I was just wasting time watching old videos of The Love Boat on YouTube. And in this particular video, I couldn't help but notice that the men were all wearing suits while boarding the ship for the first time (or at least a coat and tie).

I have been on four cruises so far and never noticed any one dressed-up for embarkation. Of course, I only started cruising four years ago. Have times changed that much? Did that ever used to happen or was it a fictional creation of television?

Here is the video segment I was watching:
Loat Boat segment where men boarded wearing suits

I took my first cruise in 1974, and while pelple did dress a lot nicer then, the coat and tie for embarkation was as fictitious as all the young beauties in skimpy suits around the pool.

Remember the Love Boat tv series is about 30 years old now. That was back when you dressed up to go to the doctor's office and such.

I've been sailing for over 25 years & have still yet to find any swimming pool with that many beauties aboard. Maybe a few guys warring suits for boarding but then again people used to dress to fly years back.
It might become popular again since the airlines starting charging for the extra suitcase.

quote:

Originally posted by RichC:
I've been sailing for over 25 years & have still yet to find any swimming pool with that many beauties aboard.

Oh that's because I wasn't cruising ...well 25 years ago I was 13 but I looked 19!

Hmm.. Not only is the absence of semi-formal attire missing from today's cruise passengers, but, when is the last time that all the senior staff of a major cruise ship been made up of all U.S. natives? No offense intended, just making an observation.

Cruising attire has definitely changed over the years, as has attire to fly. My father was a pilot for Eastern. When I flew, I was expected to wear a dress, he would have absolutely shot me if I had even thought about wearing a pants suit. When I boarded my first ship I wore a sun dress, my husband wore a pair of dress slacks, a dress shirt and a sports jacket. My first cruise was in 1979 on board the Costa Dauphne. We did a 3 day to Nassau and Coco Cay. I can attest that cruising has totally changed. Some things for the good, some things not, but still the only way to travel!

Times sure have changed about cruise wear. I have only been cruising for 15 years, and have seen big changes. If they made a commercial from clips of some things I have seen lately it would be a hoot!

Dwayne

I know Pacific Princess (or Island Princess, as was often shown) was small, but I always got a kick out of how the senior staff got to know the passengers' names, as well as have time to meddle in their problems!

My husband and I also used to chuckle over the "will you have dinner with me tonight?" lines. Did "The Love Boat" create Freestyle Dining???

And let's not forget that all the cabins looked to be at least 500 sq ft in size, with one notable exception. On one show they had someone in a tiny cabin with upper/lower berths - I think it was a crewman.

I'm still trying to figure out how Isaac managed to work every bar simultaneously.

BUt, still, that is the impression most people got of cruising. Imagine the disappointment when someone actually went on a cruise and got to their cabin and it wasn't a grand suite! Or that captain wasn't walking around the deck and having one on one conversations with everyone.

Is the Island Princess (the ship) still sailing? Or has it been retired in favor of a larger vessel?

Princess sold the original Love Boat in 2002, but I think she's still sailing.

Actually, the crew cabins on Island and Pacific Princess were quite large; the big difference was the floor was linoleum, the closets were metal lockers, there were 4-6 to a cabin, and the communal bathroom was down at the end of the hall.

quote:

Originally posted by f-mattox:
Actually, the crew cabins on Island and Pacific Princess were quite large; the big difference was the floor was linoleum, the closets were metal lockers, there were 4-6 to a cabin, and the communal bathroom was down at the end of the hall.

Rick, You sound as though you had worked on this ship as a musician.

I just took a web course with Princess on the Love Boat series. It had some very interesting tidbits. The series ran from Sep 24, 1977-May 24 1986. The show was developed from a book written by a former Cruise Director, and the setting in the book was on the Island Princess. Most of the episodes were actually shot on the Pacific Princess. They used five different ships in the series. The original Sun, Pacific, Island, Royal, and Sky. An episode was even filmed on the Queen Mary. They only did six weeks of filming a year on the actually ships. The rest of the episodes were filmed in 20th Century Fox. The reason they filmed most at a stage set was because 1) the cabins were so small they couldn't fit the camera crew in them. 2) It took 106 cast and crew and they couldn't take up that many cabins away from the Princess paying customers.
Merrill Stubing was based on a baseball player. There were a total of 1000 Guests actors throughout the series. Charo had the most appearances with 10, Florence Henderson 9, and Artie Johnson 8. Terry Hatcher had an appearance as a Mermaid. Marion Ross married Capt S in the last show.

Despite all the nit-picking and such, I'll freely admit that I loved the show! It was escapism and fun, and I'd watch it today if was still on.

I'd take any of those good old shows over the stuff they call "reality shows" today. Fantasy Island was a spin off from Love Boat and I liked that too.

I admit to enjoying "The Love Boat" despite its differences from real life. Back when it first aired, I regularly babysat on Saturday nights, and made sure the kids were off to bed before it started. I didn't know it at the time, but I guess I was a cruise nut in the making!

A few years ago, the cable channel TV Land aired reruns. I would watch the first few minutes just to hear the ship's whistle. (My husband wasn't too pleased, sometimes, as he would miss the few minutes of a game or other show. )

Since we are on cruising and T.V., there is an episode of Colombo titled "Troubled Waters" that aired in February, 1975, and was filmed on the original Sun Princess on a Mexican Riviera cruise. It is availabe on DVD in "The Complete Fourth Season" collection. It's a kick to see Peter Falk without the rumpled overcoat.

quote:

Pacific Princess is sailing as Pacific for Pullmantur cruises

She acutally is no longer sailing for them. She was sold to Brazilian operator CVC (which has chartered her multiple times before) in January and will spend the northern summer season in the Mediterranean operating cruises out of Valencia under charter by a new Spanish operator called Quail Cruises (quite an interesting name, isn't it ). Quail Cruises was reprtedly et up by former Pullmantur employees that left the company following the takeover by RCL.