Are you ready for re-runs of The Love Boat?
If that’s not next, it can’t be far away.
Princess promotes a Love Boat cruise and it sells out 18 months before sailing. Now, Princess has named the entire original cast of the famous TV show as “godparents” of the Regal Princess, a new ship that has been without such blessings since she hit the water in the spring.
The ceremony will be in Florida, in November, after the Regal Princess makes her first Atlantic crossing.
The Love Boat original cast — Captain Merrill Stubing (Gavin MacLeod), Isaac the bartender Ted Lange), Julie the cruise director (Lauren Tewes), Doc Bricker the ship’s 
doctor (Bernie Kopell), Gopher the yeoman purser (Fred Grandy) and Vicki the captain’s kid (Jill Whelan) — will officially name the ship that cruise passengers will have been sailing on for six months by then.
Talk about nostalgia.
On the eve of its 50th anniversary, Princess discovered there was still equity in The Love Boat. Even the most optimistic Princess patterers couldn’t have imagined how much equity there was in a made-for-TV movie that was spun into a regular series lasting 10 years. Only MacLeod, Kopell and Lange appeared in all episodes of the series. And “original” does not apply to the first two of three made-for-TV movies, only the TV series.
Other ships were used but it’s widely known that the now-deceased Pacific Princess was the true Love Boat.
The show has been syndicated in many countries in many languages for many years. Surely, it will be revived in America — even if only on Princess ships with more regularity.
And if you think that means more pocket change for that original cast, well, it doesn’t. In the ’70s, they accepted contracts paying them just for their acting, with nothing for syndication.
After all, who could have known?
Today at portsandbows.com: The latest in cruise news
Emerald Princess
7 nights
November 16, 2014
Houston (return): Roatan, Belize, Cozumel
Inside: $449
Cost per day: $64
www.princess.com