Love Cruise has become the industry standard for .............. on cruise ships due to their famous theatric performances.
Hãy suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
sau giới từ thì dùng N hoặc Ving
Love Cruise đã trơ thành chuẩn công nghiệp cho việc giải trí về dù thuyền vì những màn trình diễn sân khấu nổi tiếng của họ.
Câu hỏi liên quan
Larry finally ______ to quit the job.
Choose the best answer among A, B, C or D that best completes each sentence: Before he passed away. He had already _____ the success of his children.
You must ______ at home.
Choose the best answer: When Tet holiday comes, Vietnamese people often feel inclined to ...........their houses.
Choose the correct answer in each sentence.
------- students have requested on- campus housing, they must wait at least a month for an official response.
Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentence below: "The advances in robotics make it clear that many household choreswill be easily handled by a robot in the near future," says Bob Christopher, who works for a robotic technology company that is marketing a toy robot _____ Pleo.
He showed me a photo of the museum _________ I had visited some months before.
Choose the best answer.
We’ll buy a smaller house when the children have grown _______ and left home.
The CEO is ___________ in the office but communicates with his staff through frequent e-mails.
Choose the best answer: She’s used to ____________ late at night.
Choose the best one (A, B, C or D) to complete the sentence
There has been an increase in job ____, which is when two people agree to divide a full-time job into part-time jobs.
My application was not successful; there were more than 4,000 applicants and only 20 were selected. I realized that apprenticeship were very ____.
Find out the synonym of the underlined word from the options below
Domestic chores will no longer be a burden thanks to the inventions of laborsaving devices.
Favera Pharmaceuticals sales representatives must keep careful ................ of samples distributed and orders taken from physicians and clinics.
The new management recognized the importance of this business decision and ................... reorganized operational procedures.
They advised me _____ visiting the troubled south of the country.
If coming from Salt Lake City, take the Bonneville Speedway, ................ is the first exit west of the rest area.
These employees are made ------- overtime.
The meeting has been put _____ to Friday as so many people have got the flu.
There is a strong movement supporting the abolition of the death_____ .
TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO
Lý thuyết Sinh học lớp 11 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Lý thuyết Hoá học lớp 10 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Hướng dẫn giải SGK, SBT, nâng cao Lý 10 đẩy đủ
Lý thuyết Toán lớp 10 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Hướng dẫn giải SGK, SBT, nâng cao Lý 11 đẩy đủ
Hướng dẫn giải SGK, SBT, nâng cao Toán 10 đẩy đủ
Lý thuyết Vật lý lớp 11 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Lý thuyết Sinh học lớp 10 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Lý thuyết Vật lý lớp 10 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Lý thuyết Hoá học lớp 11 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Hướng dẫn giải SGK, SBT, nâng cao Toán 11 đẩy đủ
Lý thuyết Toán lớp 11 theo chuyên đề và bài học
Striking photos show just how much cruise ships have evolved during the last century
- A hundred years ago, the idea of taking a transatlantic voyage solely for pleasure was unheard of.
- In 2019, cruise ships carried nearly 30 million passengers across dozens of lines.
- From ship size to onboard entertainment, here's how cruising has changed over time.
In the 19th century, the idea of "cruising," or traveling by sea for leisure as opposed to necessity, was a strange one.
Some credit the origin story of the cruise to American writer Mark Twain, who chronicled his "Great Pleasure Excursion" onboard the Quaker City steamship in his 1869 book "The Innocents Abroad."
Source: New York Historical Society
Along with 73 fellow passengers, Twain set off on a five-month journey from New York City to Europe and Jerusalem, for a price of $1,250 per person.
Source: The Southern Literary Journal
While this may have been the first time the notion of cruising entered the zeitgeist, the world had yet to see its first cruise ship intentionally constructed for leisurely sea travel.
The world's first cruise ship is considered to have been the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, created by German Jewish shipping executive Albert Ballin.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
Not everyone was a believer, with one colleague warning Ballin that travelers "would surely not submit themselves to the hazards and discomforts of a long voyage just for the incidental fun of it."
The 407-foot Prinzessin Victoria Luise was designed in par with Europe's luxury hotels, with amenities including a ballroom, gymnasium, dining hall, library, and an art gallery ...
... plus 120 first-class staterooms.
In 1900, the ship embarked on its maiden voyage, a 35-day cruise in from Germany to Venezuela and the West Indies. Later itineraries included trips to the Baltic Seas, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean.
The oldest cruise line still in existence today is P&O Cruises, which launched its first "pleasure cruise" in 1904: a retrofitted mail steamer renamed the Vectis.
Source: P&O cruises
The White Star Line, another major player in the early days of cruising, built three luxury cruise ships a few years later: the Olympic, Britannic, and the ill-fated Titanic.
In 1912, The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built, with a passenger capacity of 2,435 people — but we all know the end of that story.
Source: History.com
The sinking of the Titanic was one of the deadliest civilian maritime incidents in history, prompting a wave of safety regulations.
Source: NOAA.gov
The industry barely held on during The Great Depression and World War II, but experienced a resurgence during the economic boom of the 1950s.
The first-class sections of early cruise ships featured lavish interiors ...
... with relatively spacious first-class cabins (especially compared to the bunk rooms on the lower decks).
Unlike today's hectic cruise buffets, dining on the ship was a special occasion — and one to dress up for.
Instead of arcades and waterslides, passengers entertained themselves with games like golf ...
... boxing ...
... and tennis.
Even some of the earliest ships had pools on deck, though much smaller (and dirtier) than any you'll find on today's cruises.
Sunbathing has endured as a popular cruise-goer pass time ...
... though "electric light baths," an early version of the tanning bed, has not.
As for nightlife, the ballroom was the place to be.
In the late 1950s, the rise of affordable plane travel momentarily slowed the cruise business — only to later aid the industry by making major ports more accessible.
But perhaps the biggest turning point for the cruise industry was the hit-show "Love Boat" set onboard Princess Cruises.
Source: CNN Travel
The series, which aired from 1977 to 1986, helped expand cruising's customer base beyond just newlyweds and retirees, CNN reported.
Between when the show first aired and the late 1990s, the number of cruise-goers had multiplied ten-fold, according to the outlet.
Source: CNN
From then on, the ships just kept getting bigger. In 1988, Royal Caribbean launched the Sovereign of the Seas, frequently cited as the world's first "mega ship" at 73,000 tons.
Source: The Points Guy
The cruise touted two pools, a casino and nightclub, multiple restaurants, plus a theater and concert venue.
The wow-factor amenities onboard the so-called "floating hotels" set the stage for modern-day cruising, where the ship is as much of a destination as the ports.
Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise operator, acquired several smaller lines throughout its history, including Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises, Holland American Line, and Cunard.
Source: Carnival
Carnival was the first cruise line to add water slides to its ships, with the industry's first "substantial" waterslide of 115 feet debuting on the Carnival Fantasy in 1990, according to The Points Guy.
But it was Disney who "changed the game" for onboard amenities when it debuted its first cruise ship in 1998, Joe Kleiman of InPark Magazine told Condé Nast Traveler.
Source: Condé Nast Traveler
Between 2009 and 2019, the number of people going on cruises steadily increased each year from 17.8 million to 29.7 million, according to Statista— until COVID sent those numbers crashing down.
Source: Statista, Cruise Lines International Association
Today, major cruise lines are returning back toward pre-pandemic booking levels, with Royal Caribbean announcing its single largest booking day in 53 years on Black Friday.
Source: Royal Caribbean
As the industry grows, so do the ships. Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas setting sail in 2024 will have a whopping 20 decks and measure 1,198 feet — making it the largest cruise ship in the world.
Source: Insider
Correction: March 13, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated details about the acquisition of P&O Princess. The cruise line merged with Carnival, not Royal Caribbean.
- Main content
This is the announcement bar for Poornima to test the Close Button. It will expire May 31 2024.
- Pre-Cruise FAQ
- Onboard FAQ
- Post-Cruise FAQ
- Cruisetours FAQ
- Special Offers Sign Up
- Cruise Deals
You have been logged out
Your window will update in 5 secs
Princess Cruises and “The Love Boat” Connection
By downloading this image you agree to the Princess asset use terms and conditions
It all began in the mid-70s when television producer Douglas S. Cramer, who had created the popular television series “Love American Style,” decided to shift his popular comedy vignette series from its studio setting to the decks and vacation venues of a (then) modern cruise ship. The resulting television show, “The Love Boat” has been widely credited with introducing millions of viewers to the concept of contemporary cruise vacations and leading to dramatic expansion of the industry and its global success.
Originally, in searching out a location for the movie pilot of what was to become his Love Boat television series, Cramer found the ideal setting with a cruise line that just happened to operate from its world headquarters in Los Angeles known globally today as Princess Cruises.
After the 1977 pilot show, which was shot aboard the line's original Sun Princess in Mexico, Cramer teamed up with top television producer Aaron Spelling and the rest is history. “The Love Boat” went on to realize phenomenal success, continuing for 10 seasons until 1987 as one of the highest-rated prime-time television shows in the country. Princess Cruises soon became a household name as the primary setting and ocean-going co-star of the popular series and continues to be known as the "Love Boat" cruise line to this day. With ships Pacific Princess and Island Princess the original floating stars of the show, “The Love Boat” was filmed aboard many Princess ships in exotic destinations around the globe. The show, often the catalyst for introducing American viewers to destinations like Sydney, Australia and Opera House, the Great Wall of China, the Acropolis in Athens Greece. Occasional Love Boat television specials have been filmed since the show stopped production.
Actor Gavin MacLeod (Captain Merrill Stubing) remained an enthusiastic fan of cruising while serving as the spokesperson for Princess Cruises for more than 35 years (1986-2021), making him the longest-serving celebrity spokesperson in brand partnership history. Actress Jill Whelan (Vicki Stubing) continues to serve as Celebrations Ambassador and spokesperson for the cruise line.
In 1997, ten years after the show ended its original run, all six original Love Boat cast members -- Gavin MacLeod (Captain Stubing) , Fred Grandy (Yeoman Purser, Burl ‘Gopher’ Smith) , Ted Lange (Isaac ‘The Bartender’ Washington), Bernie Kopell (Adam ‘Doc’ Bricker), Lauren Tewes (Julie McCoy, Your Cruise Director) and Jill Whelan (Vicki Stubing, The Captain’s Daughter) -- reunited for the first time in more than a decade for the official naming ceremony and christening of Dawn Princess in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In 1998 “The Love Boat” popularity was revived with a new version of the show introduced by Spelling Television. “Love Boat: The Next Wave,” which ran for two seasons on the UPN network, was also set aboard a Princess ship, the line's new Sun Princess. A new cast of characters served as the Sun Princess officers and crew -- including Robert Urich as Captain Jim Kennedy -- and following the original show's format, a series of guest stars joined the cast each week as cruise vacation guests.
The original cast also came together again in 2014, to kick off the 50th anniversary of Princess Cruises by officially naming and christening the new Regal Princess cruise ship in a star-studded event also featuring 25 guest stars from the show, including Charo, Florence Henderson, Marion Ross, Doris Roberts, Diane Ladd, Loni Anderson and Jamie Farr, to name a few. The cast continued to celebrate the golden anniversary of Princess and cruised down Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, California on the bow of a modern Princess cruise ship float in the iconic Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in 2015.
In May 2018, the six cast members of “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises received an honorary star plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of their contributions to the history of television and support of the preservation of the Walk of Fame.
The original “Love Boat” series is currently in worldwide syndication, having been translated into more than 29 different languages, and is viewed by millions of fans in more than 93 countries.
Media Contacts
Contact information for members of the media
Media Relations Department, Princess Cruises 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355
Phone : 1 661 753 1530 Email : [email protected]
Not a member of the media?
Contact us at: 1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237) or 1-661-753-0000
More contact information is available on our Contact Us page
To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories
Why the cruise ship industry is booming again
By Andy Mitten
In April, the largest cruise ship ever built – Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas – pulled into Barcelona’s harbour, Europe’s biggest cruise port, for its inaugural European voyages. It was April that hotel stays rose to 90 per cent of 2019’s figures, with more than 1.6 million visitors – and with it a resumption of conversation about overtourism. Barcelona was full of tourists again.
