In the 1970s, the hit show The Love Boat helped make cruise boats a popular thing among the
show's television demographic.
The show utilized a real cruise boat as a backdrop for its a comedy, with that cruise
boat being named the Pacific Princess.
Several other boats were also used on the show, with one of the other boats being named
the Island Princess.
Sadly, neither of these boats is still around, though they certainly led exciting lives before
becoming scrap metal!
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at the unbelievable story of what happened to the
Love Boat cruise ships.
The Love Boat was an incredibly successful show that hit the airwaves during the 1970s.
In addition to popularizing cruise ships, the show also offered plenty of Golden Age
Hollywood stars the chance to catch one last break in the form of a guest spot on the series.
The show loved featuring new guest stars every episode, and many of these stars were big
names from Hollywood's past.
However, the biggest star of The Love Boat was arguably the Pacific Princess, which was
the name of the main boat used as a backdrop in the series.
Although the Pacific Princess was the main boat that was used as a backdrop on the hit
1970s show The Love Boat, it wasn’t the only boat.
According to the series’ history, there were a total of seven different vessels that
were officially used in some capacity as a backdrop over the course of the show’s initial
run, though many of these were used far less than others.
The vessel that was used the most besides the Pacific Princess was named the Island
Princess.
The reason that multiple vessels were required over the course of The Love Boat’s production
was that the film often took place in a variety of locations around the world.
When the show needed to film a scene in an exotic location, one of the other vessels
was used so that the Pacific Princess didn’t need to be sailed halfway across the world.
After The Love Boat came to an end, Princess Cruises put the Pacific Princess to use full-time
as a cruise vessel.
Princess Cruises had been in charge of the vessel since 1975, and the ship had also been
utilized for cruises during The Love Boat's production run.
In the late 1990s, the ship was notoriously seized after a few of its crew members were
caught in a drug bust.
Heroin was found on the vessel, and the entire ship had to be searched by authorities.
When the incident occurred, authorities evacuated all of the passengers that had been vacationing
aboard the vessel.
The passengers were given the choice to either head home or wait for however long it would
take for the investigation of the ship to occur.
According to officials, the investigation took several weeks, though many passengers
still chose to wait it out.
25 kilograms of heroin had been found aboard the Pacific Princess while it was sailing
from Greece to Turkey.
Two crew members were arrested in the bust, as well as two passengers.
These four people were caught outside of the ship making a drug deal while the ship was
stopped.
They were subsequently arrested outside of the ship before the aforementioned 25 kilograms
of heroin were found on board.
The four parties were eventually charged, and the Pacific Princess resumed its tenure
as a cruise ship for Princess Cruises for a number of years before being sold to a rival
company by the name of Quail Cruises in 2002.
The Pacific Princess was subsequently renamed simply as the Pacific.
When Princess Cruises handed over the original Love Boat to Quail Cruises, it wasn’t because
they had lost interest in the brand.
Instead, the original ship had simply become no longer feasible to use in the wake of many
improvements that had been made in the years since its construction.
Princess Cruises brought in another cruise vessel and slapped The Love Boat’s branding
on it.
Meanwhile, the original boat that had been used as the main backdrop on the show continued
to be put to use by Quail Cruises for many years before eventually being sold for scrap
in 2012.
For many, it was a notable event when the original vessel that had been used as the
main backdrop on The Love Boat was officially retired.
The vessel made its very last voyage in 2012, sailing to a scrapyard in Turkey.
There, it was turned into scrap metal.
At the time of its retirement, the original Pacific Princess had been in service for over
four decades in various capacities.
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Although the original Pacific Princess was certainly an impressive vessel at the time
that it was produced, the ship was no longer quite as impressive by the time of its retirement.
Bigger vessels had begun to dwarf ship over the years, and it was also equipped with outdated
machinery.
Before being sold for scrap metal, the ship had been sitting at an Italian dock out of
service for a period of time.
Though the Pacific Princess became most famous as the Love Boat after its 1975 acquisition
by Princess Cruises, the ship had originally gone by a different name.
The Pacific Princess had been built in 1971, when it was named the Sea Venture.
The vessel had been built for Flagship Cruises, though was later sold to Princess Cruises.
It was soon after this that the ship began its tenure as the titular Love Boat.
The Love Boat was an hour-long comedy that featured an ensemble cast, in addition to
a rotating cast of guest stars that added flavor to the show over the years.
The main cast consisted of the titular boat’s crew, while the guest stars were mostly passengers
of the luxury vessel.
Some of the show’s main cast members included Gavin MacLeod, who played Captain Stubing.
As his name suggests, he was the titular ship’s captain.
Another main character on the show was Gopher, who was played by actor Fred Granby.
In addition to being an incredibly popular show, The Love Boat was also said to have
increased the popularity of cruise ships in general.
Cruise ships still retain their popularity to this day, though the recent COVID-19 pandemic
certainly had a negative effect on the industry.
The Pacific Princess was the ship that appeared the most over the course of The Love Boat’s
original run, but the Island Princess also made many appearances.
The Princess fleet was the name of the seven vessels featured on the show over the course
of its production, and the Pacific Princess isn’t the only of these vessels to have
been retired.
In 2015, the Island Princess met the same fate as its sibling when it was sold and dismantled
for scrap metal and parts.
While shots of the various ships in the Princess fleet provided the backdrop for The Love Boat,
the series’ interior scenes were filmed in a completely different location.
Most of the interior scenes for the series were filmed at Sunset Bronson Studios, which
is now the home of Judge Judy.
While the titular Love Boat lived on for a period of time after the original show's run
in the form of the real-life vessels that served as its backdrop, the series itself
has also lived on over the years in a variety of forms.
One such form was a 1998 revival, though the revival wasn't very successful.
The 1998 revival of The Love Boat only lasted for one season on the UPN network.
Perhaps the reason that the show wasn’t quite as successful as the original was that
it didn’t feature the real Pacific Princess!
Instead, the vessel that was used as the backdrop for the revival series was a ship by the name
of the Sun Princess, a Japanese boat.
Recently, the ship that was purchased by Princess Cruises and rebranded as the Love Boat after
the original Pacific Princess was sold to Quail Cruises in 2002 has passed hands yet
again.
The sale comes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the cruise ship industry,
and many media outlets misleadingly claimed that the vessel being sold was the original
ship featured on The Love Boat.
However, true fans know that the real Pacific Princess, later renamed to just the Pacific,
was dismantled in 2012.
Although the ship that was used by Princess Cruises and rebranded as the Love Boat in
2002 wasn’t the original vessel that had been used as the main backdrop on the show,
it still served its function over the years!
Fans of the show got to experience what it was like to be aboard the titular ship while
they were on it, and the vessel even served host to many celebrity guests from The Love
Boat!
Besides appearing on the new Pacific Princess, stars from the original show have also appeared
on other modern ships in the Princess fleet.
In 2014, the main cast of The Love Boat was brought to an event to collectively christen
a new Princess ship by the name of the Regal Princess.
Many decades after coming to an end, The Love Boat still holds a place in the heart of the
cruise industry.
The vessel that was renamed as the Pacific Princess in 2002 after the original Pacific
Princess was sold to Quail Cruises has recently been sold to yet another cruise brand, this
time by the name of Azamara.
The ship is scheduled to begin sailing for its new cruise company in 2022.
Although the original Pacific Princess that served as the main backdrop for the titular
ship on The Love Boat is no longer with us, it still lives on in our memories!
Comment down below to share if you were surprised to learn about the fate of the original Pacific
Princess, or if you were surprised to learn that multiple Princess vessels had been utilized
over the course of The Love Boat’s production.
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