‘The Love Boat’: Are memories of it fading on cruise line it helped promote?

By Donald H. Harrison

ABOARD SEA PRINCESS — One day while strolling aboard the ship, I asked a pianist who was playing both classical and show tunes whether he often was
asked to play the theme from The Love Boat, made famous by singer Jack Jones.  The young pianist, from Argentina, responded that he was unfamiliar with the song.  Oh, said I, a bit bewildered as I took a seat nearby to listen to him play.  When a Filipino waiter came to take my drink order, I asked if he remembered the TV show, The Love Boat.   He thought for a while.  “No, sir, I don’t.  Sorry,” he said.

How could this be?  I wondered.  Princess Cruises had loaned the pride of its fleet, MV Pacific Princess, for the U.S. television sit-com that ran
from 1977 to 1986.  The show was widely credited with stimulating American viewers to try cruising as a vacation option.   I looked at the cocktail napkin
that had come with my drink.  “Princess Cruises,” it said.  “Escape Completely.”   Once upon a time, the napkin would have read something like, “Princess Cruises: the Love Boats.”

A quarter century ago—1986– was the last year that the television show was produced; but it has been in syndication all over the world ever since.  Twenty five years, that’s a long time, a whole generation.  I wondered if perhaps time had passed the “Love Boat” by.   However, in talking to officers and members of the crew—especially those who held positions similar to those portrayed by the cast of the television series—I learned that although gone, the series certainly was not forgotten.  Not by a long shot.

In a gift shop aboard Sea Princess, I saw a DVD collection of The Love Boat’s original season on sale.  Barman Adrian Evans told me that his computer still has instructions for making a “Love Boat” cocktail, although few passengers ask for it anymore.  The recipe calls for a blend of melon liqueur, blue curaçao, pre-made piña colada mix,  coconut pieces around the rim of the glass, and a piece of pineapple with a cherry for a garnish.  I ordered one, just for old time sake.

At dinner, too, there was a Love BoatDessert, which consisted of mousse in the shape of a heart on top of a thin brownie.   For old time’s sake, of
course, I ordered that too.

The ABC television series had five main characters – Captain Merill Stubing, portrayed by Gavin MacLeod; Julie McCoy, the Cruise Director (Lauren Tewes);
Doc Adam Bricker (Bernie Koppell); the purser, Burl “Gopher” Smith (Fred Grandy, who later would serve four terms in Congress representing an Iowa
district); and Isaac  Washington , the Bartender (Ted Lange.)

These cast members participated in promotions with Princess Cruises in the years since, notably in 1997, when the Dawn Princess was launched as the twin of the Sun Princess.  To celebrate, Princess Cruises launched a contest for people who most looked like the television series’ stars, and awarded free cruises to the winners and their families.  Building on the “twins” theme, the television show’s stars and their families also came along, recalled James Eaton, who
today is senior purser above Sea Princess, but then was part of the “new-build” team that helped take ships from drawing board to launching.

“Did you ask him for tips on being a purser?” I wondered.

“I asked him about being a congressman; I thought that was more interesting,” responded Eaton.

Except for his ability to mix well with passengers, little about what “Gopher” did as the “Love Boat” purser was similar to what Eaton does today on a modern
cruise ship.

“Those of us who live on cruise ships, we like to look at little bits of the series and say ‘now, that’s not real’ and on the show. Gopher often would wear
the wrong stripes on his shoulder board, would forget to wear his name badge, and “sometimes he wore on his hat the captain’s braid.”

Moreover, said Eaton, “you never saw him doing the accounting or the billing or running the other aspects of the hotel” aboard the ship such as “making sure
that the accommodations department is keeping those staterooms immaculate and the public rooms looking good—little things like that.”

While the other actors had brief roles in the corporate life of the real Princess Cruises, MacLeod became a spokesperson for the cruise line, appearing
at public events, sailing on special cruises, and hosting and sometimes acting in instructional videos for the crew.   Gavin Chandler, the cruise director, dug up one video for me to watch of MacLeod congratulating a man who had made an impressive model of a Princess Cruise ship, entirely utilizing Lego blocks.

I asked the captain of the Sun Princess, Martin Stenzel, what his impression was of television’s “Captain Stubing.”

He responded that he very much would enjoy a job like Stubing’s, which on the television show seemed to be focused strictly on mixing with the passengers, in
a manner that was “friendly, outgoing and attentive.”   However, said Stenzel, the fact of the matter is “95 percent of my job is dealing with management of the crew, management of the ship’s operation and then the driving of the ship and dealing with that aspect of it.”   With approximately 3,000 passengers and crew aboard, “most of my concentration is on the management of this massive operation.”