“2019 was the best ever year for the cruise industry , but then covid struck and it was disastrous,” explains cruise industry executive Mark Robinson. “It paralysed the cruise industry even more than the airline industry when all ships stopped sailing. The industry had a lot of bad press because of covid cases on ships early on in the outbreak and countries were very strict on their rules and regulations not allowing guests to disembark the ships.”
Giant vessels were laid up in port or in Weymouth’s natural harbour, which hadn’t seen so much action since D-Day.
“We paused cruising in March 2020,” one of Royal Caribbean’s executives tells GQ . “We couldn’t think of a worst possible situation.” Like other cruise lines, they had to get all their staff back to the four corners of the world, where every country had its own set of rules “and then bring them all back.”
Not everyone is happy cruises are back
Today, 99 percent of the world’s cruise ships are sailing again, the cruise ship industry is buoyant and demand high, but the rebound in tourism, including cruising, is not without contention. In Barcelona, protest group ABDT is campaigning for a “diversified economic model of tourism based on the needs of the population”. Advocates point out that it’s sad that people from Barcelona don’t visit the city’s main Rambla thoroughfare and ABDT wants to stop plans to increase the airport infrastructure (El Prat was Europe’s sixth biggest airport in 2019) and phase out cruise tourism. They claim the ships cause pollution, that passengers only spend a few hours in the city and don’t drink or eat at local restaurants.
“There are thousands who arrive at once,” says Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau. “Most of them just stay for a few hours and are highly concentrated in the downtown area. They generate a feeling of collapse.”
Like Palma in Mallorca, Venice , Dublin and Santorini, Barcelona is considering limiting the number of ships that dock to three a day from Europe’s busiest cruise terminal, with 3.2 million passengers in 2019. Palma is now limiting access to three ships, with only one having a capacity of more than 5,000. It’s restrictive and the cruise industry strongly refutes the allegations against it.
“Passengers in transit – when the ship calls for a day in port – have an average spend of $80-100 each,” Robinson tells GQ . “They bring money and create jobs. And you can have a crew of 2,000, too, all of them pumping money into the cities they visit. They support infrastructure and jobs. Then you have the turnaround passengers, who spend an average of $200 per day as they come in the day before on pre cruise breaks or stay on post cruise breaks when they disembark. Only 4 percent of Barcelona’s tourists came from cruise ships. It’s the tourists who come for the weekend on stag and hen dos that are harming Barcelona, not cruise passengers in the past.”
By Oren Hartov
By Cam Wolf
By Jack King
Robinson is more than happy to fight his industry’s corner.
“They talk about pollution but the smoke you see coming from the ships is clean smoke,” he says. “There’s liquid nitrogen gas operating on some ships and the industry is investing millions into making its ships more sustainable with scrubber systems and enhancements to produce cleaner energy and many ports are looking at or have implemented shore power to minimise emissions and reduce fuel burn. The energy efficiency has never been better and it gets better.”
Flexibility is key
Cruising’s popularity can breed contempt, though. In 2019, Amsterdam ’s mayor put the head tax up from $2 to 12 per cruise passenger. Cruise lines pulled out and went to Rotterdam, only an hour’s drive away.
“They’re moveable assets, but it’s true that you also need big name ports in the itineraries,” says Robinson. “There are other options to Barcelona – Tarragona 100kms to the south could be one.”
Being moveable means being adaptable. Russia’s St Petersburg is off itineraries for now, much of the Black Sea too, but the industry isn’t dependent on one market nor destination. Favourites prevail though. In May, 125 ships docked in Barcelona, the biggest being Wonder of the Seas lined on the other side of the hill of Montjuic to Barcelona.
GQ went on board, kids in tow, for an inaugural European sailing ahead of the season. A lot of the big ships come to Europe in April until October, then the Caribbean for November to March.
We spend a couple of days in Med outside Barcelona harbour to see the ship which can hold 6,988 passengers and 2,300 international crew. Boasting 18 decks and weighing 236,857 tonnes, the statistics are mind blowing: 19 swimming pools, more than 40 bars and restaurants, 2,874 cabins. There’s a 600-metre running track, basketball court, surf machine, rocking climbing wall and a zipline across the interior of the ship. It’s a floating resort.
Wonder is one of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class ships. Its construction is a calculated punt on an optimistic future for what’s still a nascent, growing, industry. Wonder was also built with the Chinese/Asian market in mind, with a vast casino, a climatisation solarium for the humidity of Asian seas, but what about the British market?
The average age of cruisers
In 2009 when this writer last went on a cruise, the average age of cruisers was 71 but the demographics are changing and they’re a good value family option for a holiday – the cost-of-living crisis could help since cruising is competitive. While the most expensive suites, vast luxurious apartments with three terraces, can cost $30,000 per week during peak season, you can easily work on cruising costing £100 a day – and that can including a decent cabin, including food and drinks. As lockdowns ease, there has been a surge in people wanting to do vacations with family after lockdowns – there’s plenty to do for different age groups. Royal Caribbean are expecting 100 percent occupancy this year. And how the industry needs it.
2021 saw the industry start breathing again. Singapore opened cruising for locals – cruises to nowhere for three or four nights. All passengers were in a bubble. In the UK, domestic cruising boomed. Passengers from London, who may not have visited Belfast, Edinburgh, or Newcastle, did so via round the UK cruises and enjoyed them.
In 2022, cruising is almost back to normal.
“Some passengers are still nervous about Covid, though that should fade,” says Robinson. “And the market should continue to grow because cruising is such good value. You get shows included for all the family which would easily cost £50 each in a theatre.
“You can cruise for £100 a day all included, which is fantastic value for families and multi-generational groups – there’s something for all ages.”
Hygiene is a priority on board.
“Washy, washy before yummy, yummy,” explains a friendly staffer as we enter the main dining hall, with a row of sinks to the right.
What’s life like on board?
In the karaoke bar, a pensioner from Texas proudly wears his ‘platinum’ badge for being such a regular cruiser before he gently sings a Cure number. There are discos, sports bars as well as shows aplenty.
It's kid-friendly too with attractions like the Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea which plummets 10-storeys, and the Social 100 – a place just for teens to hang out. There are shows too, which would indeed cost a fortune to take a family to see in a theatre. The ship has several theatres, the biggest seating 1,200. There are water shows in the Aqua Theatre at the back of the ship, tribute bands, comedians and a ‘neighbourhood’ called Central Park which has 20,000 plants and feels nothing like any conventional neighbourhood because you’re on a ship. There are eight ‘neighbourhoods’ in total, a way to break the ship up so people don’t get lost.
The captain's social responsibilities
Wonder's captain is a man with a lot of responsibility and enthusiasm for his new toy.
“The way the hull is shaped means the energy efficiency is tremendous, it glides,” he says, explaining an air lubrication system which bubbles under the hull. “When we switch them on we see the speed increase.”
There’s strong pent-up demand after two years of restrictions, a strong variety of options too.
“There’s three main segments in the cruise industry,” Robinson continues. “Companies like Royal Caribbean or Carnival aiming at families with the big ships; then there are smaller, more bespoke luxury ships with up to 500 people with an older demographic, though LGBT is growing on the luxury vessels and attracting a younger crowd. You also have luxury expedition ships operating for Antarctica for example where Robinson’s company Scenic Cruises and Luxury Tours operate.
“The third segment is river ships for cruises – on the Rhine or Danube for example. Passengers fly into a great European city, have a few days there and then get on a river ship. All three segments are really growing.”
Royal Caribbean is the largest cruise brand and they even have an island called CocoCay, in the Bahamas. Carnival corporation, another US giant, has various brands while Norwegian Cruise Lines and Italian company MSC are the third biggest operators, each with their own sub-brands. All are growing, MSC adds two ships per year with ten on order.
“They’re building fantastic ships, just like the Wonder is a fantastic ship,” says Robinson. “There’s more capacity and more awareness of cruising. If you’ve not done it you need to try it.”
More from GQ
The Husband: Richard Ratcliffe on the long fight to bring his family back together
The story of a man’s face
11 artists and activists on the state of trans rights around the globe
From Freddie to Heartstopper : GQ writers pick their landmark British queer cultural moments
By Murray Clark
By Andy Black
By Adam Cheung
By Lucy Ford
‘The Love Boat’: How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN • Published 23rd May 2022
(CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed. Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997.So what brought about this sudden surge in interest? According to industry experts, it was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune. “Come aboard, we’re expecting you! “Produced by TV legend Aaron Spelling, “The Love Boat” first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade long run. The program, which is still available on streaming services such as Paramount Plus, partnered with Princess Cruises , and episodes were filmed aboard various Princess Cruise ships, the Pacific Princess and Island Princess being the most noted.
‘Greatest product placement’
It’s spawned various spin-offs. The latest, reality dating competition show “The Real Love Boat,” will be filmed on board a Princess Cruise ship, just like the original show, and is due to air on CBS later this year. Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode. The show has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers. “‘The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” says Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise. “Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it. “Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC. “So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed. “Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list. “They [the passengers] would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show. “They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. They [the episodes] were like small movies.”
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service. However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show. “It [the show] did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal. “So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
“That [becoming an extra on a popular TV show] certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people. “Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.”Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego. During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship. “It [Royal Princess] had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds. As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern day cruise ships. Outlandish musical performances were often featured on the “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers. During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together. “It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat. “”And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater. “Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans. This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years. “Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state of the art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships. “The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic. “”For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds. “They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things. “Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen. “It [the show] bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].”It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.” “The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship — the couple even got engaged on a cruise — believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity. “They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says. “The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are. “Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises , with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests. The next one is scheduled for October 2022, sailing from Los Angeles to Mexico. “People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego, who’s due to attend the upcoming reunion. “They [the cast] sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day. “MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.”People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015 .
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry. “Now a billion dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.” There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world. More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s , with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show. Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year. At present, Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas , an 18-deck cruise ship that has capacity for 6,988 guests and 2,300 crew members, is the current record holder for world’s biggest ship. While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, and the past two years have been shaky, things are looking up once again. Last month, leading global cruise industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association, announced that 75% of its member ships had already returned to service, and nearly all were forecast to be back by late summer.
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShip Cinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships. “Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive. “They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats. “However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat style cruising experience. Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small ship cruise line Viking, and will be setting off on a world cruise in January 2023.”We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on smaller ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
New chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped i n recent years. Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship. He hopes to bring some of the items onto the “The Love Boat” reunion cruise this fall so that the fans on board “can have a tactile connection with the original ships. “Later this year, “The Real Love Boat” will see another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, take center stage in a TV show, albeit on a very different format. “It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown says of the upcoming series, albeit noting that a reality show is “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show. “It’s good for all of cruise, because it tells a different story. It tells a fun and romantic story. “ Top image: “Love Boat” cast members, from left, Ted Lange, Gavin MacLeod, Jill Whelan, Bernie Kopell, Lauren Tewes and Fred Grandy. Credit: TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
- Skip to primary navigation
- Skip to main content
- Skip to primary sidebar
- Skip to footer
TravelAwaits
Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler who's ready to cross a few items off their bucket list.
Cruising Into 2024: Trends Shaping the Cruise Industry
- Destinations
Let’s start our discussion of 2024 cruise trends with the inevitable announcement of the “Biggest Cruise Ship Ever.”
This trend has been dutifully proclaimed every year since at least 1988, when Royal Caribbean debuted what then seemed to be the impossibly huge, 2,800-passenger Sovereign of the Seas .
And this year’s gigundo-rama cruise ship prize goes to . . . Royal Caribbean once again, whose Icon of the Seas is, once again, impossibly huge. It carries 7,600 passengers, making its population larger than Sausalito, California’s. It has the biggest water park, water slide, ice arena, pool, and waterfall of any cruise ship. It has 20 decks. It has 20 restaurants. Its accommodations include townhouses.
The ship’s population is so large, says Peter Greenberg, travel editor of CBS News and author of the book Cruise, Inc. , that “it might have its own high-crime zone.” He says he’s kidding (sort of).
Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer of Cruise Media, publisher of CruiseBusiness.com, points out that Icon is only 10 feet longer than the previous record holder (Royal Caribbean’s own Wonder of the Seas , as it happens).
And, more to the point, she says, increasing ship capacity is not the most important trend in the cruise industry.
