A cruise line best known for premium itineraries and onboard dining is now staging professional sports on a private Caribbean island. Holland America Line has partnered with the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour and Major League Pickleball (MLP) to host the first-ever professional pickleball invitational on a private island, set for March 13, 2027, at RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay. The event falls during the line's seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise departing March 7 aboard Nieuw Statendam and marks the private island's 30th anniversary.
The announcement signals how hospitality operators — from cruise lines to resort brands — are weaving competitive sports programming into their guest experience playbooks. Pickleball's rapid rise has made it a reliable draw for leisure travelers, and placing a professional invitational at an exclusive island venue deepens the experiential premium that hospitality brands increasingly use to justify higher price points and drive repeat bookings.
The Countdown Cruises
Before the marquee event, Holland America will run four Countdown Cruises on Caribbean itineraries between November 2026 and January 2027. Each sailing features PPA player appearances alongside structured programming: coffee chats with pros, pickleball-themed trivia, meet-and-greets, onboard lessons, and a pro clinic at RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay itself. The four sailings span multiple ships — Nieuw Amsterdam, Zuiderdam, and Eurodam — covering nine-day and seven-day itineraries across Southern, Western, and Eastern Caribbean routes. Specific player rosters will be announced in coming months.
The format mirrors a growing trend in hospitality where experiential programming is sequenced across multiple touchpoints to build anticipation and loyalty — a strategy increasingly common in food and beverage hospitality programming as operators look to differentiate around content, not just amenity.
Sport Meets Onboard Dining Culture
For foodservice and hospitality professionals, the Holland America model is instructive. The cruise line's existing onboard infrastructure — every ship carries at least one pickleball court with ocean views, provided equipment, and instruction — provides a scalable foundation that the Private Island Invitational layers professional cachet onto. The island's four new pickleball courts were purpose-built for this level of competition.
Kacy Cole, Holland America Line's chief marketing officer, framed the initiative as consistent with the brand's core positioning. "At Holland America Line, we believe experiences are too good to hurry through," she said. "Bringing the first-ever professional pickleball invitational to RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay feels like a perfect fit, combining the excitement of one of the world's fastest-growing sports with the unmatched beauty of one of the Caribbean's most extraordinary islands."
Jacob Cohen, Chief Revenue Officer for PPA and MLP, noted the breadth of the sport's appeal: "Pickleball is a sport that can truly be enjoyed anywhere. We can't think of a better setting for a professional invitational than next to the pristine beaches of this tranquil private island."
For operators tracking experiential hospitality trends, the partnership illustrates how aligning with fast-growing leisure sports can generate incremental booking demand, create media moments, and elevate a property's brand profile — lessons applicable well beyond the cruise sector, from resort F&B directors to private club operators curating programming around emerging guest passions.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
