Who watched the Real Love Boat?

[Roatanfans]

Regal Princess looked good, but I would have loved to see more of the ship and ports.  The show itself was not great, but I wasn't expecting much!

[cr8tiv1]

I made it to the second commercial.  I recorded it, but don’t have high expectations for the rest.  It made me miss the original Love Boat even more. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

This is nothing but  “Love Island” recycled to a Princess Ship. Utter tripe and not worth me time and effort.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by AtlantaCruiser72

[sloopsailor]

My wife and I watched it mostly because we will be on Regal next year. The ship, what they showed of her, was great. The show, however, was the typical low IQ trash these "love" reality shows are. We fast forwarded though most of it and won't be watching it again. If I wanted to spend my time watching trash, I could just as easily stare at my garbage can for an hour. 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by sloopsailor

[FenixRising]

Typical "reality" show crap. Long on hype and short on reality.

[Esprit]

Sounds like what we saw being actually filmed last July aboard Regal. So scripted and loads of retakes. 

The best VT will be the arial shots when the helicopter spent half an hour flying/filming around us shortly after leaving Kotor.

[Musky Ike]

I watched the first ten minutes. That was enough, I'm done.

[SargassoPirate]

I watched the commercials hyping the show and decided not to waste the electricity it would take to run the television for that hour.  

 

 

[Perky1]

Cheesy….. not worth wasting the time to watch!

[ontheweb]

Not me! As a previous poster said, the commercials for it were enough to let you know it was not worth watching.

[cruisefam38]

 

Even knowing we were not the target audience, we tuned in to see the Regal, because  like sloopsailor, we are also cruising on her next spring.  We didn't make it to the 15 minute mark.

 

Rated 4.7 on IMDB at this moment.  The aforementioned "Love Island" has an overall 5.0 rating, so maybe "The Real Love Boat" meets expectations?

[Level six]

I feel so embarrassed for the captain.  Why of why would he agree to film this? 

[san diego sue]

The worst dating show out there. The rules copied from Bachelor in Paradise.

This is much worse. A bunch of losers, probably scripted. Where do they find these people? No way

would this make me want to cruise if I were seeing cruising for first time. The original Love Boat had fun story lines, great writers, people of all ages finding love . Actors that could act. What a shame.

Even if they had brought back the Original  format and not a dating show, nothing could beat the Original show. If they are trying to appeal to the younger audience, that is a big turnoff.Doubt if this show will last.

Are those people really a Princess  Captain, Bartender,and Cruise Director.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by san diego sue

[Cruiser933]

I know Matt is really a cruise director as friends had him as CD on a Carnival cruise. I agree with all of the sentiments above, but will continue to watch for a while anyway to see more of the ship and ports. What got me was that they made it look like the ship was almost empty, though I suppose they probably were running at reduced capacity at the time.

 

[FenixRising]

20 minutes ago, Level six said:

Why of why would he agree to film this? 

$$$

[jc foster]

27 minutes ago, FenixRising said:

$$$

    Sometimes you dont have a choice. Its your Bosses.  A film crew came to an office in Dallas where I had worked to make a show called '' The First 48". Many of the guys working there took vacation to avoid the fiasco.

[Cruzinnana47]

We watched only out of curiosity....was just about as lame as we figured.   Best part was Ted Lange (Isaac from the original Love Boat) showing up briefly.  Typical reality show tripe.  

 

Won't waste our time watching again.

[Esprit]

1 hour ago, san diego sue said:

Are those people really a Princess  Captain, Bartender,and Cruise Director.

 

Yes, they are!

Matt Mitcham was a highly rated CD for Carnival and decided to retire a couple of years ago before taking up the offer of CD aboard the new Madi Gras ship.

 

Captain Paolo I think resumed command of Regal Princess after the filming finished in early August. 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Esprit

[Esprit]

52 minutes ago, Cruiser933 said:

...... though I suppose they probably were running at reduced capacity at the time.

 

We were on board during filming, and I can assure you it was pretty near full capacity. 

So annoying that a third of the Sanctuary was out of bounds to passengers and reserved for the film crew.

[WatchHill]

I watched for about 5 minutes and couldn't take it much longer. Who dreams up such utter garbage and thinks it will hook in greater interest in cruising. The original Love Boat set the standard, even if pure fantasy, for peoples interest in cruising. As we all know, "reality" shows are far from it.

 

Darcy

[Wishing on a star]

I watched, as I was just SO enjoying seeing those wonderful areas of the REGAL that I have enjoyed, and hope to be back onboard.   A lot of this first episode was filmed at the Sanctuary and Retreat Pool.  

They sure brought in the potted plants for the set in the Sanctuary!

Yes, usual reality dating stupidity....  But I loved watching the Regal.

That is what this show is for.  Making the Princess ship look enticing.

 

Looks like a lot of the upcoming episodes will be onshore 'dates'.

[azbirdmom]

I watched but it was clear from both the show and the Princess commercials that they are aiming to get younger cruisers onboard.  Which they need to do to stay relevant when the rest of us old(er) folks stop cruising.

 

I didn't see it mentioned but Ezra has been a bartender on Princess for a couple of years.  Her proud mom posts on at least one FB and possibly here - hard to tell since no one uses their real names on CC.

 

I will continue to watch even though it's cheesy.  So was the original Love Boat but I always watched that one too.  Looking forward to seeing if the dates ashore are more interesting.  The coming attractions made it look kind of like an Amazing Race format.  And also to see if they move beyond the Sanctuary and Retreat Pool - or if any gray hair makes it into the camera shots which if it happened was too quick for me to tell!

[Sailingpeace]

Cannot believe how far from the Princess I know it makes the cruise experience look. From the start, first impression, The Sanctuary is made to look like a cocktail lounge for " squeeqy OMG" overdoses !!! So the exact opposite of what can make Princess experience unique. There will be a need for some clarification of that perk in the brochures...

 

As someone who always booked the Sanctuary and enjoyed the serenity for a much needed rest, I just cannot imagine beeing there when this disaster was filming.I hope it was a short disturbance and that passengers were informed in advance, ie, pre-booking. 

 

It sems to me like a show that would belong more on other cruise lines better known for another kind of ambiance. 

 

It was nice to see Isaak etc, yes reminders of a much love show, 

 

People discovering Princess ships via this show may have a very different image of the target crowd that I had come to know. Has Princess changed that much during the pandemic.....OMG  😉

Edited October 6, 2022 by Sailingpeace
typo correction

[Astro Flyer]

52 minutes ago, WatchHill said:

I watched for about 5 minutes and couldn't take it much longer. Who dreams up such utter garbage and thinks it will hook in greater interest in cruising. The original Love Boat set the standard, even if pure fantasy, for peoples interest in cruising. As we all know, "reality" shows are far from it.

 

Darcy

Princess management is who dreams up such things & in her webinars the Princess VP of Sales is ecstatic about this cheesy program. She believes that it’ll increase cruising as much as the original Love Boat program. She described it as a combination of the Amazing Race, Survivor & Love Island which left CBS for NBC’s Peacock network. In the Love Boat series love was mostly depicted with humor by actors but the new version is people not truly seeking love but their 15 minutes of fame in another scripted reality show.

 

I’ll occasionally watch the original camp version of the Love Boat on the free Pluto TV network and not this trashy Real Love Boat version.

[PrincessLuver]

ROFL…..OMG and somehow people pan this show but the ridiculous games they have on Princess like the Marriage Game, Yes/No game, Trivia, etc. are some how not cheesy but high class entertainment on Princess.