So what are the major cruise trends of 2024? Read on.
The Ships Are Full—With Younger People
Chris Gray Faust, executive editor of the website CruiseCritic, says ships of all sizes are full. The industry is claiming bookings at nearly 100% capacity and surpassing the pre-pandemic peaks of 2019 .
Therefore, don’t expect deals in 2024 based on cruise lines needing to fill empty cabins.
And it’s not just baby boomers filling the berths. The cruise customer is now younger than ever. “Believe it or not, the average age of a cruiser is now 46,” Gray Faust says. “It’s a common misperception that it’s only something for older people.”
Yes, but older people are still implicated, in the form of their role in multi-generational cruises, which are expected to continue rising into 2024. Cruises are particularly well suited to mixed-age groups, Gray Faust says. “You’ll see everybody from grandparents to babies all traveling together, and there’s something for everyone to do on the ship. Grandma may be paying the bill, but the whole family is cruising.”
As it happens, Icon of the Seas is intended to accommodate families, with many cabins set up for more than two passengers by design. That makes it and its megaship peers with similar designs good choices for multi-generational trips.
“Grandma may be paying the bill, but the whole family is cruising.” –Chris Gray Faust
Ships Go Nearly Everywhere
“Back in the ‘70s, the days of The Love Boat , you had, what, maybe seven ports for cruise ships worldwide, mostly in the Caribbean,” Peter Greenberg says. “You’re now seeing 1,200 ports of call.”
In 2024, cruise ships of various sizes ply all seven seas, the rivers of Europe, the islands of the Pacific, the fjords of Scandinavia, the coasts of Central and South America, and the ports of the Middle East.
“Last summer, I was on a Viking ship,” Greenberg says. “Where did we start from? Milwaukee. And what did we do? The Great Lakes . Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, we wound up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It was phenomenal. A cruise ship would never have done that 10 years ago.”
Greenberg points out that cruise ships now drop anchor in St. Helena —an island in the South Atlantic so remote that it’s where the British exiled Napoleon after he escaped from Elba and started all that unpleasantness at Waterloo.
“What’s beautiful is that you have so many more options than a seven-day Bahamas cruise,” Greenberg says.
New Restrictions Limit Choices . . . a Bit
The pressures of over-tourism are leading some ports to restrict big cruise ships. This has often been a fractious affair. In both Barcelona and Amsterdam, officials have separately used the metaphor “a plague of locusts” to describe cruise-ship passengers.
If you dig past the headlines, though, you’ll find that in 2024, you still have at least some opportunities to visit even restricted ports.
For example:
- Venice banned large ships from its famed lagoon in 2021 but still allows ships under 25,000 gross tons (some of which can carry 250 passengers). It diverts bigger ships to mainland ports, from which visitors are bused into the city.
- Barcelona is not banning big cruises but moving them to a dock that’s a motorcoach ride away from the tourist draws of Las Ramblas, Sagrada Familia, and other overwhelmed attractions.
- Amsterdam officials declared a complete ban of dockings at the city center , but it is not yet enacted for 2024. Negotiations continue.
- Dubrovnik, Croatia has been slammed in the past few years by hordes of Game of Thrones fans who want to see the locations where the HBO series was filmed. Recently enacted limits on cruise visitation are modest, though. The local government now permits up to 4,000 simultaneous cruise-ship passengers in the city center.
- In the U.S., Juneau will allow up to five big ships per day in 2024 , and Bar Harbor, Maine will welcome up to 1,000 passengers per day .
The situation in Key West illustrates the tension around limiting cruise visitation. Despite many votes, lawsuits, and legislative actions there, you can still visit the legendary 4-square-mile, coral-ringed spit of land via megaship in 2024.
A local ban on dockings at city-owned ports cut passenger counts by half in 2023 , reducing some crowds and maddening some business owners. However, big ships can still anchor at a private port downtown.
So, fear not: Wrist-banded big-ship passengers can still spend their shore leave at Sloppy Joe’s, standing shoulder-to-shoulder while waiting for a drink at the bar where Ernest Hemingway sat in an alcoholic haze.
Expeditionary Forces
Cruise passenger bookings are tilting toward expedition cruising, our sources unanimously said.
Expedition ships were previously limited to spare, rugged vessels that brought small groups of intrepid explorer types to places nearly inaccessible via air or overland travel, including Antarctica, the Arctic, and the Galapagos.
While those itineraries remain popular—or, at least, as popular as the tight controls at these destinations allow—the expedition concept is spreading both geography and experientially.
In 2024, more expeditions than ever will be offered in emerging warm-water destinations like western Australia, the South Pacific, Madagascar, and the Seychelles, Spencer Brown says.
Expeditions have been the fastest-growing cruise niche in recent years, says journalist David Swanson, who has covered the cruise industry since 1999. According to industry figures he’s gathered, expedition passenger counts have increased 67% in the last four years.
Why the shift? It’s partly people who have taken basic cruises “looking for something different and more exciting,” Spencer Brown says.
A rising population of active baby boomers with money to spend also powers the trend.
These trips are costly, partly because the ships have to be small, meaning passenger counts are low. Many itineraries feature onboard scientists, lecturers, and even doctors. Fares for many are $600 or more per person per night—that’s over three times as much as a typical Caribbean cruise.
Swanson took an expedition cruise in 2023 around the Seychelles, a tiny archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of Africa. “We were taking Zodiacs [small, motorized inflatable rafts] and doing wet landings on, I think it was, 12 or 13 islands,” he says. Many were uninhabited. One of them has the biggest population of tortoises in the world.”
Swanson says the scientist on the trip told them more people had stood on the summit of Everest than had been to one of the islands they visited.
And the experience of expedition cruising has upgraded, says Spencer Brown, since the days when “your shower was over your toilet and your bed was bolted to the floor.”
“[Today,] you have an interesting combination on these ships between rugged adventure and pampering,” Greenberg says. “You’re getting into Zodiacs and zipping all along icebergs and then you come back to relax in the spa and have a five-star dinner.”
Authenticity on the Water
One travel trend for 2024 across both land and sea is the search for authentic experiences—activities that connect travelers to local customs, people, and food. This is challenging for big ships to produce. Most cruise lines, including big ones, now offer premium “boutique” excursions and other activities designed to deliver this kind of experience.
One of the more ambitious programs is Silversea’s S.A.L.T. (Sea and Land Taste) program, developed to connect guests to local culture through food. Curated by James Beard-award-winning food journalist Adam Sachs, the program involves sourcing ingredients from the daily port for the ship’s kitchen (and cocktail bar), cooking classes featuring that port’s local cuisine, and excursions to visit local food venues and luminaries.
However, big ships might not be the ticket for authentic experiences even despite these efforts. River cruises, which carry fewer passengers and often dock in small towns inaccessible to larger vessels, are more easily able to deliver authentic engagement, according to Gray Faust.
“People want to get to these smaller towns,” she says. “They like the idea of getting off the ship and exploring Europe on the ground, without having to rent a car.”
The Green Cruise
2024 finds the cruise lines making big investments designed to make their industry more environmentally responsible.
They are transitioning to alternative fuels, developing zero-waste disposal systems, reducing air pollution generated in port, and more. On newer ships, an entire deck might be devoted to waste management.
In addition to earnestly pitching in to save our weary planet, cruise lines are adopting green approaches “in order to survive,” says Peter Greenberg. They are partly trying to forestall bans and restrictions based on environmental objections. (The restrictions in Barcelona and Key West, for instance, were driven partly by complaints of air pollution near the docks.)
One example of the kind of pressures cruise lines face to go green, says David Swanson, is the Norwegian government’s declaration that ships wishing to visit its west Norwegian fjords, which are protected UNESCO World Heritage sites, must be emission-free by 2026.
Nobody I spoke to suggested that environmentally responsible actions are likely to affect the passenger experience in 2024. “Environmental concerns matter to more people now than they used to,” Greenberg says, but they are “not a primary driver” of a choice.
The industry as a whole has a net-zero-carbon goal of 2050 . That both sounds impressive and provides plenty of runway.
Most ships have a 25- to 30-year lifespan. By 2050, Icon of the Seas itself may be in the recycling bin, replaced by something powered by hydrogen, fuel cells, or nuclear power, which Greenberg says is “technologically possible, if not accepted by the public.”
Floating Hotels
Cruise ships have often been called “floating hotels.” Another trend for 2024 is the drive to make that literal.
Esteemed high-end hotelier Ritz-Carlton has one 300-guest ship already on the waters, and another on the way for 2024, carrying 450 passengers. Four Seasons will debut its first ship, with 96 suites, in 2024.
Wait, did I call them “ships?” Excuse-moi. These cruise lines call them “yachts.”
Brands like Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons “already have loyal customers,” Spencer Brown says. “If those customers are going to cruise anyway, why not keep them in the family?”
Both cruise lines, as you might expect, promise VIP experiences, Michelin-worthy cuisine, and bespoke pampering. The Four Seasons promises a staff-to-passenger ratio of 1:1.
Costs for all this are high, of course. A seven-night Caribbean cruise on Ritz-Carlton’s Evrima , in a Signature Mid Suite, departing from Fort Lauderdale, costs $14,300 per person. (This is just about the annual income of someone living at the federal poverty level.)
Although very different in kind, another hospitality brand is in the cruise game in a big way in 2024.
Virgin Voyages, part of bad-boy Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin business empire that includes hotels and an airline, started offering an adults-only cruise experience to customers (it calls them “sailors”) just after the world was pulling out of the pandemic. On-brand details include an absurdist karaoke studio, pop-up circus performances, a mermaid-inspired spa, and a marketing partnership with JLo.
Significantly, the drinks are priced to move: Beer for $6 and $7, most cocktails for $10, tip included.
“The ship has bars all over the place, a party scene going on every night, a lot of drinking all day,” Peter Greenberg says. “And they have a tattoo parlor on board. What could possibly go wrong?”
They live in Bethesda, Maryland, not too far from their two boys, who are both married and fully launched.
- Monterey County
- San Benito County
- Santa Cruz County
- Special Reports
- California News
- Entertainment
- Interactive Radar
- Local Forecast
- Domenico’s Weather Cam
- Waze Traffic
- Las Olimpiadas
- Entretenimiento
- Programacion
- T23 15 Aniversario
- Local Politics
- California Politics
- Livestream Special Coverage
- Livestream Newscasts
- Must-See Video
- Must-See Photo Galleries
- Project Santa
- House & Home
- Business Matters
- Safe at Home
- Weekend Picks
- 831LocalLinks
- Central Coast Experts
- Health Connections
- Classroom Makeover – Help a Monterey County School Teacher Get Needed Supplies
- Student of the Month
- General Contest Rules
- Central Coast Cheer
- KION for Kids
- Submit Tips, Pics and Video
- Work for KION
- Regional Careers
- Fox Schedule
- Advertise with NPG of Monterey/Salinas
- Closed Captioning
- Download Our Apps
- EEO Public Filing
- FCC Public File
- Jobs & Internships
- TV Listings
‘The Love Boat’: How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
(CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed.
Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997.
So what brought about this sudden surge in interest? According to industry experts, it was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune.
“Come aboard, we’re expecting you!”
Produced by TV legend Aaron Spelling, ”The Love Boat” first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade-long run.
The program, which is still available on streaming services such as Paramount Plus, partnered with Princess Cruises , and episodes were filmed aboard various Princess Cruise ships, the Pacific Princess and Island Princess being the most notable.
‘Greatest product placement’
Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on-board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode.
The show, which spawned several spin-offs, has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers.
“‘The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s, told CNN Travel in 2022. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise.”
Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.
But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it.
“Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC.
“So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed.”
Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list.
The passengers “would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show. “They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. [The episodes] were like small movies.”
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service.
However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show.
The show “did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”
The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real-life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal.
“So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
Becoming an extra on a popular TV show “certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people.”
Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand-new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.
“Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego.
During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship.
Royal Princess “had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds.
As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern-day cruise ships.
Outlandish musical performances were often featured on “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers.
During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together.
“It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat.”
“And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater.”
Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans.
This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years.
“Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state-of-the-art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships.
“The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic.”
“For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds.
“They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things.”
Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen.
The show “bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].
“It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.”
