PORT EVERGLADES, Fla. -- Romance was alive and well on the high
seas Valentine's Day, and no more so than on the latest Love Boat.
In what was billed as the "world's largest floating first date,"
49 couples who had met only in cyberspace embraced on the pool deck
of the 77,000-ton Ocean Princess as the vessel prepared to sail
away Valentine's Day eve.
The cruise to nowhere, reserved for the couples, celebrities and
a contingent of some 150 consumer press, was meant to immortalize
the new Ocean Princess as a "Love Boat for these romance-starved
times."
The blindfolded couples, selected in a contest cosponsored by
Princess and Match.com, the Internet dating service, were lined up
on the open deck as the sun began to set.
The women were attired in evening gowns and the gentlemen in
tuxedos, each couple carrying a placard with the identical
number.
Amid a fanfare and the falling of rose petals, the couples
removed their blindfolds, identified their partners and embraced.
At a reception, original "Dating Game" host Jim Lange introduced
the couples before a gala banquet.
The couples received an all-expense-paid trip, including air
fare and two nights' accommodations on the Ocean Princess, after
submitting a 200-word essay on why they wanted to meet, following
months of correspondence and phone calls.
After the Ocean Princess returned to port here on Valentine's
Day, reporters, including some 25 television crews, interviewed the
couples, who ranged in age from 20s to 70s.
A large TV production studio was set up on the vessel to
facilitate live talk-backs from the ship to TV studios around the
country, including CNN in Atlanta, said Julie Benson, a Princess
spokeswoman.
The publicity bonanza for the latest Love Boat -- with "Captain
Merrill Stubing" Gavin MacLeod and heart-throb Fabio aboard -- had
occurred even before the ship's Feb. 16 naming ceremony, when Ali
MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal, the ship's godparents, were due to mark
the 30th anniversary of their making of the film, "Love Story."
Benson, interviewed on Valentine's Day, said the introduction of
the Ocean Princess had received more publicity than the Grand
Princess, which at the time was the world's largest cruise liner,
proving that love conquers all.
Among the celebrity couples on the ship were Olympic gymnasts
Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner; actors Shari Belafonte and Sam
Behrens; singers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, and actors Jill
Eikenberry and Michael Tucker.
Dallas-based Match.com, a division of Ticketmaster
Online-CitySearch, has enlisted 3.1 million members since its
launch in 1995, according to the company's vice president of
romance, Trish McDermott. This was the first travel-related
promotion the company has participated in, she added.