50 Fun Facts About Princess Cruises

Which ship was the main setting of The Love Boat, the hit series that ran from 1977 to 1986?

Pacific Princess was a real working ship, and the show's success is widely credited with making cruise holidays popular in North America. Most scenes were filmed on studio sets.

Which actor christened Star Princess in 2025 with wife Camila Alves and a giant bottle of tequila?

Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves named the ship at Port Everglades in Florida, using an outsized bottle of their own Pantalones brand where champagne is the usual choice.

Which cruise ship name was christened by Diana in 1984 and again by the Duchess of Cambridge in 2013?

Royal Princess of 1984 was the line's first purpose-built ship and one of the first anywhere with no inside cabins. Southampton hosted both naming ceremonies, 29 years apart.

Which ship was quarantined at Yokohama in early 2020 as COVID-19 spread among the 3,711 people aboard?

Diamond Princess saw at least 712 of those aboard test positive, at one point more than half of all documented cases outside China. HBO retold the voyage in the documentary The Last Cruise.

Which former Houston Rockets center christened Majestic Princess in Shanghai in 2017 with wife Ye Li?

Yao Ming was born in Shanghai and began his career with the city's Sharks. The ship was fitted out for Chinese travelers, with private karaoke rooms and a tea bar.

What does Princess Cruises call its giant poolside film screen, backed by a 69,000-watt sound system?

Movies Under the Stars plays on a 300-square-foot outdoor screen, and the line added one to older ships such as Dawn Princess during refits.

Which Love Boat actor, who played Captain Stubing, became global ambassador for Princess Cruises in 1986?

Gavin MacLeod fronted the line's advertising for more than 30 years and marked his 80th birthday aboard Golden Princess with a cake shaped like the Love Boat.

Which Emmy-winning English actress named Sun Princess in 2024 and sang the Love Boat theme in an advert?

Hannah Waddingham, the team owner in Ted Lasso, is a veteran of West End musicals and performed the old TV theme aboard the ship for a commercial.

Coral Princess and Island Princess were sized to squeeze through the original locks of which waterway?

The Panama Canal link ran deep: Coral Princess was christened in 2003 by Mireya Moscoso, then the country's president, who had overseen the canal's handover from the United States.

Which TV detective cracked a murder at sea in Troubled Waters, a 1975 episode filmed aboard Sun Princess?

Columbo's episode was shot mostly inside the ship, leaving a film record of her 1970s interiors before a later refit. She had begun life as P&O's Spirit of London.

Which Florida-based giant has owned Princess Cruises since a $5.4 billion merger in 2003?

Carnival Corporation stepped in after the line's parent had already agreed to merge with a rival group, and the deal created the world's largest cruise operator.

Which region did Princess Cruises first sail in 1965, later the regular route of The Love Boat?

The Mexican Riviera run began with Princess Patricia, an Alaska steamer chartered for the winter that proved a poor fit for the tropics because she had no air conditioning.

Which West Coast port was home to the first Princess Cruises voyages in 1965 and to TV's Love Boat?

Los Angeles stayed the line's base for decades, with head offices in Century City until a move to the suburbs in 2001.

Princess Cays, the private beach resort opened by Princess Cruises in 1992, lies in which island nation?

The Bahamas resort sits on the southern tip of Eleuthera, so despite its name it is part of one long island and not a cluster of separate cays.

Which homemaking mogul is godmother to Crown Princess, which left Brooklyn on her maiden voyage in 2006?

Martha Stewart's ship went on to circle the globe, setting out from Sydney in June 2025 on a 113-day world cruise.

Sun Princess of 2024 became the first Princess Cruises ship to run mainly on which fuel?

Liquefied natural gas powers both Sphere-class sisters, which at about 175,000 gross tons were also ordered as the largest ships yet built in Italy.

Which former British prime minister officially named the first Regal Princess in New York in 1991?