“The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship – the couple even got engaged on a cruise – believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity.
“They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says. “The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are.”
Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises, with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests.
The cruise line recently announced that Jill Whelan – now Celebrations Ambassador for Princess Cruises – Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Fred Grandy (who played Gopher) would be reuniting for a seven-day trip from August 31 to September 7.
Ezra Freeman, the bartender who appeared on short-lived reality show “The Real Love Boat,” which aired on CBS in 2022, will be joining the cast for the cruise, according to a press release issued by Princess Cruises.
Knego, who has attended previous reunion cruises, says that he’s often struck by the strength of the fan’s love for the show and its stars.
“People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego. The cast “sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day.”
MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.
“People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015.
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry.”
Now a billion-dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.”
There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world.
More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s , with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show.
Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year.
At present, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, a 20-deck ship and a crew of 2,350, is the current record-holder for world’s biggest ship.
While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, things have bounced back considerably since then, with 14 new ships expected to enter service in 2024 alone.
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShipCinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships.
“Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive.
“They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats.”
However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat-style cruising experience.
Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small-ship cruise line Viking.
“We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on more modestly sized ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
New chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped i n recent years.
Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship.
In 2022, another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, took center stage, albeit on a very different format, when it appeared in “The Real Love Boat.”
“It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown said of the series at the time, noting that a reality show was “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show.
And the latest “Love Boat” themed cruise, featuring meet-and-greets, menus inspired by the show and episode screenings, will be held on board Princess Cruises’ 330-meter Enchanted Princess this summer, sailing from New York to Canada and New England.
“Sailing with our fans brings us so much joy and this cruise will undoubtedly be a special reunion,” Whelan says in a statement . “Taking us back to where it all began – on a Princess Cruise.”
This article was first published in 2022 and updated in 2024.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Jump to comments ↓
CNN Newsource
Related articles.
Want to visit Brazil? From next year, US travelers will need to share their bank statements first
Qatar airlines avoids australian lawsuit over forced invasive examinations of women, all the times zendaya served looks on the ‘challengers’ press tour.
Stunning frescoes of mythological characters uncovered in Pompeii
KION 46 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.
Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here
If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here .
Cruise Leaders Chart Path for Unprecedented Growth
T he cruise industry faces immediate challenges that include an industry-wide goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Yet the segment’s success in attracting vacationers has skyrocketed to an unprecedented level, said cruise line leaders gathered this week at the Seatrade Cruise Global conference in Miami Beach.
“For the industry and certainly for us, the demand profile is unprecedented,” said Josh Weinstein, Carnival Corp. & plc’s CEO, during the conference’s “State of the Industry” discussion.
“Our outlook for 2024 [includes] record yields, record demand [and] record passengers carried,” said Weinstein. “And as amazing as that is, our bookings for 2025 are better than they were at this point last year for 2024.”
Indeed, the Carnival chief said cruising has eclipsed its post-pandemic resurgence. “The concept of pent-up demand for cruising is gone,” said Weinstein. “This is natural demand because we all provide amazing experiences.”
Weinstein added that the cruising’s value versus land vacations has increased significantly during the recent leisure travel boom.
The cruise experience versus “what has happened in many, many land-based alternatives is that the service levels today versus before 2020 are not close anymore,” Weinstein said. “It gives us a huge opportunity to really excel and get that incremental demand.”
“We see the [cruise industry’s] strength globally,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises.
Cruise Bookings Rebound
“[Bookings] are coming back in different parts of the world, with the same logic [of] value for money and the experience we offer our holidaymakers,” he said.
Vago added that the expansion of U.S. homeports in the last several years has also benefited the industry. “Cruises are coming closer to home, and that’s also a facilitator for customers to come and try the experience,” he said.
“We have a lot of newcomers, and this is promising because it looks like the numbers will be on the rise, and obviously the supply will drive the demand,” added Vago.
The major cruise lines are showing their confidence in consumers’ desire to cruise via new ship orders that have Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC and Norwegian ordering a total of 34 ships collectively in the current decade.
“Demand is incredibly robust, the onboard product is fantastic, and guests are coming back with repeat rates at historically high levels,” said Harry Sommer, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings which announced an order for eight new ships Monday.
“This gives us an incredible optimism for the future,” Sommer said. “We can continue to [build] larger, more efficient ships that not only help our financial position but also help us deliver world-class experiences to our guests.”
Fuel Forecast
With future passenger growth on the upswing, cruise operators are looking to tackle challenges led by the industry’s stated goal of reaching zero carbon emissions by 2050.
As seminar moderator Anne Kalosh noted, the cruise industry “has gone far in developing new technologies and practices” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but, “now it’s down to the fuels."
“There’s still a lot more opportunity for us to continue to evolve all of the technologies that support our ships as well as the infrastructure on land [including] shore power,” said Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA)’s chairman.
“Fortunately, we have many, many parties here today that help us accelerate ways to reduce the amount of fuel we burn as well as reduce emissions. But that’s only going to solve so much,” said Liberty.
“We need to make sure we have fuel sources that allow us to be able to burn and get to a net zero position, which is the goal of the industry,” he said.
Added Liberty, “We need to know where those fuel sources are going to be, we need to know what they’re going to be, they need to be available to us [and they need to be scalable] and they also need to be affordable.”
Liberty said that the process will take time. “This is a journey,” he said. “We need governmental support, we need the support of many of our suppliers, we need the infrastructure to be in place and we need to know where we’re skating to,” he said.
“With that clarity I’m very confident not just in the industry, but with the maritime cluster we have here today, that we will be able to find a solution to get to a net zero position.”
Cruise lines are additionally challenged to meet the European Union’s own goal of attaining carbon-neutral emissions by 2050, which would apply to cruise operators in European ports.
“The problem is [the European Union] is not doing it in line with the rest of the world,” said MSC’s Vago. “We don’t have a global approach to see how to de-carbonize industries [including] the maritime industry.”
However, Vago endorsed the European mandate as “It will be a good benchmark for the rest of the world to understand what is coming up.”
“It occurred to us how many regulations there that govern the cruise industry,” said Norwegian’s Sommer. “If we were to focus on the goal as opposed to mandating specific steps, we would reach that goal much easier and in a much quicker process,” he said.
“We perhaps need to take a slightly longer-term approach to this with governments,” said Sommer, “[to] partner with us to truly accomplish our goal of decarbonization.”
The environmental goals may impact cruise itineraries, said Carnival’s Weinstein. “A cruise ship is like driving your car. If you go slower and you go shorter distances, generally speaking, you use less fuel and you emit less greenhouse gases,” he said.
“To some extent, that is a component of how we are going to continue to reduce our emissions footprint. But ultimately, we are a business, and sustainability is not just about environmental impact,” added Weinstein.
“The concept is about how do you get there in a way that businesses can be sustained,” he added. “Everything we do has to be a balance.”
- Subscriptions
Grab a Seat at the Captain’s Table
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Join our crew and become one of the 105,842 members that receive our newsletter.
Photo: Ivan Cholakov / Shutterstock.com
Cruise Industry Sets New Passenger Record in 2023
Share this article.
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) released its annual State of the Cruise Industry report, revealing robust growth in the sector still recovering from pandemic impacts. In 2023, the passenger volume reached an record 31.7 million, marking a 7% increase over 2019 levels.
The report paints a promising picture for the industry hit hard by the pandemic, highlighting an 82% intent among consumers to embark on cruise vacations.
CLIA’s projections for cruise capacity from 2024 through 2028 indicate a 10% rise.
Despite the pandemic, the cruising sector managed to generate 90% of its 2019’s economic impact in 2022, despite passenger volumes being only 70% of those in 2019.
The report underscores the significant economic contribution of the cruise industry, which constitutes just 2% of global travel. In 2022 (the latest figures available), the industry generated $138 billion globally, supporting 1.2 million jobs worldwide and contributing $43 billion in wages.
The industry anticipates an even greater economic impact in 2023, with passenger numbers expected to increase by 50% compared to 2022.
Looking at the fleet size, CLIA-member cruise lines expect eight new ships to be delivered in 2024, which will push the ocean-going fleet to more than 300 ships for the first time. Between 2024 and 2028, the industry is set to welcome 35 new ships, representing 112,000 lower berths and an orderbook value of $30.8 billion.
The report also shed light on emerging trends in cruising. Over the past two years, 27% of cruise passengers were first-timers, a 12% increase from the previous year. Cruises have also become a popular choice for multi-generational travel, with over 30% of families cruising with at least two generations and 28% traveling with three to five generations.
Expedition cruises are becoming increasingly popular, with a 71% rise in passenger numbers from 2019 to 2023. Accessible tour excursions are also gaining traction, with 45% of passengers booking an accessible tour on their most recent cruise. Additionally, 73% of cruise travelers credited travel advisors with significantly influencing their decision to cruise.
Unlock Exclusive Insights Today!
Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.
Be the First to Know
Join the 105,842 members that receive our newsletter.
Have a news tip? Let us know.
Stay Ahead with Our Weekly ‘Dispatch’ Email
Dive into a sea of curated content with our weekly ‘Dispatch’ email. Your personal maritime briefing awaits!
Related Articles
Bulgarian Cruise Ship Crashes Into Wall On Danube In Austria, Injuring 11
VIENNA (Reuters) – Eleven people were injured when a Bulgarian cruise ship crashed into a concrete wall in a sluice on the River Danube in the northern Austrian town of Aschach an der Donau overnight,...
Strong First Quarter for Carnival Corporation as Revenue and Bookings Hit Record
The world’s largest cruise company Carnival Corporation has announced record revenue and all-time high bookings in the first quarter of 2024. Revenues for the three months ending in February hit...
Luxury Cruises Cancel Stop At Haiti Beach Oasis As Violence Rises
By Jim Wyss (Bloomberg) –Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is suspending visits to its private enclave in Haiti as gang violence and lawlessness grip the country’s capital. Eight sailings through March 18...
Why Join the gCaptain Club?
Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.
OUT AT SEA?
We’ve got you covered with trusted maritime and offshore news from wherever you are.
JOIN OUR CREW
Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 105,842 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.
Your Gateway to the Maritime World!
Join our crew.
Privacy Overview
‘Greatest product placement’
It’s spawned various spin-offs. The latest, reality dating competition show “The Real Love Boat,” will be filmed on board a Princess Cruise ship, just like the original show, and is due to air on CBS later this year.
Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode.
The show has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers.
“‘The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” says Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise.”
Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.
But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
"The Love Boat" stars Fred Grandy who played "Gopher," Lauren Tewes (Julie McCoy), Gavin MacLeod (Merrill Stubing), Bernie Kopell ( Dr. Adam Bricker) and Jill Whelan (Vicki Stubing) pictured on set. - Everett Collection
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it.
“Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC.
“So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed.”
Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list.
“They [the passengers] would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show.
“They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. They [the episodes] were like small movies.”
Princess ships Pacific Princess, pictured, and Island Princess were "the original floating stars" of "The Love Boat." - Everett Collection
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service.
However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show.
“It [the show] did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”
The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal.
“So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
The success of the show prompted a boom in cruise ship building. Royal Caribbean's MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered the first mega ship, launched in 1998. - Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa/AP
“That [becoming an extra on a popular TV show] certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people.”
Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.
“Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego.
During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship.
“It [Royal Princess] had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds.
As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
"The Love Boat" become one of the most successful TV shows of all time. - Princess Cruises
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern day cruise ships.
Outlandish musical performances were often featured on the “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers.
During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together.
“It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat.”
“And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater.”
Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans.
This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years.
“Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state of the art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships.
“The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Hollywood icon Carol Channing was among the many big stars who appeared in the series. - Everett Collection
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic.”
“For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds.
“They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things.”
Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen.
“It [the show] bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].
“It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.”
“The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Hollywood stars Greer Garson, second from left, and Howard Duff, with series regulars Ted Lange, far left, and Lauren Tewes. - Everett Collection
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship – the couple even got engaged on a cruise – believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity.
“They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says.”The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are.”
Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises , with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests. The next one is scheduled for October 2022, sailing from Los Angeles to Mexico.
“People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego, who’s due to attend the upcoming reunion. “They [the cast] sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day.”
MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.
“People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015 .
Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas is currently the world's biggest ship. - Sigrun Sauerzapfe/Royal Caribbean
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry.”
Now a billion dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.” There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world.
More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s , with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show.
Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year.
At present, Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas , an 18-deck cruise ship that has capacity for 6,988 guests and 2,300 crew members, is the current record holder for world’s biggest ship.
While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, and the past two years have been shaky, things are looking up once again.
Last month, leading global cruise industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association, announced that 75% of its member ships had already returned to service, and nearly all were forecast to be back by late summer.
In 2015, Princess Cruises introduced "The Isaac" cocktail, a drink inspired by Ted Lange's character on the series. - Bret Hartman/AP/Princess Cruises
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShipCinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships.”Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive.
“They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats.”
However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat style cruising experience.
Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small ship cruise line Viking, and will be setting off on a world cruise in January 2023.
“We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on smaller ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
"The Real Love Boat ," a reality dating competition series inspired by show, will be filmed on the Regal Princess. - CBS ENTERTAINMENT/Princess Cruise/CBS
New chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped i n recent years.
Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship.
He hopes to bring some of the items onto the “The Love Boat” reunion cruise this fall so that the fans on board “can have a tactile connection with the original ships.”
Later this year, “The Real Love Boat” will see another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, take center stage in a TV show, albeit on a very different format.
“It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown says of the upcoming series, albeit noting that a reality show is “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show.
“It’s good for all of cruise, because it tells a different story. It tells a fun and romantic story.”
Top image: “Love Boat” cast members, from left, Ted Lange, Gavin MacLeod, Jill Whelan, Bernie Kopell, Lauren Tewes and Fred Grandy. Credit: TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Recommended Stories
O.j. simpson dead at 76 after battle with cancer, family announces.
O.J. Simpson, one of the most infamous figures in U.S. history, had been battling cancer.
2024 NBA Mock Draft 6.0: Projections for every pick following March Madness
With the NCAA tournament behind us, here's an updated look at Yahoo Sports' first- and second-round projections for the 2024 NBA Draft.
Here’s who will pay for Biden’s student loan cancellations
Cancelling student debt is a windfall for the borrowers who benefit, but taxpayers foot the bill.
Republicans (?!?) are killing a tax cut
In a flip of the usual priorities, Senate Republicans seem likely to kill a set of tax cuts that have already passed the House and are broadly popular. Here's why.
2025 Toyota 4Runner (finally!) revealed, and the new Trailhunter is extremely cool
The 2025 Toyota 4Runner is finally arriving this fall with a full lineup including returning TRD Pro and new Trailhunter. Hybrid power now available.
2025 Toyota 4Runner vs Land Cruiser vs the old 4Runner: How they compare
The 2025 Toyota 4Runner looks like it'll be a clear improvement to its predecessor. Though looking at the specs, it may pose a problem for the Land Cruiser
Adam Silver: Raptors’ Jontay Porter accused of ‘cardinal sin’ in betting scandal, full ban a possibility
The league is investigating Jontay Porter over several betting irregularities in which player props on him all hit after he left games early.
2024 NFL Draft guide: 32 teams, 32 needs, picks, best fits and more
What selections does your team have? What areas should it address? Who's the dream fantasy pick? We cover all that and more for every franchise right here.
Why the Fed risks relearning the painful inflation lessons of the 1970s
The Fed is aiming to avoid a repeat of the double inflation episode that rocked the 1970s and early 1980s.
Report: Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore planned significant payroll cuts with Timberwolves
Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore reportedly planned to bring the Timberwolves below the projected luxury tax threshold next season, which left Glen Taylor very concerned.
Rashee Rice didn't learn from the past, maybe other NFL players will learn from Rice
Rashee Rice should have taken a lesson from recent history.
Mock Draft Monday with PFF's Trevor Sikkema: Cowboys fill needs, Vikings and Broncos land QBs
We continue our 'Mock Draft Monday' series with PFF's Trevor Sikkema joining Matt Harmon the pod. Sikkema provides his five favorite picks from his latest mock draft as well as his least favorite pick. The PFF draft expert also shares what goes into his methodology when crafting a mock, especially as inch even closer to night one of the draft.
2024 NFL Draft: Top 100 big board goes in-depth on names to know ahead of marquee offseason event
Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice has Drake Maye at No. 1, Caleb Williams at No. 2, and a whole lot of intrigue after in a deep class at wide receiver, offensive line and cornerback.
2024 NFL Draft: Favorite players outside the top 50
These aren't household names, but there are plenty of quality, if imperfect, prospects that should be available on Day 2 of the NFL Draft and beyond.
2025 Ram 1500's 'Hurricane' I6 tops V8 in fuel economy
2025 Ram 1500 full-size pickup truck now has fuel economy numbers, and the Hurricane inline-six delivers better numbers than the V8 it replaces.
2024 NFL Draft: Top 10 offensive line prospects anchored by stars from Penn State, Notre Dame
It's close between the top two for Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice, and there are a ton of other guys worth getting excited about in a deep class.
Shohei Ohtani's ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, reportedly in negotiations to plead guilty in gambling scandal
Ohtani has been interviewed by the feds as part of the investigation, per the New York Times.
The NBA's most vulnerable playoff teams, plus predictions for the play-in field
Which teams will wind up in the NBA's play-in tournament? Which contender is the most vulnerable to a first-round upset? Our writers weigh in with a week to go in the regular season.
Ross meets with Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Coach Prime’s team building & is Kentucky locking in on Scott Drew?
Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Forde discuss Scott Drew being a top candidate at Kentucky, the possibility of a college football super league, the Kalen DeBoer era for Alabama football, and Deion Sanders recruiting methods
For women who stay single, the pressure is higher to save more for retirement
The number of single adult women in the US is at its highest level ever — and for many of them, the risk of running out of money in retirement is a serious concern.
.png "love cruise has become the industry"){kind=small}
- Apr 19, 2022
Love and Harmony Cruise Returns After Two Years with Star Studded Line-Up
Updated: Jun 15, 2023
Short N Sweet Ent
Annual reggae music cruise, Love and Harmony, reignites the ultimate Caribbean experience with the Love and Harmony Cruise 2022, which was graced by the biggest names in the music industry and lots of fun activities.
The Love and Harmony Cruise 2022 was the fourth edition of the annual event that brought together the biggest names in the world of reggae and soca, judging by the reviews from participants it was a major success. The amazing 5-day cruise started on April 2, 2022, and came to a climax with an International Flag Night that featured a captivating performance by Edwin Yearwood.
Reggae remains one of the oldest genres in the world of music, standing the test of time amidst the emergence of a plethora of styles. However, getting the real Caribbean feel can sometimes be a daunting task, which is where the organizers of Love and Harmony have been able to change the narrative for the past couple of years.
Branded as the Ultimate Caribbean Party at Sea, Love and Harmony Cruise has become increasingly popular, attracting the attention of reggae, and Soca music lovers from all over the world. Love and Harmony Cruise 2022 coming back from two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the organizers were compelled to return safely and deliver for the cruisers aka Harmonizers. “Making sure we complied with the proper protocols and that we were still able to deliver the level of entertainment the way us Caribbean’s like to enjoy was important. We waited and we are happy persons enjoyed themselves and they were able to feel the love and hear the harmony and we are looking forward to 2023” says Steven “Jabba” Beckford, one of the organizers of the Love and Harmony Cruise.
Photo Credit: junya_thirdeye
The ship sailed from April 2 to April 7 from Ocho Rios Jamaica to Nassau Bahamas. Cruisers who are affectionately called Harmonizers, were treated to lots of fun activities, fantastic music, Caribbean cuisine by chef Richie Rich from the popular Caribbean restaurant in New York, and amazing concerts. The lineup of multi-award-winning artists included the likes of Beres Hammond , Buju Banton , Beenie Man , Wayne Wonder , Nadine Sutherland, Edwin Yearwood , and comedian Majah Hype all delivering a captivating performance generating a buzz for many anticipating Love and Harmony Cruise 2023.
With 55% of the ship already re-booked prior to returning to Fort Lauderdale, it’s a true testament to the success of Love and Harmony 2022.
“ Eating breakfast with some of my favorites artists, watching them play basketball, dominoes, being able to stop them in the elevator for a photo is something I will never forget. But the reason I will return next year is the family atmosphere we all experienced onboard. From the staff to the organizers to the artists and the amazing DJs, we are all Harmonizers and I will be back ” says Lissette Thomas from Nashville TN.
Organizers of "Love and Harmony" have announced Love and Harmony Cruise 2023 edition sailing from April 4 to April 9th. Sailing from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau Bahamas and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, with the likes of Beres Hammond, Sanchez, and Popcaan already confirmed to perform with plans to add more talented acts.
Cabins to the general public go on sale Friday April 15th, for further information about Love and Harmony and to book your cabin visit - www.loveandharmonycruise.com
The Ultimate Caribbean Party at Sea cruise also continues across social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
Courtesy of ShowYourNice Booking & Event Management Company.
Until next post... Coach Tay
Recent Posts
The RNB Pack: The Home For R&B Music & Live Performances
Samsung Celebrates Mya's 25-Year Career In The Music Industry
DJ Nyla Symone Presents Pass Da Aux Live R&B Night Featuring Alex Vaughn, Ryan Trey, and Laya
- Vallow-Daybell Coverage
- Coronavirus Coverage
- Crime Tracker
- Pay It Forward
- Prevent Child Abuse
- Scam Alerts
- First Alert VIPIR Radar
- Local Forecast
- 8-Day Forecasts
- Road Report
- Athlete of the Week
- Top Plays of the Week
- High School Athletics
- East Idaho Game Night
- Boise State Athletics
- Idaho State Athletics
- BYU Athletics
- Election Results
- Idaho Politics
- Interactive Results
- Local News 8 Newscast Livestream
- Livestream Events
- Must See Videos
- Entertainment
- Yellowstone Teton Territory Travel and Tourism
- Energizing Conversations with INL
- Question of the Day
- Banking on Business
- House & Home
- Safe at Home
- BOGO Buddy Pass Golf Card
- Contest Rules
- Submit Tips, Pics and Video
- Work for LocalNews8
- Meet the Team
- Advertise With Us
- TV Listings
- Closed Captioning
- Download Our Apps
- FCC Public File KIFI
- FCC Public File KIDK
- FCC Public File K34NC-D
- CW East Idaho
- Telemundo East Idaho
- Jobs and Internships
- Scholarships
- Translator Information
‘The Love Boat:’ How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
(CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed.
Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997.
So what brought about this sudden surge in interest? According to industry experts, it was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune.
“Come aboard, we’re expecting you!”
Produced by TV legend Aaron Spelling, ”The Love Boat” first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade-long run.
The program, which is still available on streaming services such as Paramount Plus, partnered with Princess Cruises , and episodes were filmed aboard various Princess Cruise ships, the Pacific Princess and Island Princess being the most notable.
‘Greatest product placement’
Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on-board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode.
The show, which spawned several spin-offs, has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers.
“‘The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s, told CNN Travel in 2022. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise.”
Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.
But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it.
“Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC.
“So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed.”
Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list.
The passengers “would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show. “They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. [The episodes] were like small movies.”
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service.
However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show.
The show “did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”
The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real-life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal.
“So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
Becoming an extra on a popular TV show “certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people.”
Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand-new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.
“Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego.
During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship.
Royal Princess “had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds.
As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern-day cruise ships.
Outlandish musical performances were often featured on “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers.
During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together.
“It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat.”
“And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater.”
Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans.
This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years.
“Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state-of-the-art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships.
“The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic.”
“For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds.
“They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things.”
Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen.
The show “bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].
“It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.”
“The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship – the couple even got engaged on a cruise – believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity.
“They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says. “The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are.”
Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises, with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests.
The cruise line recently announced that Jill Whelan – now Celebrations Ambassador for Princess Cruises – Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Fred Grandy (who played Gopher) would be reuniting for a seven-day trip from August 31 to September 7.
Ezra Freeman, the bartender who appeared on short-lived reality show “The Real Love Boat,” which aired on CBS in 2022, will be joining the cast for the cruise, according to a press release issued by Princess Cruises.
Knego, who has attended previous reunion cruises, says that he’s often struck by the strength of the fan’s love for the show and its stars.
