Was Love Boat Filmed on a Real Cruise Ship?

By Anna Duncan

Love Boat was a classic television show that aired in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It followed the lives of the crew and passengers of a fictional cruise ship, the Pacific Princess. The show was immensely popular and remains one of the most iconic television programs of all time.

One question that has been asked by many fans of the show is: was Love Boat filmed on a real cruise ship? Well, it turns out that the answer to this question is both yes and no. For some seasons, the show was filmed on board a real cruise ship, while for other seasons it was staged on a studio set.

The first season of Love Boat was filmed on board the Pacific Princess, which had been chartered from its original owners, Princess Cruises. The production team took over the entire ship for six weeks in 1977 and used it to film a number of episodes. During this time, all passengers onboard were actors or members of the production crew and there were no actual passengers onboard during filming.

The following two seasons were also filmed on board a real cruise ship; this time it was another vessel called Island Princess which belonged to Royal Caribbean Cruises. However, due to various issues such as cost and scheduling difficulties, after these two seasons production moved back to land-based studios where they built an elaborate set replicating an ocean liner’s interior with full-scale sets for staterooms, casinos, bars and other areas typically found onboard cruise ships.

This set allowed them more flexibility when creating storylines as they could easily change one section into another without having to build a new set every time. They also had access to green screens which allowed them to digitally place their actors onto backgrounds depicting exotic locations around the world such as Rio de Janeiro or Acapulco Bay – something that would have been impossible with a real-life cruise ship!

In conclusion, while Love Boat may have started out filming onboard an actual cruise ship (the Pacific Princess), most episodes were actually filmed on land-based sets in Hollywood or at Universal Studios Florida – making it easier for writers to create new storylines and for actors to be placed in exotic locations around the world without ever having to leave California!