If we didn't know better, we'd say Princess Cruises makes up this stuff…
The story starts with the fact that the cruise line's long-time spokesman is Gavin MacLeod of The Love Boat TV show. Princess finds one of its officers in training, on the way to being a captain, is named Gavin MacLeod.
Now comes the new iteration of the Royal Princess. It was floated out of the Fincantieri Shipyard after a cord-cutting ceremony that starts the flow of water into the ship's dock. The cord is cut by the "madrina" (or godmother), a young woman who was christened on the old Royal Princess, which was under the command of her father, Captain Nick.
President & CEO Alan Buckelew presided at the ceremony.
"We wanted to bring the spirit of that much-loved ship, also a prototype design, to the new 
Royal Princess,” he said. “And who better to do that than Victoria, who has grown up into a beautiful young lady who will now have a special connection with both vessels.”
The story gets better because when she was christened on the Royal Princess in 1996, Victoria Nash's name was engraved on the inside of the old ship's bell, which was given to her family when the Royal Princess was re-assigned to P&O and re-named the Artemis in 2005. Now the family has given the bell back so it can be placed on the new ship when it is launched in the spring of 2013.
And when that happens, who do you think will be smashing the traditional bottle of bubbly on the bow of the Royal Princess?
The "Royal Princess," of course, which must surely be the first time the "christened" did the "christening."
Carnival Imagination
4 nights
September 17, 2012
Miami (return): Key West, Cozumel
Inside: $199
Cost per day: $49
www.carnival.com