“People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego. The cast “sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day.”
MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.
“People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015.
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry.”
Now a billion-dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.”
There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world.
More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s , with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show.
Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year.
At present, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, a 20-deck ship and a crew of 2,350, is the current record-holder for world’s biggest ship.
While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, things have bounced back considerably since then, with 14 new ships expected to enter service in 2024 alone.
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShipCinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships.
“Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive.
“They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats.”
However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat-style cruising experience.
Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small-ship cruise line Viking.
“We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on more modestly sized ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
New chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped i n recent years.
Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship.
In 2022, another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, took center stage, albeit on a very different format, when it appeared in “The Real Love Boat.”
“It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown said of the series at the time, noting that a reality show was “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show.
And the latest “Love Boat” themed cruise, featuring meet-and-greets, menus inspired by the show and episode screenings, will be held on board Princess Cruises’ 330-meter Enchanted Princess this summer, sailing from New York to Canada and New England.
“Sailing with our fans brings us so much joy and this cruise will undoubtedly be a special reunion,” Whelan says in a statement . “Taking us back to where it all began – on a Princess Cruise.”
This article was first published in 2022 and updated in 2024.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Jump to comments ↓
CNN Newsource
KIFI Local News 8 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.
Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here
If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here .
- Share full article
Advertisement
Supported by
Nigerian Fashion Moves Beyond the Catwalk
Known for its annual fashion week, the region’s influence on style has been expanding, with the help of these designers.
By Tariro Mzezewa
LAGOS, Nigeria — For the past decade, Nigeria’s best-known ambassadors have, arguably, been its musicians: Burna Boy, WizKid, Davido, Tiwa Savage Asake and Tems, who have popularized Afrobeats beyond West Africa. At a moment when music, literature, visual art and food from across the African continent continue to gain global popularity , fashion designers, particularly those from Nigeria, are ready for their industry to take center stage.
“Designers have become better and more confident, said Reni Folawiyo, owner of Alara , a popular concept store in Lagos. “Some have come back from different parts of the world and are creating things that are interesting to people; some are making more contemporary pieces that people can wear every day. There’s more variety, and people feel proud to be wearing things made by Africans.” In 2023, Alara opened a pop-up shop as part of the Brooklyn Museum’s “Africa Fashion ” exhibition.
“Currently the global fashion community is looking to the African continent for more than inspiration,” said Ernestine White-Mifetu, the Sills Foundation curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum. “The fashion world at large is finally ready to pay attention.”
The Brooklyn Museum is one of many institutions that have tapped into Nigeria’s — and Africa’s — cultural offerings in recent years. Record labels, fintech start-ups and film companies have expanded into the country. Matt Stevens, vice president of international network planning for United Airlines, said the airline had added nonstop service to Lagos from Virginia’s Dulles International Airport in 2021 because it saw the city as “an important part” of United’s expansion in Africa (it also added routes to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Accra).
Nigeria’s fashion industry isn’t new — after all, designers such as Lisa Folawiyo and Andrea Iyamah have been successful in Nigeria and beyond for years — but it is booming thanks to international buyers and a rising desire from the continent’s growing middle class. A 2023 UNESCO report stated that the luxury goods market generated nearly $6 billion in revenue in Africa in 2022 and estimated that it would continue growing.
In Lagos, Nigerians’ love of style is everywhere, from the runways of the city’s annual fashion week and boutique stores scattered around the coastal city, to markets, festivals and weddings. Some wear traditional attire like boubous and agbadas, and many combine those looks with modern accessories.
Here are some designers making their mark on a rapidly expanding fashion scene.
Mai Atafo’s decades-long career has been about making garments that don’t fit much of the world’s stereotypical ideas of what African clothes are. “There’s a mind-set that if something doesn’t have raffia on it, or if it’s not tie-dye print, if it’s not an explosion of colors, then it’s not African,” he said.
But that’s not Mr. Atafo’s style.
He loves suiting and tailoring. He makes men’s wear, women’s wear and bridal garments with the intention of selling them — something he says is sometimes overlooked in favor of making artful but unwearable clothes. His “trad,” or traditional, designs include embroidered caftans and caps for men; his Western styles include suits, wedding gowns and business casual attire; many items — like his “tradxedo” — combine elements from his home country with silhouettes and details from Western styles.
After returning to Lagos from London in 2019, Banke Kuku — who spent the prior decade making a name for herself as a respected textile designer — realized that people wanted her prints and patterns, and not just on their walls and furniture. “I wanted to do something that you could wear and feel incredible in these spaces that I would design, so that’s why I started with pajamas,” she said of the silky pajama sets her brand has become known for.
During the pandemic, when the world went into lockdown and it suddenly felt as though everyone wanted pajamas and comfortable caftans, Ms. Kuku leaned in. “We call it occasional loungewear, because it’s loungewear that you can wear at home and out and still look amazing wherever you are,” she said. The brand now also makes bodysuits, corsets, skirts and accessories.
In 2019, Femi Ajose quit his job as a fashion stylist. “ I wanted something that was mine — something original, something African, so I decided to make it,” Mr. Ajose said.
Mr. Ajose created Cute-Saint, a unisex — or, as Mr. Ajose describes it, genderless — brand. He has sent male models down the runway in wide-fitting pants with cropped mesh tops, knit asymmetric tank tops and corsets made of aso oke, a hand-woven cloth created by the Yoruba people. The clothes are all made in Nigeria with dead stock fabric that comes from prior collections or has been found at the city’s famous Yaba market.
Like many Nigerian and African designers, Mr. Ajose said that for much of his life, he had felt as though people in Nigeria placed higher value on products made in other countries, especially European ones. But that’s changing, he said. “ That was the old belief,” he said, “but now as soon as Nigerians try things, they say, ‘Oh, are you sure this is made in Nigeria?’”
After closing down her ready-to-wear brand Grey Projects in 2020, Rukky Ladoja wanted to create a brand that wasn’t dependent on fabric imported from Asia and Europe or use Western sizing, which doesn’t always flatter African women’s bodies.
“It was, ‘What kind of outfit can we make where the entire supply chain is local, the entire value chain is local, and the product is one size fits all?’” said Ozzy Etomi, Dye Lab’s brand director. Having started in 2021, Dye Lab’s signature agbada — a type of flowing robe akin to a kimono — was born.
“It was an existing style — something that you’d see people wear all the time, that our moms put on when they needed to quickly rush somewhere,” Ms. Etomi said. “We just said, ‘How do we take this traditional garment and basically make it cool?’”
Abasiekeme Ukanireh, the founder of Éki Kéré, created dresses for weddings, parties and other celebrations, as many seamstresses do, when the pandemic arrived. With a halt on parties and weddings, she found herself with time to be creative, so she turned to her hometown, Ikot Ekpene, for inspiration. The town is known as the Raffia City, thanks to its people’s long history of using leaves from the raffia palm tree — which is native to tropical parts of the continent — to build, decorate and dress.
“Most people stopped buying raffia clothes — not because they couldn’t afford it or they had a cheaper option, but because they’re just tired of seeing the same thing over and over again,” she said. To shake things up, she uses raffia liberally, adorning the hems, pockets and sleeves of her eccentric garments.
Tariro Mzezewa , a former national correspondent at The Times, is a reporter who writes about culture and style. More about Tariro Mzezewa
Explore Our Style Coverage
The latest in fashion, trends, love and more..
How ‘Carefluencers’ Got Big: On TikTok and Instagram, people are sharing what it’s like to take care of relatives who have reached their final years .
The Buzz on Boat Shoes: The category of footwear created when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president is being reinterpreted and rediscovered.
Are You a ‘Spring’ or a ‘Winter’?: Seasonal color analysis, a fad from the 1980s seeking to identify a person’s most flattering color palette, is drawing views and exasperation on TikTok.
Barbie, the Book: A bookstore event for the newly published “Barbie: The World Tour” brought out the die-hards.
Loving Sticks: Those who appreciate “ something as basic as a stick ” are sharing their enthusiasm through a newly popular Instagram account.
What Happened to the Wrap Dress?: A pandemic, the demise of “girlboss” culture and new values around what’s “flattering” have made the classic design seem outdated to some .
- CLIA Cruise Lines
- CLIA Global Executive Committee
- Mercy Ships
- Explore Topics
- Member Benefits
- Become A Member
- LoveCruise - Maximising CLIA Membership
- Cruise Week
- Cruising with Confidence
- CLIA Working Groups
- Event Gallery
- RiverView Program
- Verify a Member
- Executive Partners
- Australasia
- North America
- North West and Canada
- UK & Ireland
- My CLIA Homepage
- My Certifications
- My Training
- Product Catalogue
- Find a Travel Agency
- Cruising Home
- News and Research
Cruise Industry COVID-19 Facts and Resources
Here’s what else you should know.
- Operational Guidance
- Social Media
- Quick Facts
Member Line Updates
- Infographic
- River Cruise Resources
- In the News
Cruise Operations Are Responsibly Resuming Around the World
The cruise industry has proven its resilience throughout its more than 50-year history—as is evident in the cruise industry’s responsible return to operations that began in July 2020. More than 10 million people have sailed worldwide since July 2020. Nearly 100% of the CLIA ocean-going cruise line fleet is back in service and intent to cruise is at pre-pandemic levels. The combination of the robust health and safety protocols implemented by the cruise lines, along with the passion of cruise travelers, has created tremendous momentum for a successful restart in more than 100 markets worldwide.
CLIA ocean-going cruise line members are sailing today with some of the highest levels of COVID-19 mitigation of any industry.
The cruise industry’s highest priority is the health and safety of passengers, crew, and the communities our ships visit. Cruising has become one of the safest forms of travel and among the most successful industries in mitigating the spread and severity of COVID-19, resulting in few passengers or crew becoming seriously ill or requiring hospitalization compared to hospital statistics for landside patients. The data shows that the cruise industry has led the way in health and safety protocols that mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Cruise has been and will continue to work with the CDC and the Biden Administration on safety protocols that best reflect the changing nature of how to respond to COVID-19 and keep the public safe. Collaborative communication with government and health authorities is critical to our ability to safeguard the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities where ships call.
Cruise has demonstrated its leadership, agility, and ability to be responsive in effectively prioritizing public health and will continue to do so as we have for more than half a century.
Cruisers love to cruise and are eager to return to the seas.
Demand for cruising remains strong, with 84 percent of cruisers saying that they plan to cruise again soon—exceeding pre-pandemic levels. In addition, 69 percent of non-cruisers say they are open to cruising, an increase of 9 percent since November 2021. These numbers reflect growing confidence amongst international travelers as cruising is increasingly seen as one of the safest holiday choices thanks to robust protocols and an unwavering commitment to public health.
Cruise Industry Health & Safety Social Media Shareables
The cruise industry’s effective health protocols are leading the way in the travel and tourism sector, creating one of the safest and best ways to see the world. Our responsible and successful return to service worldwide, utilizing robust health and safety protocols, is an important chapter in our collective #WeAreCruise story.
We invite you to join us in sharing this story with your own communities on social media, utilizing our shareable social media tiles below to share your firsthand experiences, excitement, and confidence of returning to cruising:
Social Media Tiles
Quick Facts (Download PDF)
The following are key facts about COVID-19 and the cruise industry, including the positive impact of cruising and the commitment of the wider cruise community to the highest standards of responsible tourism.
COVID-19 can spread in any setting where people come together to socialize and enjoy shared experiences, which includes cruise ships, as well as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, and the like. It also spreads in other transportation and hospitality sectors where people have close contact with others who are infected, such as airlines, subways and trains, buses and ride share vehicles.
While it is easy to focus on cruising because of its high profile and transparent reporting standards, the fact is cruising is neither the source nor the cause of COVID-19. What is different about cruise ships compared to other settings is that no other sector or industry has such stringent reporting requirements coupled with the presence on board of credentialed doctors and nurses to provide medical surveillance. While it may be true that the world knows more about how COVID-19 impacted cruise ships than they do about how it has affected other sectors, it would be a false assumption to connect meticulous transparency and reporting to a higher frequency of infection.
