The Love Boat – Soon We’ll Be Making Another Run!
The Love Boat was a very daggy late 1970s / early 1980s television series that showed the adventures of Captain Stubing and his lovable crew (with cool names like Isaac and Gopher) as they went cruising around the world in the very flash Pacific Princess (yes, I’m showing my age!). The series often involved convoluted and unbelievable plotlines that would make you think twice about boarding The Love Boat if it actually existed in real life, but there was always a happy ending at the end of each episode which balanced out these crazy (and often funny) plots.
Here is the opening theme song lyrics and video that was for some reason annoyingly catchy!
Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We’re expecting you.
Love, life’s sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.
Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.
Love won’t hurt anymore
It’s an open smile on a friendly shore.
Yes Looooooove! It’s Looooooove!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTK0hr5oAOk[/youtube]
Anyway, this TV series was my first exposure to cruising (which by the way, I’ve never done in my life).
And this is what I deduced by watching numerous episodes and plotlines of The Love Boat which gave me this list of this popular TV Series cruising stereotypes:
- No matter how shaky a marriage is before a trip, even the rockiest relationship will end up fixed by the end of a Love Boat cruise
- Likewise, the most jaded and jilted person who never believes they will ever meet the right person, will always miraculously find their true love on The Love Boat, and end up being married to them and eventually produce offspring!
- There is always at least one romantic liaison between a crew member and passenger.
- The ship’s doctor must always wear very short white pants that often become too anatomically revealing.
- Even though Isaac the bartender was always busy churning out thousands of alcoholic drinks, hardly anyone on The Love Boat was ever blind drunk!
- There was always at least one very famous passenger on each cruise. Who always has a romantic liaison with someone!
- There is always at least one matchmaker on board who is trying to set up one of their single friends or relatives with someone else during the cruise.
- There is always a villain sub plot that involves stealing a large amount of money, or kidnapping someone rich for ransom. But this is always solved by one of the crew members who have absolutely no police or hostage negotiation experience!
- Honeymooners make up approximately 90% of The Love Boat’s demographic, and
- The crew always say goodbye to the entire passenger list in person at the end of each show.
My First Experience of a Cruise Ship
With my childhood memories of The Love Boat well ingrained in my brain, I tried to kick The Love Boat theme out of my head, but it didn’t work when I was on board. And no, I didn’t witness any of The Love Boat cruising stereotypes I listed above!
The actual show itself was something a bit different – the costume designer responsible for the Life As We Know It costumes has worked with the likes of Lady Gaga and various other celebrities (god knows what kind of requests Lady Gaga would come up with!). The genre of the show, called ‘Steampunk‘ is a bit out there and is definitely not a typical mainstream cruise boat show which tends to follow a cabaret type format. While the show wasn’t something I normally would check out, I actually did enjoy watching it, especially some of the insanely acrobatic moves which I wouldn’t bother to attempt otherwise I’d end up in hospital.
Ironically, there is a loose connection with the Pacific Dawn and The Love Boat – the cruise liner is also hugely popular for weddings and vow renewals. So much in fact, P & O Cruises had to limit the number of vow renewals due to their popularity and wedding parties keep growing in size – there is a group of 150 onboard for a wedding in 2013! Now that sounds like one big night of debauchery on a floating hotel to me!
So maybe everyone else who goes on a cruise has The Love Boat in their head! Maybe those silly 1980s TV series do live on!
See more at my silly boat jokes!
I have never experienced the Cruise Ship ride, but I am sure the experience of cruising on Voyage would be breath taking. Sipping the Cup of coffee over the deck would be so awesome.
There’s always a first time!