For people who remember the start of the cruise boom, there's really only one ship captain whose name will stand forever. Merrill Stubing is his name and he wasn't really a captain at all…just a man who played the role on The Love Boat, the 30-minute TV show that did something special for cruising.
So what did become of Gavin MacLeod?
Funny you should ask.
The gifted actor who also became famous as Murray Slaughter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and, before that, Happy Haines on McHale's Navy is still riding the high seas with Princess Cruises. In fact, he just returned from 17 days in the Mediterranean on the Grand Princess, a newly renovated ship that he first boarded for its maiden Transatlantic voyage, 14 years ago. At the time, the Grand Princess was the world's largest cruise ship.
"I even stayed in the same suite, at the back of the ship," he says. "My neighbor was the ocean."
The captain's a fascinating guy, something we discovered when we met him for lunch.
Come back to cruisingdoneright.com on Friday for…
The Gavin MacLeod story.
Norwegian Jade
10 nights
December 12, 2012
Rome (return): Olympia, Athens, Izmir, Istanbul, Naples
Inside: $449
Cost per day: $44
www.ncl.com