Earlier, I hinted at a once in a lifetime date night. I think it’s going to take a few posts to capture the whole thing, but I want to begin at the beginning.
Mr. R. works as an assignment editor at our local ABC affiliate. He’s the guy who takes the phone calls and gets the e-mails when there’s an event or other news story. A couple of weeks ago he mentioned to me that he’d been contacted by public relations people for Princess Cruises. Princess is celebrating 50 years of cruising and they have a brand new ship, the Regal Princess. The media was being invited to cover a celebration of their Golden Anniversary and christening the new cruise liner. The entire cast of The Love Boat television series would be in attendance along with several celebrity guest stars of the show.
I thought that sounded like a really cool assignment for somebody from the station. Mr. R. also mentioned to me that he’d received a huge box from the press people containing some Love Boat souvenirs. He brought it home one day. When you open the box, it plays an instrumental version of the Love Boat theme. Inside were two captain’s hats, a Love Boat clipboard, two confetti poppers, and a squeezy Love Boat.
The trouble is, nobody at the station was very interested in covering the event. A few days later, we kicked around the idea of us covering it. After all, Mr. R. is an accomplished photojournalist, and I occasionally blog.
Long story (slightly) shorter, we accepted the invitation, signed up for Media Passes, and made the necessary arrangements to cover the Princess Cruises 50th Anniversary and Christening of the Regal Princess in Ft. Lauderdale.
To be continued…
Adventures in Date Night 
That would be so much fun! I loved that show!!
It’s a classic. 🙂
Why I hate The Love Boat. I actually don’t hate the boat. I like boats. I sail one now and then. It’s the damn theme song. “The loooove boat,..” Yuk! I have very good reason to hate “thatdamnsong”. It makes me think of Saturday night. Specifically 10 PM on Saturday night. It was, at one point in my life, a dreaded moment in the week. When I was but a lad I worked shift work. Rotating shifts. 28 days on each shift rotating backwards. Saturday night was my Monday morning. I had to report to the police department to begin my 5 midnight shifts at 10:45 so that meant at 10 PM I had to haul my exhausted butt up off from the couch and get ready to go to work. And what woke me? “The loooove boat…” If you’ve never worked rotating shift work you will never get it but trust me you’d hate “thatdamnsong” just as much as I do. But hey, enjoy your festivities and sing along, popping your poppers and sipping the bubbly, if they play “thatdamnsong”.
Sadly, “thatdamnsong” began with the invitation–it plays every time you open the box. 🙂 Still, there are worse songs (It’s a Small World comes to mind, although earlier this week Gay Bar was stuck in my head–you’re welcome for the new ear worm). I get your unwelcome association with the song, however, and apologize. We did, by the way, have a fabulous time. Celebrity pix are forthcoming. Happy Friday!
Party on the Lido Deck with Gopher! Holy cow–have fun! 😀
Right?! Most surreal moment of my life, thus far anyway. 🙂