Princess Cruise Lines is the original “Love Boat” cruise line from the show that ran 9 years starting in 1977. The ship was the Pacific Princess. It’s 10 day cruise on the show sailed to Puerta Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Mazatlan, and Ensenada Mexico. It has been 47 years since that show started and that’s close enough to be thinking of that big milestone of 50.

“Fifty what?”

Fifty years is a long time! The show hasn’t reached that mark yet, but is very close. It has only 3 more years to reach that golden anniversary. Every episode is available on the in-room TV and you can buy the DVD collection in the gift shop. I’m binge watching them.

“Is that going to be your new reality?”

No, of course not. We are on the Island Princess. That was the Pacific Princess. Totally different ship. 

“Is it the 50th sunrise? Or 5oth Sunset?”

Many people decorate their doors on these ships. Most are celebrations of some kind. These people are celebrating fifty years. That’s how long these people have been together. It is common to see people cruising as a 50 year anniversary celebration.

That’s really something. More than half of marriages won’t last 7 years. Seven years is nothing to fifty! I think there will be less and less of those celebrations in the future. Gone are the vows of ‘death do us part’ and now it’s basically ‘till I can find better’ or ‘as long as I feel like it.’ It’s also way to easy to find someone to validate that crappy sentiment. Failure loves company. 

Sometimes I feel like I haven’t quite earned this trip when compared to the 50 year anniversary couples. Good for them! I’m impressed and I tell them so. That is a very long time.

That’s also how long since the tv show introduced many Americans to a cruise ships. One 50 is the really real, and the other 50 is imagined. Both can seem real, and in a way, they are real.

“You have quite an imagination. One is just a tv show. That was imagination, it wasn’t real. The other is real.” 

I’m not getting 50. I’ll have to settle for great sunsets and fancy ice sculptures. I’ll celebrate with them, but it won’t be my party.

This is the current Love Boat, at least for me, this is the “Island Princess”. It is home for a few weeks as we cross the equator back into summer. I couldn’t fit the whole thing into one picture! I realized today the lifeboats you see on the side are the same ones that ferry you back and forth when the ship can’t park in a harbor at a pier. They lower them into the water and a door opens up on the side of the ship to get on and off of them. Some ports offer the ‘tender’ service but some don’t so this how it’s done self-serve!

We watch movies at night on the pool deck. They serve popcorn for the movies and of course the pizza is always fresh. Princess pizza is the best!

“We’re watching Pearl Harbor? On the way to Honolulu?”

Always with the relevant movie! Great choices. Yesterday we watched ‘The Princess Bride’. That’s an old favorite.

We arrived in Honolulu in the early morning. With the time zone changes I hardly noticed. As we travel West we gain hours. Hawaii is beautiful and the ocean air reminds me why I love it here.

“I’m also feeling much better. Thanks for asking. No more pain. No need for big pharma medication.”

I love my room. It has a couch I can watch all the old tv shows on and a balcony I can stare endlessly into the ocean and watch sunsets and sunrises on depending on which direction we are going. Room service is included too.

The first day of the cruise I got a bit seasick and didn’t come out at all. The next day the security officer and another girl came by to check on me. I know they probably have to but it made me feel like somebody cared.

“Wow you already in a fantasy world! That’s just liability. They don’t want any dead bodies stinking up the place. They don’t really care about you.”

Are you going to be like this the whole time? Can’t we just think positively and maybe they care on some personal level? Maybe? These are human beings still. They haven’t been replaced by robots yet. On the tv show, they cared about people.

“Exactly.”

It’s all in your mind. No need to be upset by this, just let it flow through you. It’s all in your mind.