

Geez, sounds like a terrible experience. I would have been disappointed. Someone should be there to keep track of the players and really try to organize by experience. I will be on Allure and observe before playing if it sounds similar to this. Thanks for your info.

 

Sorry, didn't want to sound so negative, but just sharing an observation.

99% of the people were very nice, but only takes One know-it-all to ruin it for everyone else...

Here's some suggestions to make it a more enjoyable:

- Ship can spare at least One staff member to keep this organized.  We've shown up to ping-pong play where there's 2 or 3 people & staff member is avail, so if 20+ people show up for PB play, ship can afford to have One staff member there, who can organize different skill levels, ie: beginners, moderates, & wanna-be pros, so that 5.0 players won't be slamming the newbies off the court, & organize who's playing next ... etc.

- Enclose the open area with tennis-court wind screens

- Permanent court lines with painted-in kitchen area

- Have open play times while in port also, when there's less or no wind, rather than just sea days

 

[travelbugforever]

18 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

 

Sorry, didn't want to sound so negative, but just sharing an observation.

99% of the people were very nice, but only takes One know-it-all to ruin it for everyone else...

Here's some suggestions to make it a more enjoyable:

- Ship can spare at least One staff member to keep this organized.  We've shown up to ping-pong play where there's 2 or 3 people & staff member is avail, so if 20+ people show up for PB play, ship can afford to have One staff member there, who can organize different skill levels, ie: beginners, moderates, & wanna-be pros, so that 5.0 players won't be slamming the newbies off the court, & organize who's playing next ... etc.

- Enclose the open area with tennis-court wind screens

- Permanent court lines with painted-in kitchen area

- Have open play times while in port also, when there's less or no wind, rather than just sea days

 

I agree with all of your suggestions! Hopefully, someone at RCCL will read this and take your advice.