CLIA member cruise ships are cleaned and sanitized, under normal circumstances, with a frequency that is nearly unparalleled in other settings. Multiple times each day, cruise ship crews clean and sanitize surfaces known for transmitting germs, such as handrails, door handles, faucets, etc. CLIA member cruise lines also help educate cruise passengers on personal health practices, reminding passengers to wash their hands regularly and making hand sanitizer readily available throughout public spaces onboard.
Moreover, CLIA ocean-going cruise ships are the only form of travel or passenger transportation that must be medically equipped to care for passengers and crew onboard. As a condition of membership within CLIA, oceangoing member cruise lines are required to fit their ships with medical facilities that meet or exceed the standards set forth by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), which require that doctors and medical personnel be available onboard 24/7. Additionally, cruise ships must have the ability to isolate contagious passengers, and they must have an examination room, an intensive care room and equipment for processing labs, monitoring vital signs and administering medications.
From the beginning of this global public health crisis, CLIA cruise line members worked under the guidance of international and national health authorities to adopt policies and protocols, such as travel, contact , and symptom screening that went above and beyond the actions of other industries.
The cruise industry is regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), flag states and port states (e.g., US Coast Guard, CDC, FMC, and EPA for the US) among others. In addition, as a requirement of membership, all CLIA cruise line members must adhere to a robust set of policies and practices which undergo constant review and improvement and often exceed what international, national, and local laws require.
Cruise activity supports over 1.17 million jobs across a wide cross-section of industries and sectors, from ground and air transportation to food and beverage, lodging, manufacturing, hotels, professional services and a broad range of suppliers and service providers throughout the world. Unfortunately, the impacts of COVID-19 are being felt across this vast community, with up to 2,500 jobs lost each day that cruises are not operating. When the time is right for cruise operations to safely resume, cruising will be an important contributor to fueling the global economic and societal recovery.
The cruise industry is regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), flag states and port states (e.g., US Coast Guard, CDC, FMC, and EPA for the US) among others. In addition, as a requirement of membership, all CLIA cruise line members must adhere to robust set of policies and practices which undergo constant review and improvement and often exceed what international, national, and local laws require.
CLIA cruise line members take pride in the ability to deliver meaningful employment opportunities to a truly global workforce with high satisfaction and retention rates. Cruise lines invest heavily to attract the best people, offering competitive wages, benefits and opportunities for career advancement—not to mention the opportunity to see and travel the world. CLIA oceangoing cruise line members must fully comply with the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), which sets labor standards for hours of work and rest, health and safety, as well as living conditions onboard.
The cruise industry demonstrates its commitment to responsible tourism across five key areas and has the data and research to back up its investments, advancements, and progress in each of these categories:
- Environmental Sustainability
- Destination Stewardship
- Health and Safety
- Workforce
- Economic and Social Impact
Worldwide, the cruise industry has already invested more than $22 billion in ships with new technologies and cleaner fuels to reduce air emissions and achieve greater energy efficiencies. Many of these technologies, such as shore-side power, LNG or exhaust gas cleaning systems, did not even exist five to ten years ago.
Guidance for Restarting Cruise Operations
Infographics, in the news.
- Aida Cruises
- American Cruise Lines
- Carnival Cruise Line
- Celebrity Cruises
- Celestyal Cruises
- Costa Cruises
- Crystal Cruises
- Cunard Line
- Disney Cruise Line
- Holland America Line
- MSC Cruises
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- Oceania Cruises
- Ponant Yacht Cruises and Expeditions
- Princess Cruises
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Royal Caribbean International
- Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours
- SeaDream Yacht Club
- Silversea Cruises
- TUI Cruises
- Virgin Voyages
- Windstar Cruises
Health and Safety
Enhanced Public Health Measures
Suspension impact us and key states.
2019 Economic Impact Key States
2021 Fast Facts
Don't yet have a login? Create a new account
Forgot Password
If you have forgotten your Password, complete the information requested below and click the submit button.
You will receive an email with a reset token to change your password.
Please allow at least 10 minutes to receive the email before requesting another password reset. Please be sure to check your Spam folder for the password reset email.
Please note: the Email you provide must be the one that is associated with your profile.
If you have difficulty resetting your password please email [email protected] .
Create a New CLIA Account
Set or change password.
Please use the form below to set or change your password. Passwords must be at least 8 characters.
We are sorry. An error has occurred.
Please confirm.
Cruising The Past Cruise News
Coulter’s steamlined modern department store miracle mile los angeles.
‘The Love Boat’: How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
Posted by: Michael Grace May 23, 2022
Last week, CNN writer Tamara Hardingham-Gill interviewed me on my involvement as a writer for The Love Boat in the 1980s, and a book I am writing on the landmark hit TV series was a major factor in creating today’s cruise industry.
Also, as a Travel Historian focusing on the late 1930s through the 1970s, I was able to share insights about cruise and passenger maritime history during those times.
Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed.
Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997.
So what brought about this sudden surge in interest? According to industry experts, it was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune.
“Come aboard, we’re expecting you!”
Produced by TV legend Aaron Spelling,”The Love Boat” first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade long run.
The program, which is still available on streaming services such as Paramount Plus, partnered with Princess Cruises, and episodes were filmed aboard various Princess Cruise ships, the Pacific Princess and Island Princess being the most noted.
‘Greatest product placement’
It’s spawned various spin-offs. The latest, reality dating competition show “The Real Love Boat,” will be filmed on board a Princess Cruise ship, just like the original show, and is due to air on CBS later this year.
Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode.
The show has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers.
“The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” says Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise.”
Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.
But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it.
“Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC.
“So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed.”
Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list.
“They [the passengers] would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show.
“They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. They [the episodes] were like small movies.”
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service.
However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show.
“It [the show] did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”
The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal.
“So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
“That [becoming an extra on a popular TV show] certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people.”
Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.
“Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego.
During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship.
“It [Royal Princess] had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds.
As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern day cruise ships.
Outlandish musical performances were often featured on the “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers.
During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together.
“It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat.”
“And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater.”
Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans.
This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years.
“Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state of the art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships.
“The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic.”
“For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds.
“They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things.”
Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen.
“It [the show] bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].
“It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.”
“The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship — the couple even got engaged on a cruise — believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity.
“They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says.”The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are.”
Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises, with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests. The next one is scheduled for October 2022, sailing from Los Angeles to Mexico.
“People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego, who’s due to attend the upcoming reunion. “They [the cast] sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day.”
MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.
“People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015.
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry.”
Now a billion dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.” There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world.
More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s, with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show.
Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year.
At present, Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, an 18-deck cruise ship that has capacity for 6,988 guests and 2,300 crew members, is the current record holder for world’s biggest ship.
While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, and the past two years have been shaky, things are looking up once again.
Last month, leading global cruise industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association, announced that 75% of its member ships had already returned to service, and nearly all were forecast to be back by late summer.
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShipCinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships.”Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive.
“They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats.”
However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat style cruising experience.
Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small ship cruise line Viking, and will be setting off on a world cruise in January 2023.
“We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on smaller ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
New Chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped in recent years.
Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship.
He hopes to bring some of the items onto the “The Love Boat” reunion cruise this fall so that the fans on board “can have a tactile connection with the original ships.”
Later this year, “The Real Love Boat” will see another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, take center stage in a TV show, albeit on a very different format.
“It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown says of the upcoming series, albeit noting that a reality show is “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show.
“It’s good for all of cruise, because it tells a different story. It tells a fun and romantic story.”
Top image: “Love Boat” cast members, from left, Ted Lange, Gavin MacLeod, Jill Whelan, Bernie Kopell, Lauren Tewes and Fred Grandy. Credit: TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
Popular Articles
April 3, 2024
THE LARK – All-Pullman Sleeper Train – Overnight – San Francisco to Los Angeles
April 1, 2024
California’s Old Movie Palaces New Video
March 12, 2024
Berlin’s Famous Hotel Adlon Five Stars
March 1, 2024
Judy Garland Premiere of A Star Is Born
February 14, 2024
RMS Titanic – Books Passengers Were Reading On The Doomed Voyage
© 2022-2023 The Past and Now. All Rights Reserved.
Any copying or reproduction of images or media herein is strictly prohibited.
- CONTACT MICHAEL GRACE
- Refine your search results by reviewing SEARCH TIPS
- Site tech support provided by Ted Angel
- Colorado River Crisis
- Coachella Valley Questions Answered
- Fentanyl Crisis
- Palm Springs International Film Festival
- I-Team Investigations
- Neighborhood Heroes
- Salton Sea Project
- Stands for You
- Local Forecast
- First Alert Weather Alert Day
- Live Weather Cams throughout Coachella Valley
- First Alert Weather Insider
- Earthquake Alert
- Photo Galleries
- Coachella Valley Firebirds
- Scholar Athlete of the Week
- Galleri Classic
- High School Football
- Las Posadas
- Fiestas Patrias
- La Poderosa
- Salton Sea: La Agonía de un Paraíso
- St. Jude Dream Home
- Gas Al Mejor Precio
- Quienes Somos
- 2024 Election Results
- Local Politics
- National Politics
- Livestream Special Coverage
- Livestream Newscasts
- Desert Chat
- Do The Right Thing
- Entertainment
- Eye on the Desert
- Healthy Living
- Healthy Pets
- Impact Grants
- Mother’s Day
- One Class at a Time
- Desert Experts
- CV Golf Card
- Submit Tips, Pics and Video
- Work at KESQ
- Explore Local Jobs
- Intern at KESQ
- Advertise with Us
- KESQ Jobs and Internships
- TV Listings
- CW 5 Palm Springs
- FOX 11 Palm Springs
- Closed Captioning Information
- Download the News Channel 3 News apps
- FCC Public File
- 2023 EEO Report
- 2022 EEO Report
- 2021 EEO Report
- 2020 EEO Report
- 2019 EEO Report
- Public File Help
- Newsletters/Alerts
‘The Love Boat’: How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
(CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed.
Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997.
So what brought about this sudden surge in interest? According to industry experts, it was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune.
“Come aboard, we’re expecting you!”
Produced by TV legend Aaron Spelling, ”The Love Boat” first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade-long run.
The program, which is still available on streaming services such as Paramount Plus, partnered with Princess Cruises , and episodes were filmed aboard various Princess Cruise ships, the Pacific Princess and Island Princess being the most notable.
‘Greatest product placement’
Based on a non-fiction book written by former cruise director Jeraldine Saunders, “The Love Boat” centered around ship captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and his on-board crew, while different guest actors played passengers each episode.
The show, which spawned several spin-offs, has since been described as “the greatest product placement” ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers.
“‘The Love Boat’ really created the cruise industry,” Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s, told CNN Travel in 2022. “Because you had 50 million people watching, and they all wanted to go on a cruise.”
Several modern cruise lines existed when the show began, including Princess, founded in 1965 with a single ship cruising to Mexico. Royal Caribbean had launched in 1968, and Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972.
But the cruising demographic was very different to what it is now.
Although cruise companies were apparently keen to attract younger passengers, many people simply didn’t know much about cruising, and those who did had a very specific idea of it.
“Back in the day, people would say cruising was for the nearly dead or newlywed,” says cruise journalist Carolyn Spencer Brown, chief content officer for Cruise Media, LLC.
“So when ‘The Love Boat’ came on and showed people of all ages and races having fun and being lively on a cruise ship, that opened up cruising to a world that didn’t really know it existed.”
Each week, tens of millions of people around the world would tune in to follow the exploits of Captain Stubing, Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange) and the captain’s daughter Vicki, played by Jill Whelan, and suddenly going on a cruise soared to the top of many a wish list.
The passengers “would come on the ship,” Grace says of the formula for the hour-long show. “They’d have a problem. Then the problem is solved and they all come together again. [The episodes] were like small movies.”
Cruise-building boom
The launch of the “The Love Boat” came at a time when the vast majority of cruise ships on the water were former liners that had been converted. There were few new ships in service.
However, this quickly changed when demand shot up thanks to the success of the show.
The show “did so well that Princess Cruises were selling out their ships,” cruise historian Peter Knego tells CNN Travel. “And that led to the first boom of new cruise ship building in the early 1980s.”
The fact that scenes from “The Love Boat” were occasionally filmed aboard real-life cruises, with the passengers serving as extras, only added to the appeal.
“So many cruise lines want to create experiences for you that you probably couldn’t create on your own,” notes Spencer Brown.
