Love Boat barman celebrates 50 years of Princess Cruises in Australia

• Princess Cruises is out oldest cruise line, and yesterday revealed its biggest and newest ship for Australia.
• But the line also brought out another equally well known character: Ted Lange.
• He was the loved mixologist from the Love Boat series. Here’s what he has to say.

It was 50 years ago that Princess Cruises began operating in Australian waters. It was also around this time that the TV series The Love Boat was heavily influencing Australian viewers’ idea of cruising and creating a certain romantic notion of what cruising involved.

To celebrate this milestone, Princess has flown celebrity actor Ted Lange Down Under to commemorate the occasion and reflect on his time as the lovable Cocktail Maker onboard Princess ships in The Love Boat series.

Lange was a household face around Australia (and the world) for his character Isaac, the charming bartender who in his words “helped people feel free enough to talk. I helped to radiate a situation, so people felt comfortable to tell you anything.”

Lange also says that in his role within this romantic drama series, he witnessed a lot of love both on and off the set. “Romance was in the air! But most often I find myself having to say ‘I’m not telling you that’ when I’m asked what those days were like.”

Lange confesses that he was single and young and living the dream when The Love Boat was in its hay day. “Half of your work was done for you as an actor on the show. When a pretty girl came on board all I had to do was ask her out to dinner” he says with a cheeky grin.

Lange, now a happily married man in his 70’s says that it’s surreal to reflect on the fact that Princess has enjoyed more than 50 years now with Australian fans. “I didn’t think I was going to last this long!” he says. “I’m now in my 70’s and I have grey hair. My wife makes me walk the neighbourhood every evening.”

It doesn’t take long to notice however that Lange is most definitely not near retirement. He says that it was a big adjustment after the end of the filming of The Love Boat and finding his feet in other roles.

Interestingly, Lange turns out to be a Shakespeare buff and his eyes light up when he starts describing his latest play he is writing for stage, called Shakespeare over my shoulder. There’s no doubt Lange is absolutely a die-hard romantic with or without The Love Boat. In fact, he admits “from the time I left The Love Boat up until now, I’ve written 29 plays.” This is not a man who is close to retirement.

When asked if he has been surprised at the growth in love for cruising over the past 50 years, Lange says he could almost have predicted it would have a huge following.

“The Love Boat was responsible for the changing of the cruise industry. The show helped make it more affordable for people, when they understood everything that comes with it. You wake up in the morning and there’s someone there to make your bed. Then you go to the buffet and your breakfast is all beautifully laid out for you. Then you get to view and explore a whole new country. The show really helped define what cruising is.”

And he’s right. There’s not many Australians who watched TV in the 70’s and 80’s who didn’t love The Love Boat and all the characters onboard.

Fast forward 50 years and Princess Cruises is still investing more love in Australian waters with the arrival of Discovery Princess for her inaugural season down under.

It’s the first time a ship this size from the fleet has been home ported in Australia and is an indication of the love between the cruise line and the Australian audience. Aussies love to cruise and makes up one of the biggest cruise markets in the globe. In 2024 over 1.3 million Aussies took an ocean cruise.

In dollar value, that was around $8.5 billion generated by the Aussie market in the 2023-24 financial year. No wonder Princess Cruises is sharing the love down under. And Cruise Passenger is sharing the love right back, especially when we get to sit and talk about life and love and secrets behind the scenes with celebrities like ted Lange.

For more see here.