Margaret Thatcher's ship had a colourful afterlife: in 2020 she was renamed Satoshi, after Bitcoin's presumed creator, for a floating-residence scheme that fell through.

Which US network aired The Love Boat, set aboard a Princess Cruises ship, on Saturday nights from 1977?

ABC paired the show with Fantasy Island on Saturday nights until 1984, and it sat in the ratings top 20 for most of its first seven years.

Glass-domed Princess Cruises rail cars run from Anchorage to Fairbanks, stopping at which national park?

Denali anchors the line's Alaska land tours, which also use company-owned wilderness lodges. When the Ultra Dome rail cars were built, their dome panes were the largest ever fitted to a railcar.

Trista Sutter, who christened Ruby Princess with husband Ryan in 2008, led the first season of which show?

The Bachelorette is where she met Ryan Sutter, the firefighter she chose in the finale and married in 2003. The couple named the ship at Fort Lauderdale.

What name does Princess Cruises give the quarter-sized wearable device that enables touch-free boarding?

The Medallion also tracks where a guest is so that food and drink orders can be delivered to them, and it can be posted to a traveler's home before the trip for a fee.

What job did Ted Lange's character Isaac Washington do aboard the Princess Cruises ship in The Love Boat?

Bartender Isaac was played by Ted Lange in every episode, all four specials and the final TV movie, a run that only two of his castmates matched.

Sky Princess was christened in 2019 by Kay Hire and Poppy Northcutt, both veterans of which organization?

NASA sent Kay Hire into orbit on two Space Shuttle missions, while Poppy Northcutt became the first woman engineer in Mission Control during Apollo 8.

Island Princess was named in 2003 by Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, Olympic champions in which sport?

Figure skating gave the Canadian pair one of the great Olympic dramas: after a scandal at the 2002 Winter Games, they ended up sharing gold with their Russian rivals.

Which X-Men actress hosted The Real Love Boat with husband Jerry O'Connell aboard Regal Princess in 2022?

Rebecca Romijn and O'Connell also sang the old theme tune over the opening credits of the CBS dating show, whose winning couple received a voyage with the line.

Which Charlie's Angels and Dynasty producer made The Love Boat, set aboard a Princess Cruises ship?

Aaron Spelling even crossed his hits over: a 1979 Charlie's Angels season premiere put the detectives aboard the ship, with the whole crew making cameos.

Jeraldine Saunders, who began the memoir behind The Love Boat aboard Princess Carla, drew on which seagoing job?

Cruise director was a post she is credited as the first woman to hold full time, and her 1974 book The Love Boats handed the series its title.

P&O, the British owner of Princess Cruises from 1974, takes its name from Peninsular and which word?

Oriental joined the name in 1840, the year the firm won a contract to carry mail to Egypt. Peninsular recalls its first steamer routes to Spain and Portugal.

Which Gone with the Wind actress christened Grand Princess in 1998, when no passenger ship was larger?

Olivia de Havilland, the film's Melanie, named a ship that cost about $450 million, making it the most expensive passenger vessel built up to that time.

Sapphire Princess swapped names with her sister after a fire at their shipyard in which country?

Japan's Mitsubishi yard at Nagasaki was building both ships when one hull burned, so the undamaged sister took over its name to keep the first delivery on schedule.

Which Grammy-winning crooner sang the theme of The Love Boat during its first eight seasons on air?

Jack Jones later sent the tune up himself, with a cameo performing it in the 1982 comedy Airplane II.

Princess Cruises is run from California but legally incorporated in which Atlantic island territory?

Bermuda also registers most of the fleet, and it has an older tie to the line: the first Love Boat was built as Sea Venture, named for the 1609 wreck that settled the island.

Which shipbuilder, with a yard at Monfalcone, delivered Grand Princess in 1998 and Sun Princess in 2024?

Fincantieri has built so many of the line's ships that one of them, Enchanted Princess, was counted as the 100th passenger vessel the company had constructed.