Becoming an extra on a popular TV show “certainly qualifies as something that doesn’t happen to most people.”
Keen to strike while the iron was hot, existing cruise lines began building brand-new purpose-built cruise ships in order to cater to this fast-growing market, while new companies emerged like Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988.
“Back then, to build new cruise ships, that was a big deal,” says Knego.
During the 1980s, almost 40 new cruise ships were constructed, including Tropicale, from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Princess, Princess Cruises’ first purpose-built cruise ship.
Royal Princess “had new features like balconies, which were pretty rare with mainstream cruising,” he adds.
As more cruise lines emerged and began competing with each other, cruising became more affordable, expanding the market even further.
Entertainment focus
“The Love Boat” may also have played a part in the heavy entertainment focus we see on modern-day cruise ships.
Outlandish musical performances were often featured on “The Love Boat,” and they proved to be a big hit with viewers.
During one of the show’s specials known as “The Love Boat Follies,” iconic stage and screen stars Della Reese, Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Ann Miller sing a rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star” from the 1968 musical “Funny Girl” together.
“It was very spectacular,” says Grace, who is working on a book about the impact of “The Love Boat.”
“And what was so strange is, when they would flash back to the people watching in the audience, it was like a small little club. But the stage was the size of a West End theater.”
Off screen, the Island Princess and its sister ship Pacific Princess, the two ships primarily used for filming towards the start of the series, held main stage production shows that became hugely popular with cruising fans.
This led to the introduction of some grand new features on cruise ships in later years.
“Princess and other cruise lines went on to build ships with state-of-the-art showrooms with huge stages, sound and lighting effects that are now standard on modern cruise ships,” says Knego, adding that the modern atriums seen on cruise ships today can also be traced back to “The Love Boat” ships.
“The two deck lobbies with the grand staircase that was replicated for the studio shoots were early versions of the big atriums that are now popular features on modern cruise,” he says.
Romantic adventures
Romance was understandably a very important factor in “The Love Boat.” While the relationship plots certainly kept viewers entertained, Spencer Brown stresses that this focus was also beneficial when it came to maintaining the notion that “cruises really are quite romantic.”
“For a long time, Princess had all sorts of enhanced amenities that were pointed to romance,” she adds.
“They really embraced this concept all the way through. You could have a balcony, sunset dinners, and rose petals strewn on your bed. All of these lovely, romantic things.”
Long-time cruise enthusiast Judi Patterson, who met her husband Andy when he was working on board another cruise ship, P&O’s SS Oriana, was a fan of “The Love Boat,” but says her own cruising experiences were very different to what was portrayed on screen.
The show “bears no resemblance to reality,” says Patterson. “But it was fun. I don’t know if people actually believe that that’s what happens [on cruise ships].
“It was fun to watch and think that these things might possibly happen.”
“The Love Boat” reruns were still airing around the world years after its last episode, and the show’s fan base has remained incredibly loyal.
Lasting legacy
Spencer Brown, who also met her now husband on board a cruise ship – the couple even got engaged on a cruise – believes that the partnership between “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises has been the key to its longevity.
“They truly embraced each other in a way that was really genuinely heartfelt,” she says. “The cast members became such a part of the cruise line, and they still are.”
Princess Cruises often holds reunion cruises, with the actors from “The Love Boat” appearing as special guests.
The cruise line recently announced that Jill Whelan – now Celebrations Ambassador for Princess Cruises – Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange and Fred Grandy (who played Gopher) would be reuniting for a seven-day trip from August 31 to September 7.
Ezra Freeman, the bartender who appeared on short-lived reality show “The Real Love Boat,” which aired on CBS in 2022, will be joining the cast for the cruise, according to a press release issued by Princess Cruises.
Knego, who has attended previous reunion cruises, says that he’s often struck by the strength of the fan’s love for the show and its stars.
“People stand in line for hours just to get their picture taken with cast members,” says Knego. The cast “sign autographs and it’s quite a wonderful situation to this day.”
MacLeod was a regular on the popular cruises until his death in 2021.
“People always ask us why ‘The Love Boat’ was so popular and I always say it’s because it gave people something to dream about,” the actor said back in 2015.
“They could dream about being out on the open seas on a cruise and discovering the worlds’ greatest destinations, dreaming about love and of course happy endings since the shows always ended on a high note. I’m proud to have played a role in the growth of the cruise industry.”
Now a billion-dollar industry, cruising has evolved considerably since “The Love Boat.”
There are currently over 1,200 cruise ports across the world.
More than 100 new ships were built during the 1990s , with most of them significantly bigger than the vessels that featured on the show.
Royal Caribbean’s MS Sovereign of the Seas, considered to be the first mega ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,850, took its maiden voyage in 1998, while Disney Cruise Line was established that same year.
At present, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, a 20-deck ship and a crew of 2,350, is the current record-holder for world’s biggest ship.
While the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly devastated the cruise industry, things have bounced back considerably since then, with 14 new ships expected to enter service in 2024 alone.
“To me, the cruise industry is almost a victim of its success,” says Knego, who runs YouTube channel MidShipCinema, which is dedicated to old and new cruise ships.
“Because the mainstream cruise ships now carry up to 5,000 people and they’re absolutely massive.
“They don’t have the same kind of intimacy that you had back when ships only carried 800 or maybe 1,200 people like the Love Boats.”
However, there are various cruise companies that offer smaller ships for those keen for a more Love Boat-style cruising experience.
Patterson and her husband have taken many trips with leading small-ship cruise line Viking.
“We only travel on small ships now,” she says, noting that it’s slightly more expensive to travel on more modestly sized ships. “We had our turn on the bigger ones.”
New chapter
Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the original Love Boats, have been scrapped i n recent years.
Knego managed to photograph the Island Princess during its final days at a scrapyard in India and was able to rescue a few of the furnishings and ornaments, including a bronze mermaid sculpture and some of the furniture from the lobby area of the ship.
In 2022, another Princess ship, the Regal Princess, took center stage, albeit on a very different format, when it appeared in “The Real Love Boat.”
“It’s good for the cruise industry,” Spencer Brown said of the series at the time, noting that a reality show was “a pretty radical reinterpretation” from the original show.
And the latest “Love Boat” themed cruise, featuring meet-and-greets, menus inspired by the show and episode screenings, will be held on board Princess Cruises’ 330-meter Enchanted Princess this summer, sailing from New York to Canada and New England.
“Sailing with our fans brings us so much joy and this cruise will undoubtedly be a special reunion,” Whelan says in a statement . “Taking us back to where it all began – on a Princess Cruise.”
This article was first published in 2022 and updated in 2024.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Jump to comments ↓
CNN Newsource
News Channel 3 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.
Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here
If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here .
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
"The Love Boat" first aired in 1977 and went on to become one of the most successful shows in TV history during its decade-long run. The program partnered with Princess Cruises, with episodes ...
From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed. Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went ...
Princess Cruises "Love Boat" Connection Continues. In the mid-70s, a television producer named Douglas S. Cramer embarked on a creative journey that would forever change the way the world looked at cruise vacations. Cramer, known in the US for his popular television series "Love American Style," had a vision to take his comedy vignette ...
Love Cruise has become the industry standard for ..... on cruise ships due to their famous theatric performances. ... Love Cruise đã trơ thành chuẩn công nghiệp cho việc giải trí về dù thuyền vì những màn trình diễn sân khấu nổi tiếng của họ. ... The machinery in Templex's factory has become so outdated that ...
When The Love Boat premiered, it was a smashing success and went on to have 10 seasons until 1987. The television show is largely credited for introducing millions of viewers to the idea of contemporary cruising, leading to a huge expansion of the cruise industry. Princess Cruises became a household name, leading to global success for the ...
Hannah Towey. Mar 13, 2023, 8:21 AM PDT. Buffet lunch by the swimming pool on the 1950s cruise ship "Independence At Sea." J. Rogers/ClassicStock/Getty Images. A hundred years ago, the idea of ...
Princess Cruises soon became a household name as the primary setting and ocean-going co-star of the popular series and continues to be known as the "Love Boat" cruise line to this day. With ships Pacific Princess and Island Princess the original floating stars of the show, "The Love Boat" was filmed aboard many Princess ships in exotic ...
The reality of 2020 sits in stark contrast to the year that immediately preceded it. In 2019, the global cruise industry welcomed nearly 30 million passengers, creating jobs for 1.8 million people around the world and contributing over $154 billion to the global economy. With this growth came increased recognition of cruising as one of the best ...
Today, 99 percent of the world's cruise ships are sailing again, the cruise ship industry is buoyant and demand high, but the rebound in tourism, including cruising, is not without contention ...
The show, which spawned several spin-offs, has since been described as "the greatest product placement" ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers. "'The Love Boat' really created the cruise industry," Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s, told CNN ...
So Royal advertised newness, Costa advertised "Italian style" cruises and Carnival touted its Fun Ships. Ads from the early '90s for the Carnival Fantasy labeling it one of the "Fun Ships ...
The show has since been described as "the greatest product placement" ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers. "'The Love Boat' really created the cruise industry," says Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s.
St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands has been a mainstay the past 25 years -- and with the ability to handle some of the world's biggest ships, as well as a variety of things to do ashore, the ...
the cruise industry, destinations, ports, community organizations, and stakeholders are helping to achieve mutual objectives to preserve the integrity, cultural heritage, and beauty of the world's most treasured destinations for future generations. "We're seeing the cruise industry acting much more
Photo credit: Gregory Trofimov "Back in the '70s, the days of The Love Boat, you had, what, maybe seven ports for cruise ships worldwide, mostly in the Caribbean," Peter Greenberg says."You're now seeing 1,200 ports of call." In 2024, cruise ships of various sizes ply all seven seas, the rivers of Europe, the islands of the Pacific, the fjords of Scandinavia, the coasts of Central ...
attributable to the industry's global onshore activities, particularly at ports, including direct, indirect, and induced employment effects. Almost 462,000 jobs were generated through direct effects, 257,000 came through indirect effects, and 191,000 through induced effects. In addition, 301,000 jobs were provided by cruise lines. The sum
8. Cruising Continues to Make an Economic Impact. In 2022, the cruise industry generated $138 billion to the global economy, 1.2 million jobs and $43 billion in wages. CLIA expects the economic impact will be even greater in 2023, because of the uptick in passengers. Cruising also creates economic ripple effects: 63 percent of cruisers say they ...
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN (CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed. Back in 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on a cruise holiday. That figure had jumped to five million by 1997. So what brought about this sudden
T he cruise industry faces immediate challenges that include an industry-wide goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Yet the segment's success in attracting vacationers has skyrocketed to an ...
In 2023, the passenger volume reached an record 31.7 million, marking a 7% increase over 2019 levels. The report paints a promising picture for the industry hit hard by the pandemic, highlighting ...
In three decades from the 1970s, cruise passengers increased exponentially. According to industry insiders, that leap in numbers was mainly down to a certain TV show with a catchy theme tune. "Come aboard, we're expecting you."
The Love and Harmony Cruise 2022 was the fourth edition of the annual event that brought together the biggest names in the world of reggae and soca, judging by the reviews from participants it was a major success. The amazing 5-day cruise started on April 2, 2022, and came to a climax with an International Flag Night that featured a captivating performance by Edwin Yearwood.
"'The Love Boat' really created the cruise industry," Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s, told CNN Travel in 2022.
April 11, 2024, 3:00 a.m. ET. LAGOS, Nigeria — For the past decade, Nigeria's best-known ambassadors have, arguably, been its musicians: Burna Boy, WizKid, Davido, Tiwa Savage Asake and Tems ...
Cruising has become one of the safest forms of travel and among the most successful industries in mitigating the spread and severity of COVID-19, resulting in few passengers or crew becoming seriously ill or requiring hospitalization compared to hospital statistics for landside patients. The data shows that the cruise industry has led the way ...
The show has since been described as "the greatest product placement" ever, serving as a complete introduction to cruising for many of its avid viewers. "The Love Boat' really created the cruise industry," says Michael L. Grace, who worked as a scriptwriter on the program during the 1980s.
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN (CNN) — From steam-powered ships, to mega-liners, the cruise industry has been through quite a transformation over the years. And the market has skyrocketed. Back ...