Princess to celebrate its 50th Anniversary. Some interesting historical facts

Categories When Stanley McDonald acquired the ship Princess Patricia, it wasn't to start a passenger cruise line, it was to solve a much more pressing need for hotel space for the Seattle World's fair in 1962. 

To get the ship from the Caribbean to Seattle they went through the Panama Canal on the way and transported key customers and others along the way sort of as an entertainment business expense.  But that experience and the success of the fair and the Princess Patricia as a deluxe accomodation generated the idea of a cruise line to treat passengers in a luxury manner as a vacation rather then as trans ocena passage and transit.

The concept was further tested in 1965 when Princess Cruise Lines was created and the same Princess Patricia was used for a winter season for cruises roundtrip to Mexico from Los Angeles.  McDonald was convinced that the idea would be successful and that winter proved out his model.  The Princess Patricia was returned to its original owners, but Princess Cruise Lines then chartered the Princess Italia, one of the first modern ships built for cruising, and began cruising the Panama Canal transits.  Today they are still some of the most sought after cruises as Princess sails Ft. Lauderdal -Los Angeles and return, as well as now roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale that enter the canal but do not complete a transit and return to Ft. Lauderdale in 10 days.

In 1968 Princess began their now infamous Alaska services and in 2015 will have 7 ships serving just that market.  For the next several years Princess established the market and quite often was chosen for Hollywood movies sets.  While a great advertisement, hosting movie crews and the impact to their passengers was a significant downside in terms of money and inconvenience.  When in 1975, they were approached by Aaron Spelling for the TV series "The Love Boat", the amount of filming time and time out of service was deemed too much, and the show was turned down by a deputy to McDonald.  However the next day, he reconsidered and decided that the 6 weeks the show would need to film the season would eventually be worth it, and thus in 1976 "The Love Boat" began filming and became wildly successful.   The rest is history as they say, and here are very brief notes of what I think are just a few of Princess innovations and milestones in the cruise line industry. 



Princess plans a 50th anniversary commemorative sailing of its original itinerary departing exactly 50 years to the date the company began its very first sailing to Mexico.  You can be part of this if you book early, and there will be lots of both history, nostalgia, and great events and gifts to commemorate it.   Check our blog for additional announcements about this, then call us.