Remembering Princess Cruises’ Stanley McDonald: "The Love Boat" Visionary (VIDEO)

November 26, 2014 By: Susan Young

Stanley McDonald, founder of Princess Cruises

Less than a month after Princess Cruises’ newest ship, Regal Princess, was christened by the original “Love Boat” cast at Port Everglades, FL, Stanley McDonald, 94, the line’s founder and a long-time Seattle businessman, has passed away in Seattle.

While McDonald didn’t attend the christening in early November, he remotely watched the festivities via a video feed and was represented at the star-studded affair by a large family contingency.

Princess, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, also honored him during the christening with a video tribute on the ship’s big outdoor movie screen:

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A Cruise Visionary

McDonald’s legacy to the cruise industry began in the early 1960s. In search of more hotel rooms for travelers desiring to attend the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, he chartered a ship to transport fair goers from San Francisco to Seattle; the people spent a few days at the fair before sailing home.

From that successful experience, McDonald decided to begin taking people to sea as business venture. In 1965, he founded Princess Cruises, chartered his first ship — Princess Patricia — and dreamed up the “Mexican Riviera” monicker as a way to market West Coast cruises with port calls south of the border. He later pioneered upscale cruising to Alaska and through the Panama Canal.

In 1974, McDonald sold Princess to P&O Steamship Company. He remained Princess’ CEO through 1980. Then he founded Sundance Cruises, which after a merger became part of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Princess, in turn, became a Carnival Corporation brand in 2003.

“Stan McDonald was one of the people who built this industry,” Richard Fain, chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) told us this week. “We worked together a lot in the ‘80s and I always enjoyed our time together.”

Fain stressed: “What made the difference with Stan is that his charm was accompanied by an innovative vision, persistence and determination. That combination didn’t just help make Princess what it is today — it helped make the cruise industry what it is today.”

The Love Boat

McDonald’s decision to allow producer Aaron Spelling to film for the 1970s-1980s television series, “The Love Boat,” on Princess’ original Sun Princess, and later Pacific Princess and Island Princess, is widely viewed as a stroke of promotional genius.

Mark Conroy, former president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises and now principal of Mark S. Conroy Associates in Fort Lauderdale, didn’t personally know McDonald at Princess but later met him through business dealings with a travel agency McDonald owned in Seattle. “Stan had a flair for promotion and ‘The Love Boat’ was really a breakthrough,” said Conroy.

The original “Love Boat” television series cast (shown above) christened the new Regal Princess, some 50 years after Stanley McDonald founded the cruise line. // Photo by Princess Cruises

An immediate hit with television viewers, the show introduced North American consumers to the new concept of “cruising.” According to Cruise Lines International Association, a record 21.3 million passengers cruised worldwide in 2013; many of those people grew up watching the “Love Boat” or have seen it on cable re-runs. It’s popular overseas as well as in North America.

“It is generally agreed that he [McDonald] pioneered West Coast cruising much like Ted Arison, Arne Wilhelmsen and Edwin Stephan did on the East Coast,” Conroy noted.

Interestingly, “The Love Boat” almost never happened as McDonald himself explained in a Q&A article on Princess’ website. One business colleague informed McDonald that he’d brushed off a production company interested in filming on the company’s ship. McDonald, however, thought about that decision overnight and changed his mind. Fortunately, the TV company was still interested.

Agents can read McDonald’s description of those events here.

At the Beginning

Within that same Q&A, McDonald revealed several anecdotal stories about Princess’ start-up period. He quipped that he was so pleased that guests were having such fun and spending money in the casino before he realized the slot machines were set “too rich” and he was paying out way too much out in winnings.

In another story, McDonald explained that on an initial cruise — at a time when the Princess ship didn’t have an onboard laundry — the guests’ laundry was taken off the ship for cleaning in Acapulco. However, the cleaner returned the clothing to the ship in one big communal shipment. In a big “oops,” the line had to explain to guests that it couldn’t sort out the clothing. The solution? All laundry was laid out in the terminal for guests to pick through and claim.

Rick Sasso, president MSC Cruises USA and former president of Celebrity Cruises, said he met McDonald only once some three decades ago but understands McDonald’s influence on the cruise industry: “His name is often mentioned when industry veterans look at the history of the industry and who were the real visionaries – Stan, Ted and Micky Arison and Richard Revnes are always on the top of the list.”

McDonald’s enduring legacy was clearly on display at the recent star-studded Love Boat-themed festivities at Port Everglades. The events launched Princess Cruises’ 50th anniversary year and played tribute to the pivotal role McDonald and that “Love Boat” decision had for Princess’’ first 50 years of successful operations.

Jan Swartz, the line’s president, said: “’The Love Boat’ put Princess Cruises on the map, bringing the romance and adventure of our cruise vacations into millions of viewers’ homes for the decade it was on air.”

Princess Statement

In a statement about McDonald’s passing, Princess Cruises said:

“We are so saddened about the passing of Princess Cruises founder Stan McDonald. Without his bold vision that people would love to vacation on the seas and explore fascinating ports along the way on ships full of exciting amenities, the vacation world would be very different today.

“We at Princess are deeply grateful for his passion to create and grow our company, and we’re happy we got to pay tribute to Stan just three weeks ago at the launch of Regal Princess and our 50th anniversary celebrations — and that he got to see the ceremony remotely.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Stan’s family as they say goodbye to a beloved husband, father and grandfather.”

Stan is survived by his wife Barbara, to whom he was married for 70 years. Other survivors include his brother Lamont and sister Lois Gervais; his children, Laurie Jonsson and Kirby McDonald; six grandchildren, Scott McDonald, Jamey Kern, Tobey Bryant and Jonas, Marcus and Jenny Jonsson; and eight great grandchildren.

Agents can read the full obituary for McDonald here.

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