What does Princess Cruises call the cantilevered overhang that carries guests out past the side of its 2013 flagship?

The SeaWalk comes as a pair, one on the port side and one to starboard, aboard a ship that also carries a dancing water fountain.

Which honor did Princess Cruises sponsor for the original Love Boat cast, announced on Today in 2017?

The Hollywood Walk of Fame star was a single one shared by all six actors, announced 40 years after the series began.

Which French Polynesian island gave its name and a home base to a ship that joined Princess Cruises in 2002?

Tahiti lent its name to a former Renaissance Cruises vessel that was based there at first, then renamed Ocean Princess and sold on in 2016.

In which country was the original Love Boat broken up for scrap after reaching the port of Aliağa in 2013?

Turkey's breakers took her after years laid up in Genoa, where three auctions drew no bids. Her sister ship met the same end on an Indian beach soon afterwards.

Which Love Boat actress, the captain's daughter Vicki, became celebrations ambassador for Princess Cruises?

Jill Whelan was cast at 11 and, with five castmates, later served as godparent to Regal Princess, naming the ship in 2014.

Sapphire Princess in 2004 became the first cruise ship ever christened in which US port city?

Seattle is also where the line's founder went to school and university, and the port has served as a summer base for the fleet's Alaska sailings.

Which nightclub rides in a wing over the stern of Caribbean Princess, nicknamed the shopping cart handle?

Skywalkers was taken off Grand Princess in a 2011 refit, which cured that ship's habit of riding bow-high and trimmed her fuel use by 3 to 4 percent.

Which California city became home to the Princess Cruises headquarters when it left Century City in 2001?

Santa Clarita is so low-rise that the line's head office, about 72 feet high, has ranked as its joint-tallest building alongside a nearby hotel.

Which Alaskan port, reached by road through one tunnel, ends one-way Princess Cruises voyages from Vancouver?

Whittier lies beyond a tunnel of about two and a half miles that cars share with trains, the longest combined road and rail tunnel in North America.

Which Spenser: For Hire actor captained Sun Princess in the 1998 revival Love Boat: The Next Wave?

Robert Urich took the part the year he was declared free of cancer, playing a retired Navy officer in a UPN series that lasted two seasons.

Which 1967 film starring Patty Duke and Sharon Tate held a press screening at sea aboard Princess Italia?

Valley of the Dolls had its world premiere in Genoa, after which the press sailed with the brand-new ship. The US premiere followed once she reached Miami.

Which Italian co-designer of the Pompidou Centre gave the 1990 ship Crown Princess its dolphin-like profile?

Renzo Piano shaped the exteriors of two sister ships first ordered by another line, and the second of them entered service as Regal Princess a year later.

Which businessman founded Princess Cruises in 1965 after chartering a ship to serve a World's Fair?

Stanley McDonald sold the line to P&O within a decade but stayed on as chairman until 1980. An earlier business of his had supplied the fair's ground transport equipment.

Which Italian-founded line did P&O buy in 1988, handing Princess Cruises three new ships still being built?

Sitmar ships wore a V on their funnels for founder Alexandre Vlasov, a Russian émigré who started out hauling coal around the Mediterranean.

What nickname does the Princess Cruises funnel logo, which replaced red and yellow triangles, go by?

The sea witch showed which fleet a ship belonged to: one liner shuttled between owners wore it on a white funnel for Princess and a plain buff funnel for P&O.

Before her Love Boat fame, the ship Sea Venture took passengers off which stricken Cunard liner in 1974?

Queen Elizabeth 2 had lost power to boiler trouble on a cruise out of New York, and her passengers were transferred to the much smaller ship.

Which Love Boat actor, a godparent of Regal Princess in 2014, served four terms in Congress for Iowa?

Fred Grandy played the purser Gopher, and he later told People magazine that without the character there would have been no run for Congress.