There was quite a bit of fraternization between Captain Stubing and his passengers – and the doctor was forever on the prowl for female company.  Today, on a real cruise ship, there are far more constraints.  “Social interaction is permitted,” said Stenzel.  If the captain meets people, he can go and have dinner with him, the same thing for senior officers.  The crew, no.  Are you allowed to bring any passengers back to your cabin?  Absolutely not.  It is not allowed.  In those days, the rules were a lot more lax. We used to do cabin parties. We would meet people.  He (the captain) would invite them to the cabin for cocktails, and a chat and then take them down to dinner.”

Today such social interactions must occur in public rooms of the ship.  “This is the result of lawsuits, people saying things happened, so therefore the cruise companies – all of them—have had to say no to such fraternization.  So if I were to catch a passenger in a crewmember’s cabin, then that crewmember
would get sacked (fired.)”

One crew member who found a kinship between himself and the character portrayed on television was Adrian Evans, who described his counterpart, Isaac, as a fine practitioner of the barkeeping craft.

“He had the most important attribute of any bartender, whether on a Princess ship or on land,” said Evans.  “Making drinks is procedural.  If you follow
instructions, you can make a drink.”  Far more critical, he said, is “if you have the personality and the charisma to be one on one with the people you are serving—the guests you are taking care of –and having a joke and being able to adapt to various conversational topics.”

He said if Isaac were faced with a situation of having two customers in front of him – one sullen and serious, wanting to talk about world politics and
current affairs, and the other, sitting next to him, being a regular passenger cracking jokes—that Isaac would have the skill “of drawing the two together
into the same conversation, rather than having two separate conversations.  He would complete that triangle and they would all be talking to each other, having a joke and a laugh.  I think I’d like to be working with Isaac behind the bar.  I think he and I would have good fun behind the bar – it would be crazy.”

On Sea Princess, there is a bit of gender reversal with the “Love Boat” characters.  On the Love Boat, the cruise director was female; cruise director Gavin Chandler of Sea Princess is male.   On the TV show, Doc Adam Bricker was a male, whereas Sea Princess’s real chief doctor, Dr. Nadine
Blakeway, is a female.

As cruise director, Chandler is point person for meeting passengers—even as “Julie” was on The Love Boat.  Chandler is also the coordinator of the talent aboard the ship, as well as an entertainer himself.

When he welcomes passengers aboard in an opening night presentation, he sometimes alludes to the fact that “the old Pacific Princess was the original Love Boat; how much love is there in the room tonight?”  The line is appreciated by people 40 and older, but it sometimes goes over the heads of many younger passengers, he says.  Once, the “Love Boat” theme was played by the ship’s orchestra to start welcoming sessions off – no more, said Chandler

The cruise line believes it can’t live in the past; it has to find ways of connecting with younger generations, according to the cruise director.   Like the former Pacific Princess itself, tied up at a dock in Genoa while authorities sort out  the tax problems of more recent owners, Princess Cruises cannot allow itself to be
moored by nostalgia or memories.

Chandler has good reason for thinking that a sister in the 16-ship fleet, Coral Princess, is today’s love boat.  That’s where he met his wife Darci McKee, who came aboard to perform as an aerial acrobat, fresh from a show in Las Vegas.   At the dock in Vancouver, Chandler, then a deputy cruise director, intervened when he saw that ship’s security had stopped the young woman because her “joining papers” weren’t in order.  He called to the purser, got the problem solved, and not long afterwards fell in love with the dancer turned acrobat.

Dr. Nadine Blakeway has a similar love story to tell about Coral Princess.  That’s where she met the hotel general manager, Daniele Cafiso, an Italian who says he needed only one look at the South African to decide she was the one he had been waiting for.

The problem was that being a new crew doctor, Blakeway was a bit intimidated by Cafiso’s shoulder boards – and the rank they represented.  Besides, there was so much to do.  Unlike Doc on The Love Boat, Blakeway spent most of her hours aboard Coral Princess tending to crew and to passengers who either became ill
or injured.

Escorting me on a tour through the medical department, she explained that it is equipped like a small hospital, with emergency capability and a rolling crash
cart to help stricken passengers wherever on the ship they may be.   Given the fact that many elderly people cruise, she and another doctor and three nurses are trained to deal with any emergency, she said.

Cafiso finally got her attention one day when he showed her a picture of his Harley Davidson motorcycle and asked if she would like to ride one.

“Yes,” said the doctor.

After she and Cafiso are married on Friday, Aug. 26,  in Zoagli, Italy, they are planning to take a honeymoon.

“Many of us landlubbers think a cruise is a romantic honeymoon,” I suggested.

“For us, that would be odd,” said Cafiso, who said watching The Love Boat as a boy—and dreaming of traveling to far off Mexico— led to his 22-year career
on cruise ships.    “No, no,” he added, “we will have a land vacation.”

Yup, they plan to spend their honeymoon sightseeing in Sardinia.

On their Love Harley.

*

Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sjewishworld.com
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